Council

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue had to make £1 million of savings in the last financial year, despite its fire stations costing half of the country’s average to run. The cuts came due to reduced government funding despite the county’s fire service costing the public well below average, according to its Statement of Assurance. But Lincolnshire County Council’s executive councillor for ...

Lincolnshire County Council and Network Rail are discussing the potential closure of level crossings around Spalding. As part of negotiations around the South Western Relief Road, both authorities are working out which crossing or crossings could be lost once the road is open for traffic. “We are currently considering options for the closure of some level crossings in the area ...

More complaints about Spalding’s ageing swimming pool have been made this week. As the results of a public consultation on the future of leisure provision in South Holland are being discussed by the council, staff issues have been blamed by the company running the town’s Castle Swimming Pool. The Voice was contacted last week by a grandmother after her grandchildren ...

A couple face an uncertain future after a bid to live on a double decker bus amid their deer and poultry farm was turned down by the council for a second time. A petition has been set up backing Brent and Tracy Usher who say they have been living self-sufficiently farming animals including deer and poultry for three years at ...

Tributes have been paid to a long-serving local councillor who has died. Rita Rudkin (85) was a former member of Holbeach Parish Council and had only recently resigned from her positions there and at South Holland District Council. She was a well-known member of the community and a former deputy head teacher of Spalding Academy, when it was the Sir ...

The county’s part-night street lights will keep unpredictable hours for the next few weeks as they adjust to the clocks changing this weekend. There are round 42,000 streetlights across the county that are switched off between the hours of midnight and 6am. Coun Richard Davies, Executive Member for Highways, said: “Over the next few weeks, you might notice that the ...

A decision on whether a Spalding care home will be allowed to keep a biomass burner next to residential gardens has been deferred by a planning committee. Residents in Westminster Drive were left shocked when the biomass boiler and its nearly 30 foot chimney appeared metres from their homes in May. After complaints to the council, Tanglewood Care Home submitted ...

A housing developer has been accused of pulling ‘tricks’ by the chairman of the local planning committee. Coun Roger Gambba-Jones said an application by Ashwood Homes to build 32 homes, eight of which would be affordable, adjacent to Spalding United Juniors FC “sickens” him. The developer had previously been granted permission to build 26 affordable homes on the site. Coun ...

A Spalding shop that was found to be selling illegal cigarettes and smuggled alcohol has had its premises licence revoked. The 7 Day Euro Shop on Westlode Street was stripped of the licence to serve alcohol at today’s (Thursday) meeting of South Holland District Council’s Licencing Panel pending any appeal after several police sting operations. The license holder, Ali Hussein ...

A delegation of high-ranking Chinese officials is due in the county later this month. The party will be signing a document for Lincolnshire and the Hunan Province to become “sister regions”. Mr Kemin Wang, deputy director of Standing Committee of Hunan Provincial People’s Congress will lead the group. He is the highest ranking official from Hunan to visit the county ...

Allotment holders have changed premises to make way for a development in Crowland. Up to 45 homes are planned for the site on James Road with the project well under way. The scheme has been called the Abbey Farm Development and the land is owned by the parish council. Developers Seagate Homes are working with the council to develop nearly ...

A Spalding shop found to be selling illegal alcohol and cigarettes looks likely to lose its licence. The premises licence at the 7 Day Euro Shop, Westlode Street, has only been held by Ali Hussein Hassani since March. But Chief Constable Bill Skelly has requested a review after three visits by police which uncovered evidence of breaches. The application for ...

More than £15m of South Holland District Council cash is currently in the accounts of other authorities, with no interest rate above one per cent. Currently, SHDC has almost £10m out to the likes of London Borough of Enfield (£5m) and Cambridgeshire County Council (£4m). These are classed as “cash investments” by the council, rather than loans. The lowest rate ...

More routes have been added to a popular recycling scheme in South Holland and extra spaces were released this week. The garden waste collection service was run as a pilot scheme in a limited area of the district. Some 3,600 households were able to subscribe as there were ten routes available as only one vehicle was adapted. But another has ...

More than 100,000 illegal cigarettes and up to 50 kilos of tobacco have been seized following raids in Spalding. Lincolnshire Trading Standards officers, Lincolnshire Police, licencing officials and two trained ‘Wagtail’ sniffer dogs took part in ‘Operation Aegir’. Four retail premises in the town were targeted. The illegal goods were found in a secret “hide” at Baltic, Spalding on Winsover ...

A consultation has been launched into the future of council tax support in South Holland. A total of £4,110,223 discount on council tax is provided to 5,363 cases in the district, the majority of which (57.8 per cent) are the elderly. Lincolnshire County Council picks up 76.1 per cent of the costs, the Police and Crime Commissioner 13.4 per cent ...

Three young men who carried out a “terrifying robbery” at a Holbeach newsagents, after arming themselves with two knives and wearing Halloween masks have each been sentenced to over two years youth custody.    Manager Paula Shaw was working alone at McColls in Holbeach at around 7.30pm when she was confronted by the two 17-year-olds and a 16-year-old.    Lincoln ...

Improving Holbeach’s five way Market Hill junction is among the issues to be looked at as part of a new travel strategy for the town. A direction on the future of transport in the town is to be unveiled in early 2019 with its stated aims to include prioritising walking and cycling in the town as well as promoting public ...

Lincolnshire drivers are sticking to parking rules and the county council’s income is dropping as a result. For the first time, there has been a deficit in the amount of money recovered in fines for on-street parking tickets since Lincolnshire County Council took over the role in 2012. Up until the end of the last financial year, in March 2018, ...

A council website has been hosting illegal streams to pirated Hollywood movies. The South Lincolnshire Local Plan website, co-run by the South Holland District Council and Boston Borough Council joint committee, for months hosted hundreds of links claiming to offer streams to recent Hollywood movies, including The Mummy and It. South Holland District Council said upkeep of the website was ...