News

Six fire crews were called to a massive blaze that broke out in a disused social club in Spalding last night. Five engines from Spalding, Donington, Holbeach and Bourne were called to the fire on West Marsh Road, along with an aerial platform ladder from Boston. The fire, which affected the ground and first floors of the building, started at ...

Plans to build the region’s first 3G football pitch have been shelved amid cancer fears. Surfleet’s Glen Park was in line for the new synthetic pitch, but the group which runs the facility has announced it has scrapped the move after the infill used was linked to suspected cancer deaths among young players. Surfleet Play and Recreation Committee (SPARC), the ...

A Spalding company which enables parents to help their children learn more effectively at home is offering its services free of charge to every struggling school in Lincolnshire. Education Quizzes, of Wragg Marsh, supplies online multiple choice questions based on the national curriculum. Parents can choose from thousands of quizzes compiled by qualified teachers and test their children while having ...

A rundown Holbeach site will become a gastropub and nine-bedroom hotel. The Red Lion could reopen as a pub by the end of the year, with the bedrooms in a new stable block to follow on in about March next year. The Spalding Road site belongs to SJP Properties, which completed a popular refurbishment in Market Place, Long Sutton last ...

The fight for a proper pedestrian crossing on the A17 at Holbeach is continuing. Campaigner Paula Hayes, who has collected more than 760 signatures on petitions calling for improvements at Boston Road roundabout, was disappointed to see no provision for pedestrians in the approved planning application for £5m alterations at nearby Peppermint Junction. Dropped kerbs indicate a crossing point for the ...

A proposed outdoor performance area for Ayscoughfee Gardens could be “Lamborghini” quality with Lottery funding support, Spalding Town Forum has been told. The current controversial design – which some say is not suitable for purpose, partly because user groups were not consulted – has been put on hold while the possibility of extra funding is explored. More than two years ...

A free 12-week programme encouraging more children to take up exercise and learn more about diet, nutrition and healthy eating is starting in Spalding next month. Spalding Health and Wellbeing Community Interest Company received funding from the Bromhead Lincolnshire Healthcare Fund to set up Aktiv Kids. It will run at Tonic Health, Broadgate House, Westlode Street on Thursdays from 4.15pm ...

Opening hours at Spalding tip in West Marsh Road will not be changed for the foreseeable future. But a Saturday supplementary service operated at six sites across the district is ending next Thursday. Lincolnshire County Council has held a review of its Household Waste Recycling Centres as part of budget cuts, resulting in the closure of facilities at Leadenham and ...

An empty property in Spalding could be brought back into use as a Baltic-themed bar and restaurant, creating about five jobs. Lithuanian business partners Laura Norvaisaite and Mingele Petruliene have applied for a premises licence for 25 Station Street. The friends, who run Lithuanian food market Lietuviškas skonis in Holbeach Road, have agreed an eight-year lease on the Station Street ...

The Spalding Water Taxi service prepared for its season launch on Good Friday (March 26) with a litter pick of the water and banks. Three vessels and ten personnel were used on the River Welland and Coronation Channel across the two-day pick. Thirty five bags of rubbish were collected as well as prams, TVs and bikes. Water taxi manager Simon ...

Members of the public are being urged to chip in and help secure Spalding’s historic former courthouse for community use. A charity set up to oversee the project for the Grade II listed Sessions House is hoping that crowdfunding – raising cash for a project by many people contributing – will provide the means. Terry Moore, chairman of the recently-formed ...

A dog that went missing five years ago has been reunited with its owners – after being found 200 miles away in South Holland. Fern’s owners, who live in Tyne and Wear, were stunned to hear from South Holland District Council dog warden Rachel Thompson that their Bedlington Cross Whippet, had been found in Holbeach Hurn. Rachel said: “In all ...

Green Party supporters in South Lincolnshire have pledged to campaign for a vote in favour of the UK’s continued membership of the European Union. Ahead of the referendum on June 23, the local campaign was launched last Friday (March 18) at Stamford Arts Centre. The meeting was attended by Kat Boettge, who was recently selected as Green Party lead candidate for the East Midlands region ...

Six local groups have benefited from Lincolnshire Co-op’s Community Champions scheme. Crowland Town Bowling Club (£887.47), Gosberton & District Community Action Team (£672.03), Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum (£1,179.56), Long Sutton Outreach (£3,232.72), Sutton Bridge Westmere Primary School (£1,185.48) and Whaplode Village Hall (£1,352.26) have each been awarded cash from the scheme. The money is a result of the scheme running ...

A car hit a house in Winsover Road in Spalding on Sunday morning.(March 20) The driver – a 19-year-old man – was not seriously injured but did go to hospital. Emergency services were called to the scene at about 9.40am. Firefighters evacuated the building and made the car safe before leaving the incident in the hands of a building inspector. Police said: ...

A new executive headteacher has been appointed to take over at three South Holland primary schools. Pinchbeck East Primary, Spalding Primary and Surfleet Primary have announced that Andrew Raistrick is to take over from Tom Verity in September. Mr Verity became headteacher of Pinchbeck East seven years ago and led the school, which was once in special measures, to an ...

Up to 3,000 street lights could be switched off across Lincolnshire in a bid to save £1.7million. A further 38,000 lights, mainly in residential areas, could be turned off after midnight as Lincolnshire County Council attempts to find £41million of savings in the 2016/17 financial year. Further savings will be made by changing 17,000 of the county’s total 68,000 lights ...

A ten-year-old girl is so worried about speeding cars outside her home she has written to the council calling for lower speed limits. Amelia Pack has been compelled to put pen to paper to add her voice to a growing campaign for a 30mph limit on Spalding Road, Holbeach, writing: “I may be ten but I think I should have ...

An urgent appeal has been issued for a small parcel of land in Gedney Dyke for a children’s play area. It follows a Gedney Parish Council meeting last week when a proposal not to place it on a green near the war memorial was carried 5-2 in a vote, with one abstention. The council will now investigate alternative options, but ...

Work on a £5million improvement scheme at a dangerous Holbeach junction could start next spring. Plans for a roundabout at the A17/A151 Peppermint junction have been given planning permission by Lincolnshire County Council. The junction has gained a reputation as an accident hotspot as a result of 22 collisions resulting in injury over the past 10 years. It is hoped the ...