Criticism over town spending

A town and district councillor has criticised the way £250,000 is being spent in Holbeach.

In October 2019 South Holland District Council announced a three-year plan for spending £500,000 on improvements in both Spalding and Holbeach.
Coun Sophie Hutchinson asked for a full breakdown of how it was allocated in Holbeach.
The money spent over three years includes £30,500 on the town’s toilets, £6,000 to the Medieval Festival, £5,000 to the Holbeach Music and Beer Festival, £4,500 to the Memory Lane pop-up museum, £15,000 to the Holbeach Food Festival and £3,900 on Christmas decorations.
Of the remaining budget, there is to be another contribution to this year’s Food Festival while £72,000 is ear-marked for the creation of a Health Centre around Chequers Yard and the rest to go on that project.
Coun Hutchinson said: “Personally, I am disappointed to see that such a large proportion of the money has been spent on one-off projects or projects that have ended.
“I would urge the council to use their money for more permanent improvement that people will actually benefit from in years to come.
“The council has received and spent an awful lot of money, and I don’t feel the public have seen enough benefit from this.”
Coun Nick Worth told The Voice he believed the money was well spent.
“We’ve spent quite a bit of money on events which brings footfall into the town.
“Part of the expenditure was on foot counters so we know we nearly doubled footfall.
“The Medieval Festival saw people stay in the town and use its pubs and restaurants.
“The sum of £250,000 is not a huge amount of money but it has also helped provide other funding coming in.
“It’s her opinion and that’s fine, but I think we have to keep putting the events on to get people into the town.
“A big thing in Holbeach is medical facilities and money went towards a step in creating the new medical hub in the town.
“That’s still ongoing and we’ve got to go through NHS systems, but I’m optimistic that we’ll see it come to fruition.”