‘Where are the improvements?’

Members of Spalding Town Forum have expressed concerns over a perceived lack of action from a group set up to improve the town.

But South Holland District Council’s Matthew Hogan said people will see improvements made as a result of work by the Spalding Town Improvement Steering Group soon.

It was set up in early 2020 with key stakeholders, councillors and council officials.

An update on work was provided to the town forum last week.

Coun Christine Lawton said: “When I’m on my ramble through town, when am I going to notice a difference?

“Not any big schemes, just the small things that make a difference.”

Coun Roger Gambba-Jones added: “There’s been a lot of talk by people like me, and not a great deal on the ground.

“I can share that concern that we seem to be discussing a lot of intent and they keep hearing about a lot of activity in Holbeach for instance.

“There’s a lot talking about the activity there and as usual the grass is always greener, one could say.

“They say they don’t see anything happening in Spalding, not withstanding we had a great Pumpkin Festival.”

John Bland, of the Spalding Civic Society, asked why there hadn’t been a meeting of the steering group since last May.

Mr Hogan responded that meetings were only meant to be every four months, but they were overdue one and would look to hold one soon.

“Activities are planned which, when they do come forward, you’ll see a physical difference,” Mr Hogan said. “There’s a particular piece of work developing the designs and costing for four areas of public realm, Hall Place, riverside, Vine Street and outside Longstaff’s.

“It’s an exceptionally difficult time to look at what projects like that are going to cost and how they’re going to be delivered including constraints around materials and availability of contractors, but that work has taken place and we’re looking at how we can get it installed as quickly as possible.”
Mr Hogan highlighted the work being proposed to create a Business Improvement District and bids for National Lottery and Arts England funding as being key work the steering group is carrying out.

“The National Lottery Fund is an important part as well which seeks to bring £250k into the town to support with way finding trial to help visitors get around and tell people about the town’s history.

“It also includes a riverside trail as part of an objective we all agree on, that we need to make more of the River Welland.

“We don’t have much of a relationship with the National Lottery Fund. In other areas of the country they invest huge sums of cash, millions of pounds into town centres.

“The focus of the bid is to deliver a project that the town can benefit from over the next 18 months or so but also in the background build a relationship with them which we hope will allow us to access large funds in the future.

“The same can be said for our Arts Council bid for Ayscoughfee Hall which if successful that we hope will bring £1m into Spalding every three years to deliver cultural activity which we hope will improve footfall into the town and get people to visit Spalding and our high street.”