The grade II listed St Nicholas House at Deeping St Nicholas has a new lease of life with the opening of a restaurant/cafe and hair salon.

A beauty salon will be added towards the end of this month, to be run by a former Ragdale Hall therapist, and luxurious hotel rooms are likely to be opened later this year.

The developments are a joint venture by business partners Jason Marriott and Richard Marsden, who bought the 18th Century country house on Main Road a few months ago.

Hairdresser Kirsty Mears, from Long Sutton, is the hair salon director and working alongside her is graduate stylist Jade Weeks.

Kirsty said the three-storey Georgian house is a stunning setting for the salon and really calming.

“It’s quite an extraordinary building,” she said. “There is a really high ceiling and the decor is still quite traditional.”

Kirsty teaches for hair product company Paul Mitchell and has been a hairdresser for 12 years, working most recently in a salon at Wisbech.

“We keep up to date on the latest trends although I like retro as well,” she said. “We can pretty much do anything.”

Jason is heading up the cafe/restaurant side, opening Tuesday-Sunday from 10.30am-5pm.

Diners can enjoy Sunday lunches and on other days there are tempting treats like pan fried chicken breasts among a selection of half-a-dozen main courses. Visitors are also welcome to pop in for a coffee.

The beauty salon will offer massages, facials, pedicures and makeovers for nails.

A man stabbed a Holbeach flower packer to death after going to the aid of a young woman who was walking home after a drunken night out.

Stephen Sleaford (38) is alleged to have knifed Janusz Smoderek (48) in the heart after going to help the woman who was receiving “unwanted attention” from the father-of-three.

A murder trial jury at Lincoln Crown Court was told Sleaford acted lawfully at first when he and another man separated Mr Smoderek from the woman after coming across them on their way home from a pub in Boston.

But Tim Spencer, QC, prosecuting told the court Sleaford then pulled out a knife and stabbed Mr Smoderek when he was no longer a threat.

Mr Smoderek’s body was found around three hours later in a garden on Sleaford Road. He had spent the day socialising in Boston after finishing his shift at Intergreen in Holbeach.

A post mortem showed Mr Smoderek, who lived in Boston, had suffered six stab wounds including one injury which had “pierced” his heart.

Mr Spencer told the jury: “On Sunday, September 11, 2011, at about 7.20am the body of Janusz Smoderek was found in the garden of a house at 28 Sleaford Road in Boston.

“Mr Smoderek had been stabbed to death. He had been stabbed to death by Stephen Sleaford.”

The jury heard Sleaford and two friends had left the Axe and Cleaver pub at around 4am when they came across Mr Smoderek and the woman who had become separated from her friends during a night out.

“Sleaford’s initial contact with the man he eventually killed was lawful,” Mr Spencer said.

“He and another man, Peter Parrish, intervened to separate Mr Smoderek from a highly distressed and very drunk young lady who did not want Mr Smoderek’s attention.

“They intervened but having rendered Mr Smoderek no threat to her or anybody else Sleaford pulled out a knife and used it with wholly disproportionate, unnecessary and unlawful violence.

“Mr Smoderek was left to die.”

The prosecution alleges Mr Smoderek was left slumped over a hedge. His body was later found in the garden.

“Examination of his body revealed six stab wounds,” Mr Spencer told the jury. “Five of those were to the chest area and one of those had pierced his heart.

“Common sense will tell you that caused critical blood loss which led to his death.”

It is alleged Sleaford confessed to killing Mr Smoderek at some stage as he walked the girl home.

Sleaford, of no fixed address, denies the murder.

The trial which is expected to last four weeks continues.

Talks with landowners resume at the end of this month to open the way for a river link between Donington and Surfleet.

The Environment Agency has identified a “broad corridor” to connect the Black Sluice Navigation at Donington Bridge with the River Glen, but the actual route has yet to be chosen.

Each of the possible routes currently on the drawing board will involve major engineering works such as locks, bridges, pumping stations and moorings.

Joining the two South Holland waterways is part of the massive £200million Fens Waterway Link, which will open a navigation from Lincoln through to Ely, Cambridgeshire, as well as making it possible for boat owners to go to places like Peterborough and Northampton.

Philip McLoughlin, from the Environment Agency’s engineering and environmental consultants, Halcrow, said it could be 2021-2026 until there is money available to do the work.

He said: “We are really at a very early stage in terms of getting all of the approvals and all of the budgets in place.”

The Fens Waterways Link is designed to bring a host of benefits, including an economic boost from tourism, promotion of environmental protection and wildlife diversity and encouraging people to lead healthier lifestyles by walking or cycling along waterside pathways or canoeing.

“It ticks all of the boxes in so many ways,” said Mr McLoughlin.

Halcrow met Donington and Surfleet landowners in September and those talks will continue at the end of January as the consultants try to pinpoint the best available route.

The likely cost of the local link will not be known until a route is decided.

Residents in South Holland are being urged to seek help before post Christmas debts spiral out of control.

In just a couple of weeks, credit card bills will start falling on doormats across the district.

It is estimated nearly half of us used credit cards, overdrafts, store cards or payday loans to cover the cost of Christmas, leaving many now struggling with debt.

According to consumer experts Which? the average amount Britons borrowed to pay for food, drink and gifts was £301.

Although the report revealed 56 per cent spent less on Christmas this year than last, it also highlighted how tight people’s budgets were and how easy consumers could have plunged into debt.

John Willerby, strategic manager for the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) in Spalding, said volunteers were gearing up to cope with an influx of pleas for help once the bills arrive.

Mr Willerby said: “It’s important people don’t bury their heads and ignore demand letters if they find themselves in trouble. If we sit down we can work out how to prevent loss of homes or a visit from the bailiffs.

“People shouldn’t be embarrassed – we are not here to judge.”

Residents seeking help are asked to take along a list of all outgoings and details of their income.

Spalding CAB is based at the council offices in Priory Road and is open Monday to Wednesday from 10am to 4pm and Thursday and Friday from 10am to 1pm. Call 0844 4111444.

A man helped steal radiators in a night time metal raid at Long Sutton’s closed Crown and Woolpack pub.

Luke Portor (22), of Barge Close, Spalding, went off with a friend in a van at midnight after his wife received a call asking him to help with a job.

Marie Stace, prosecuting, told Spalding magistrates that a resident heard noises at the pub at about 2am on November 2 and saw two men carrying items from the disused premises, which they then placed on the front seat of the van.

The witness lost sight of them but then saw the men return to the van carrying what appeared to be metal piping.

She said police stopped the van at 2.50am in Whaplode.

No metal was found, but Portor admitted burglary and theft of metal in his police interview.

She said Portor told police they were disturbed at the scene and the van was driven off without him.

Portor said he was picked up ten minutes later.

Solicitor Daven Naghen, mitigating, said Portor was “essentially the muscle” to help carry the metal.

He said the pub had been subject to previous burglaries, was not in a good state of repair and was being renovated.

Portor fully admitted his involvement although the van was stopped eight miles away and there was no metal inside.

“He accepts he was foolish to get involved in this,” said Mr Naghen.

Since the offence, Portor had been on a police-imposed curfew and had lost the chance to do night shifts at work.

Magistrates on Thursday gave Portor a 12-month community order with 180 hours unpaid work.

He must also pay £85 costs and a £60 victim surcharge.

Health bosses in Lincolnshire are putting their weight behind plans to avoid a crisis in hospitals serving the obese in South Holland.

According to a study by the Royal College of Physicians, doctors are worrying hospitals will not be able to cope if something isn’t done about the rising problem of obesity.

In the UK a quarter of all adults are classed as obese, costing the NHS about £5bn a year. It is estimated that the majority of the population will be classified as obese by 2050.

However, a spokesman for NHS Lincolnshire said there are a number of initiatives already in place to prevent any crisis.

Last year, it awarded Weight Watchers, including groups across South Holland, a contract to provide a 12-week programme to 4,000 adults with a BMI (body mass index) of over 30, who have been referred by a doctor.

It said it also funds various healthy lifestyle activities, as well as work in schools educating parents on portion size and giving children ‘me size’ plates.

Adam McVeigh commented on Facebook: “Yes, let’s blame fat people now for costing us too much money, just like we we’re told to do with the poor and then the disabled.”

Nigel Campbell said: “And they complain about smokers - at least we pay about 80 per cent tax on fags and baccy to cover ill health in later life.”

A man grieving over his wife’s suicide attacked his sister at their mother’s home and threatened to knife her.

Stephen Pite (43) still hasn’t come to terms with the loss of his wife four years ago, is suffering from depression and lost his temper with his sister when they visited their mother’s home in Oakley Drive, Spalding, on December 21.

Jim Clare, prosecuting, told Spalding magistrates that Pite was “effing and blinding” and his sister, Susan Davies, tried to talk to him.

Pite lunged at her, calling her a slag, and grabbed her around the throat.

Their mother tried to get him off and heard Pite threatening to knife Mrs Davies.

Mrs Davies bit Pite between the thumb and forefinger.

He let go but grabbed her again.

Mrs Clare said Pite threatened to cut his sister open and repeated a similar threat against Ms Davies and her partner.

Reading from Mrs Davies’ statement, Mr Clare said Pite told her: “I will come round on Christmas Day and cut you and Justin open.”

He said Mrs Davies sustained only minor injuries, but it was the nature of the incident that concerned her.

Magistrates on Thursday adjourned the case to January 31 for a pre-sentence report.

Pite, of Rowley Road, Boston, admitted common assault.

Solicitor Rachel Stevens, mitigating, said Pite denied making any threats to kill.

He had been drinking that day, but wasn’t drunk.

Miss Stevens said Pite’s GP considers his depression to be too severe to be treated with anti-depressants because of a suicide risk.

He was “overwhelmed” by the loss of his wife four years ago and appears still to be so.

She said: “He is a man who is still grieving and struggling to come to terms with the situation.”

The Victorian mill and the mill house at Gedney Dyke are currently empty, the house currently being sold by Pygott & Crone.

Despite its dilapidated condition, there are still some original features in the Grade II listed house, such as fireplaces and mosaic tiling to the floor. However, Pygott & Crone’s details state that the house “requires significant refurbishment including replacement roof, flooring, some windows and parts of the property being rebuilt”.

In its prime, the mill at Gedney Dyke was one of the most elegant in Lincolnshire, according to the county council’s website.

Dated 1836, the 68 feet mill was built for a Mr Rubbins and was working until 1942. The mill lost its sails in 1947 followed by the cap soon after, and now stands disused. The mill originally had eight floors and the four pairs of stones were still on the third floor at the time the county council compiled its information.

The parish council’s website says several hundred years ago the village started as a few small herders’ homes, whose inhabitants would have tended sheep and cattle just a mile north of Gedney. Saltern mounds can be seen to the north of the village.

A six-year-old made Christmas a bit more special for children left with little or nothing.

Harley Lowndes, of Market Deeping, inspired by television adverts about poor children across the world, told his mum Sara that he wanted to do something to help.

Sara persuaded him to help children closer to home and they set about collecting gifts for children at a Women’s Aid refuge for victims of domestic abuse.

Sara said: “I arranged a party for about 30 of his friends at the Coronation Hall and asked all of them to bring along a wrapped gift marked with whether it was for a boy or girl and what age group.

“We collected about 50 gifts in the end and had five bin bags full for Women’s Aid to collect so that all the children had something to open on Christmas Day.

“Harley was really pleased and I am so proud of him. It was a sweet thing to do for children who are not as well off as he is.”

A man driving in Sutton Bridge without ‘L’ plates told magistrates they wouldn’t stick to his fibreglass car.

Mantas Savickas (18), of Blake Court, Swaffham, was fined £37 and ordered to pay £15 costs by Spalding magistrates on Thursday.

He pleaded guilty.

Reports of anti-social behaviour are set to increase five-fold.

Police urge people to remember not everyone likes snowballs.

Lincolnshire chartered accountant Moore Thompson is inviting business owners to a workshop on Real Time Information (RTI) – a radical change to payroll procedures being introduced from April.

RTI will require all employers to provide employee PAYE, National Insurance and Student Loan information to HMRC at point of payment every month and not just at year end as currently.

Despite being the biggest shake-up in the PAYE system since 1944, only one in three small businesses are aware of the changes.

Businesses need to start preparing now to ensure they have up-to-date payroll software, hold current and accurate employee data and that their software provider is ready.

That is why the team at Moore Thompson is holding the workshop at 4.30pm on January 23, at the South Holland Centre in Spalding.

Managing partner Mark Hildred said: “It is concerning that many small businesses are not aware when the RTI changes will take effect and how it will affect their businesses.

“The introduction of RTI will mean employers will need to take more time to submit employee information to HMRC.

“At the workshop our team of payroll experts will explain exactly what RTI means for businesses and what owners should be doing right now to avoid future penalties for reports provided late or in the wrong format.”

To book a place at the workshop contact Louise Hildred on 01775 711333.

Today, locals are more likely to pop into Bridge Hardware for advice before buying a secure door entry system for a public building or to have a key cut.

Jeff said: “All we have done since taking over is to get the stock back up and introduce haberdashery,key cutting, Flo Gas and generally tried to build the shop back up to what it used to be. We probably get between 50 and 60 people through the door on average each day.”

For Jeff, whose background is in the construction industry and the motor trade, the chance to take over the shop came up after he had been out of work for two-and-a-half years. Tracey worked at Morrisons for ten years and previously worked at what was Geest and for one of the Co-op stores.

For her, working at the shop has a sense of returning to her earlier days, because she attended secondary school in Crowland.

Meet them both on Saturday when they will be having a sale day in the shop.

However, the couple, who live in West Pinchbeck, would be interested to see anyone with old photographs of Crowland as well as Bridge Hardware.

BREAKING NEWS: Officers are on the scene of an accident on the A15 Folkingham Road just north of Morton, near Bourne, where a car overturned in a ditch.

There have been numerous reports of accidents around the county today.

Police are urging motorists to take care in the snow, which is expected to continue falling for the rest of the day and into tomorrow.

A car also overshot a junction and hit a wall in Spalding Road, Pinchbeck, at 2.32am this morning.

The accident is believed to be weather related but there were no injuries.

A man denies an assault in Spalding on November 30.

Mohammed Sarfraz (27), of Summerfield Road, Peterborough, will stand trial on March 19 before Spalding magistrates.

The following decisions have been made recently by magistrates at court hearings. In all drink-drive cases the legal limit is 35 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, or 80 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. Addresses of defendants published in these registers are taken from the legal records held by the magistrates’ courts. The details are given to the court by the defendant – but this may be some time after the original charge and they may have moved in the meantime.

Spalding Magistrates’ Court

Irvine Powell (68), of The Crescent, Morton. Driving with excess alcohol, 56 microgrammes (Dunsby). £120 fine, £20 victim surcharge, £85 costs, disqualified for 14 months, cut by three months on completion of rehabilitation course. No separate penalty for no insurance.

Mariusz Zacharkiewicz (35), of Knight Street, Pinchbeck. Driving without due care and attention (Spalding). £100 fine. No insurance £300 fine, £15 v/s, £43 costs, 6pts.

Grantham Magistrates’ Court

Christopher Nelson (32), of Six House Bank, West Pinchbeck. Failing to supply driver identification. £600 fine, £15 v/s, £85 costs, 6 pts.

Anthony Walker (56), of Middle Street, Rippingale. Failing to supply driver identification. £600 fine, £15 v/s, £85 costs, 6 pts.

Lynne Jones (46), of High Street, Spalding. No insurance (Weston). £600 fine, £15 v/s, £85 costs, 6 pts. License offence (Weston). £60 fine. No separate penalty for failing to produce insurance.

Alan Kasmir (58), of Manwaring Way, Swineshead. Speeding (Grantham). £135 fine, £15 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.

Graham Mackintosh (60), of Kings Parade, Holland-on-Sea, Clacton-on-Sea. Speeding (Deeping Common). £150 fine, £15 v/s, £43 costs, 3pts.

Darius Maiziesius (20), of Clarence Road, Peterborough. No insurance (Spalding). £600 fine, £15 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts.

Naim Majid (26), of Searjent Street, Peterborough. Speeding (Whaplode). £265 fine, £15 v/s, £43 costs, 6pts.

Nigel Terrington (59), of Lowfields Avenue, Spalding. Speeding (Moulton Seas End). £215 fine, £15 v/s, £43 costs, 6pts.

Elizabeth England (22), c/o Church Lane, Tydd St Giles. Speeding (Tydd Gote). £75 fine, £15 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts.

Karl Frater (27), of Ecton Park Road, Northampton. Speeding (Fleet Hargate). £60 fine, £15 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.

Angela Hobson (28), of Eaugate Road, Moulton Eaugate. Speeding (Spalding). £60 fine, £15 v/s, £40 costs, 4pts.

Audrius Sivolovas (25), of Old South, King’s Lynn. Driving without due care and attention. £400 fine, £15 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts.

A man driving in Sutton Bridge without ‘L’ plates told magistrates they wouldn’t stick to his fibreglass car.

Mantas Savickas (18), of Blake Court, Swaffham, was fined £37 and ordered to pay £15 costs by Spalding magistrates.

Shrubs have been cleared from a riverside sex and drinking den as the first step in a plan to improve the Double Street side of Spalding’s High Bridge.

Spalding Town Forum earmarked the area for improvement after complaining about it being used by rough sleepers and as a public loo.

Part of the riverbank close to a circular, brick-built planter has been stripped of shrubs – leaving a clear view of the river.

Spalding councillor Roger Gambba-Jones said there was no evidence of rough sleeping, but there was evidence of liaisons that happen “in the bushes in just about any park, especially in the warm weather” and of people drinking four or six-packs of beer.

He says at least one more tree may come out to make space for the other trees there – and it’s possible, if there’s money in the budget, that a future planting scheme could include a willow to mirror the one on the High Street side of the bridge.

Coun Gambba-Jones said the idea is to make it an attractive spot so it can be enjoyed by everyone.

“We are really pleased with it,” he said. “I wish we had done it a long time ago. We really needed to open it up.”

Coun Gambba-Jones said it will be up to the Town Forum members to decide how the spot shapes up so far as planting schemes go.

He said: “It depends on the members, once they can see the wood from the trees, if you will pardon the pun.

“We have removed all of the over-growth and all of the stuff that ran away with itself and was actually cluttering the place up.

lLast April the council removed a “sexual athletics” bench on the riverbank opposite Cley Hall Hotel.

Spalding councillor Christine Lawton said antics were not happening for a short time.

“You could even say they are turning it into an Olympic sport,” she told council colleagues.

Parish councils meet tonight (Tuesday) to consider a joint response to controversial plans for a £300million biomass power station at Wingland.

Sutton Bridge Parish Council will host the meeting with no public invited.

The talks come at the eleventh hour as South Holland District Council could decide the application from EnergyPark Sutton Bridge – also known as PREL – as early as next month.

South Holland’s planning chairman Roger Gambba-Jones said: “We are going to take it to the committee in February unless anyone derails it.”

It’s likely the council will relay the debate to a separate room at its Spalding offices to avoid the council chamber being overwhelmed by campaigners.

King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council has lodged what it calls a “holding objection” because it wants to know more about air quality monitoring around the plant and also the cumulative sources of air pollution.

Campaigners in Sutton Bridge, who have formed a group called BATI (Bridge Against The Incinerator), claim the biomass plant is a Trojan horse to burn household and industrial waste,

King’s Lynn and West Norfolk councillors are insisting on a planning condition that restricts the type of materials used at the gasification plant.

A report to its planning committee says: “It is considered that fuels should be restricted to forestry management, virgin timber sawmill residues, agricultural crops and crop residues.”

Public meetings in Sutton Bridge have heard worries ranging from the number of extra lorries using the A17 to pollution at the plant.

Parish council chairman John Grimwood said: “The real concern I have is air quality. I think the majority of people in the village are concerned about that.”

Tuesday 8.45am: Fire crews removed a windscreen to free a trapped driver after a van plunged into a dyke at Beach Lane, Gosberton Risegate, this morning.

The casualty was taken by ambulance to hospital.

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue crews from Spalding, Donington and Boston attended.

This story will be updated as more details are known.