An uneasy truce has emerged at Lincolnshire Police headquarters after Chief Constable Neil Rhodes’ return to work this week.

Mr Rhodes successfully challenged a decision by county Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Hardwick to suspend him over allegations about his conduct after a judge ruled that it was “irrational”

Lawyers for the Commissioner and Mr Rhodes gave evidence at a court hearing last Wednesday and after the ruling, Mr Hardwick initially said the Chief Constable would not be returning to the role.

But in a statement on Monday, Mr Hardwick said: “After discussions over the weekend, myself and temporary Chief Constable Neil Rhodes have jointly agreed that the best interests of Lincolnshire Police would be served by him continuing as temporary Chief Constable.

“He will continue until the completion of the investigation into allegations about his conduct and any subsequent procedures.

“In reaching this agreement, the importance of stability in the leadership of the force was the primary concern.”

Mr Rhodes said in a statement: “I look forward to serving the community of Lincolnshire as best as I am able to.”

MP calls for clarity about Chief’s future

South Holland and The Deepings MP John Hayes has called on Alan Hardwick to reassure the public about Mr Rhodes’ position after his suspension was lifted last week.

Mr Hayes said: “Whilst I appreciate that it’s not our role to get involved in operational matters, I do think that greater clarity is necessary now about what’s going on at Lincolnshire Police headquarters and I’m inclined to write to Alan Hardwick asking for this.

“Speculation isn’t helpful to either Neil Rhodes and Mr Hardwick who, I’m sure, are both perfectly decent and reasonable people.”

A woman who confronted two thieves stealing from her husband’s van was knocked to the ground as they sped away from the scene.

Miriam Greenslade returned home to High Street, Pointon, to find a white Ford Transit van parked on her driveway in front of her husband Paul’s van.

Two men were taking tools from the van and putting them in the Transit van.

Miriam leapt from her car and asked what they were doing.

The thieves jumped in their van and drove away, clipping Miriam and knocking her over.

Miriam (28), who was left with bruises on her leg and an aching neck and shoulder, said: “I was shocked, shaken-up and really angry.

“I couldn’t believe they were just there stealing stuff from my husband’s van in broad daylight.

“We’ve got lots of work going on at our house and initially I thought they were builders.

“At first they smiled and waved at me but then when I got out of my car to investigate I saw them taking tools out of the van.

“I shouted ‘what are you doing’ and then they realised I lived at the house.

“When they pulled out onto the road they nearly crashed into a minibus.”

Miriam’s three-year-old son Isaac was asleep in the car during the incident. She has three other children, Olivia (11), Ethan (7) and Esme (14 months).

Miriam said: “Now I feel really unsafe in the house. I keep looking out of the window and jumping at any noises.”

The thieves stole £2,500 worth of tools, which included three nail guns, a leaf blower, a Dewalt grinder, two drills and a steel saw.

They also took Paul’s wallet which contained £250 and a sat nav.

Paul, 27, runs his own roofing company and had to borrow tools from a friend for his next job.

Another set of tools, worth £5,000, were stolen from a van in Victoria Street, Billingborough.

Anyone with information about the incidents should call 101.

Next Friday, April 12, the gentle sound of sweet voices singing lullabies will be heard in Spalding... that is if the parents and toddlers manage to stay awake!

As most of us know, lullabies are intended to soothe a small child, so there is every possibility that Rock-a-bye baby or Hush, Little Baby might just send everyone at Acorn Childcare into the land of nod.

Chances are though that the 30 or so youngsters and their parents who attend the session will be kept wide awake because what they will be hearing are long-forgotten lullabies unearthed by inspirational folk musician Jackie Oates, who is leading the workshop.

Jackie, who has toured the UK exploring what she calls “a huge resource of traditional lullabies” that have faded out of popular usage, says she has puppets and other props that she will use while teaching the songs.

Kathy Holmes, principal at Acorn Childcare, is delighted that Jackie chose her childcare facility for the workshop, although Kathy already had good reason to feel happy: she is celebrating Acorn Childcare achieving an ‘outstanding’ rating in its Ofsted inspection, the first full day care setting to do so.

“We are having a huge party the day before to celebrate,” says Kathy. “We are very proud.”

Kathy is a classically trained musician and former music teacher and so music is a specialism at Acorn Childcare. Kathy says: “We find it is very therapeutic and it is a good way of bonding with the children.”

Sadly, the workshop is restricted to children who attend Acorn Childcare, although everyone will get the chance to hear the award-winning musician later in the day when Jackie performs a concert in South Holland Centre at 8pm. Spalding is privileged to be on Jackie’s tour of her special project focused around lullabies – in fact, the event on Friday will be the tour’s opening concert.

South Holland Centre manager Sally Harrison said: “This event has had quite a lot of attention from Radio 2 and other national media, so we are rather chuffed that we have the first date of the tour here in Spalding.”

In her repertoire, Jackie will be singing some of the songs that she has found “buried in collections” or existing only in a few people’s memories.

She says: “I love coming to Lincolnshire because it has a really brilliant folk heritage.”

Jackie Oates, one of the best-loved figures on the English folk scene, is a multi BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards winner and has toured as support to Mercury nominated folk-pop star Seth Lakeman.

She is a also a member of the all-star multi-cultural folk band Imagined Village alongside Eliza Carthy, Chris Wood, Martin Carthy and more.

After four studio albums, Jackie is now taking time out to work on recording and touring her special project on lullabies.

Jackie said: “Over the past few months I’ve had a wonderful time exploring my interest in lullabies in more detail, from the folklore of the cradle with its superstitions and customs, to the way in which they can be outlets for the many aspects of parenthood. What has come to light has been the hidden nature of some of the richest of the traditional lullabies.”

Jackie is performing at South Holland Centre in Spalding on Friday, April 12 (8pm). Admission is £12.50, £11.50 concessions, and £7.50 for under 26s.

Following its decision to stop giving retail customers investment advice, last week Santander became the latest bank to announce huge job cuts. Initial reports suggest that around 720 people could lose their jobs as part of the re-structure.

It would appear that existing investors will be looked after by an in-house financial planning arm, as alluded to by a Santander spokesman who said: “Santander UK will continue to provide advice to existing customers with maturing investments. We will also continue to explore how and to whom we can provide face-to-face advice, within the new regulatory framework, in a way that benefits and protects customers, our colleagues and indeed Santander itself.”

FSA figures show that the number of bank and building society advisers has fallen by around 44 per cent from an estimated 8,658 in 2011 to 4,809 on the first day the RDR was introduced this January.

This is a worrying trend because people still need financial advice, especially when the stock markets have been so variable in their returns over the last five years. Whether someone has invested in a cash ISA, an investment ISA, a pension plan or a managed portfolio with their bank or building society, now is not the time to sit back and let things tick along.

With interest rates remaining at historical lows and the general ‘doom and gloom’ economic reporting continuing in the media it can seem like a minefield trying to ensure that your money maintains its real value by keeping up with inflation.

Hence my feeling that the need for face-to-face advice is of paramount importance. There are options that could and should be considered by savers and investors of all types, whether it’s for £5,000 or £500,000, the need for impartial whole of market advice is clear.

Certainly when we speak to our clients, people generally prefer a clear and honest face to face meeting which tends to be much more interactive than one conducted over the airwaves.

Old folk set to benefit from the Two Lips fundraising campaign are doing their bit by raising cash themselves.

More than a hundred people aged from 60 to 99 attend Age UK’s Day Care Centre at The Meadows.

The charity is one of four local good causes chosen to be helped by The Rotary Club of Spalding’s Two Lips Appeal.

Day centre manager Liz Walmsley, her staff and old folk are not sitting and waiting for cash to come to them – they have held three events themselves and the cash collected so far has topped £200.

The four good causes helped last year each had a whopping £2,000 pay-out and Age UK has its fingers crossed that it too will reap similar rewards because it wants to provide centre users with little extras like outings and possibly a specialist hoist for those who are less mobile.

Mrs Walmsley said: “All the big charities like Red Nose Day are really worthwhile but it’s nice when the local charities are recognised and Rotary are very good at doing that, helping the local charities.”

Anyone who wants to give Two Lips a boost can follow Age UK’s example because their fundraising came from a cake stall, a chocolate basket raffle and a photo quiz where contestants have to identify objects pictured from odd angles.

Mrs Walmsley said: “It doesn’t have to be anything complicated.”

l If you are organising an event contact Rotarian John Barnes on 01775 725514.

Plans to number named properties on a Wyberton road have been scrapped, after residents opposed changing their addresses.

Coun Richard Austin was aiming to get numbers put in place for 56 homes along West End Road, as he said it would make it easier to or emergency services and delivery drivers to find them.

But after discovering that people would have to give up the historic names of their houses if they wanted to adopt a number, he said he could see ‘no way forward’ with the plan.

Coun Austin, who represents Wyberton on Boston Borough Council, said: “Every day there is confusion with delivery people stopping and asking where something is, and nobody knows.

“I’ve had people along there asking for numbers, and they want it because of the practicalities, but they don’t realise the complications of effectively changing their address. It’s got to be either the number or the name. It can’t be both.”

He said he had not been aware that people would be unable to keep the house name if they adopted a number.

But West End Road resident Laura Connolly was against the plan in the first place as she said it would render names dating back many years meaningless.

She said: “As far as an official address it would become obsolete.

“The names would fade out, which is a shame.

“This old house has been sitting here for 200 years, and there are a lot which are older. They have always been called a name. It would be unnecessary to change it.

“You would lose the tradition and heritage.”

Despite the U-turn, Coun Austin said he thought something good had come out of the revelation.

He added: “It is an opportunity to say to all the residents, make sure you can read the house name from the road.

“It will make it easier.”

A line of ‘royalty’ going back to the start of the 1950s has played an important part in the life of South Holland.

They are the flower queens elected each year to play a starring role in the annual celebration of the district’s flower heritage.

For each of them, being crowned queen must have been a thrill, but that was particularly true for Jean Lambert, the youngest of nine.

Jean (78) was crowned Miss Tulipland in 1953, the same year as the Queen’s coronation 60 years ago, perfect timing for a self-confessed royalist.

She says the memories are becoming hazy now, but remembers clearly being the first girl from her street – Alexandra Road – to have been given the role.

Jean, now Tooley, says: “The whole of the street collected money and bought me a watch and I’ve still got it. A watch like that would have been expensive.”

Jean was the fourth flower queen: she remembers her predecessors were Joan Dolton (Roberts), followed by Joyce Lister (Lee), and then Beryl Patrick.

The format was very different in the early days with the queen and her attendants – Jean’s were Greta Foulsham, who moved to America, and Yvonne Coutanche, now Taylor, who lives at Peterborough – playing a key role in the traditional Tulip Time Sunday tours.

They would travel around the district, at that time filled with fields of colourful tulips, on three Sundays, varying the route each time.

Jean explains there was no flower parade in those days, and recalls she and her attendants were required to travel by the only available open-top vehicle – a funeral car.

Jean was courting her husband Les then, and he admits he was very proud of his 18-year-old girlfriend.

He says: “People used to stop us in the street and say, ‘Is that Jean Lambert you are with?’”

The couple, who live in Churchill Drive, Spalding, became engaged that year and have been married for 57 years.

They both worked in the bulb industry, Jean working for Geest for 35 years. In her time there she would organise the staff who would decorate the company’s float for the flower parade.

Jean says: “Every one of those tulip heads was pinned on individually. It took hours and hours. We would start on a Thursday night and sometimes still be finishing it on Saturday before the parade.

“The floats came into being because the big companies used to take the heads off the flowers anyway to make the bulbs grow and get a better crop and they were throwing them away.

“Growing bulbs is what Spalding was known for and now we are known for growing vegetables. It’s very sad it’s coming to an end.”

The women who have worn the crown: 1950 Joan Roberts, Joyce Lister, Beryl Patrick, Jean Lambert, Pat Stacey, Janet Naylor, Janice Grimwood, Norma Foulsham, Janet Bray, Jill Whitehouse;

1960 Wendy Smith, Nora Woods, June Green, Rose Crunkhorn, Joyce Green, Monica Thacker, Dawn Stockdale, Eileen Favell, Elizabeth Barker, Judy Smith;

1970 Jane Hazeldene, Susan Martin, Audrey Spriggs, Pip Cousins, Claire Parker, Elaine Packard, Kim Waters, Judy Beba, Elizabeth Shotbolt, Mandy Adcock; 1980 Valerie Whitworth, Geraldine Davis, Doreen Marray, Wendy Johnson, Sharon Holmes, Helen Drake, Helen Cave, Lisa O’Dell, Sally Atkins, Debbie Parson; 1990 Helen Walsh, Vicki Wadsworth, Sarah Crampton, Caroline Anning, Joanna Green, Tracey Markham, Michelle Clayton, Joanna Higgins, Margaret Hawkins, Samantha Nelson;

2000 Alison Ree, Claire Collins, Claire Platt, Vicki Gardner, Vickie Chapman, Tara Hosier, Lara Crowson, Rebecca Rayner, Katie Morton, Amy Coates, Claire Allen, Daisy Ivatt, Amy Harrison and this year’s flower queen, Inca Honnor.

A woman stole children’s clothing from a store in Spalding’s town centre to pay off a drug debt.

Lucy Smith (32), of Acacia Avenue, Spalding, was spotted walking into Peacocks by the manager at 5pm on February 22.

She put her four shopping bags on the floor near the children’s clothing section and placed items from the racks into those bags.

Rebecca Ritson, prosecuting, said Smith passed the tills without attempting to pay and told police she had a drug debt.

Smith pleaded guilty to stealing clothes worth £38 and was sentenced a year-long community order with supervision by probation. She must pay a £60 victim surcharge, but town magistrates on Thursday made no order for costs because of her limited means.

A Sutterton man appeared in court accused of driving with excess alcohol in Spalding’s Pinchbeck Road.

Lloyd McCann (21), of Churchgate, had his case adjourned by Spalding magistrates on Thursday to June 9.

He is charged with having 105 milligrammes of alcohol in blood – 25 above the legal limit – on February 1.

Two men deny trespass on land at West Pinchbeck on Christmas Eve in pursuit of game and will stand trial at Spalding Magistrates’ Court on July 18.

They are Stuart Brunt (23), of Chaddesden, and Gary Mulholland (48), of Newton Aycliffe.

Spalding magistrates adjourned an assault charge against a Whaplode pensioner after hearing he was being released from hospital on Thursday, the day of the court hearing.

David Billows (73), of Middle Road, had his case adjourned to April 23.

Ongoing waterworks in Kirton have left residents facing traffic chaos for almost a year – and the disruption is not going to let up any time soon.

Temporary traffic lights have been in place on Willington Road for several months as Anglian Water deals with a collapsed sewer, and problems are set to continue when further works get under way.

People living in the area are also enduring visits from a tanker several times a day, as it heads down to remove sewage from the area, as the drains are not able to cope.

“It’s a nightmare,” said Penny Gardens resident Lynette Hammond.

“I think we are all fed up. That is the only way into the estate,” she added.

The continuing disruption comes after a four-month period last year when motorists were diverted miles away from the village when a manhole collapsed.

Parish councillor Alan Lee said: “It’s a total nightmare. We are very sympathetic as a parish council and we are doing all we can.

“I think it’s been done very badly.”

Following extended road closures last year, Coun Lee urged businesses to claim compensation from Anglian Water to make up for trade lost as people stayed away from the village.

He added: “Now we’ve got more. It’s disappointing.”

Magistrates have ruled that a road in Lutton popular with dog walkers can be shut off as long as residents are allowed to use a footpath running next to it.

At least ten people objected to plans for a stopping up order on Monmouth Lane which would have seen about 2,700 square metres of road be made private.

Lincolnshire County Council applied for the order after Lutton farmer David Hoyles put up a gate blocking off part of Monmouth Lane after his business was targeted by thieves.

Speaking to the Spalding Guardian in February, Mr Hoyles said: “I was advised by police to put the gates up to make access harder for potential thieves.

“I was then contacted by the council who told me I was obstructing the highway but after explaining to them that the gates were recommended by the police, the council said I should apply for a stopping up order or remove the gate.”

But one of the objectors, Stephen Goodban of Lutton Gowts, accused the council of trying to save money by stopping up the road.

Also speaking in February, Mr Goodban said: “Monmouth Lane is a favourite for dog walkers and I’m concerned that a well-used public facility could be lost forever just to save a few bob.”

Spalding magistrates ruled at a hearing last Wednesday for the stopping up order to go ahead, but with public footpath rights for residents along the stretch of road concerned.

After the hearing, Mr Goodban said: “I’m pleased that the highways department and Mr Hoyles have taken note of public consensus and, in the end, an amicable and satisfactory outcome has been achieved.

Mr Hoyles said: “After considerable pre-negotiation by the council and compromise on both our side and objectors, I am satisfied with the court’s decision.”

A team of gymnasts from Spalding High School are coming on leaps and bounds after success at a regional acrobatics competition.

Gemma Amos, Gemma Clark and Rosie Fresen have all qualified for the National Sports Acrobatics Championships being held in Stoke-on-Trent next month after impressing judges at the East Midlands championships in Derby recently.

The three girls were joined in the team from Spalding High School by Sian Matson and Jennifer Platt who were all coached by Jane Moss.

She said: “Sports acrobatics isn’t a discipline we do much of at our school where we specialise more in artistic gymnastics.

“We entered the girls in the competition just for a bit of experience and they did extremely well.

“They’ve been a fantastic group to work with and I’m sure they’ll keep going in the sport.”

Three men facing a charge of trespass in pursuit of game at Wykes Lane, Donington, are to stand trial at Boston Magistrates’ Court on July 3.

Patrick Connor (54), Patrick Connors (21) and Thomas Connors (35), all of Bansted, Surrey, pleaded not guilty at Spalding Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.

A man pleaded not guilty to a charge of common assault when he appeared at Spalding Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.

Brian Browne (21), of Westminster Drive, Spalding, will stand trial at the court on July 11. His unconditional bail was extended.

Sentence on a man convicted of burgling an antiques centre is further delayed to May 2 while Spalding magistrates await a psychiatric report.

Philip Malone (36), care of Churchfield Close, Deeping St James, had his conditional bail extended on Thursday.

He has also admitted assaults and theft.

A driver more than twice the legal alcohol limit overshot a junction, veering across the road and into the path of a police car.

There was no accident but police followed and stopped Richard Partridge after he drove on and turned into West Street, Bourne.

Rebecca Ritson, prosecuting, said the incident happened shortly after 3am on March 10.

Partridge had 87 microgrammes of alcohol in breath – the legal limit is 35mcgs.

Spalding magistrates on Thursday banned Partridge from driving for 20 months and imposed a £300 fine with an order for £85 costs and a £30 victim surcharge.

He can cut 20 weeks off the ban if he completes a rehabilitation course.

Partridge, of Kendrew Barracks, Oakham, was not represented by a solicitor.

He told the court: “I am sorry. It was a stupid thing to do.”