Bob Lowrie has hardly been able to take things easy since taking over The Thatched Cottage resturant and pub in 2005.

The 71-year-old has created a nature reserve and planted thousands of English hardwood trees, turned part of that into a natural burial site and opened a farm shop on site.

However, the biggest transformation is in the business itself.

Bob says: “When we came here I would say the restaurant was doing probably £3,000 a week, no more, and despite the recession we average about £9,000 a week, including the farm shop.”

He and his wife Marion have re-carpeted, put a large extension on the kitchen, and bought a neighbouring field to create the reserve and natural burial ground. A garden room has extended the restaurant to 64 seats.

With the two donkeys and pet Jacob sheep, they have turned the restaurant into what Bob calls, “a multi-faceted destination venue” with Jason Dust, a qualified chef, acting as general manager. He said: “We get a lot of people from the village in here and we have what’s called a 10 o’clock club, local farmers, business people and retired people who like to come out for a drink at 10 o’ clock at night.”

Thursday: A man has denied arson – destroying a £40,000 motor home by fire at a farm in The Fen, Baston – on October 27 last year.

The Iveco motor home belonged to Kevin McGlen.

Julian Pettican (53), of Peterborough Road, Eye, also pleaded not guilty to a second arson offence, destroying clothes worth £11,000 belonging to his wife, Lesley, at Eye on October 21.

Spalding magistrates today adjourned the hearing to July 18 for committal papers to be prepared for a hearing at Lincoln Crown Court.

Pettican had his bail extended.

By 2020, garden centre customers will not be able to buy peat products.

Some multiples have already committed to selling only peat-free compost.

Managing director of Bettaland Andrew Riddington said: “An awful lot of work needs to be done to improve the quality of the peat-free marketplace and change growers’ views on peat-free.”

Bettaland enlisted the assistance of head of the department of agriculture at the Lincoln University David Stainton to independently appraise its products and he has worked with Bettaland to refine the mix. He is currently performing trials on the grow bag compost, which he says “look encouraging”.

It is Bettaland manager Shaun Dring who oversees the nine-month recycling process, from garden waste going into a shredder to breaking down to form 20 and 10ml organic compost. The compost is sold as well as being used by the company’s nursery to grow plants, trees and shrubs.

Spalding’s Household Waste Recycling Centre in West Marsh Road is the end of the story for local people with garden waste to get rid of.

But it’s only the beginning of the tale for Bettaland and its sister company Organic Recycling Ltd at Crowland.

Bettaland was celebrating a milestone in its business last week when local MP John Hayes officially opened new offices created from redundant farm buildings on what was the tenth anniversary for the company.

Cutting the ribbon to the new offices, Mr Hayes, who first visited the site early in its existence, said: “Then, it was a farm with an interest in recycling. How things change. Now, the recycling business has become extremely significant and an important local employer.”

In the intervening years, Bettaland has completed the recycling loop, taking in green waste from councils, including 45,000 tonnes from South Holland District Council, as well as 30,000 tonnes from commercial suppliers in this district, and turned it into organic compost which is then sold on to garden centres and growers.

It has also established its own three-acre nursery, growing hardy nursery stock, trees and shrubs, and extended its range of composts, topsoil, barks and mulches in loose, bulk and mini bags.

Managing director Andrew Riddington told the guests assembled for the unveiling that there are plans to launch a grow bag and potting on compost this autumn.

He said: “We are proud of what we have managed to achieve from what were old redundant farm buildings. We have converted a couple of hay stores, a crew yard and 15 old stables into modern, well appointed offices, and in keeping with our business mantra of ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’, we have chosen to reuse bricks, tiles and wood and installed energy and water saving devices to reduce our carbon footprint. We recycle our water and the building is heated from a biomass burner filled from surplus wood from our recycling business.”

He added there were exciting plans to build an anaerobic digester facility capable of converting some 90,000 tonnes of food waste into energy and a soil fertiliser.

He said: “Within the year, we are hoping to build a 50-acre solar farm. We are also well advanced in our plans to build a biomass burner to burn oversize materials, but also to generate heat.”

A blaze has caused severe damage to a bungalow in Thurlby.

Firemen from Bourne and Market Deeping using breathing apparatus tackled the blaze at a property in Almond Court after a report just after 7.45pm yesterday.

A hose reel and dry powder extinguisher were also used to bring the fire under control but items in a bathroom were badly damaged and smoke caused damage to the rest of the bungalow.

One of East Anglia’s leading training providers has opened a new specialist training centre on the Enterprise Park in Pinchbeck.

The new centre will deliver group training from the extensive list of training courses Britannia provides, as well as at customer premises. New courses include fully accredited CIEH and HABC courses in food safety.

Managing director Colin Wright said: “We are extremely pleased to expand our operation and open this new centre.

“Having already worked with some fantastic businesses in Spalding and across Lincolnshire, we know there is a need for a quality training provision on and off site and we are excited about filling a gap in the market.

“We have worked hard to create the perfect environment for training at our centres and have invested heavily in creating the right resources for our trainers to deliver the best courses.

“Our team are experienced and passionate about what they do. Most have run businesses themselves and in a broad range of industries.

“Between them, you’ll find over 100 years of health and safety experience – they are commercial and experts in their field of knowledge so know what they are talking about on an extremely practical as well as the required academic level.

Britannia Training is holding an open day, which includes demonstrates and a hog roast at the new centre on Friday, June 7, from 11am to 4pm and has pledged to donate £5 for every person who attends to the Lincolnshire Free Press Children’s Fund charity.

A crackdown on boy racers in Spalding has continued after a car was seized by police in Holland Market car park.

Police took away a Ford Fiesta from a 19-year-old man who was driving in an anti-social manner near Sainsbury’s on Thursday evening.

Insp Jim Tyner, community policing inspector for Spalding, said: “The driver had previously received a warning about their driving, so this triggered a law which allows us to seize their vehicle as they have been involved in a subsequent incident.

“Let this be a warning to others involved in anti-social vehicle use and I want people to be reassured that we are taking action to tackle anti-social behaviour that residents say causes them concern.”

Meanwhile, police also dealt with another driver for having a defective headlamp.

A crash involving two cars on a Crowland road today has left a man in hospital for his injuries.

It happened on Renew’s Drove, between Crowland and Deeping St Nicholas, where a blue BMW 3 Series collided with a grey Vauxhall Vectra just before 9am this morning.

The injured man, aged 43 and from Deeping St Nicholas, was taken to Peterborough City Hospital where his injuries aren’t thought to be serious.

A heroin addict raided £40 worth of meat from Spalding’s branch of Aldi to sell to buy drugs.

Magistrates heard Christopher Wilcock has a job but didn’t have enough money to fund his habit on the day he stole from the supermarket.

Rebecca Ritson, prosecuting, said a member of staff who knew Wilcock saw him in the store on March 12 with a sports type, holdall bag.

As he left, the bag looked “bulkier and heavier”.

Miss Ritson said Wilcock ran out of the entrance but was challenged by a member of staff and the meat was found in his bag.

There was no claim for compensation as the meat was recovered.

Solicitor Carrie Simson, mitigating, said Wilcock earns about £200 a week.

She said: “He stole this to sell because he couldn’t fund his drug habit on that particular day.”

He is awaiting an appointment with Addaction for help.

Mrs Simson urged the court to give Wilcock a conditional discharge rather than a fine because leaving him short of cash might set him up to fail until he has a methadone prescription.

Wilcock, of Marlborough Avenue, Spalding, was conditionally discharged for a year when he admitted theft. He must pay £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Tractors on our roads are often a talking point and a question we asked on Facebook on Thursday morning received nearly 3,000 views and around 40 comments.

The question we asked was: “Should tractors be on the road during the busy 8-9 and 5-6 slots?”

Here are some selected responses:

Thelma Vedaa van Arne-Bergen: Please Mr Falmer, find a way to clean up the wheels of the tractors before you get on the road.”

Sally Twell: “It’s a rural farming community!”

Chris Truepenny: “You won’t be saying ban them when you can’t get your fresh produce.”

Beverley Hubbard: “I am a farmer’s daughter, and wholeheartedly agree that they have a job to do, but it is law that they have to pull off the road when there is a build up of traffic behind them, which in this county, very few tractor drivers do!”

Simon Stanley: “The only complaint I have is they don’t clean up the roads after they’ve been in the fields.”

Dale Seneschall: “I now it’s hard being stuck behind them but unfortunately it’s not a nine to five job.”

Jim Moulding: “It’s a minority of tractor drivers that give the rest of us a bad name. I pull over when safe to do so.”

Lorraine Evans: “Some are considerate and pull over when they can.”

Rainee Angel Bows: “Most of the tractors around here at busy times count the queues and pull in.”

Grenville Owen: “Give farmers a break... they are just trying to make a living. Let em get on with it.”

Erica Wicks: “I don’t have a problem with them being on the roads, but I DO wish they would slow down when travelling through the villages.”

Emily Francis: “You’re all moaning because you’re a little bit later to work... some of those farmers probably started at 5am and won’t finish until 8pm.”

Sam Heanes: “Most tractor drivers are nice enough to pull over but then you get the 10% that don’t and think they own the roads.”

Tracey Steele: “They don’t bother me. I’ve grown up in the countryside. Get used to it or move on.”

An elderly couple has labelled a councillor a “rogue” after he refused to carry out repairs on their recently-fitted double glazing.

The couple, who do not wish to be named, had windows and doors fitted at their Cowbit home by district councillor Rodney Grocock’s Vantage Businesses Ltd.

The work came with a ten-year guarantee, but when they recently noticed loose brickwork under one of the windows, they contacted Mr Grocock only to be told he would not carry out repairs as the business had ceased trading in December.

The retired couple, who claim their concerns about Mr Grocock first arose when he messed them about over the original fitting last May, said: “We have principles and if we had the strength, we’d go round and tell him what we thought of him.

“We think he is a rogue and we don’t want anyone else getting caught out by him.”

Mr Grocock is also under fire from Wellingborough-based Glazerite Windows. Managing director John Hewitt claims Mr Grocock owes more than £17,000.

He alleges that Mr Grocock entered into a contract with Glazerite in 2008 as Vantage Windows and Conservatories and that it was a sole trader business, meaning Mr Grocock would be personally responsible for the debt.

Mr Grocock denies the claim, saying Vantage Windows and Conservatories, which he did operate as sole trader, ceased more than ten years ago, and although he did not spend the £300- £400 on new stationery to reflect the change, the contract with Glazerite was with the newer limited company Vantage Businesses.

He said: “I feel sorry for the couple but I told them I don’t own a company any more and I understand that Glazerite are hurt because it’s owed money, but that’s business.”

Mr Grococksaid that Vantage Businesses Ltd was wound up after suffering poor trading figures in 2012.

He says he is now a self-employed salesman for another window company, Vantage UK, which is not yet listed with Companies House.

Spalding magistrates on Thursday adjourned the case of a man who is accused of criminally damaging a £200 car window on April 18.

Marcin Sadlos (24), of Britannia Gardens, Spalding, entered no plea. He will return to court on June 6 after being granted bail.

The charge says the property belonged to Juris Omeloenko.

A woman will stand trial on two counts of assault at Spalding Magistrates’ Court on September 26.

Charlotte Hobday (18), of Roman Bank, Long Sutton, denied assaulting Kerry Rogers and a teenage boy when she appeared in court on Thursday.

Councillors have agreed a revised offer to try and end a long-running legal battle over a housing development – with council tax payers possibly footing the bill.

South Holland District Council is to offer £50,000 plus interest to former West Pinchbeck-based Nestwood Homes after accepting a Local Government Ombudsman’s findings that it had acted wrongly in respect of a planning application from 2007.

The deal was agreed at a meeting on Wednesday but it still has to be put to the Ombudsman who described the council’s previous total offer of £50,000 as unsatisfactory.

Deputy council leader Paul Przyszlak said the final amount was still to be worked out and a decision on whether it would be paid out of the council’s reserves, cuts in services or a council tax rise had yet to be made.

“We believe we can fund the offer, but a bigger sum would create problems,” Coun Przyszlak said.

“The uncertainty over council funding and the affect it would have on services would be kept to a minimum, but reserves are there for a reason and any amount used would have to be replaced.

“We’ll make a decision on how to fund the offer in due course and this will include considering a reduction in services or an increase in council tax.”

The Ombudsman investigated the council’s conduct relating to homes built in Fleet Hargate which residents complained about because of the height of some of the properties.

Nestwood Homes was told by the council to demolish four homes and three garages but after an appeal in 2008, the order was overturned and the Ombudsman, Anne Seex, called in.

She found maladminstration in the council and recommended it should pay almost £265,000 in compensation to Nestwood Homes.

Two people have been charged with theft of perfume and clothing from The Original Factory Shop in Market Deeping.

Spalding magistrates on Thursday adjourned the hearing involving David Campbell (30) and Selina Rosella (28), of Freston, Peterborough.

They are due to appear in court on June 20.

The theft allegation, adjourned in their absence, dates back to November of last year.

Motorists were piling onto the grass verge beside the A17 to avoid a head-on smash with a woman driver on the wrong side of the road when she was over the drink-drive limit.

Raminta Rudzeviciute (28), who works at Bakkavor Pizza in Holbeach St Marks, first left the carriageway on her own side of the road, sending up “a plume of dirt”.

Jim Clare, prosecuting, said her red Mini Cooper then veered into the path of an oncoming HGV, which had to go onto the grass verge to avoid a collision.

A witness who followed Rudzeviciute told police his heart was in his mouth as “every single car in the opposite direction had to take evasive action”.

The witness, a Mr Baker, asked his wife to phone police and he followed the Mini Cooper past Holbeach Primary School and watched her drive on the wrong side of the road – an Astra coming the other way had to mount the kerb and go along the pavement to get out of Rudzeviciute’s way.

Mr Clare said Mr Baker followed her to a car park off Back Lane, where she promptly slammed on her brakes.

The witness, who drove slowly by, said: “I could see a female slumped in the driver’s seat fast asleep.

“I could not believe that she actually fell asleep within a period of three to four seconds.

“I would describe the whole incident as absolutely terrifying.

“I honestly thought that someone would seriously get hurt.”

Mr Clare said there was no charge of dangerous driving, but magistrates could “look at the standard of driving” in relation to the excess alcohol offence.

Rudzeviciute (28), of Tattershall Road, Boston, admitted having 64 microgrammes of alcohol in breath on April 22 – the legal limit is 35mcgs.

She was banned for 22 months, fined £280 and must pay £85 costs and a £28 victim surcharge.

Magistrates are allowing her to cut up to a quarter off the ban if she completes a rehabilitation course.

Presiding magistrate Jane Tidswell told her: “We have rarely heard a description from a prosecutor of such appalling driving and it’s a relief to us, as your solicitor has said, that nobody was killed on that day.”

Asad Aziz, mitigating, said Rudzeviciute had one glass of wine that day but had been drinking into the small hours with friends who were consoling her because her partner had left home.

And the winner of the Spalding Guardian best dressed flower parade window competition is ...

After scores of readers cast their vote for their favourite display, we can proudly reveal that Daisies Flower Shop in The Crescent takes the crown.

Emma Peake, owner of the shop, was delighted to be told her entry had received the most votes.

She said: “It is so exciting, I am really happy.”

She had begged and borrowed a variety of old newspapers, photographs and documents to make up a history of Spalding and the flower parade.

It included a newspaper from the 1950s with a front page story calling for a bypass for Spalding, a photo line-up of all the past flower queens and advertisements for old businesses.

Emma hasn’t yet decided which charity will benefit from her £100 winner’s cheque.

Second place in the competition, run in conjuction with South Holland District Council’s economic services, was the St Barnabas charity shop in New Road, which created a miniature flower parade in its window, complete with road, bunting, flower-decked cars, and a doll flower queen. There was also a teddy bear’s picnic and a Lego village, complete with caravan park.

Volunteer manager Lisa Thomas said: “To come second is really good news as we put quite a lot of effort into our window display. The £50 prize money will obviously go to St Barnabas.”

And third place was taken by the Fun Junction toy shop in Swan Street which decorated its window on a Let’s Celebrate birthday theme, complete with gift-wrapped boxes, toys, balloons, streamer and birthday cake.

The £25 prize will go to Spalding’s PHAB.

Nigel Burch, senior economic development officer, said: “ I would like to congratulate the three winners of the window dressing competition on fantastic displays.

“All the entrants are to be congratulated on their efforts and I am sure readers will agree that the competition brought a varied and colourful feel to the shops during the run up to the flower parade.

“I also hope that it might have given some of the shops a taste for window dressing and that it is something they might continue to do.

“I would also like to thanks the Lincolnshire Free Press and Spalding Guardian for their support in running this competition”

More grass roots Tories in South Holland are worried about the prospect of gay marriage than they are about Britain pulling out of the European Union.

South Holland District Council’s leader, Conservative Gary Porter, made the claim following media hype about Tories deserting the fold for UKIP – and a scandal with a senior party figure allegedly calling grass roots Conservatives “mad, swivel-eyed loons”.

Tory co-chairman Lord Feldman denied making the remarks and Coun Porter talked to the peer at a Conservative Party Board meeting on Monday.

“For what it’s worth, I am convinced he didn’t say it,” he said. “That’s not to say somebody didn’t say it but it wasn’t him.”

Coun Porter says immigration and unemployment are bigger issues with working class Labour voters and they switched to UKIP in the county elections while the Conservative vote “stayed at home”.

He said: “Our party has got to make sure it reconnects back with people on the street and that is going to be difficult with the gay marriage issue. Personally, I couldn’t give a monkey’s about it. I don’t know why they have chosen to make such a big thing of it.

“If our association is anything to go by, our lot by and large are pretty typical, then gay marriage is a far bigger issue than pulling out of the European Union.”

Family and friends of a woman who was murdered at her home with her six-year-old son will be able to pay their respects at a memorial service.

Former Sutterton woman Lisa Clay (40) was killed at her bungalow in Bolton-Le-Sands near Preston last month, along with her boy Joseph.

Lisa’s funeral was held in Lancashire on Friday, May 3, but a service has now been arranged in Boston for her family in the area and friends and former colleagues to be able to pay their respects.

Lisa grew up in Sutterton and lived locally before moving to Morecambe about nine years ago.

She worked at Jessops china shop for about 15 years, employed in Boston and later Lincoln.

A family member said: “It will allow family and friends to join together and time will be given to those who would like to say a few words.

“Since people found out we have heard from quite a few people in Donington who went to school with her.”

The service will be held at the Centenary Methodist Church on Saturday, June 1, at 1.30pm.

The date would have been one day before Lisa’s 41st birthday.

It’s understood that Lisa last visited the area at the end of last year.

Her parents Marlene and Joseph also lived in Sutterton, moving to Kirton when Joe died about 20 years ago.

A Home Office post mortem examination revealed that Lisa and Joseph died as a result of stab wounds.

Paul Chadwick (34), of Lowlands Road, Bolton-Le-Sands, is charged with their murder.

Chadwick is said to have been Lisa’s partner and Joseph’s father.

He appeared at Preston Crown Court for a preliminary hearing and has been remanded in custody until a trial, which is expected to take place in October.

A teenager crashed his car into a garden tree in Long Sutton only 90 minutes after buying the Rover 100.

Provisional licence holder Craig Whitrid (18) lost control in Station Road and the car left the carriageway, crossed the footpath and went through a garden.

Prosecutor Jim Clare told Spalding magistrates the Rover knocked down a tree and came to rest against a hedge.

Whitrid ran off, but contacted police a short time later and claimed the Rover had been stolen from his driveway.

Mr Clare said Whitrid didn’t continue with that story when police spoke to him because he was wearing the clothes that matched the description of the driver seen running off.

Whitrid told police he bought the car having seen it on Facebook and drove it too fast around a corner, losing control.

He had only had one driving lesson prior to the crash, which happened at about 1.45pm on March 27.

When police asked him why he ran off, Whitrid replied: “No insurance.”

He said he was driving at 40-50mph when the “back end slipped out”.

Solicitor Mark Hudson, mitigating, said Whitrid paid £80 for the car and was hoping to get an MOT for it.

Mr Hudson said he had shown Whitrid photographs of the accident scene.

“He was shocked that more serious damage hadn’t been done and shocked that he got out of that car without a scratch,” Mr Hudson said.

Presiding magistrate Jane Tidswell told Whitrid: “It was a very stupid thing to do, wasn’t it?”

She said the bench could have fined him “an enormous amount of money” on the four offences to which he had pleaded guilty, but decided to keep the penalty within his financial means.

Whitrid, of Daniels Crescent, Long Sutton, was fined £115 and given seven penalty points for failing to stop after an accident. He must also pay £85 costs and a £20 victim surcharge.

He received no separate penalties for driving without due care and attention, driving without insurance and driving without a valid licence.

Mrs Tidswell reminded Whitrid to make sure he’s legal before he drives again.