I am writing in response to your recent letter from Mr Wickenden commenting on the number of police officers in Spalding.

Mr Wickenden described a period in the 1980s with numerous police officers. In fact, when I joined Lincolnshire Police in 1989 older officers described a time when there was a sergeant and four constables

based in Deeping St Nicholas!

Society has changed and people’s expectations of what they want from their police have changed considerably since I joined.

For example, many of our crimes are now internet based.

It is well documented that Lincolnshire Police has the lowest number of officers since the 1970s and of course this has an impact on the number of officers in South Holland.

We currently have eight 
sergeants and 40 constables based in South Holland, stationed at Spalding and Holbeach.

This number includes five Community Beat Managers covering The Suttons, Holbeach, Spalding Rural, Spalding Estates and Spalding Town Centre.

These are your local officers and their details are available at www.police.uk

The remaining constables are divided into shifts, providing 24-hour response to emergency and priority incidents across the 284 square miles of South Holland.

Additionally, I am able to call on resources from other parts of the force and from specialist teams such as Roads Policing and the Dog Unit.

Crime has fallen in South Holland, but that doesn’t mean the demand for our services has reduced. When I joined Lincolnshire Police, we had about 30 incidents a day in South Holland. We now have between 60 and 90 most midweek days and more at weekends.

Regular readers will have learned over recent months about much of our work that is not linked to crime, but other incidents such as concerns for welfare, missing children, mental health issues and traffic collisions.

To add some context to these figures, when an officer books on duty on a late shift, for every incident that they are dealing with, there are likely to be two or three other incidents awaiting their attention.

Of course, if an emergency incident is then reported, those other incidents will have to wait.

I wrote about a typical day in a recent column ((Spalding Guardian, July 24). I would urge Mr Wickenden to read that article as it provides details of the types of incidents we deal with on a day to day basis. It also shows that a lot of what we deal with is not actually a crime.

Additionally we have 17 fantastic Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) across South Holland. These officers are on patrol on foot, on bikes and in cars every day.

I am disappointed that Mr Wickenden’s comment about PCSOs appears to be dismissive. They are the eyes and ears

of their communities and in many ways have replaced the old-style village bobbies.

They do not have the full powers of arrest of a warranted constable, but they do have powers to tackle most types of anti-social behaviour.

The PCSO role is very different from a constable’s role. Because they don’t have a power of arrest, they aren’t abstracted away from their beats to deal with other incidents.

This means they are able to spend more time in their communities.

In a way, Mr Wickenden is asking the wrong question, or perhaps asking the right 
question of the wrong person. I can’t change the number of officers that we have.

The Chief Constable has 
previously said that our staffing levels are at a ‘tipping point’ and if they were to 
reduce further this would have an impact on the service we offer.

My job is to make sure I place the officers we have in the right place at the right time.

This isn’t something that we can always achieve because of the demand of emergency incidents, but I remain committed to providing South Holland with the best policing service that we can with the numbers that we have.

Jim Tyner

Community Policing Inspector

Spalding

It’s time to put in perspective the demise of our village pubs. The hardened drinkers of yesteryear have gone.

With the advent of cheap booze from the supermarket, satellite TV and the summer barbecue, the local hostelries are no longer supported like they once were.

When I was growing up, we didn’t have a new sofa, or a fitted carpet... my parents had the sofa from the lady down the road, and the carpet was a square in the middle of the room. Of course the television provides us with adverts for

interest-free sofas/TVs/carpets and so forth, all on credit but in the end this all needs paying for and let’s be honest, we all want new things, not someone’s cast offs.

My dad was one of those that went to the pub every night, and weekends too. He used to walk to the Saracens Head pub here in the village, pushing me in my pram as a baby. I virtually grew up in there and it came as no surprise that my first Saturday job was a cleaner

at that very same establishment. t closed for a short while back in the early nineties but was soon up and running again and is still open today, being one of the few village pubs left.

When I was first married, my husband and I would be at a pub in one place or another for at least five nights a week,

whether it be for dominoes, darts, quizzes or socialising... to have two nights at home was bliss!

Circumstances then altered, family life took over

and the only reason I go to a pub now is for a meal and I think a lot of other people do the same, but, that’s not every night. Times have changed.

Erica Wicks

via email

Thank you to Policing Inspector Jim Tyner for his reply (Spalding Guardian, August 28) to my letter expressing the need for a statement on police policy regarding cycling on footways; and I am sorry I missed his earlier article on the same subject.

It’s welcome that Inspector Tyner is honest about his current intentions: I didn’t ask him to “offer bland platitudes or to promise increased patrols that won’t materialise”, and should have thought less of him if he had.

The cycling situation is still not acceptable, but his straightforward answer is that there are not currently the resources to deal with it. That confirms the suspicion I aired in my letter.

So it comes to what I described as the political dimension: the undermanning of the force and the lack of adequate provision of cycleways.

The latter has never been tackled with sufficient vigour, even when local authorities were under less pressure from central government. Is it too much to ask now for, at least, the development of a plan to uplift the cycleway provision progressively as resources become available? A plan which could be put on the table for public inspection and comment.

We need the provision to be coherent and well done. One of the things which would help the economy to tick a bit more solidly, would be to put a little more investment into this aspect of the infrastructure, even if spread over some years.

And then there’s the undermanning of the force. The Home Secretary believes the police can manage with even fewer resources than they have now. If this locality is anything to go by, she’s wrong. I wonder if she personally has ever tried planning the application of the resources available so as to secure adequate maintenance of the law in a particular local area.

Mr Hardwick, our local police and crime commissioner, expects further cuts and says Lincolnshire Police are well prepared for the possibility. He sounds a bit complacent. What does he mean by ‘well prepared’? How vigorously has he represented the police’s needs to the Home Office? What is his attitude to the increased lawlessness of too many cyclists?

Finally, it is heartening to hear of a reduction in local anti-social behaviour as a result of police activity, but don’t let us bask: there’s more to do. As a society, we need to support the police by a more material contribution than just warm words.

John Tippler

Spalding

Doctor Calling: A weekly column by Dr Miles Langdon of South Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group, addressing topical health issues

Patients in South Lincolnshire are being offered free blood pressure checks as part of Know Your Numbers Week from September 15-21.

Visit www.blood

pressureuk.org to find your nearest pressure station. Blood Pressure UK has over 1,000 ‘Pressure Stations’ across the UK offering free blood pressure checks.

More than eight million people in the UK have high blood pressure but are not being treated for it.

The tests, which help patients review whether their blood pressure count is within a normal, high or low range, can play a significant role in reducing harm caused by heart attacks, strokes and other serious health complications resulting from high or low blood pressure.

The checks will be undertaken by fully-qualified staff, with vital follow-up guidance given as necessary. Resources and tips from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) on how to keep your heart healthy by reducing your blood cholesterol, changing diet, keeping active, reducing salt intake and maintaining a healthy weight will also be available. High blood pressure can cause heart attacks, strokes and other serious health problems.

Knowing your blood pressure numbers really does count so I’m urging everyone to get their blood pressure levels tested during Know Your Numbers Week.

An alarming 30 per cent of people in the UK are affected by high blood pressure but most of the time they will not know it. Yet it’s responsible for causing very serious illnesses including heart attacks, which can be fatal.

Having a blood pressure test can also help people to find out whether they have low blood pressure. In general low blood pressure is good news, but in some cases it might be triggered by medicines or a long-term illness such as diabetes.

I read with interest your feature article in last week’s Free Press on the sad closure of local pubs and although it is very distressing for pub lovers like myself I understand all of the evolutionary reasons for the closures.

I also note with keen interest the question regarding the Waggoner’s Rest or Deer’s Leap at Weston. This pub is rightly called The Chequers again, as it has been for over 100 years. It will continue to be called The Chequers.

The new owners, Robert Oldershaw and John Grimwood, are delighted to announce that The Chequers will open its doors again on Wednesday, October 15 as a gastro pub.

John Grimwood

Director

The Chequers

Weston

A 26-year-old man has been treated for cuts and bruises to his face after an attack in Spalding over the weekend.

The man was walking home along Pennygate when he was attacked from behind and punched in the face shortly after 1am on Sunday.

Doctors treated him at Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, and anyone with information should call 101, quoting incident number 34 of September 7.

You can also ring Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

The following planning applications have been submitted to the councils:

South Holland District Council

Burmor Construction, Between 2 and 14 Church Street, Donington, erection of two detached dwellings. Modification of condition 11 to allow amended scheme for windows

Tempons Capital, Bernard Matthews Ltd, Gosberton Clough. Installation of four packaged biomass plant room and fuel stores containing 199kw boiler and associated equipment to provide heat and cooling to existing poultry sheds. Amendment to location of boiler units.

J & L Developments (Lincs) Ltd, Rathkenny Close, Holbeach. Details of external materials, landscaping scheme, boundary treatments, site levels, contamination report, wearing course, surface water and vehicular parking.

Haycroft Homes Ltd. Lefleys Garage, Station Road, Holbeach. Regarding change of use of site to residential – erection of 51 dwellings and conversion of Station House building to four dwellings - removal of condition 30 and to amend condition 31, both relating to the estate road. Modification of conditions relating to renewable energy production equipment.

Ocean Takeaway, 10 Church Street, Holbeach. Remove chimney and fit new rooflight on rear.

Mr M Bunn, Flat 1, 2 Market Street, Long Sutton. Replacement of 2 windows to front elevation (retrospective).

Naylor Farms, Glebe Farm, Roman Bank, Moulton Seas End. Erection of three general purpose agricultural buildings.

Fen Properties Ltd. Elsoms Way, Pinchbeck. Proposed Industrial Development.

Mr and Mrs D Reddin, The Willows, 40 Park Road, Spalding. Amendment to proposed first floor extension to change external cladding to calls from cedar boarding to brown coloured concrete plain tile hanging.

Sustain Solar Ltd, Grange Farm, 38 Fishergate, Sutton St Games. Details of conditions 5, 7 and 12 of H20-0937-13.

Mr and Mrs D Leworthy, 42 Broadgate, Weston. Extension to dwelling.

Mr N Saeed, 280 High Road, Whaplode. Change of use to car valeting centre.

Premier Children Services Ltd. Chapel Hill House, Chapel Hill Road, Whaplode Drove. Change of use from house to care home.

Boston Borough Council

Seagate Homes (UK) Limited. Land to the rear of St Mary’s Drive, Sutterton. Construction of three bungalows, new vehicular access and private driveway.

South Kesteven

District Council

Gaches, Stonehouse Cottage, 36 Station Road, Deeping St James. Erection of single storey side extension.

Seston, 10 Market Place, Folkingham. Single storey extension to dwelling, replacement roofs, windows and doors, cladding of walls. Single storey side extension to dwelling.

Bourne United Charities, 21 South Street. Fell one tree.

Parsisson, 30 West Street, Bourne. Fell one acacia.

Burmor Construction, 23 Horsage, Deeping St James. Alter elevations on dwelling on plot 1.

Bower, Bourne Textile Services, Cherry Holt Road, Bourne. Storage and parking in connection with laundry business.

How the Free Press reported the Great War 100 years ago

One hundred years ago this week, a suspected German spy was spotted in Surfleet.

A middle aged man described at the time as “of unusual appearance and resembling a German” was seen walking along Station Road in the village around 11am on a Thursday morning.

The man was seen entering the yard of a Mr Tomlinson’s property and then appeared to be examining the place too.

Later, the same man was seen leaving the yard and walking in the direction of the station, where he stopped and took out some papers and then began to make some notes as he sat by the roadside.

Villagers from Surfleet soon raised the alarm and the policemen from Pinchbeck and from Gosberton were both fetched and hurried to the village. Two constables were said to be insufficient, so help was then wired from Donington.

Twelve residents were then seen on bikes, armed with one or two guns each, searching for the suspect.

The man was found at Surfleet Marsh where he was questioned and searched by the police. Luckily, it turned out that the man was actually an insurance agent from Spalding, and even knew the policeman from Pinchbeck.

How the Free Press reported the news in 1914

A ten year old boy was summoned to juvenille court for breaking insulators at Swineshead Bridge.

The youngster, from Swineshead Bridge, had pelted stones at the glass insulators on top of telephone poles.

Mr Evans, prosecuting for the General Post Office, said: “The breaking of inulators is a very serious matter at the present time.”

It was important that communication was preserved during the war and that men were watching the wires day and night, and that wires along the route were specifically to be maintained owing to the fact that they were Admiralty wires.

Boys were told that they must be “restrained” from breaking the vitally important insulators.

When speaking to the boy, the Chairman at court said: “We want to make the present case a warning that these insulators must not be broken.

“It would be a very good thing if all the schoolmasters and mistresses cautioned their boys, and warned them not to do such things.”

It was stated during the trial that the boy had been “punished well” by his father and that he was a “very respectable boy”.

He was ordered to pay the costs, which were two shillings.

Thursday marked the start of Bourne Elsea Park Primary 
Academy’s first term, with 
30 students being welcomed into the new primary school.

The £3.14 million school was built mainly to accommodate the children of the 2,000 new homes being constructed in the town’s Elsea Park 
estate.

However, although the academy originally planned to enrol only one class of reception-aged children, due to a lack of space at other Bourne primary schools, seven Year 1 & 2 pupils have been included in the first intake.

The school is being run in partnership with Bourne Abbey Church of England Primary Academy, with executive headteacher Cherry Edwards at the helm.

She said: “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape the future.

“I want it to be an outstanding experience for the children from the outset.”

She will be aided in the day-to-day running of the Elsea Park Academy by deputy headteacher Janet Crook and assistant headteacher Laura Spillet.

The school boasts the newest educational technology, as well as a state of the art building and grounds.

Lisa Young, parent of Mason, four, said: “The academy is really nice. There is loads for the children to do – I’m very impressed.”

As rapeseed oil farmers wait to see what effect the neonicotinoid insecticide ban has on emerging crops a meeting has been called to save bees.

The European Commission banned three neonicotinoid insecticides because research showed they were harmful to honeybees.

However, agronomist and director of Boothmans Agricultural Ltd at Bourne Robert Boothman says trial-based evidence leading to the ban was not “representing typical in-field use” of the insecticides.

He said: “Many university studies have reported no adverse effects to bee colonies were ever observed in field studies at field-realistic exposure conditions. More likely poor bee health was correlated with the presence of the Varro mite, viruses and many other factors.”

He added that since the ban, farmers would need to use “more, less specific insecticides to achieve the same level of control”, something concerning organic farmer Nicholas Watts.

Nicholas said: “You might have to put two sprays of something else on (to crops) and that might be as bad as neonicotinoids.”

Lincolnshire farmers, nature campaigners and others are discussing action to save the county’s bees at a public meeting called by Friends of the Earth at Lincoln Drill Hall on Thursday (7pm).

Friends of the Earth say more than 20 UK bee species are already extinct and a quarter of the remaining 267 species are at risk.

At the meeting the Government will be urged to improve its new national Bee Action Plan to protect pollinators so that it tackles all the threats bees face “from pesticides to how land is used”.

Lincolnshire farmer Peter Lundgren will talk about how he is growing oilseed rape without neonicotinoids, and call for more Government support for farmers.

An 85-year-old man is in hospital with a serious foot injury after a crash involving two cars outside a petrol station in Spalding.

The man was driving a Mercedes which collided with a Saab at Sainsbury’s petrol station in Winfrey Avenue before 4pm on Sunday.

He was taken to Peterborough City Hospital but the Saab driver was uninjured.

Meanwhile, the A17 in Sutterton was closed for about seven hours on Saturday after a car and tractor carrying cabbages collided.

The tractor overturned after the collision with a Peugeot 206 at about 12.30pm on Saturday.

An 89-year-old man driving the Peugeot was taken to Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, to be checked over and the road was closed unti 7.30pm while both vehicles and cabbages that spilled onto the road were recovered.

Anyone who witnessed either collision should call the Collision Witness Hotline on 01522 558855.

The following decisions have been made by magistrates at court hearings. In all drink-drive cases the legal limit is 35 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, 80 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood or 107 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of urine. Addresses of defendants published here are taken from the legal records held by the magistrates’ courts.

Lincoln Magistrates’ Court

August 14

Mark Jackson (34), c/o Gaunt Close, Spalding. Used threatening or abusive words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour (Spalding). £100 fine, £20 v/s. No action on breach of conditional discharge.

August 16

Stuart Grogan (32), of Pennygate, Spalding. Stole steam cleaning mop worth £79.99 belonging to Poundstretcher (Spalding). 6 months conditional discharge, £15 v/s, £25 costs.

August 20

Michael Blow-Howard (21), of Timms Drove, Swineshead. Speeding (Sleaford). £155 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, disqualified from driving for 10 days.

Rachel Childs (35), of Bateman Road, Hellaby, Rotherham. Speeding (Swineshead Bridge). £100 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.

Helen Sykes (28), of Oxford Gardens, Holbeach. Driving without due care and attention (Beckingham). £230 fine, £23 v/s, £85 costs, disqualified from driving for 2 years.

Sheena Bristow (42), of Edinburgh Walk, West Pinchbeck. Speeding (Spalding). £400 fine, £40 v/s, £85 costs, 4pts.

Marcin Slawomir (45), of Low Road, Holbeach Hurn. Speeding (Spalding). £400 fine, £40 v/s, £85 costs, 4pts.

Aleksandrs Steinbahs (39), of Newton Court, London Road, Boston. Speeding (Spalding). £200 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.

David Collins (30), of Braund Avenue, Greenford, Middlesex. Speeding (Spalding). £135 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.

Jamie Hume (29), of Honeysuckle Court, Peterborough. Speeding (Spalding). £100 fine, £20 v/s, 3pts.

Richard Tudor (68), of Bakestraw Gate, Moulton. Speeding (Spalding). £100 fine, £20 v/s, 3pts.

August 23

Nicholas Kelly (45), of Springfield Road, Parson Drove, Wisbech. Stole groceries worth £187.16 belonging to Tesco (Holbeach). 6 months conditional discharge, £15 v/s. Re-admitted to conditional bail for breaking bail conditions.

Grantham Magistrates’ Court

August 19

Christopher Bates (57), of Counter Drain Drove, Tongue End. Failing to give driver ID (Nettleham). £115 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts.

Christine Gillick (58), of Cawood Road, Wistow, Selby. Failing to give driver ID (Swineshead Bridge). £600 fine, £60 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts.

Craig Youngs (20), of Coast Guard Cottage, Moulton Marsh. No insurance (Boston). £430 fine, £43 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts.

Johnathon Parsons (47), of Cranmore Lane, Holbeach. Allowed someone else to use a vehicle with no suitable insurance (Spalding). 6 months conditional discharge, disqualified from driving for 7 days.

Antonio Alves (53), of Carlton Road, Boston. Speeding (Spalding). £400 fine, £40 v/s, £85 costs, 4pts.

Rima Birbaliene (55), of Trinity Street, Boston. Speeding (Spalding). £200 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.

Arkadiusz Herman (33), of Matmore Gate, Spalding. Speeding (Spalding). £200 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.

Scott Reynolds (28), of Little London, Spalding. No insurance (Spalding). £600 fine, £60 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts.

Raimonds Skutans (21), of Chancery Lane, Holbeach. No insurance (Boston). £600 fine, £60 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts. No separate penalty for driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence.

Laimundas Tautkus (39), of Fengate Road, West Pinchbeck. Speeding (Spalding). £200 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.

Boston Magistrates’ Court

August 21

Charlotte Robertson (42), of Holyrood Close, Donington. Drink-driving (Gosberton Westhorpe). £110 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, disqualified from driving for 20 months.

Jordan Hares (23), of 27 Hampton Close, Spalding. Assault jointly with two others. 12 weeks prison, suspended for 12 months, supervision by probation for 12 months with a drug rehabilitation requirement, £80 v/s, £85 costs.

August 27

Sarmite Cevere (50), of Hague Court, Spalding. Complaint for bind over to keep the peace. Bound over in the sum of £50 to keep the peace for six months.

Connor Read (19), of Gershwin Lane, Spalding. Theft of alcohol worth £17.49 from the Co-op. Conditional discharge for 12 months and order for £17.49 compensation. Breach of a community order. Order to continue but with a new requirement of a 12-week curfew.

Dmitrijs Afanasjevs (27), of no fixed address. Theft of a £200 mobile phone and charger from a home, theft of computer equipment and other items from an office, assisting in the retention of stolen goods (all in Spalding). Four months prison, suspended for 18 months, 200 hours unpaid work, 18 months supervision by probation, £80 v/s.

Arvydas Vaitiekunas (46), of Churchgate, Sutterton. Driving while disqualified, driving without insurance and failure to disclose disqualification when applying for insurance. Community order with 180 hours unpaid work, v/s £60, £85 costs, disqualified from driving for 20 months.

Lukasz Dzikowski (33), of Albion Street, Spalding. Drink-driving, driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence, no insurance. £280 fine, £28 v/s, £85 costs, disqualified from driving for 17 months.

James Pinner (29), of Dunns Lane, North Creake, Fakenham. Threatening behaviour and criminal damage to a car seat belonging to Lincolnshire Police (both Sutton Bridge). Conditionally discharged for 12 months, £15 v/s, £50 costs.

Brandon Campbell (22), of Thorney Road, Crowland. Criminally damaging sunglasses worth £210 (Crowland). £75 fine and £210 compensation.

Kamil Feldman (28), of Small Drove, Weston. Drink-driving. £235 fine, £23 v/s, £85 costs, disqualified from driving for 17 months. No insurance – no separate penalty. Driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence. £65 fine.

Kestutis Tauskas (36), of Ralph’s Lane, Frampton West. Failing to comply with a community order. Order revoked and sentenced for original offences, common assaults. Eight weeks prison, suspended for 12 months, with 150 hours unpaid work.

Over the next few months, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will be working together to uncover benefit fraud and error across six social security benefits, including Housing Benefit.

The DWP will use ‘Real Time Information’ from HMRC to identify cases where claimants have either failed to declare, or have under-declared, their income from earnings or from non-state pensions. Real time Information is a new system for collecting Pay As You Earn tax information from employers and pension providers, who are now required to provide HMRC with income details immediately after each payment they make.

This exercise is expected to run between September 2014 and April 2015. During this time, HMRC will pass on Real Time Information about earnings and pensions to the DWP and local authorities, so that they can match it with their benefit records.

The DWP estimates that they will identify 300,000 overpayments as a result of this initiative, of which more than 200,000 are expected to relate to Housing Benefit only cases.

If you’re found to have received a benefit overpayment because you haven’t provided your full income details, the DWP or local authority will take action to recover the overpayment from you. They may also decide to start a criminal investigation for fraud.

If you are paid more benefit than you are entitled to, this is an overpayment and, in some situations, must be repaid regardless of how it was caused. Except for housing benefit, the general rule is you must repay if it arose because you did not disclose something or you misrepresented something, regardless of whether this was your fault. Authorities have the discretion not to recover overpayments in certain situations.

The darkened room was lit by 1,000 fibre-optic lights shimmering on the top of thin rods that gently waved like long grass: an LED garden where colours changed and pulses of deep sounds filled the air, writes Trish Burgess.

We had entered The Nobel Field, a glass room in the old Victorian railway station, now home to the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo. Among the rods of light, 100 small LCD screens were positioned, each one springing to life with sound and colour as we approached. The faces of winners such as the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and Kofi Annan were shown, with explanations.

We looked at the faces but one held my attention; and the name Norman Angell. I couldn’t work out why the name sounded familiar until my husband reminded me that I must have walked past the Blue Plaque dedicated to the man hundreds of times.

Of course, Sir Norman Angell was born in Holbeach and the plaque can be seen on the wall of the Mansion House Hotel in the High Street.

I have lived in Holbeach for nearly 20 years and knew nothing about the man behind the plaque. A bit of google searching revealed he was born Ralph Norman Angell Lane in Holbeach in 1872, one of six children, to Thomas Angell Lane and Mary (Brittain) Lane: he later dropped the ‘Lane’.

He attended several schools in England before studying in Europe. It was while he was at the University of Geneva that he took the decision, at the tender age of 17, to emigrate to the west coast of America. There he took several jobs from cowboy, vine planter to prospector before becoming a reporter. He returned to England for family reasons in 1898 then became a journalist for several newspapers while based in Paris.

A Labour MP for a couple of years from 1929, he was knighted for public service in 1931 and presented with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1933.

But what did he do to deserve such an honour? He wrote a book, ‘The Grand Illusion’, in 1910, arguing that integration of the European economies had grown to such a degree that war was pointless. His theory, ‘angellism’, stated that military and political power gave a nation no commercial advantage: one nation could not benefit by subjugating another.

He was an executive on the World Committee against War and the League of Nations Union and campaigned against the aggressive policies of Germany, Italy and Japan during the 1930s. He published another 41 books, constantly seeking a formula to enable the world to achieve international peace. He died, aged 94, in Croydon, Surrey

I am a little ashamed that it has taken a trip to Norway to discover more about one of the world’s most influential political thinkers of his time... who used to live just up the road.

You can follow Trish on Twitter @mumsgoneto and read her blog at www.mumsgoneto.blogspot.com

Britain’s largest bumblebee, the Large Garden Bumblebee (or Bombus Ruderatus) is especially in need of help in Lincolnshire, according to Friends of the Earth.

South Holland perfect habitat for large bumblebee

Circus Hassani was begun by Mina Houssain’s parents and it was the first in the UK not to use performing animals.

Mina explains: “They felt strongly that because you are using animals you are replacing a human skill which is going to be lost. It’s keeping those skills alive, which is all coming back. Circus is a big thing in the UK now.”

Mina developed a number of skills when she was performing, building all her own illusions. Now, she designs and creates costumes to match the circus theme each season.

She is also creative in her kiln-fired glass work, something she does at the home in Fosdyke she shares with partner Noel Wainman – and where she rescues ex-battery hens.

In the spring though she is happy to head off with the big top to wherever the circus is headed. She says: “It’s like moving a village because you take all your amenities with you and your village disappears overnight.”

When Mina Houssain was growing up it was the men who did illusions and the women got chopped in half.

She grew up in a circus family, her grandfather’s character Coco the Clown famous throughout the UK.

Mina learned the skills from being a small child and became an acrobat like her parents, but as an adult wanted to do her own thing and ended up as one of the few female illusionists.

Touring is something she still does today as director and owner of Circus Hassani, the big top these days based in Fosdyke when not on the road.

Many of us would be reluctant to leave the comforts of home for very long, but it’s the freedom of worldwide travel that Mina finds so very exciting.

“I love to travel,” she says. “I would go down the Amazon in a shoe box because I love to know what’s round the next corner.

“I love people and races and cultures and food and it’s just the ingredients of a fantastic world. I find it exciting.”

Her own family contains that mishmash of races and cultures that so appeal to Mina, from her Latvian grandparents to her Moroccan father.

Perhaps for that reason her World War 1 memorial in kiln-fired glass – one of the hobbies she picks up in the winter months at home – is for “everyone who fell in the conflict on all sides”.

Thankfully, her grandfather Nicolai Poliakoff survived the war, though he was injured.

In the late 1920s/early 1930s Nicolai came to England where he joined the Bertram Mills Circus, playing Coco the Clown for the next 36 years.

His injuries prevented Nicolai from fighting in World War 2 so he joined Ensa, he and his wife entertaining the troops instead.

As a child, Mina says her famous relative was just ‘Grandad’ to her, but she says: “He was everywhere. He used to do parties for the Queen and the children, the only person to be allowed through the main gates of Buckingham Palace with a sign-written van saying ‘Coco the Clown OBE’.”

The award was given for his road safety work in schools, using a walking stick in the shape of a Belisha Beacon.

Mina donated her memorial to Long Sutton Royal British Legion, which in turn will display it at a World War 1 commemorative exhibition being held at its hall on Saturday (10am to 5pm).The exhibition has been organised by Long Sutton & District Civic Society as part of Heritage Open Days 2014.

South Holland District Council is making a dash for cash after missing out on a massive £67.5million investment in Lincolnshire.

Phases two and three of the multi-million Spalding Western Relief Road, industrial units in Crowland and business grants (Grants4Growth) are among projects it is putting forward to meet Thursday’s deadline for outline bids.

Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) announced in July it had secured £40million from the Government’s Growth Deal for 2015-16 and a further £27.5million for 2016-2017.

None of that cash was earmarked for South Holland because projects were only chosen if they could be delivered in 2015-16.

The LEP said a South Holland contender – a rail freight hub at Deeping St Nicholas – “was not suitably advanced to deliver in 2015-2016”.

Council deputy leader Nick Worth said: “I am very hopeful we will get some money from it this time round.

“Part of what the LEP does is to try to share the funding around the county – it needs to benefit the whole county, not just sections of it.”

Only two projects going forward for the Government’s Growth Deal and the European Regional Development Fund are council-led.

These are industrial units at Crease Drove, Crowland, currently valued at £2million with a £1.6million shortfall for which grant aid is needed, and Grants4Growth – the project value of £12.9million for the whole LEP area includes private match-funding of £8.4million.

Partner-led projects are:

l The Western Relief Road with an estimated value of £95.5million for phases two and three

l The rail freight hub with an estimated value of £27.5million

l A roundabout at Peppermint Junction likely to cost £1million-plus

l Investment at the University of Lincoln Holbeach campus to develop links with other agri-food specialists

Coun Worth said phase one of the Western Relief Road has been “forward funded” by the county council, to be repaid by the Holland Park developer.

Council cabinet members last week described the road as a priority with more trains likely to come through Spalding, cutting the town in half.

Council leader Gary Porter said: “If they do bring the trains through, we are going to need the bridges over the railway line and the only way we are going to get those bridges is off the relief road.”

Bids are going in early because it’s feared the cash pot could disappear if the Tories lose the general election.

l The district council was awarded £1million for Grants4Growth nine months ago and it has offered 42 grants totalling £450,000 to businesses.

Among them was Fusion Aluminium Welding at Cowbit. The firm received £1,250 to buy manually operated equipment to save cash on electricity bills.

Coun Worth said: “We’ve helped many county businesses increase their resilience in today’s competitive market by awarding grants. These grants can be used towards the purchase and installation of efficient new processes, production facilities and clean tech efficiency equipment.”

Grants4Growth has so far created ten jobs.

UPDATE TUESDAY 12.30PM: A 40-year-old woman has been treated for head and shoulder injuries in hospital after her car overturned on the A16 in Sutterton.

The woman was driving a Renault Laguna which left the road at Gosberton Bank, near the A16, and rolled over early this morning.

Firefighters freed the woman who was trapped in the car and a paramedic treated her at the scene before she was taken by ambulance to Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital.

TUESDAY 10AM: A crash where a 40-year-old woman suffered a shoulder injury left motorists facing rush-hour delays on the A16 in Sutterton this morning.

Emergency services were called to an area near Sutterton roundabout where a Renault Laguna left the road at about 5.30am.

The Renault driver, a woman from Boston, was taken to to Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, and a section of the road was closed for at least three and a half hours while the car was recovered.