Police are appealing for witnesses and information after a burglary in Gedney Dyke yesterday (Wednesday).
Between 9am and 4.30pm items were taken from a house and garden shed in the village. If anyone saw anything suspicious between these times or has any information, they are asked to call Lincolnshire Police on the 101 number, quoting incident number 281 of February 24.
We have been asked to point out that a former police community support officer, convicted of masturbating behind the wheel as he watched a teenage girl walking down a street, was serving in the St Albans police force.
Kelvin Mackenzie (49), of Cowfield Gould, Holbeach, was made subject of a community order.
The only male officer covering Holbeach is PCSO Ian Cripps and, although our reports in the paper and online have made it clear the defendant was a St Albans officer, many people have made the incorrect assumption that the convicted officer is PCSO Cripps.
PREVIOUSLY: A former police community support officer, convicted of masturbating behind the wheel as he watched a teenage girl walking down a street, has been spared jail.
Intead, former soldier Kelvin Mackenzie (49), of Cowfield Gould, Holbeach, was made subject of a community order.
He had pleaded not guilty at Crown Court to committing an act which outraged public decency, claiming it simply wasn’t him or his car but he was found guilty after a trial last month.
Sentencing him today (Tuesday), Judge Christopher Morgan imposed a 12-month community order with 100 hours’ unpaid work and ordered him to pay £1,000 costs.
The judge told Mackenzie: “What was in your mind that day, despite your constant denials, I simply cannot comprehend.
“Whether it was, as suggested by the Crown, simply an exercise of your inherent belief in the office of a police community support officer and the power and responsibility which goes with that and your knowledge how you thought you might get away with it, I simply don’t know.
“You were of good character and this has had disastrous consequences on your employment and on your relationship.”
The court heard that Mackenzie, who had been suspended, has now lost his job. He had been a full-time PCSO since 2005.
The jury was told that a cyclist saw Mackenzie committing the act through an open window of a red Renault Megane at 4.50pm on 30 July 2014 as it slowly passed him in Faircross Way, St Albans.
At the time there was a teenage girl walking on the pavement and the car driver appeared to be “fixed” on her.
In his defence, Mackenzie said he was on his way home to Holbeach and his route took him close to Faircross Way but he didn’t drive down it. He suggested the witness had made a mistake in the registration number he wrote down or that it might have been cloned.
Mackenzie, a soldier in Northern Ireland in his early 20s, moved to Holbeach in November 2012 and had arranged a transfer to Cambridgeshire as a PCSO to be closer to his new home when the allegation was made and he was suspended.
Mitigating, Raj Joshi told the judge Mackenzie had now lost his job. His wife, although supportive, was suffering from a depressive disorder. The conviction had ruined whatever thoughts he had of a career in the police service.
“It’s a matter of shame and regret for him,” he said.
A couple who scooped the £32.5 million Lottery jackpot celebrated their win by taking an old bed to the tip.
Gerry and Lisa Cannings from Deeping St James picked up the massive win on the February 13 draw.
They discovered they had won the life changing money the following day, while playing cards with 11-year-old son Tom.
They toasted their win at Orton Hall on Tuesday, when champagne corks were popping as their big announcement was made.
Retired teacher Gerry (63)said the family were staying with his father in Slough when they discovered they had won the jackpot - but it didn’t change their plans.
He said: “We carried on playing cards with my son. We always play cards when we are with grandad. Then we had to put a new bed in, and had to take the old bed to the dump.”
Lisa, who was born in Werrington, added: “I carried on cleaning the oven.”
Having phoned Lotto organisers Camelot to register they had won, the couple waited until Friday to actually pick up the prize, as decorators were working in their home.
Lisa said: “We had dust sheets everywhere and literally didn’t have anywhere for people to sit.”
Gerry added: “I kept the ticket in my wallet all week. I knew the money was ours, so I was not worried.”
Lisa (48), a languages teacher at Hampton College, said she had phoned in sick on Monday following half term - and was not planning on returning to work.
The couple have three children and five grandchildren - and while they said the family would be looked after, they added they would be making sure they were not spoiled.
Gerry said: “Tom, our youngest, was promised an Xbox as a joint Christmas and birthday present, which he would get on his birthday. He will still be getting it on his birthday, which is in June.
“We are looking at going to New Zealand to see where The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings was created, so he will be spoilt with holidays.”
Gerry said he had other items on his shopping list having won the cash - including a car with a boot wide enough to fit his golf clubs in.
He said: “I had been to Duxford with my son and his friend, and saw you could go for a flight in a Spitfire for £2,999. I thought ‘what sort of idiot would pay that much money for a flight in a Spitfire? ‘ I’m now that idiot.
“I would also like a box at Twickenham to watch the rugby. I might also go and play golf at a few other big courses - that is the great thing about golf, you can play on the same ground the pros play on - I can’t go and play football at Wembley, or rugby at Twickenham.
“I am back at my golf club on Thursday, and I think it will be like getting a hole in one - I will have to buy everyone a drink I think.
“We also support two or three charities, and it will be nice to be able to do a bit more for them. I support the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) . I have no personal connection to them, and have never lived by the sea, but I have nothing but admiration for them. They put their life on the line every time they go out in bad weather, and they are all volunteers.”
Lisa said they were also looking for a bigger house, so all their children and grandchildren could come and stay.
She said: “But Tom has said we can’t move till he has grown up. He wants to stay at the same school with his friends.
“We have a dog, he said ‘we can’t have another dog, it would be unfair on Polly.”
The couple said they had visited Stamford last Tuesday for a meal, and spent part of the evening looking in estate agents windows, thinking before their big win they could not afford the big homes, but now they can.
Long Sutton Hockey Club has suffered its first setback in raising cash for a £140,000 upgrade of its pitch and floodlights.
After finding out that it was successful in a bid for a £30,000 grant from the National Hockey Foundation for a new all-weather pitch and floodlight improvement, the club has been turned down for a £15,000 cash injection from Lincolnshire County Council.
The decision was blamed on the high number of applications for the council’s Community Facilities Grant Aid funding, but hockey club officials are still hopeful of funding from Sport England and other grants totalling £72,000.
Peter Worth, director of Long Sutton Community Sports Association, said: “We are obviously disappointed not to receive the grant from Lincolnshire County Council.
“But I do understand that there is only a limited amount of money that can be awarded to community projects.
“The community sports association will continue to move forward in looking at all other avenues in order to obtain the funding necessary for this project.”
Both the hockey club and association have built up a “sinking fund” over a number of years for improvements to its facilities and it currently stands at almost £20,000.
Wendy Moore, funding and community grants officer at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “This year, the council made more than £280,000 available to community projects.
“However, we received applications totalling more than double that amount and, inevitably, that meant there were some projects we were unable to support financially.”
Sports clubs in Long Sutton to make pitch for new facilities
Dog owners are being urged to get their pets microchipped ahead of new legislation being introduced in England on April 6.
The Microchipping of Dogs Regulations 2015 will require all dog owners to get their pet microchipped, so that specific information about the animal and its owner can be stored on a national database.
Dog breeders who are a dog’s first keeper will have to have a puppy microchipped by the time it is eight weeks old.
All owners must have their dogs microchipped by April 6. There are penalties for not microchipping and not keeping the database details up to date.
Authorised officers from councils and the police will have the powers to issue legal notices to owners whose dog is not microchipped.
A notice may be served requiring the dog’s keeper to microchip the dog within 21 days of the served notice.
A fine of up to £500 can be issued or an enforcing authority can seize the dog and microchip it at the owner’s expense.
The regulations also prevent a dog from being transferred to a new keeper until it has been microchipped and any new owner of a dog has to update the information on the database on the transfer of keeper/ownership.
A Moulton Seas End farm with 395 acres of top quality agricultural land, an extensive range of buildings, and a solar scheme has been sold by private treaty through agents Savills Lincoln.
The farm was launched to market at a guide price of £6,995,000.
Names of the seller and buyer of Middle Farm have not been released and there are no details of the actual sale price.
Savills director and head of Midlands farm agency Andrew Pearce said: “Middle Farm, which had been in the same family ownership for many years, was one of the best holdings to have been offered to the market in recent times.
“The farm was almost entirely grade one, and was equipped with an extensive range of farm buildings which have been improved and renovated by the vendors.
“The property also benefited from a new solar scheme installed in December 2014.
“It is rare for a farm of this quality and with this level of fixed equipment to come to the market, particularly bearing in mind that land is tightly held in this area.”
Mr Pearce said the sale attracted interest from local and regional buyers as well as inquiries from further afield.
As far as Savills are aware, the land will remain in agricultural use.
Mr Pearce said: “It is very good productive, agricultural land and it has been bought because it is that and to farm it like that in the future.”
• Expert business Savills Lincoln provides a range of rural property services across the Midlands, covering South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and into the Fens, bordering with Norfolk.
Parents who have applied online for their child to start at secondary school in September can collect their offer from Tuesday. The county council will post offer letters to parents using a paper form on the same day.
The council advises parents to accept the place offered even if the school was not one of their preferences, as this makes sure that their child will have a school place for September. Once parents have accepted a school place they can apply for transport.
In some cases parents may not have received an offer at one of their preferred schools and might want to appeal against this. Parents who have applied online and need to appeal to an independent school admission appeals panel can usually do this online.
Parents who have applied online, can go to the county council website to collect their offer from midnight on March 1 up until March 18:
www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/schooladmissions
Check in plenty of time that you know your username and password – if you’ve forgotten them you can use the link on the login page to request them.
It is expected the county council’s website will be very busy when the offers are initially released, so if you experience any problems accessing the page, please be patient and try again.
The vast majority of children starting at secondary school will receive an offer of a place at their parents’ first preference school this year. There are over 7,600 children wanting a secondary school place in Lincolnshire, with 92 per cent receiving their first preference school.
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. V/S means victim surcharge.
Boston Magistrates’ Court
February 4
Robert Hartley (49), of Coles Lane, Boston. Used threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour (Swineshead). Restraining order, £630 fine, £300 compensation, £63 v/s, £750 costs.
Grantham Magistrates’ Court
January 25
Raimondas Gelbuda (22), of Balmoral Road, Northampton. No insurance (Billingborough). £660 fine, £66 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts.
Timothy Grievson (27), of Solhem Avenue, Wyberton. Speeding (Boston). £235 fine, £24 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts.
Rikas Rastenis (29), of Amberley Road, London. Speeding (Swineshead Bridge). £220 fine, £22 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.
Gary Woodhams (43), of Everard Road, Tongue End. Used a motor vehicle with two children sitton on front middle seat secured by single seatbelt and no booster seat (Bourne). £440 fine, £44 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.
Mark Drury (41), of London Road, Kirton. Failed to give driver ID (Nettleham). £660 fine, £66 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts. No separate penalty for second count of failing to give driver ID. Disqualified from driving for 6 months.
Mark Budd (30), of Main Road, Gedney. Speeding (Snitterby). £80 fine, £20 v/s, £45 costs, 3pts.
Kelly Burrett (40), of High Road, Weston. No insurance (Spalding). £120 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts.
Nicholas Devault (63), of Washway Road, Holbeach. Speeding (Hubberts Bridge). £40 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.
Elliot Stevenson 29), of East Street, Rippingale. No insurance (Rippingale). £660 fine, £66 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts.
Teresa Webber (28), of Guanockgate Road, Sutton St Edmund. Driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence (Cowbit). £60 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.
Ingus Podnieks (21), of London Road, Spalding. Stole four jars of coffee worth £19.96 belonging to B&M (Spalding) and prawns worth £20 belonging to Iceland . Community order with rehabilitation activity requirement, £60 v/s, £85 costs.
January 26
Svajunas Mockus (38), of Queens Road, Spalding. Failed to give driver ID (Nettleham). £660 fine, £66 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts.
Pedro Silva (41), of Carrington Road, Spalding. No insurance (Spalding). £180 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts.
Jordan Turner (22), of Castle Avenue, Northampton. No MOT (Spalding). £220 fine, £22 v/s, £85 costs.
Tomas Urbonas (39), of Baxter Court, Norwich. Speeding (Whaplode). £440 fine, £44 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts.
Martin Oneill (51), of Barnstock, Bretton. Speeding (Baston). £220 fine, £22 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.
Taurantas Raicevicius (23), of New Road, Spalding. Failed to give driver ID (Nettleham). £660 fine, £66 v/s, £85 costs, disqualified from driving for 6 months.
Povilas Vaicekianas (21), of Aldermans Drive, Peterborough. Driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence (Algarkirk). £220 fine, £22 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.
January 27
James Chinn (36), of Livingstone Drive, Spalding. Failed to give driver ID (Nettleham). £660 fine, £66 v/s, £100 costs, 6pts.
Lincoln Magistrates’ Court
January 8
Huy Tran (33), of North Street, Bourne. Fraudulently used a vehicle registration mark (Bourne). £50 fine. No insurance. £250 fine, 8pts. Four counts of carrying in a public place a machete, a meat axe and two meat clevers respectively. Community order with 100 hours unpaid work, £60 v/s, £85 costs. Articles ot forfeited and destroyed.
January 13
Aleksanders Cernavka (27), of Steeple View, Wisbech. Speeding (Swineshead Bridge). £335 fine, £33 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts.
Ross Hardwick (24), of Chanterlands Avenue, Kingston upon Hull. Speeding (Swineshead Bridge). £200 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.
Michael Hughes (49), of Lilly Hall Road, Maltby, Rotherham. Speeding (Swineshead Bridge). £220 fine, £22 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.
Ricards Kovalewskis (25), of Wragby Road, Lincoln. Speeding (Swineshead Bridge 8.3.15). £220 fine, £22 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts. Speeding (Swineshead Bridge 11.3.15). £220 fine, 3pts. Speeding (Swineshead Bridge 15.3.15). £220 fine, disqualified for 6 months.
Nathan Moulton 23), of Broadwaters, Kingswood, Hull. Driving while using a hand held mobile phone (Bicker). £220 fine, £22 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.
Julian Smith (39), West Gate, Moulton Chapel. Speeding (Whaplode). £45 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.
Robert Smith (63), of Alma Street, Melbourne, Derby. Speeding (Whaplode). £440 fine, £44 v/s, £85 costs, 4pts.
Christopher Williams (37), of Anfield Road, Long Sutton. Took a vehicle without the consent of the owner (Sutton St James). 8 weeks prison sentence concurrent, £80 v/s. No insurance. No separate penalty, 6pts. No separate penalty for driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence.
January 15
Jay Power (22), of Hurdletree Bank, Holbeach. Entered as a trespasser a dwelling in Holbeach and stole fruit and used facilities, two counts of failing to surrender to custody, assaulting a police officer. Community order with rehabilitation activity requirement, 60 hours unpaid work, £60 v/s. Commission of a further offence during the operational period of a suspended sentence for an offence of assault. £50 fine.
January 18
Robert Grzegorz (40), of Cortez Close, Spalding. No insurance (Spalding). £200 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts. No separate penalty for driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence.
Joel Hammond (21), of Roman Bank, Holbeach Bank. No MOT (Spalding). £220 fine, £22 v/s, £85 costs.
Mihails Namjaks (24), of Haven Meadows, Boston. No insurance (Algarkirk). £660 fine, £66 v/s, 385 costs, 6pts.
The A16 has been shut for a second time today, Friday, following a crash between a lorry and a car this afternoon.
Emergency services are at the scene of the “very serious collision” which took place at around 4pm at the Sutterton and Gosberton roundabouts.
Motorists are asked to avoid the area if possible.
More here as we have it....
Lambing equipment was stolen during a burglary in Sutton St Edmunds on Thursday night.
An Essentials Lambing Kit, rope and lubricants were taken from an outbuilding in the area of Guanockgate Road.
If anyone saw or heard anything please contact Lincolnshire Police on the 101 number, quoting incident number 158 of February 26.
Spalding is poised to say its farewells to John Naylor, a great supporter of Spalding In Bloom and the town’s rugby football club, who died suddenly aged 74.
His funeral service takes place at 1.45pm on Friday, March 11 at St Mary and St Nicolas Church, Spalding, followed by a gathering at the rugby club where the family will join everyone following a private cremation.
Previously ...
Tributes to expert grower John who helped Spalding strike ‘Bloom’ gold
Fraudsters trying to catch people out through email and online scams are in Lincolnshire Police’s sights as part of a new campaign.
Recent reports of a woman who an item stolen from her after meeting a man through a scam involving a dating website has led police in the county to launch a new Fight Back Against Scammers campaign.
According to Lincolnshire Poolice, 350 people have reported being targeted by scams over the past year while across the UK, scammers take £9 billion from the pockets of people annually.
Kirsty Toyne, senior trading standards officer at Lincolnshire County Council which is supported the campaign, said: “Scammers usually target our most vulnerable residents and will try every trick in the book to swindle cash from them.
“In many cases this involves thousands of pounds and we are working hard to visit those who have been placed on what has become commonly known as the “suckers list”,
“We are working closely with Lincolnshire Police, the Wellbeing Teams, Lincolnshire Carers, Age UK and many others to help protect vulnerable people in our community.”
For more information, visit www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/tradingstandards or www.oprepeat.co.uk
The sidelight casing for a car was stolen from outside a house in Sutton St James last weekend.
It happened in Jarvis Gate between 1200 and 1600 on Sunday, Februray 21st.
Anyone with information should call 101, quoting incident number 286 of February 21.
People in Bourne and the Deepings can report vehicles abandoned on public land in their community.
A vehicle parked on the street must be taxed and insured and if it is aged three years or older it must have a valid MOT certificate.
Anyone can check if a vehicle is taxed or has a valid MOT by visiting https://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax and entering the vehicle’s model and registration plate.
If the website states no tax or MOT is in place, use the above contact methods or subsequently contact the council’s Environmental Health team by emailing ehs@southkesteven.gov.uk
Coun Nick Craft, executive member for environment, said: “Abandoned vehicles can be an eyesore and we work with the DVLA to quickly identify the owner responsible.
“Removing abandoned vehicles has a large cost implication to us and whilst numbers of vehicles are relatively low in South Kesteven, where possible we will always pursue those found to have illegally left the vehicle with prosecution.
“If you suspect a vehicle is abandoned on land you own you are advised to check its owner details with the DVLA in order for you to contact the owner.”
MPs’ salaries will rise to £74,962 from April, it has been announced, the second rise in a year.
The 1.3 per cent increase follows a backdated boost to politicians’ pay packets nine months ago.
In a statement, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) said: “This is in line with our determination on MPs’ pay, published in July 2015, where we committed to adjusting MPs’ pay for the rest of this Parliament at the same rate as changes in public sector earnings published by the Office for National Statistics.
“The ONS index takes account of promotions and bonuses which may explain why the figure is higher than the one per cent wider public sector pay policy.”
Last year, the chancellor announced public sector pay will be capped at a maximum of 1 per cent rise in each year,
In view of the latest revelations from the headteacher of Spalding Grammar School on the fact that the school may be facing six days of closure due to an impending strike by staff because of a pay dispute, I am eager to make sure that a few points are highlighted before the ritual “teacher bashing” begins.
The teaching staff at Spalding Grammar seem to have been forced into taking this drastic step because the school has refused to award the one per cent pay increase that has been allocated to teachers across the country.
A pay increase of one per cent translates to a rise of just £380 per year, even for the most experienced classroom teachers at Spalding Grammar. This is, of course, before deductions.
Most classroom teachers will probably be entitled to far less than even this sum.
Has the headteacher and the governing body made such a poor job of managing the school’s budget that they have not made sufficient allocation to cover the pay award?
Logically, this would seem to be the case and, therefore, serious questions need to be asked regarding the competency of the financial management of Spalding Grammar.
A more important consideration, and one which the parents of pupils need to take into account, is the damage that has been done to the reputation of the school by this dispute.
Mr Wilkinson is likely to find that recruiting good teachers is going to be a good deal more difficult in the future.
As a teacher myself, I would be unlikely to apply for a position at Spalding Grammar after having researched the school and having come to the conclusion that the management team seems to be dismissive of the concerns of the staff.
I have read, in earlier reports, that the NUT regional representative has claimed that the management of the school has not responded to requests for negotiations on this matter, leaving staff with no other course of action.
Mr Wilkinson and the governing body must realise that, at a time when teacher shortages are becoming a national concern, Spalding Grammar School will find recruiting teachers hard enough, even if the pay at the school reflects nationally agreed levels.
Additionally, I note that the school was recently downgraded from the Ofsted judgement of “outstanding” to “good”.
How does Mr Wilkinson intend to address this if he refuses to pay his staff a competitive salary?
May I suggest that Mr Wilkinson discloses his own salary?
I suspect he may also have foregone his pay rise this year (if not, why not?), but it should not escape the notice of your readers that the headteacher of Spalding Grammar will be paid more than double the salary of a classroom teacher at the top of the upper pay scale.
These figures are a matter of public record and anyone performing an internet search for “teacher’s pay scales” can easily discover what teachers are paid.
Could I further suggest that an audit of the roles of the senior leadership team is undertaken as soon as possible.
It may be that some roles may be shared between other members, meaning that a salary of at least £50k could be saved through redundancy of one or more management staff.
This money might then go towards settling the pay increase for staff on the “chalk-face”.
In summary, as an alumni of Spalding Grammar and as a member of the profession, I find this whole incident very disturbing.
As I mentioned earlier, I do not work at the school but I am from Spalding and have a vested interest in the quality of schools in the area.
I would therefore urge Mr Wilkinson and the governing body to adopt a more sensible approach to this dispute in order to limit any further damage to the reputation of Spalding Grammar School.
EDITOR: The sitiation has now been resolved and the teachers given a one per cent pay rise. However, we still thought this letter, published in the Free Press before the decision, worthy of inclusion.
Lincolnshire Police is criticised for failing to pinpoint possible risks of sexual exploitation when children go missing.
The judgement appears in the latest HMIC Peel report, focusing on the effectiveness of the county force in 2015.
In some areas the force is praised for keeping people safe but urged to do better in others.
The report says while police staff show a positive attitude to protecting those who are vulnerable from harm, and supporting victims, “the force does not have a co-ordinated or consistently well-supervised process for responding to reports that children are missing or absent”.
It continues: “Understanding of the scale and nature of the issue is under-developed, which means the response to missing children is inconsistent and frontline staff and supervisors do not always identify risk factors associated with missing children and the potential links to child sexual exploitation.”
Deputy Chief Constable (DCC) Heather Roach said the force is taking steps to address issues raised by the report, and now has a sergeant and four officers dedicated to missing persons – their role will include focusing on missing children who may be at risk of sexual exploitation.
She said in the last year, a multi-agency group had been set up at Grantham – including representatives from the police, health service, youth offending and children’s services – to pool specialist knowledge on child sexual exploitation issues.
DCC Roach said frontline officers and control room staff had also been given child sexual exploitation risk assessment information to raise their awareness and “so they know the things to ask” in cases where children go missing.
The report says the force needs to improve the quality of its crime investigation while acknowledging its “in-depth understanding of the threat posed by serious and organised crime” and praising it as good for “disrupting the activity of organised crime groups”.
The report’s overview, measuring effectiveness at keeping people safe and reducing crime, says Lincolnshire Police requires improvement.
Four categories are measured on a scale that runs from outstanding to inadequate.
Two require improvement:
• Effectiveness in keeping people safe and reducing crime
• Effectiveness in investigating crime and managing offenders
Two are good:
• Preventing crime and anti-social behaviour and keeping people safe
• Tackling serious and organised crime, including arrangements to fulfill national policing priorities
Previously ...
Lincolnshire Police ‘requires improvement at keeping people safe and reducing crime’
A house in Spalding was damaged by smoke after a kitchen fire on Friday.
It started at a house in Churchill Drive when someone living there left cooking unattended just before 2pm.
A fire alarm alerted a crew from Spalding who found the fire out on their arrival, but there was damage to a saucepan.
No one was injured.
Meanwhile, firefighters from Holbeach were called to a straw bale alight in Dam Gate, on the edge of Holbeach, just before 10pm.
The fire was allowed to burn itself out.
Finally, a fire crew from Long Sutton tacked a van blaze in East Bank, Sutton Bridge, with a water hose.
The fire broke out close to the River Nene just before 10pm.
A D-Day veteran has received one of the highest French medals in recognition for helping to liberate the country during the Second World War.
Jack Wilkinson, 91, 0f Sutton Bridge, was among the 156,000 allied troops who braved Nazi bullets and stormed the Normandy beaches as part of the invasion fleet on June 6, 1944.
Mr Wilkinson, who went on to serve across Europe, has now been honoured with a French medal, Chevalier in the Ordre National de la Legion d’honneur.
He said: “I am one of the very lucky ones. I did not have a bullet with my name on it that day.
“This new medal will go with my others. I am very proud of it.
“I feel humble to receive this.”
Mr Wilkinson joined the Army in 1943 and after initial training spent months getting ready for the Operation Overlord, the invasion of Nazi-held Europe.
He said: “I landed in France at 7.20am on June 6. We had to jump out of the boats and into four foot deep of water, holding our weapons over our heads. The sea was turning red. It was just pot luck.”
After surviving D-Day, in which 4,413 men died, Mr Wilkinson’s job was to guard Bridgehead for a month.
His unit, the 5th beach group, was disbanded after allied forces landed in France. Mr Wilkinson ended up in the South Lancashire Regiment.
Widower Mr Wilkinson fought the whole campaign through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany before finally helping to take the port of Bremen a few days before the end of the war.
He applied for the medal 18 months ago after the French government made an announcement.
The EU referendum is to be held in June, so let battle commence or, for many people, let the boredom begin as a barrage of propaganda drops through our letterboxes.
The local branch of UKIP will make its own small contribution to the campaign but, of course, this is a referendum, not an election.
We are not asking you to vote for us but to consider whether this country would be better off outside the EU.
We in UKIP have campaigned to leave the EU from day one, but let’s have a look at some of those advising the electorate to vote to remain in the EU.
They don’t come much bigger than the USA. Unfortunately, the last time we took their advice, we joined them in the invasion of Iraq and the world has become a much more unstable place ever since.
Continuing on the global front, Australia are also keen for Britain to stay in the EU.
The Aussies, however, thrive on this country’s decline, with a steady influx of our young professionals, especially doctors who are fed up with working conditions in the NHS.
Closer to home, Goldman Sachs, a big funder of the “in” campaign, fudged the figures so that Greece could join the Euro with all the subsequent misery that has brought to the Greek people.
The undecided may find the answer on our doorstep. A stroll round the streets of Spalding and a close study of the local press, of which the Spalding Guardian is an excellent example, tells us a lot about what the EU does for us, or, more correctly, to us.
I don’t have to spell it out and, at the end of the day, I expect common sense to prevail and people will take this chance of a lifetime to escape from a bankrupt, undemocratic institution called the EU.