For anyone who has found the whole process of internet shopping too much like hard work Amazon has come up with a solution.

The online retailer today revealed that it is introducing its Amazon Dash Buttons to the UK.

The dinky little gadgets are a one-touch way to order a host of popular products without all that complicated rigmarole of actually logging onto your Amazon account and searching for them.

The Dash Buttons are literally that, small plastic boxes housing a button, which when pressed will connect via wi-fi to your Amazon account and using one-click buying order your selected products.

Each button is linked to a particular item and there are 40 brands available from launch so you can get everything from cat food to condoms and nappies to NERF ammunition delivered to your door.

Daniel Rausch, director of Amazon Dash, explained the thinking behind the devices: “We’ve all experienced the frustration of running out of something we need - Dash Button and Dash Replenishment Service are designed to make that moment a thing of the past.

“Dash Buttons offer the convenience of one-click shopping from anywhere in the home - they can be placed near those frequently used items you don’t want to run out of, and when you see supplies running low, the Dash Button makes it easier than ever to order more. Just press the button and your item is on its way.”

The £4.99 devices are only available to Amazon Prime customers, which means you’ll have to sign up to the £79-a-year service to enjoy the Dash Button’s convenience. The good news is that you’ll get £4.99 back off your first order of each product.

Alongside the buttons, Amazon also announced the UK rollout of its Dash Replenishment Service.

Like the button this links to your Amazon account but rather than having to do the ordering yourself it allows connected smart devices to order supplies themselves.

This means the likes of washing machines, dishwashers and printers from big-name brands including Bosch, Samsung, Whirlpool and Siemens can monitor your consumables usage and order more before you run out.

If they could just design a button that remotely loads the dishwasher too, they could be onto a winner.

An innovative company in Bourne is battling for funds to develop a mobile version of its solar steam powered energy system for use in rural India.

Lark Energy hopes the funding will help it create a container-sized and easily moveable model of its solar system technology to deliver renewable heat and power to isolated communities.

Solar steam concentrates the power of the sun’s rays to heat water to create steam that can be used in industrial processes.

Simone Perini, renewable energy development engineer at Lark Energy, said: “Solar steam has the potential to transform energy access in developing countries.

“We’re looking at delivering a mobile containerised energy system able to operate where the grid is unbalanced, unreliable or unavailable – like rural India.”

If successful, the firm plans to embark on a two-year project with Cranfield University and an Indian solar collector manufacturer, to develop the mobile version of its system.

The cost is £550,000 and Lark Energy’s parent company, Larkfleet, is contributing £128,000.

The application has been made to the government-sponsored Energy Catalyst mid-stage technology development competition.

It seeks to encourage the development of new technologies to solve global energy concerns.

It comes just weeks after Lark Energy submitted a separate application for funds to test its new renewable solar thermal system in Mexico.

Related:

Bourne-based energy firm seeks funding help to demonstrate new solar technology

Solar energy firm is first tenant at new Future Business Centre in Peterborough

A 73-year-old man from Spalding has been cleared of molesting two young girls at a children’s home in the 
1970s.

Michael Coughtrey, from Spalding, was accused of abusing the youngsters on occasions when he went to pick up his wife who had worked at the home in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.

His Old Bailey trial was told that one of the girls had complained to staff at the time but did not feel that she would be “supported or believed”.

Police launched an investigation in 2014 after a second alleged victim recognised a former staff member of the Woolmer Drive home at a Sainsbury’s checkout and was advised to go to authorities.

After Mr Coughtrey was arrested in March last year, he told police that his wife had worked at the home and he would often visit to collect 
her.

While there he would read stories to the children and recalled the girls sitting on his lap, but denied sexually assaulting them, saying he would have had a book in his hands.

The jury deliberated for more than six hours to find Mr Coughtrey, not guilty of six counts of indecent assault.

The verdict was delivered today (Wednesday).

EMG Motor Group could switch its Spalding-based business to twin sites at Pinchbeck.

The company is seeking consent to move from St John’s Road and build a showroom on land east of Elsoms Way, close to the Wardentree Lane/West Marsh Road roundabout, and to open a service centre on land north of Wardentree Lane.

The company’s agents, Lindum Group, have drawn up plans and submitted them to South Holland District Council.

The agents say: “As the main business park area of Spalding, Wardentree Lane provides a hub which is geared not only to the very strong food and transport related environment, but also other ancillary companies who provide services to industry and the South Holland area as well as Spalding generally.

“The proposal would see the relocation of the existing dealership on St John’s Road in Spalding to the proposed new site on Wardentree Lane.”

Lindum say EMG has looked at other possible sites but found “considerable difficulty” in finding somewhere suitable and the proposed move would bring the “obvious benefits of retaining jobs and associated inward investment” in the Spalding area.

The move is expected to create a further four full-time jobs, taking the total to 32.

David Allmond, chairman of the Spalding branch of the Parachute Regimental Association, also conquered fear by jumping out of aircraft.

In his case it was when he joined the Airborne Forces in 1956, but he was trained by the people he says “set the standard”, the parachute regiment war veterans.

Just like the veterans, David went through a selection process that sounds as challenging as the leap into the unknown.

David describes it as “fearsome” and says it’s something everyone goes through, whether gunner or medic and in whatever regiment or corps. Only 30 per cent of volunteers get through the initial trial of “severe physical tests”. For David, these included climbing, walking on scaffold 40ft high, and stints in the boxing ring to test a man’s ability to control violent situations.

The “42ers”, as David calls the war volunteers, went to Ringway, near Manchester, for further training in control of the parachute in the air, exiting the aircraft, landing and locating a meeting point, in addition to the usual marching, weapons training, demolitions, map reading and first-aid.

They conquered fear by jumping out of aircraft. That’s the way the old boys of the Parachute Regiment were once described by Field Marshal Montgomery.

In this area, members of the regiment are remembered by the Spalding branch of the Parachute Regimental Association, which is 70 years old this year.

The Spalding-based 3rd Battalion were the founder members back in 1946, when the survivors of Arnhem came back to this area.

Remarkably, among the group’s current membership of around 20 are three World War Two veterans, now sadly unable to attend meetings. They are Curly (Gordon) Harding, of Spalding; Tony Blackman from Weston, who was in the 12 Devonshire Battalion and landed by glider on D-Day – and was subsequently awarded the Legion d’Honneur by the French ambassador; and Peterborough man Geoff Roberts.

There were more veterans, but branch chairman Major David Allmond says: “One or two have left the district and joined other branches, but in the end these old boys were 19 or 20 years old in 1942, and some even older.”

By comparison, David is a spring chicken, and was only four in 1942 when the Parachute Regiment was first raised.

It has fallen to him though, and branch secretary Bill Morter, to organise 70th anniversary celebrations in the form of a dinner at Spalding Golf Club on September 24 for invited guests, including current and past chairmen of South Holland District Council.

At the dinner they will remember those founder members of the Spalding branch, the veterans who once lived in accommodation huts on Spalding Grammar School field, the site of the old Odeon Cinema and elsewhere in town.

After months spent training in weaponry, first aid, field craft and general fitness, they were deployed to the Battle of Arnhem, as part of the British First Airborne Division.

Other men went to North Africa, where they fought their way through Italy and Sicily before returning to the UK ready for the invasion of Europe.

The 6th Division were involved in the Normandy landings and fought their way through to the Battle of the Bulge.

The 1st Airborne Division were parachuted into Arnhem and, after ten days hard fighting, David says they were “either brought out, captured, wounded or killed”. Of around 12,000 men who went in total, just 2,000 came back – the majority died.

The Spalding branch, whose membership also includes those who fought in the Falklands and Afghanisan, arranged for a memorial window to the 3rd Battalion to go up in its regimental church, St John’s in Spalding.

Rail officials have said sorry for problems caused by a thunderstorm, torrential rain and lightning in Spalding on Saturday.

At least one level crossing in Spalding, Winsover Road, was affected by a lightning strike near the town’s rail station.

A Network Rail spokesman said: “Due to heavy rainfall and a lightning strike on Saturday evening close to Spalding station, there was significant disruption to parts of the rail network in parts of Lincolnshire.

“Our teams worked throughout the evening to repair the various electrical faults and restore power to the affected systems as quickly as possible.

“We apologise for anyone caught up in the disruption.”

Drivers in Spalding are being warned that Pinchbeck Road, at its junction with Park Road, will be closed next week for underground electrical cables to be laid.

The work by Western Power Distribution is expected to last between Monday and Friday, September 5 to 9.

Signed diversions will be in place throughout the period of work and a Western Power spokesman said: “We are laying some underground cables between our substation in Park Road to another on in Park Crescent.

“But because it crosses the railway line, we are obliged to request a road closure because we are not allowed to have traffic lights across a railway crossing for safety reasons.

“The work is scheduled to go on for a week and there will be a signed diversion in place while the road is closed.”

A campaign group for farmers and landowners has urged police to make hare coursing a high priority ahead of an annual campaign to tackle it.

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) East branch, which represents 32,000 members who own and manage farmland across South Holland, Lincolnshire and six other counties, has warned of the “huge impact” of hare coursing on rural communities across the country,

In South Holland alone between September 2015 and March 2016, more than 900 reports of hare coursing were received by police, more than double that of any other district council area in Lincolnshire.

CLA East regional director Ben Underwood said: “Reducing crime, and the fear of it, is central to improving the quality of life for people living in our rural communities.

“Unfortunately, many find their lives blighted by it every day and so we need the police to work effectively with farmers, landowners and those living in the countryside in order to send out a strong message to criminals, such as hare coursers, that they are not welcome in the county.

“Hare coursing, which has a huge impact on rural communities and conservation efforts, has reached unacceptable levels in the south of Lincolnshire and hare coursers themselves are hardened criminals, engaged in illegal betting which often involves large sums of money.

“They are prepared to use violence if disturbed and many of our members have been victims.

“As a result, we are pleased that Lincolnshire Police’s strategy for hare coursing is built upon increased engagement with rural communities and making it easier for people to report incidents.”

Lincolnshire Police’s annual Operation Galileo operation against hare coursing is due to be launched today.”

Fear and loathing on South Holland farmlands of a hare coursing tide of terror

Firefighters will return this morning to inspect the damage done by a straw stack fire in Kirton last night (Wednesday).

Crews from Boston and Kirton attended the blaze on Wash Road at about 11.20pm where approzimately 50 tonnes of straw bales were on fire, spreading to a 20m section of hedge.

A fire service spokesman said the crews hosed down an area to create a fire break between the burning bales and some hedging and allowed the rest of the bales to burn out under supervision.

They would return this morning (Thursday) to inspect.

A Spalding fire crew were needed to help free a person trapped in a lift in Spalding last night (Wednesday).

The firefighters were called out at 8.27pm to a premises on Georgian Court, Spalding, according to a fire service spokesman.

They used a lift key to release the occcupant stuck in the lift at a premises on Georgian Court in Spalding.

The fire crew from Crowland were also called out last night just before 10pm to put out a fire in some loose straw in a field off Roman Road at Moulton Chapel.

Emergency vehicles are on the scene of an accident on the A16 between Sutterton and Surfleet.

The road is closed while police and Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue deal with the incident.

In a separate incident on the A16 at Spalding, traffic travelling along the bypass towards Peterborough was at a standstill while vehicles were moving freely in the opposite direction.

Both incidents happened before 9am.

More as we get it.

Two months have now passed since the decision was made that the UK will be leaving the European Union.

Since the referendum, there has been much talk but little clarity about what happens next and the consequences of this result for all of us.

The Royal College of Nursing remains particularly concerned about the impact on the nursing workforce.

NHS hospitals, care homes and other organisations across the health and social care sectors in this region, and across the UK, rely on the huge contribution of nursing staff from both inside and outside the EU.

Figures show there are currently more than 33,000 EU-trained nurses working in the UK.

The continuing uncertainty about what Brexit means for the future of EU nursing staff already working here and those interested in doing so threatens to worsen nursing shortages, already threatened by changes to student funding and the removal of bursaries.

We also continue to hear of cases of abuse directed at EU nursing staff following the referendum and the assumption by some that they should have left the UK.

Such prejudice is reprehensible. There must be zero tolerance of any such abuse.

The RCN will ensure that the nursing voice is heard as negotiations on leaving the EU commence and will support our members who are affected.

We must never lose sight of the fact that, without EU nurses, our health services could not operate and patient care would undoubtedly suffer.

Carol Evans

Chairman

Eastern region board

Royal College of Nursing

Firefighters were called to Quadring in the early hours of this morning (Friday) to a fire in a garden.

The crew from Donington attended the scene of the fire at a property at St Margaret’s, Quadring at 3.11am.

Two sheds and fencing were said to be on ablaze and firefighters put out the flames using two hose reels, according to a fire service spokesman.

Firefighters were called to a straw and stubble fire at Tydd St Mary last night (Thursday).

According to a fire service spokesman, the crew from Long Sutton attended the burning field off Low Gate at about 7.23pm and extinguished the fire using beaters.

Around 100 square metres of stubble and straw were damaged in the fire.

Students are being warned to be alert when renting accommodation ahead of the new term.

Police and Action Fraud are say that fraudsters are targeting college and university students with fake lettings in local accommodation.

With a huge demand for housing, the scammers can take advantage by collecting fees up front to secure a deposit.

The autumn months can see a big rise in rental market properties, with first-year freshers and returning students looking online to find houses for let. Bogus adverts appearing on a series of website are offering houses which are either already rented out to other tenants, not owned by the landlord or in some cases not even existing in the area advertised.

Fraudsters are advertising properties to rent at attractive rates and in excellent locations to lure in victims. The adverts may seem genuine, being accompanied by images of the property and contact information. However, fake landlords then trick victims who show interest into handing over a fee even before they’ve had a chance to view the house or flat, claiming the property is in high demand and will be off the market if they don’t act fast.

Action Fraud has issued the following advice to students looking to rent a property:

If you’re searching for student accommodation

Only use reputable letting companies.

Do some online research such as using Google maps to check the property does exist.

Make an appointment to view the property in person, and always view the property prior to paying any advance fees.

If a landlord requests money upfront

Be wary. Landlords should never ask for a ‘holding deposit’ due to high demand.

Don’t feel pressured into handing over money. Landlords usually want to know they’re getting the right tenants first - they’ll request background checks such as employment or character references before asking for any fees.

More at the Action Fraud website: http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/fraud-az-rental-fraud. To report a fraud, call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040

A winner with the South Holland Business Awards is urging companies to take part in this year’s contest.

With the ceremony just months away, Steve Timewell, director of Lincs Computers, of Wygate Park, Spalding, says he has seen many benefits since winning the Small Business of the Year award.

He said: “The whole thing was an incredible experience and winning made everything we had done worthwhile.

“It’s such a positive thing to be recognised as a success, and is also good for staff morale.

“Immediately after the event, our customers were commenting and congratulating us.

“The award has definitely added to our credibility as being a serious local business.”

“It’s one of the best things we have ever done and I would do it all again.

“To all potential contenders for this year, don’t hesitate to apply, and don’t be frightened about how good you think you are. The process to enter was so simple, and it was such a great opportunity.”

The awards take place on November 24 in Spalding at the Springfield Events Centre.

To get your tickets or apply for an award, visit www.shb-awards.co.uk or email Enquiries@Lincs-Chamber.co.uk.

Entries must be submitted by October 3. Tickets are £30 +vat for Chamber members and £40 +vat for non-members which includes a drinks reception, a bar, three course dinner and entertainment.

Springfields Retail Outlet in Spalding is bringing coffee retail giant Starbucks to town.

The news was announced in a Tweet today (Friday).

Starbucks is the latest huge brand to come to the centre.

Major leisure fashion retailer Fat Face was the big name announced last month.

Head of Springfields Ian Sanderson said then: “This represents a significant part of the strategy in repositioning Springfields Outlet as a more affluent and top standard outlet centre.

“The centre has enjoyed 11 years of continued growth and this is now set to accelerate.

“Our recent additions added to names like Radley, Skechers, Gap and Marks and Spencer, are proving to be very successful with our relatively affluent and extensive catchment.”

• Springfields already has a Costa.

So, the last few weeks, I’ve been travelling up and down the country, visiting various places in our car with my family and these journeys have made me realise something; driving reveals who we really are.

Forget therapy, mindfulness or trekking the Himalayans to find yourself…get behind the wheel of a car, preferably with small children and a backseat driver and hey presto… your true character will make an appearance between the sports car that undertakes, cutting you up and the realisation that the sat nav has been trying to take you home for an hour, when you thought you were well on your way to see Grandma.

At the start of the journey, I am pretty upbeat; we choose good music to sing along to, knowing it’s going to be a good day.

Then something happens and in an instant, I’m annoyed...cars pull out suddenly with no indicator, expecting you to brake and be ok with that…a lorry driver passes, texting while driving a 20 tonne lorry…and those special people who swing across the lanes like baboons, causing others to swerve, brake or gesture, all the while smiling smugly as they nip off at the next junction, leaving a host of angry drivers in their 
wake.

Then, the stress goes up a notch as a tremulous voice in the back says they feel sick. I get panicky at this point, having had a particularly bad experience in the past.

We had visited friends in Kent and enjoyed a lovely roast dinner, with strawberries for pudding and, rather unwisely, headed off straight away. The children had been given magazines to read (another crazy idea). It was just as we got to the entrance of the Dartford Tunnel that a little voice said “I feel sick!” followed promptly by the sound of vomit hitting a magazine, leading to tears and almost a Mexican wave of vomit as one by one, our girls followed suit.

Nowadays, I say quickly “Keep breathing!” as my husband raises his eyebrows and asks “What else are they going to do?”

“I mean, deep breathing, in through your nose, out through your mouth...open a window…has anyone got a bag?!”

Traffic jams are the best assessment of general moods. You spot the brake lights up ahead and for the first few minutes, trundle along, stop/start… and then everything stops. Engines are switched off, people get out to stretch and the realisation that we are stuck gradually dawns. I witter away, irritated, not wanting to play another game of I-Spy, just wanting to be moving again.

Finally, engines are started and we are on the move… only to slow down again, because of rubber necking and I’m off, incredulous that we want to slow down to look when we could all be moving on.

Having arrived, somebody usually asks how the journey was and we smile, saying “Not too bad”, and the stress dissipates as we enjoy spending time with each other… until the journey home, when it all comes flooding back.

I keep thinking I’ll get better at it the more I do it – but I still have a long way to go ...

A car has been left with severe damage after it caught fire in Bridge Road, Long Sutton.

Firefighters from Long Sutton and Holbeach had to be called to the incident, which happened at 6.55pm yesterday evening (Saturday, September 3).

The blaze caused light smoke damage to bay area of a commercial garage.

The fire was put out with two hose reels and two breathing apparatus.

No-one was injured in the blaze and the cause was accidental.