Almost 85 new recruits are to join Lincolnshire Police this year as the force waits to hear whether its £117 million budget will be increased.

A group of 30 officers, drawn from the force’s PCSO and Special Constabulary ranks, were invited to an induction evening in Lincoln last Thursday attended by Police and Crime Commissioner, Coun Marc Jones.

Some of the recruits going through the two-year Initial Police Learning and Development Programme will be based at Spalding Police Station, with others to be assigned to Boston.

Coun Jones said: “We want to go slightly above the budgeted figure of 1,100 police officers in order to give us a little bit of headroom and have police on the frontline which is very important.

“If we aim for 1,100 police officer, we’d end up with 1,050, so we wanted to get to a point where we have a little bit of breathing space for when officers are sick or on leave.

“The challenge for us is that we’re still in the throes of waiting for the police budget to be finalised.

“But eqully, we don’t know what the Government’s funding formula for police forces will be in the future.”

Coun Jones confirmed that a second group of recruits will join in the autumn, made up of trained police officers who are transferring from other forces in England and Wales.

He added: “I am delighted to see a wave of new officers recruited by the force to help in the fight to make our communities safer.”

Full details of policing in Lincolnshire over the next few years, including future budgets, will be revealed in a new Police and Crime Plan this spring.

Coun Jones said: “I’m doing some forward planning in the medium term and the Chief Constable (Neil Rhodes) has told me what resources he would like.

“But we don’t know what the views of the new Chief Constable (Bill Skelly) will be, so we’ll probably have ten to 20 more police above the 1,100 figure.

“My strategy in the new Police and Crime Plan is really about where do we find our money to invest in the right technology and equipment to make our officers as agile as possible.

“It does mean a move away from more traditional policing and around our need for buildings which are largely unused.

“As Police and Crime Commissioner for Lincolnshire, a key focus of my work is to ensure that I find new and innovative ways to make our force as efficient as possible so we can free up funds to invest in frontline officers and their equipment.

“I will continue my efforts to ensure the Government provides fairer funding for Lincolnshire but, in the meantime, I am confident that we can spend the funds we do have to provide the high quality policing the community deserves.”

Readers’ views on the pigs that died in the lorry crash on the A16 recently.

How is accident scene okay?

How would your story (about calls for a roadside memorial for pigs killed in a lorry crash on the way to the abbatoir – 
editor) play out if the truck had been full of dogs? Or perhaps horses?
Are you aware that pigs are more intelligent and socially more complex than dogs?
So... how, in any way, is this accident scene OK? 
A memorial would be wonderful and appropriate.

Donna Knauber

via email

Take request seriously

Please take seriously the PETA request for a memorial plaque for the animals involved in a motorway accident.

Firstly, these pigs would not have been killed in the accident had they not in the first place been forced against their will into a vehicle to be taken to slaughter.

Secondly, because the choice to shoot the pigs who did not die in the accident is a second abhorrent act of murder.

Thirdly, as a permanent 
reminder to humans that our behaviour to other animals (and sometimes each other) constantly betrays our lack of feeling, empathy, kindness and disconnection from acts of love. 
Or to put it more bluntly – our vicious and ongoing cruelty and destruction of other animal species and the planet.

Sue Askew

via email

I’m ashamed to be a human

Humans are so greedy and inhumane. I’m ashamed to be part of the human race.

The meat and dairy industries have millions of deaths on their hands, not just the animals they so brutally treat, use and murder, but also the people who die from heart disease and cancer caused by the poison they continue to label as healthy.

I hope they allow the memorial to be placed by the roadside. Just because they are animals doesn’t make them any less important than humans. 
Everything wants to be loved and treated well. Every life wants the same. To survive and live in peace.

Tracey Kilpatrick

via email

Memorial please

I want to express my regards for those pigs that died and my sincerest hope that PETA are moving forward with plans to erect a memorial for them.

Alendra Pine

via email

Deplorable parenting, along with a host of other behaviours...

Smoking, drug abuse, failure to use car child restraints, to secure poisonous household chemicals, to monitor children when cooking. The list is endless.

All well and good punishing those parents that endanger their children.

No wait, unlike other countries, we have no all-encompassing legislation that specifically protects children, unborn or not. Plenty protecting those in the workplace but little safeguarding those most vulnerable.

There are two primary culprits here:

1– A legislative system that fails in its responsibility to protect children.

2– More importantly is an education system that focusses on academic qualifications but does nothing to prepare students for real life…

Parenting, substance abuse, diet, money management and simple household safety being just a few examples.

While we might criticise individuals, it’s our elected government that is ultimately at fault. So detached from reality.

Would our local MPs care to comment?

When the small army of volunteers responsible for putting up Holbeach’s annual display of Christmas lights comes together this year, a familiar face will be missing.

After 40 years of being just “one of the team”, Patrick Limming has bowed out gracefully ahead of his 62nd birthday later this year.

But despite the Holbeach businessman’s attempts to downplay his role in getting the town ready for the festive season, Patrick has been praised as a “linchpin” of the Christmas lights team.

Patrick, who is in his 40th year of running J.W. Limming Ltd in Fleet Street, Holbeach, said: “I didn’t want any fuss and, instead, just wanted to bow out quietly.

“There used to be a Holbeach and District Chamber of Trade so I got roped into putting up the Christmas lights through that when my father, Jack Limming, passed away in 1977.

“I was 22 and there used to be a chap with a scaffolding business who very kindly used to let us have scaffolding poles which helped us put the lights up.

“But later, that went against health and safety policies so we had to look at doing other things which evolved over the years.”

Patrick had plenty of praise to give it himself to volunteers from businesses, Holbeach Parish Council and South Holland District Council who have helped, both physically and financially, in supporting the display.

“A lot of people think it’s done by Holbeach Parish Council, but it’s purely through the goodwill of the volunteers and I’m just one of the team,” Patrick said.

Holbeach parish councillor and volunteer Terry Harrington said: “Patrick has been a linchpin of our Christmas Lights Committee for 40 years and he’s been there for so many aspects of the work.

“We’ve worked together so well and we can’t thank him enough for his efforts and hard work.”

Regarding your story about calls for improvements to Steppingstone Bridge in Spalding, I do think the bridge should at least have a wider ramp area so that wheelchair users and people with pushchairs can use it.

I would also like to say that the bridge needs a clean regularly.It’s a disgrace to the town.

Organisations like Lincolnshire County Council and the Department for Work and Pensions could be serving the public from the district council offices in Spalding’s Priory Road.

South Holland District Council has provisionally earmarked £2.7million for redevelopments that will boost income from its HQ to offset the building’s running costs.

But some of that cash could go on redeveloping The South Holland Centre by adding new cinema screens and bringing registrar services to Ayscoughfee Hall, which is already licenced for weddings, and new paid-for attractions to the hall gardens.

Council deputy leader Nick Worth says plans are at an early stage and the focus will be on the council offices in this financial year.

He said depending on the business case for redeveloping the council offices, the plan is due to go to the council cabinet on February 15 or the full council on February 22.

Coun Worth said the aim at Priory Road is to have multiple public services on the ground floor, working alongside CAB and the Lincolnshire Community and Voluntary Service, while non-customer facing district council staff are based on the upper floors.

Re-development work will only go ahead at the council offices if the rental income and reduction of running costs make the investment worthwhile.

Much the same is true for The South Holland Centre and Ayscoughfee Hall, where the council is seeking to boost income and maintain or improve services.

Coun Worth said: “We are looking at how we can use all of our assets more efficiently, to save us money basically, but still provide the same level of service that we have always provided.”

• What do you think? Email spaldingeditor@jpress.co.uk

A young girl from Weston Hills is gaining greater independence thanks to a miracle machine that allows her to share her thoughts with people around her.

Cerebral palsy sufferer Dakota Read (12) touched the hearts of our readers who donated to our appeal last year so she could “speak” to family, friends, and school teachers with the aid of a £5,600 eye gaze machine.

The machine – a clever computer – tracks Dakota’s gaze so she can select on-screen options. She’s used it since June and it’s a big help at home and at school in Lincoln.

Dakota answers questions from teachers and can make “virtual sandwiches” – selecting the bread types and fillings – before gifting them to friends. She also takes part in cookery classes and has made cakes in the virtual world.

Mum Paula Wheeldon said: “Dakota loves to make different things for her peers and familiar adults and she uses the eye gaze to choose which friends to make things for.

“Dakota provides us with lots of smiles when she does this and gets excited about taking her creation to her chosen person.”

At home, when Paula asks Dakota if she wants to sit in her favourite spot on the floor, the youngster can change the question and say she wants to go outside.

Because Dakota has never been able to speak, her family have always been left wondering what she might be thinking about but the eye gaze is breaking down barriers.

Paula said: “It has opened up a lot more gateways for us to communicate and for Dakota to become more independent. It’s not just being used as a social thing – it’s being used now to communicate answers to relevant questions in her education.”

Dakota has a severe form of cerebral palsy, which affects all four limbs, but one day she will have greater control of her environment when controls are added to her eye gaze so she can turn lights on and off or open and close curtains.

In retail, times are tough, margins are increasingly difficult to achieve and new customers can be hard to come by.

South Holland’s town centres have been unable to escape the scars of economic downturn as what were thriving shops have become empty premises, with For Sale signs showing their age.

Newspapers at the heart of their communities have a responsibility to help keep our independent traders as the very heartbeat of towns and villages like Crowland, Holbeach, Long Sutton, Pinchbeck and Spalding.

This week, the Spalding Guardian is making a commitment to our independent traders and retailers by sharing with readers what makes them unique and worth preserving by giving them our custom.

Few shop owners are more passionate about our new “Supporting Your Independent” campaign than Sue Stubley, now in her 11th year as the friendly face at Occasions Jewellers in Bridge Street, Spalding.

Sue said: “The shop started from a love of jewellery that my mother and I had.

“We would go all over the country looking at jewellery and we became quite knowledgeable about different stones.

“When my mother died, I needed something to comfort me after her death so I went to college and did silversmith and goldsmith courses.

“That’s when I decided to start making jewellery, whilst having a full-time job in accounts and running parties in the evenings.

“At weekends, I went to collectors’ and antiques fairs which was when I realised that jewellery was what I wanted to do all the time.

“That’s where my heart lay and so when the chance came to get the shop in Spalding, me and my husband Barry decided that if we didn’t do it then, we’d never do it at all.”

Sue describes Barry, her husband of 43 years, as “the silent partner” who specialises in fitting batteries and watch straps.

But Occasions Jewellers is very much a Partnership of Pinchbecks, with Sue and Barry proud of their West Pinchbeck and Pinchbeck roots respectively.

Sue said: “The shop took a big outlay to set up and we did wonder whether we were doing the right thing.

“I put everything I had into this place and Barry put a lot in to help me.

“But after we opened in October 2006, the recession set in and the number of customers who came into the shop got less and less.

“We’ve only survived by being careful not to overspend and not taking any big risks.

“People don’t realise that the less they spend here, the more likely they are to lose their independent traders.”

Customers from as far away as Boston, Bourne, Grantham, King’s Lynn and Peterborough have become loyal to Sue and Barry’s hand-made jewellery, including silverware from Lancashire designer Rachel Galley.

The shop also has Sterlina Milano bracelets, pendants and necklaces, sterling silver and gemstones from The Real Effect, London, rings containing precious stones from Lincolnshire and Peach Handbags.

Sue said: “My typical customer is a lady who likes value for money but probably doesn’t want to be the same as everybody else.

“She wants a different look and it’s that individuality and customer service that makes us stand out.

“We go across the board in trying to sell things that suit every pocket.

“But the more individual you want to be, the bigger the price you’ll have to pay.”

In 2014, Occasions Jewellers marked its eighth year of trading with an anniversary party for customers and guests like South Holland and the Deepings MP John Hayes who cut a specially-made anniversary cake.

But just like every other independent retailer in South Holland, the jewellery shop will be open for as long as demand is there from customers for its services which also include engraving and custom-made jewellery.

Sue said: “Me and Barry enjoy it 100 per cent and I couldn’t imagine myself ever doing anything else.

“I enjoy talking to my customers and winning their respect, going that extra mile to get what they want.

“We hope that we’re on the right track and we’d love to put more products in our shop.

“But we’re not going to survive without people and, as a town, Spalding needs people to come back and support people like me - a West Pinchbeck girl who loves what she does and wants to see it grow.”

Sue desire for Spalding to be a vibrant shopping experience again comes from her role as secretary of the Spalding Town Retailers’ Association (STRA).

She said: “We’re trying to get new people on board, with new ideas and drive, so that STRA has enough clout to get something done for Spalding.

“The town used to be thriving and people were always pushing past each other because Spalding was so busy.

“We’ve got to do something to help the town and this campaign could be the start of it.”

Occasions never to be forgotten at jewellers

Firefighters from Long Sutton and Holbeach responded to reports of a building fire in Gedney Drove End on Saturday afternoon.

However, on arrival to the Main Road premises at 1.42pm, it was found only to be smoke from a nearby bonfire.

Police are appealing for witnesses after a lurcher dog was stolen from kennels in Bourne and later found abandoned in Spalding.

It was taken from kennels on Spalding Road, Bourne, some time between 6pm and 10pm on Friday, January 13 and later found abandoned in the Hawthorne Bank area of Spalding.

If you travelled in either of these areas around the specified times or saw any suspicious vehicles parked up near the extremely tall conifers, or near Barnes Drove junction on Spalding Road, Bourne, police would like to hear from you.

Call the non-emergency number 101, quoting incident 79 of January 13 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on Freephone 0800 555111.

Police are appealing for witnesses after a theft from a property in Gedney.

On the night of Friday, January 13, two garden strimmers and a heavy duty battery were taken from a property on Pinstock Lane, Gedney. At the time no one was seen or heard.

If anyone has any information or saw anything suspicious please contact Lincolnshire Police on the 101 number quoting incident number 179 of January 13.

HAYES IN THE HOUSE: By MP John Hayes

Named after the well-known incident in 1987 when the eponymous BBC weather forecaster failed to predict the hurricane which subsequently had devastating effects, a ‘Michael Fish moment’ has become the description for forecasts which turn out to be wrong.

So, when Andrew Haldane, the Chief Economist of the Bank of England, recently admitted that the discipline of economists is in crisis, he called the failure of forecasters to predict the financial meltdown of 2008 a ‘Michael Fish moment’. He also conceded that the Bank’s dire warnings that leaving the EU would have an immediate negative economic impact had also proved to be wholly inaccurate.

Like other more thoughtful economists, Mr Haldane has realised that the notion that humans are wholly rational is the central flaw in economic modelling. Anyone considering the decisions they have made, and the way they have made them, could have told him that. No great work of art that offers an insight into the human condition is based on a reductive, rationalist view of human nature.

At last leading thinkers are beginning to expose the paucity of the idea of ‘rational man’. In ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’, the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman distinguishes between two types 
of decision-making: fast thinking, which is automatic, emotional and frequent, 
and slow thinking which is logical, calculating and infrequent.

In practice, Kahneman and others are substantiating truths about human nature that great conservative thinkers have always known. It was the 19th century statesman Edmund Burke who wrote that “we are generally men of untaught feelings …… we are afraid to put men to live and trade each on his private stock of reason, because we suspect that this stock in each man is small.”

It is because we are creatures of ‘untaught feelings’ that society, and our perception of our place within it, is so important to understanding actions. Burke grasped that a sense of “fellow-feeling” is what makes us human, that morality flows from sentiment, not from logical deductions derived from abstract laws.

It’s no coincidence that so-called experts who persist in viewing the world through a prism of rational thinking are repeatedly at odds with popular sentiment, particularly on issues such as immigration and national identity. By contrast, the popular will is the expression of the time-honoured values held dear by people now, as they always have been.

By abandoning their rational worldview, tomorrow’s economists may have fewer ‘Michael Fish moments.’

Readers’ letters on the subject...

Nothing wrong with a memorial

Regarding erecting a roadside memorial to the pigs that died in the A16 lorry crash last week, there is nothing wrong with expressing concern for animals who are at our mercy – and usually, humans show little of that.

What about putting up memorials at some of the sites of pig barns where thousands of animals have died due to fire? What a horrible way to die.

Too bad there is so little concern for animal welfare.

Faye Thompson

via email

Thoughtless and brutal

I feel that even asking the question if compassionate responses are over-reacting says it all.

The societal attitude to animals for meat is inconsiderate, thoughtless and overall, brutal.

If this were a human accident it would be national news. ‘But pigs are different’ you say? How. Only because of how we treat them.

They are capable of bringing up and caring for young, having bonds between themselves and non genetically related companions.

They breathe, can feel pain, bleed when injured, feel fear, feel pleasure... the only difference is that they cannot talk; therefore that seems to make it okay that us human beings abuse them and treat them as we do.

The standard attitude is wrong, not the attitude of the compassionate few.

Karen West

via email

PETA doing a great job

Thank you for inviting comments about whether PETA were over the top with their request for a memorial for the pigs killed in the horrific accident on Thursday.

People need to know where their meat comes from, what is actually involved, and the suffering that goes into making their bacon.

So yes I agree that PETA are doing a great job and a 
memorial would be very appropriate. It is time we started treating animals like the sentient intelligent beings that they are. The more people who become vegan because of this the better.

Jean Bird

via email

I have a conscience

I feel PETA are absolutely correct to want to place a memorial to the pigs killed in the incident at Cowbit.

I live in the South Holland 
area but travel in the area only maybe once a year as I cannot stomach seeing the lorries heading to the abattoir.

I became a vegetarian over 20 years ago because I have a conscience as to how animals are reared, transported and culled.

All animals are sentient 
beings and deserve respect. I hope the council allow the memorial but fear they won’t because of their ties to the pork processing industry.

Gena F

via email

Disgusted at responses

Quite frankly I am shocked and disgusted at the 
responses from some of your correspondents regarding the deaths and injuries sustained by pigs on their way to slaughter .

Clearly some people need to learn decency and compassion for fellow sentient beings and for more respect to the people with these qualities that have also been abused.

I fear for the future of man(un)kind if these nasty and uncaring attitudes prevail.

Somewhat ashamed to be a resident of this county but my gratitude is to those who did care.

John Bateman

via email

How must it have felt?

I think it’s a wonderful idea to erect a memorial for the dead pigs.

We know pigs are intelligent, playful, social animals and have feelings very much like ours.

We only have to put ourselves in their situation and feel how it must be for them being transported they knew not where, and then suddenly thrown around, injured, even killed in this horrific accident.

Roberta Balfour

via email

Who gave us the right?

I think this accident is an absolute tragedy. This lorry was carrying animals to their death, already traumatised by the experience.

Isn’t it about time, in this day and age, that we stopped eating other animals? Who gave us the right to take their lives away?

We don’t have that right, we share this world with other species, it’s their world too. I have been a vegan for some years now, and I’m so glad I gave up meat all those years ago. Meat is actually very bad for you and the incidents of cancer associated with meat-eating are high.

The price for meat consumption on a world-wide scale is extremely costly.

The environment is devastated by the land and water use that is required to feed and water animals for slaughter. Rain forests and those that live in them have paid a high price for this loss and once you destroy a rainforest, it doesn’t come back, because the land is destroyed forever.

If humans do not wake up to the catastrophe that is meat eating, we will ALL pay the costs.

We are unhealthy because of eating meat, the planet is suffering because of it and the animals suffer on a scale that is tremendously high.

This accident made me feel sick and I can only hope that as generations come along, these younger people will decide to not eat meat any more, because they are perhaps more in tune with the world we live in and what is required for a better future. I work in a university and I can definitely say that more and more younger people are making the decision to not eat meat, for all the reasons I have mentioned above.

One day, I hope that people will be saying: “Did we really used to eat other animals.”

Jackie Bodimead

via email

Springfields shopping outlet in Spalding has announced a 12th consecutive year of growth.

Owners say the opening of 
upmarket brands such as Next, Ernest Jones, Fat Face and Starbucks have accelerated its success – and they promise more to come this year.

Quarter four results for the Camelgate centre show turnover is up 10 per cent year on year and spend per head is up seven per cent.

The centre’s Black Friday event saw it achieve its highest-ever weekly turnover and they also recorded record Boxing Day sales – up 17 per cent on 2015.

Christmas school holiday trade was up 12 per cent, December coach numbers up 19 per cent and late night turnover up 19 per cent.

Next opened at Springfields in February last year, with the store saying it was its best outlet launch in years.

Ernest Jones followed in September, with Fat Face in October and Starbucks in December.

Fat Face say they doubled their previous best outlet opening record, whereas Starbucks doubled the previous occupier’s full weekly take in just three days.

The centre, which attracts over 2.3million visitors a year, also spent £1million on a makeover for its Blue Diamond Garden Centre, as it strives to be “more upmarket and attract a more purposeful, discerning customer”.

• Are you a fan of Springfields? Email your views to jeremy.ransome@iliffepublishing.co.uk

Proceeds from the area’s 
annual butchers’ ball have been donated to the British Lung Foundation.

The annual Spalding and East Elloe Master Butchers Association ball was attended by over 160 revellers and raised £1,500 for the charity.

The cheque was handed over to charity campaigner Ron Flewett at the White Horse pub in Spalding on Monday evening.

The ball was supported by many local businesses who generously gave raffle prizes.

Supporters included Hills, Bookmark, Revills, Turner, Veena Cornish, Padma Yoga and many more.

Syamores BMW gave all the guests BMW and Mini key rings as table gifts and entertainment was by local band Sarah O’Brien and her Boys.

Butchers’ Association president Mary Adams said: “As an association made up of local retail traders, it is really important to use the event to support and involve other local businesses and groups.

“The event is also unique as we have maintained the tradition of the butchers carving the ribs of beef in front of the guests. They do an excellent job each year despite the event getting bigger, making it a bigger task each time.”

Campaigner Ron, from Weston Hills, is a tireless campaigner for the British Lung Foundation.

The dad-of-two suffers from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), an incurable lung disease which affects breathing.

In 2015 he completed a ‘Triath-A-Ron, which involved a 13.1 mile walk, 2.1km swim and 50 mile bike ride.

Ron, who was diagnosed in 2014, has been active locally, in Westminster and the EU parliament, with the aim of raising awareness and 
improving services for this little-known yet devastating disease.

The Deepings First Responders are looking for volunteers to join its LIVES (Lincolnshire Integrated Voluntary Emergency Service) team.

Responders provide an emergency back-up to paramedics on any 999 ambulance call within the Deepings area from 7pm to 7am.

Operating on a rota system, volunteers are called at the same time as an ambulance is sent out to deal with heart attacks, strokes, seizures, falls, accidents and other medical emergencies.

For more details about training, equipment and fundraising, call Deepings LIVES coordinator Helen Bembridge on 01778 344330.

Most workers believe that performance reviews are a waste of time, a new study has found.

Around two-thirds of employees, and managers, said that formal reviews were time-consuming and outdated, in a survey by software firm Adobe - who themselves have abandoned the process of formal reviews.

The survey of 1500 office workers also discovered that these annual evaluations are a stressful event - twenty-five percent of men (as opposed to 18 percent of women) have cried after a review from their manager.

Indeed, 30 per cent quit immediately afterwards, so it’s no surprise that fifty-five percent would rather see their employer get rid of or at least amend the review process.

Sixty-one percent of those surveyed said they would move to another identical job if the company didn’t do performance reviews, while forty-seven percent said they had have gone job hunting straight after a review.

Police investigating a theft at the Co-op store, in Fleet Street, Holbeach, have released a CCTV image of two men who may be able to assist the enquiry.

The incident happened around 8.30pm on Tuesday, January 17 and involved the theft of meat items and two bottles of red wine.

Anyone with information is asked to contact PC Steve Kirtley on 101, quoting incident number 351 of January 17.

Anglian Water will be repainting Chatterton Water Tower in Spalding later this year.

The water company promised to carry out the work after discussions with South Holland District Council back in 2015, and it’s now scheduling the work with contractors.

The repainting will include the window frames and doors as well as the walls of the tower.

Emma Staples, from Anglian Water, said: “We knew this project was important to people and we listened to what they had to say. After discussions with the council we promised to do the work as part of our annual investment programme in 2017/18.

“That time has arrived, and we’re now just finalising the work plan and schedule with our contractors. As soon as we have that detail we’ll let the people of Spalding, and the businesses in the nearby area, know more.”

•What do you think? Comment below or email jeremy.ransome@jpress.co.uk

Families in Fleet can find out how prepared the village is for disasters and emergencies at a meeting tomorrow night.

The Fleet Community Emergency Plan, which takes effect in cases of flooding, severe weather or disease epidemic, will be unveiled at the Hargate Community Centre, Hargate Close, Fleet Hargate, at 7pm.

Other emergencies covered by the plan include industrial accidents and energy shortages.

Coun Val Gemmell, chairman of Fleet Parish Council, said: “The purpose of the plan is to help prepare the community of Fleet to be ready for an emergency, in case the emergency services are unable to attend.

“Disasters or major emergencies can strike suddenly, unexpectedly and anywhere, so our aim is to provide expertise and voluntary support that is safe within Fleet.

“This reduces the impact of any emergency on our community and help ensure that our response is effective and proportionate if the emergency services cannot be present.”