A fish and chip shop and a hotel restaurant have both been recognised for great food and service in the East Midlands Food and Drink Awards.

Both venues were celebrating after being selected as victors in the awards.

Supreme Inns at Bicker Bar took the prize for best hotel restaurant, and Linfords at Market Deeping, praised for the best fish and chips and best customer care.

The winners were voted for by members of the public.

Celebrity chef Aldo Zilli hosted the awards, which were held at Greetham Valley Hotel, Golf and Conference Centre.

More than 180 guests attended the awards ceremony and enjoyed a night of fabulous food prepared by the chefs at Greetham Valley.

Mr Zilli said: “This has been an excellent night.

“The people here really care about food and customer service. They are my kind of people.”

There’s a chance to give blood at sessions taking place at the South Holland Centre, Spalding, on Tuesday, December 4.

Call 0300 1232323.

A Spalding playgroup that has taught children for more than 25 years is to close next month, leaving worried parents in shock.

Lack of numbers is behind the decision by owner Kirsty Casey to close 345 Playschool based at Spalding United Reformed Church in Pinchbeck Road.

Parents learnt the shock news on Monday when they were handed letters from the owner in which she apologised for the “inconvenience and disruption” the playgroup’s closure would cause.

Emma Fathers (38), of Alexandra Road, Spalding, whose son Romeo (3) attends the playgroup, said: “The leaders gave us all a letter that said the playgroup was closing because numbers aren’t increasing and now we’ve got to think about where we can get places for our children.

“We’re all really sad because there’s a nice environment at the playschool, the leaders are brilliant here and they do their job so well.

“My son is really happy here and I don’t know how he’s going to react to the change of going to another playgroup.”

Another parent, Charlotte Parkin (30) of Park Road, Spalding, said: “My three-year-old son Lucas has been coming here for a year after a friend of mine told me about it.

“He really does like it at the playgroup because they settled him in so well that his talking and knowledge of colours has come on so much.

“I’ll have to find another playgroup for him soon because if I don’t, he could miss out on a place somewhere else.”

The playgroup began operating from its current base in 1985 and was taken over by Kirsty in September 2008.

An Oftsed report in 2009 praised staff for their commitment to providing children with opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills.

A group of war veterans dropped in on students at the Peele Community College in Long Sutton this afternoon (Friday).

The college has a proud recent record of remembrance activities and students were delighted to meet the old soldiers. Full story and another picture in Tuesday’s Lincolnshire Free Press. Photo (NIKKI GRIFFIN): SG091112-122NG

Sutton Bridge Parish Council will hold an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday to decide whether to run a second public meeting on a £300million biomass plant proposed for Wingland.

The move could open the door for a parish referendum, but that’s only likely to happen if members of the public organise it themselves.

A previous public meeting and the parish council have called on the planning authority, South Holland District Council, to order its own environmental impact assessment for the proposed plant.

But the district council says it will not commission its own report and intends to rely on an environmental impact assessment drawn up by the planning applicants, EnergyPark Sutton Bridge, and responses from consultees.

Parish council chairman John Grimwood said he will leave it to the parish council to decide its official response to the district’s refusal to commission a report.

But he said: “I am disappointed that the district council didn’t do what the public wanted.”

Formal parish polls can only be conducted with district council consent, but Sutton Bridge district and parish councillor Michael Booth says there is nothing to stop villagers organising their own if that’s what they want to do.

Coun Roger Gambba-Jones, district council portfolio holder for planning, said: “The planning system requires that technical assessments are submitted by the applicant 
as part of the planning application.

“Only in the most exceptional circumstances would such assessments be duplicated by the council 
itself.”

He said EnergyPark’s environmental impact report will be studied by experts from the council as well as consultees including county council highways, Natural England and the Environment Agency.

South Holland District Council says the company’s application will not go to the planning committee for a decision until all consultees have demonstrated their “satisfaction” with the content and accuracy of its evidence.

Conservation work going on in south Lincolnshire was held up as the way forward at yesterday’s launch of a total audit of wildlife in the Fens

The audit by academics from the University of East Anglia drawing on information gathered from 1600 to today shows how the amazing biodiversity of the area is under threat.

The event was promoting the Fens for the Future project aimed at saving Fenland’s wide variety of animal and vegetable species as far ahead as 2058.

More than 100 Fenland farmers, naturalists both amateur and professional and academics got together at Waterside Garden Centre rounding off the day by touring Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust’s latest nature reserve Willow Tree Fen near Pode Hole.

At Waterside they heard presentations from speakers including one of the audit’s authors, Paul Dolman of University of East Anglia.

Trust spokesperson Rachel Shaw said: “Willow Tree Fen, on land we bought in 2009, is a good example of what can be done to maintain biodiversity. We’ve transformed it from intensive farming to grazed wet grassland so it remains productive.

“There’s a drain which connects it to Baston Fen nature reserve which has an astonishing number of different species of water snails and pondweed, very rare.

“There’s been a lack of strategy up to now that’s resulted in the loss of many species as documented in the audit, and though all the nature reserves in the Fens of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire still have good biodiversity, they are far apart and that makes them vulnerable.

“We have to work in partnership with landowners, drainage boards and farmers to link them up and ensure productive farmland also has benefits for wildlife – Nicholas Watts at Deeping St Nicholas is a good example of a farmer who’s working in that way.”

A counsellor working in Spalding wants people struggling with memories of abuse to know there is help at hand.

Frances Garland, a counsellor and trainer as well as being co-ordinator of SPACE4U in the town, believes the recent national newspaper stories concerning allegations of sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile may have stirred unpleasant memories for some.

Nationally, calls to helplines have gone up since the story broke, although Frances says she has not noticed that increase being reflected locally.

However, she said: “The recent publicity about Jimmy Savile has drawn attention to the helplessness of children in the presence of a powerful adult. It has also given some people the chance to talk about what have till now felt like private, shameful secrets.

“Helplines are telling us that many more people than usual have been calling them. One of the common figures used is that it affects one in four girls and one in six to eight boys.

“If anybody in this area is struggling with memories of abuse, I’d just like to remind them that SPACE4U exists.”

Frances pointed out that sexual abuse can mean anything from inappropriate touching right though to the worst extremes, but that whenever it happened it was “deeply upsetting” to the victim.

She said: “Sexual abuse is usually much more about power than about sex. Research shows the abuser is usually known and trusted by the child and the abuser is very good at making themselves a friend of the family.”

Frances also wants people to know that SPACE4U, which offers counselling sessions at Broad Street Methodist Church and at Johnson Community Hospital, “doesn’t cost an arm and a leg” and doesn’t have a long waiting list.

Professional counselling is available by phoning 07982 467720 or emailing counselling@space4uspalding.org.uk

South Lincolnshire is bracing itself for the impact of Ashtree Dieback disease, which threatens to decimate Bourne Wood and has already caused local garden centres to withdraw their stocks of ash saplings from sale.

Secretary of the Friends of Bourne Wood, Sarah Roberts, said: “We are very concerned because the wood has a great many ash trees in it.

“No trees have been planted there for 25 years as the Forestry Commission has a policy of allowing renewal by self-seeding, and ash is very good at self-seeding.

“It’s also a good cash crop for the Commission because it grows quickly and the wood is in demand.

“If the disease is found in the wood, it’ll be a major loss as it will affect such a large proportion of our trees.”

The Forestry Commission is working flat out to survey every one of its woodlands nationwide before the trees lose all their leaves, making symptoms of the disease much harder to identify.

People are advised to find out what symptoms look like on its website www.forestry.gov.uk before reporting cases of the notifiable disease to the National Helpline on the number found there.

Baytree Nurseries Garden Centre at Weston has withdrawn its 300-plus ash saplings and young trees from sale.

Its tree expert Tim Wayman said: “Hopefully other local nurseries have done the same.

“The nearest nursery growing ash trees in numbers is Crowders at Horncastle, which has made the national news after being forced to destroy its entire crop of 50,000.

“Unlike Dutch Elm disease, which affected mature trees more seriously, Chalera will kill a young tree in a year and could exist in a mature tree for up to 15 years.”

A generation will be priced out of a home as rent rises go through the roof in South Holland and the rest of Lincolnshire.

The warning comes from The National Housing Federation, which says rents in the East Midlands are outstripping the national average and are set to move even further out of reach.

It says South Holland’s average private monthly rent of £474 is set to soar by 53 per cent (£253) by 2020 – six per cent more than the England average.

Chris Hobson, the federation’s East Midlands lead manager, said: “A whole generation is now at risk of being priced out of renting a home, let alone buying one, and that has a huge impact on people’s lives.

“Being unable to afford the homes they need stops people from moving for work and it even deters young couples from starting families.”

The federation says renting becomes unaffordable when payments are above 35 per cent of income. In South Holland private rents are 36 per cent of average income while the rate in South Kesteven is 41 per cent and in Boston Borough it’s 45 per cent.

The federation’s report Home Truths says the cost of renting in England has risen by 37 per cent over the last five years – and 417,830 more working people now depend on housing benefits to help them keep a roof over their heads, which is an 86 per cent increase since 2009.

District council leader Gary Porter says Government subsidy goes to the person in the form of housing benefit rather than to the social housing pot which would allow more homes to be built.

He believes rent rises are partly fuelled by benefits but more by banks refusing to lend for mortgages – banks have turned down applications worth 227billion this year.

A former Frampton man living in America has told of his encounter with deadly Hurricane Sandy, which almost destroyed his Long Island home.

Stuart McEwing and his wife Amanda were terrified they would not make it out alive as the super storm raged across New York and brought 5ft of water into their home.

“Everyone has lost something to this, we’re just fortunate all we lost were material possessions and not a life,” said Stuart (31), who emigrated in 2008.

The couple had spent 18 months creating their dream home in Freeport only for it to be ravaged by flood water and 92mph winds.

Their terrifying experience saw them take refuge in their bedroom as the hurricane shook their home, their cars were submerged, houses burned around them, trees were uprooted and one home exploded from a gas leak.

A 20ft-long boat even ended up coming to rest in their street.

“As it got to Monday night we heard the surge was going to be very serious,” said Stuart.

“We discussed evacuating at that time but still didn’t want to leave the house we had worked on for so very long.

“ If I could do it again I would just have packed up, locked up and left.”

The couple are now taking shelter with their family and are not expected to be able to return home until after 
Christmas.

Plans for the next phase of a Spalding western relief road will not now be submitted this year.

It had been expected a planning application would be ready by the autumn, but in an unexpected twist the proposals for a new road linking the town’s Holland Park development to Bourne Road, have been put on hold to ensure the bypass meets the future needs of the town.

Now it is expected that it will be next summer before any application is submitted, but that will include plans for the final two stages of the road linking Holland Park to Bourne Road and then beyond to Enterprise Way, Pinchbeck.

The western relief road was expected to be built in three phases, with the first phase, extending from Littleworth Drove to the boundary of Holland Park and including a bridge over the railway, being funded by Broadgate Homes as part of the Holland Park development.

The public were asked for their views on the second phase at a series of consultation events last summer, but a spokesman for Lincolnshire County Council said since then it has held further discussions with local developers and South Holland District Council and “a better way forward has emerged”.

Executive member for highways and transportation, Coun William Webb said: “Following feedback that people have been giving us, we believe it does make sense to join the last two phases together.

“This will help make sure the road meets what residents and developers are looking for, and can support the new housing that is needed.

“As well as more people coming to the area, needing to houses to live in, there will be increased traffic too.

“On top of this, more trains will be diverted through Spalding from the end of next year, so we need to help avoid congestion by finding an alternative way for people to get around.”

Possible routes for phase three are now being identified, with consultation expected next summer before a planning application is submitted.

More details about the western relief road can be found at www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/swrr

South Holland residents can once again bring some Christmas cheer to local people in crisis by donating to a foodbank that helps those in need.

Volunteers at Agape Care Foodbank in Spalding are preparing to help hundreds of homeless, unemployed and struggling individuals and families who find themselves in trouble financially at Christmas time.

The foodbank, based at The Lighthouse Church in Haverfield Road, provided food parcels and Christmas hampers to about 100 families in 2011 and volunteers are counting on the public’s help again this year.

But as well as giving out food, the foodbank also hopes to put a smile on needy people’s faces with a surprise Christmas extra in the form of soft toys for children and toiletries for adults.

Irene Davies, the foodbank’s team leader, said: “Our aim for this year’s appeal is to give people who can’t afford to buy niceties for themselves and their children this Christmas something a little bit extra in their food parcels.

“We want the people of South Holland to donate things they would like to see on their own Christmas tables like Christmas crackers, gloves and soft toys that we can give to children as a surprise.

“For adults, we’re looking for tins of ham, salmon, nuts, biscuits and toiletries so we can put things in the food parcels that are a little different.

“We’re putting together a list of things and that will be available in the next few weeks for people to look at and think about donating.”

The Spalding Guardian teamed up with the foodbank last Christmas to make people aware of the short-term, emergency food aid it provides to individuals, couples and families in crisis throughout the area.

About 330 food parcels have been given out to people in South Holland since the foodbank opened in April 2011 and a second centre was set up at The Market House in Long Sutton to cope with demand from families in the area.

Irene said: “The foodbank was started because we felt there was a need to help people on low incomes who find themselves with no money left to buy food for themselves and their children.

“We have about 40 referral partners from various agencies such as the probation service and carers’ organisations who know those in need of help so that food gets to the people who need it.

“The foodbank is regarded as something that’s quite important and it’s profile has been greatly raised in the community.”

A 20-year-old man from Sutton Bridge suffered a broken leg and rib injuries after his motor bike collided with a car in Long Sutton.

The accident happened in Market Street last Thursday when the man’s Honda motor bike collided with a Ford Fiesta just after 8.50pm.

Anyone with information should call police on 101, quoting incident number 505 of November 8.

A woman was treated for smoke inhalation after her house caught fire in Langtoft.

The woman was making candles in the kitchen of her house in Stowe Road last Friday when paraffin wax left in a pan went up in flames which were put out by fire crews from Market Deeping and Bourne.

Spalding Magistrates’ Court

Michael Coupland (43), of Honeysuckle Way, Spalding. Speeding (Deeping Common). £400 fine, £15 victim support, £85 costs, 4pts.

Sindisiwe Dlamini (40), of Belsize Avenue, Peterborough. Speeding (Whaplode). £265 fine, £15 v/s, £43 costs, 4pts.

Colin Eson, of Millfield Road, Deeping St James. No insurance (Baston). £600 fine, £15 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts. Licence offence £50 fine. No separate penalty for no MOT.

Vesna Fensom (33), of Albert Avenue, Gedney. No insurance (Gedney). £110 fine, £15 v/s, £43 costs, 6pts.

John Foster (42), of Station Street, Rippingale. Using a mobile phone while driving. £65 fine, £15 v/s, £43 costs, 3pts.

Milena Freitakiene (44), of Sandringham Court, Holbeach. Speeding (Whaplode). £65 fine, £15 v/s, £43 costs, 3pts.

Mariea Gale (31), of Wisbech Road, Long Sutton. No insurance (Deeping St Nicholas). £110 fine, £15 v/s, £43 costs, 6pts.

Darren Gilbey (41), of Double Street, Spalding. Speeding (Spalding). £80 fine, £15 v/s, £43 costs, disqualified for driving for six months under totting up procedure.

Jayakumar Gounder (33), of Knipe Avenue, Spalding. Speeding (Cowbit). £200 fine, £15 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.

Maria Hales (30), of Daniels Crescent, Long Sutton. Failed to provide appropriate child restraint (Holbeach). £200 fine, £15 v/s, £85 costs. No separate penalty of licence offence.

Frank Hall (55), of Kingsway, Boston. Speeding (Whaplode). £200 fine, £15 v/s, £85 costs,

3pts.

Krzysztof Krysiak (27), of Spalding Road, Holbeach. No insurance (Spalding). £240 fine, £15 v/s, £43 costs, 6pts. No separate penalty for licence offence.

Nathan Lake (22), of Baulkins Drove, Sutton St James. No insurance (Holbeach). £110 fine, £15 v/s. No separate penalty of licence offence.

Stuart McMahon (43), of Sheldrake Drive, Ipswich. Exceeding vehicle weight restriction (Sutton Bridge). £235 fine, £15 v/s, £43 costs.

Ricky Moore (22), of Helpston Road, Ailsworth. Licence offence (Market Deeping). £50 fine. No insurance £600 fine, £15 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts.

Stuart Parnell (31), of Washway Road, Holbeach. No insurance (Holbeach). £110 fine, £15 v/s, £43 costs, 6pts. No separate penalty for licence offence.

Sean Pears (35), of Blackfriars Road, King’s Lynn. Speeding (Tydd Gote). £200 fine, £15 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.

Denis Pocevicius (26), of Alconbury Close, Peterborough. Speeding (Deeping St Nicholas). £35 fine, £15 v/s, 3pts.

Wladyslaw Porebski (53), of Wesley Road, Whaplode. Speeding (Whaplode). £80 fine, £15 v/s, £43 costs, 3pts.

Mark Randall (34), of Charles Road, Fleet. Using a mobile phone while driving. £35 fine, £15 v/s, £43 costs, 3pts.

Matthew Smith (40), of Hurdle Tree Bank, Whaplode St Catherine. Speeding (Whaplode). £300 fine, £15 v/s, £43 costs, 3pts.

Dovydas Stasevicus (223), of Two Sisters Close, Sutton Bridge. Speeding (Whaplode). £200 fine, £15 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.

Sam Tooke (22), of Hobhole Bank, Freiston Ings. Front offside defective tyre (Whaplode). £400 fine, £15 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts. Front nearside defective tyre £400 fine. No separate penalty for no MOT.

Anthony Bombardini (57), of Redmile Close, Pinchbeck. Speeding (Crowland). £340 fine, £15 v/s, £43 costs, 4pts.

Mark Edwards (47), of Norwich Road, Barnham Broom. Using mobile phone while driving. £36 fine.

Thomas Page (23), of Burton Road, Spalding. Criminally damaging a window. Community order made and curfew for 6 weeks. Assault. Community order made and curfew for 6 weeks.

Boston Magistrates’ Court

Jemma Grooby (25), of Monarchs Road, Sutterton. Stole a Nintendo Wii. Conditional discharge for 12 months. £20 compensation.

Robert Yarnell (33), of Gosberton Bank, Gosberton. Speeding (Boston). £80 fine, £15 victim surcharge, £43 costs, 3 pts.

Lynne Holland (52), of Ostler Walk, Kirton. Driving without due care and attention (Boston). £200 fine, £75 compensation, £15 v/s, £85 costs, 5 pts. No separate penalty was given for failing to stop after an accident.

Leigh Ainsworth (33), of White Loaf Hall Lane, Freiston. Licence offence (Kirton). £70 fine, £15 v/s, £45 costs, 3 pts.

Reports of a man wanted in connection with a harassment case being spotted in Moulton sparked a police hunt in the village last Tuesday.

The search was concentrated in the East Cobgate area but the man wasn’t found.

TWO men aged 20 and 26 were arrested for verbally racially abusing the owner of a kebab shop on Bridge Road, Sutton Bridge, on Saturday.

Police say both men were given fixed penalty notices for the offence.

Spalding’s Riverside Veterinary surgery had two charity collecting tins stolen overnight Saturday/Sunday.

Police say a window was broken at the Cradge Bank premises.

• A Red Snapper lawn mower was also stolen from a Cradge Bank address at the weekend.

Witnesses are asked to call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

A campaigner has claimed those living in the shadow of nine proposed 125m turbines in West Pinchbeck will “face complete ruin” if a wind farm is given the go ahead.

Tony Fear, of Stop West Pinchbeck Wind Farm, spoke out after a meeting with South Holland and the Deepings MP, John Hayes, who sparked controversy last week, saying we can “no longer have wind turbines imposed on communities”.

Mr Fear, who is involved in the group hoping to stop the plans for a wind farm at The Delph, has expressed his support for Mr Hayes saying: “The problems with noise from the Deeping St Nicholas wind farm and one at Bicker leads us to believe we will have the same problem at West Pinchbeck.

“If this does happen those affected will face complete ruin.”

Mr Hayes’ comments prompted a statement from Prime Minister David Cameron, who said the Government’s policy on wind farms had not changed.

But Mr Hayes said he had ordered a new analysis of the case for onshore wind power which would form the basis of future policy. Mr Hayes added: “I can’t single-handedly build a new Jerusalem but I can protect our green and pleasant land.”

Coun Eddy Poll, executive member for Lincolnshire County Council environment services, said: “It’s heartening to have a senior minister so in tune with what people think.”

He said a public consultation will be carried out later this with a view to making its position an official council policy.

Police are investigating a burglary at a home in Crowland after raiders made off with jewellery and a watch.

The house in Albion Street was targeted between Friday and Sunday lunchtimes.

Witnesses are asked to call police on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.