Holbeach movie star Steph Genovese is inviting fans to help fund his next project by watch a new version of his debut film.

Steph, whose crime thriller Dishonoured was premiered at Spalding’s South Holland Centre a year ago today, is showing a “director’s cut” of the same film in Holbeach on Friday, February 17, at 7pm.

The film, to be shown at Holbeach Community Centre in Fishpond Lane, sees Steph play John Venonesser, an ex-British Secret Service agent who comes out of retirement to take on vicious gangsters.

Stephe said: “When Dishonoured premiered last January, the film wasn’t 100 per cent finished as some of the sound effects and music soundtrack were missing.

“But now we have the final cut of the movie which has been sent to a top media company whose manager is someone I’m quite friendly with.

“I’ve had permission from them to show Dishonoured - The Director’s Cut locally one more time and all of the cast will be at Holbeach Community Centre on February 17.”

Proceeds from the film night will go towards a horror film Steph is currently writing and he said: “I’ve spent a lot of money from my own pocket on cameras and lighting.

“So now I’m trying to raise some extra money for my third movie and I thought the best way of doing it is to show our first film.”

Dishonoured, certificate 18, was described as “ridden with drugs, human trafficking, slavery and forced prostitution” when it was reviewed by the Spalding Guardian last year.

Steph said: “I think people were expecting to see a film made with a wobbly camcorder.

“But what they got was a proper movie and it’s now ready for bigger markets.”

Steph is now hard at work on filming his follow-up movie to Dishonoured, romantic comedy Forever Your Rose.

With a guest appearance by Melody Hossaini, a contestant on The Apprentice in 2010, Forever Your Rose sees Steph play Jack Green, a multi-millionaire looking to prove that money can buy you everything, except love.

Steph said: “We’ve got about 15 to 20 weeks of filming left before it’s finished as we’re only shooting one day a week.

“We’re using genuine restaurants and other locations in South Holland which have been quite difficult to find because we’re working around people.

“The Holbeach Film Company is the name of the production business we’ve set up to make the movie and I’m trying to build it up, giving people the opportunity to experience the whole process of making a film.”

Meanwhile, guests at the screening of Dishonoured - The Director’s Cut in Holbeach can enter a raffle, with the star prize being a speaking role in Steph’s third film.

For tickets priced £10, including a buffet and a chance to meet the Dishonoured cast, visit http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dishonoured-movie-final-cut-cert-15-and-buffet-tickets-30983576712

Charity volunteers were thrilled when a town store backed their bid to help a little girl with autism spectrum disorder.

National charity Make Them Smile, which has an office in Spalding, has now bought a specialist “travel system” to help a little girl called Maddie (6).

Mum-of-two Crystal Eggleston (22) said Maddie, who lives locally, cannot bare to be touched and the travel system protects her and keeps her from becoming agitated.

The equipment cost £316 and the bulk of the money came from a bag pack at Marks and Spencer Simply Food when £250 was raised.

Store manager Andy Lightfoot explained: “Crystal approached me and we liked the sound of the back story, it was local – it was specific to an individual child and an individual family – and we decided we would like to raise some money.”

The bag pack took place in the run-up to Christmas with Crystal dressed as Santa, her partner Martin Stirk, a trustee of Make Them Smile, dressed as an elf and Martin’s brother, Bradleigh, also dressed as Santa.

Martin (27) founded Make Them Smile with fellow charity workers in 2011, when he was living in Bradford, and opened an office in Spalding three or four months ago to add to offices based in Great Yarmouth and London.

He now lives in Spalding and, together with Crystal, Martin runs a company hiring out bouncy castles and inflatables.

The charity’s aims include relieving childhood poverty and sickness and preserving the health of children with wide-ranging disabilities and/or special care needs – and it goes a step further by helping those caring for such children.

It also helps with things like day trips, medical equipment and hospital travel.

Make Them Smile helps children all over the country.

Funds are raised on a case by case basis, tailored to a specific child, and people seeking the charity’s help can remain completely anonymous – without their details being published – if they so wish.

Among children currently being helped is an 11-year-old boy who has cerebral palsy and needs physiotherapy that the NHS won’t fund.

• Make Them Smile has its head office in Welland Workspace, Pinchbeck Road, Spalding.

You can find out more about the charity’s work by visiting www.makethemsmile.org.uk or by calling 01775 248485.

There are details for applying for support and grant applications.

There’s also information on how you can offer sponsorship and a donate page.

The charity’s work also includes trying to make possible children’s last wishes.

I was shocked to see your front page last Tuesday about the drug den in the Spalding town centre disabled loo.

This facility used to be manned by a full-time 
attendant and even won an award for the best kept toilets in the area.

Since the removal of the full-time attendant, these facilities have got worse through the gradual misuse and now total vandalism of the worst kind.

How things have changed and the authorities have recently been reported to be saying that the town is getting better and it’s people’s perception that it is the opposite.

How low can we get and what is the answer? Close the facility for good and we all suffer for the few, or refurbish the facilities for public use and bring back full-time supervision, cleaning and some security for the public who rely on these facilities.

Will a cash crisis force Lincolnshire to scrap its county council and seven district councils and opt for one tier of local government?

Tory county council leader Martin Hill wants the public to decide on county election day, May 4, when it’s likely voters will be asked if they favour switching to a unitary authority.

The county council claims unitary governance could save up to £150million in the first five years.

Other than the principle, it’s not clear what residents will vote on – whether it would be one, two or more unitary authorities covering the area now served by Lincolnshire County Council.

Coun Hill, who represents Folkingham Rural, says we can no longer afford our current system, which he describes as “complicated, wasteful and no longer financially sustainable” while South Holland and the Deepings MP John Hayes wants to stick with the status quo and seek more Government cash to fund essential services.

South Holland District Council (SHDC) leader Gary Porter is staying out of the debate until his ruling Conservative group meets on February 16 but has promised to release “a full statement” afterwards.

One of Coun Porter’s SHDC deputies, Coun Nick Worth, represents Holbeach on the county council and says no district council will back the creation of a unitary authority covering the whole of the county council area but they might accept two, three or four localised authorities.

Coun Worth, who sits on the county’s ruling executive, said: “People want local services.”

Labour county councillor Phil Dilks, who represents Deeping St James, claims “smoke and mirror Tories” propose a costly reorganisation – without revealing the true cost and without telling people that decisions affecting their lives could be taken further from home.

UKIP’s Coun Richard Fairman, who represents the Spalding East and Moulton county council ward, is reserving judgment until there’s more detail. He said: “It was our party that originally put forward a suggestion that it should be looked at nearly four years ago. Obviously the devil is in the detail but we felt at the time it could lead to massive savings.”

Mr Hayes told us: “I don’t think we should have endless debates about the structure of local government.”

But the MP is ready to join fellow MPs and councils leaders to argue the case in Westminster for Lincolnshire to have more cash to keep its services running.

Coun Hill said he would welcome the backing of MPs to win extra funding.

“Last year, with the support of the MPs, we got an extra £7million but it wasn’t for every year,” said Coun Hill. “If we were able to get more money into the county that would be excellent.”

But Coun Hill now believes it would be better still if any extra cash were pumped into a more efficient system of unitary governance.

Does he favour one unitary authority to cover the area now served by Lincolnshire County Council?

“We are not really going down that road at all,” said Coun Hill. “I think the first decision is whether or not you want to go to a unitary system. Let’s talk about the principle first. There’s a possibility we could actually save money and be more efficient and, really, we ought to at least look at that idea – it would be a bit irresponsible not to even consider it.”

Coun Worth said: “I think the hope was that the county council and the districts would all come together, agree a solution and then put a proposal forward.

“As it happens, it looks like the county have put a proposal forward and put the districts on the back foot and that might not be that helpful.”

“Anybody with any sense would say if we can reform local government, and make it simpler and easier – and make more savings – and still provide quality services, why wouldn’t you look at it.”

Coun Dilks said: “Only a few months ago, in the Greater Lincolnshire devolution referendum, we were told if we voted for an extra tier of local government and a Mayor for the whole of Greater Lincs we would save money.

“But the truth was it would have cost millions extra in bureaucracy – and was rightly rejected by residents.

“Now Coun Hill is pushing again for a unitary authority for the whole of Lincolnshire without saying how much it would cost and without admitting decisions which affect people’s lives would be taken even more remotely than now.”

• What is a unitary authority?

A unitary authority takes on the role of a county and district council.

District councils, like South Holland, have duties they must perform by law and these include dealing with planning applications and collecting waste and recyling.

County council duties involve things like social services, including adult social care, and looking after highways.

Unitary authorities were first established in the early 90s. In recent years, both UKIP and the Liberal Democrats have suggested a unitary system for this county.

Spalding councillor Angela Newton, who sits on the county and district councils, said: “I said at the time devolution was talked about it would have been better to consult with residents about unitary authorities replacing the existing county council and district councils.

“I would have thought it might be better to ask the district councils to enclose a questionnaire when they send out council tax papers for 2017/2018.

“At that time there is an information sheet giving the breakdown of each authorities spend, including police and drainage rates.

“Then those who don’t go to vote will have the chance to comment on the proposals.”

CABINET CALL: By Coun Sally Slade of South Holland District Council’s Cabinet

I have written before about the history of electoral reform, including the unfair distribution of MPs back in the early 1800s.

Old Sarum, once an important place with a cathedral, still elected two MPs, even though it was now just a hill with only seven voters. Manchester, meanwhile, had more than 60,000 inhabitants, but not a single MP.

Today, the situation is much more sensible. The Boundary Commission looks at the number of inhabitants within constituencies and makes changes when necessary, so that it is fair for voters.

There is a separate Boundary Commission for local government, called the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE).

It provides the electoral arrangements for local authorities, including district and county councils.

On its website, it says that one of its aims is to “keep the map of English local government in good repair”.

Our electoral services team here at South Holland District Council has to implement the changes made by both the Parliamentary Boundary Commission and the Local Government Boundary Commission for England.

One such change has come about due to the LGBCE carrying out a review of the Lincolnshire County Council boundaries between May 2015 and December 2016.

The aim was to deliver electoral equality for voters in local elections by recommending boundaries that gave each councillor approximately the same number of electors.

Their final recommendations have been approved by parliament and will come into effect for the county council elections in May.

There will be 70, instead of 77, county councillors. The ward boundaries have been tweaked, so you may find that the name of the ward in which you place your vote will differ from what is was called four years ago.

Here in South Holland, the commission received objections to its proposal to include part of Spalding in a Crowland division.

It considered local views and amended the boundaries, so that the Crowland division is entirely rural in character and better reflects community interests and identities.

The new boundaries can be viewed by going online at www.lgbce.org.uk and following the links.

So 200 years on, wherever you live, you should have equal representation at every level of government.

Uproar at the premature but accidental death of some pigs (killed in an accident on A16 recently – editor) but not a peep out of anyone about the brutal and deliberate act of hare coursing.

There appears to be a double standard here. I guess Orwell was correct.

HAYES IN THE HOUSE: By local MP John Hayes

As an island nation, Britain has always looked outwards for prosperity.

Our enduring economic might was founded on exploration which opened pathways of international trade stretching from the new world to the Far East.

A peculiar misconception about Britain voting to leave the European Union was that our country would turn inwards, seeking less involvement in the outside world. In fact, the opposite is true – freed from the EU, Britain can become again a truly global nation.

Last week, Theresa May confirmed what ordinary Britons knew, that the UK will leave the EU.

We are not seeking associate membership or any status that leaves us half-in, half-out – we will leave the single market, not least because Brexit must mean controlling the number of foreigners who come here.

Leaving the EU doesn’t mean turning our back on the continent. Trade and co-operation over a range of matters will continue with our neighbours where it is as much in our interest as it is in theirs.

People will still come to visit, study and work here, but in strictly controlled numbers. That’s what people want, and it’s what the Government is determined to deliver.

The single market is the slowest-growing economic bloc in the world. As a member, we are effectively trapped within its closed shop, bound by tariffs and burdens on our non-EU trade. The effect has been to discourage exploration of worldwide opportunities.

By leaving, Britain will be free to agree its own trade deals, with nations like America and Australia indicating that they are keen to get the ball rolling.

The EU, by contrast, continues to fail to strike trade agreements because the competing interests of its 28 nations are so hard to reconcile.

We have what it takes to succeed; a government giving people and businesses the certainty they deserve, and a country ready to face the future with confidence.

Schools are pitching in as we make our final push to achieve a little girl’s dream of opening 1,000 cards on her tenth birthday.

So far we have received nearly 300 cards, including 199 from St Norbert’s Catholic Primary School, Spalding, and every class at St Paul’s Community Primary School in Spalding has been making a card for cerebral palsy sufferer Alice Bates, whose birthday falls on February 3.

Other schools have joined in following our eleventh hour appeal for help.

Courageous Alice has faced life-threatening illnesses from the day she was born and her family asked her to make ten wishes for her tenth birthday.

We decided to try to make two of those wishes come true with our Ten for 10 Appeal.

Thanks to you, our wonderful readers, we have raised enough cash to buy a therapy play room for Alice and now we are focusing on the cards.

Alice’s mum, Charlotte, said: “Alice is very sociable, she likes saying ‘hello’ to everybody, she likes to stop and talk to people and, if we get on a bus, she says ‘hello’ to everybody on the bus.

“With so many friends, Alice waits for the postman on her birthday and she can’t understand why she doesn’t get many cards.”

At Christmas, Alice had just one card addressed to her alone – that hadn’t come from family – so achieving the birthday wish will put a really big smile on her face.

• If you can spare the time to make or send in a tenth birthday card, please address it to Alice Bates, c/o Lincolnshire Free Press, Priory House, The Cresent, Spalding PE11 1AB.

A councillor at the forefront of a campaign for a clean-up of Spalding’s eyesore water tower says people power has won the day.

As reported in Tuesday’s Lincolnshire Free Press, Anglian Water has announced the Chatterton Water Tower, one of the town’s major landmarks, will be repainted.

Coun Gary Taylor and clean-up crusader Sandra White began a campaign in 2010 to have the structure spruced up and hundreds of people signed a petition.

“Strength of numbers make such a difference,” said Coun Taylor. “This just goes to show what can happen when people speak up.”

Anglian Water hasn’t publicly announced an official start-date for the work, but Coun Taylor says Anglian Water told him that scaffolding will go up towards the end of February, which could take four to six weeks, and then it will take another six to ten weeks for the paint job.

He said: “It’s probably a small team of people doing it.

“Work was last done in 1997, so it’s 20 years ago.”

When Anglian Water announced work was to begin, spokesman Emma Staples said: “We knew this project was important to people and we listened to what they had to say.”

Coun Taylor said the water tower has long been an eyesore which has given a bad impression of the town to visitors arriving by train, bus or car.

“Often it’s the first thing they see,” he said.

Sandra White quit Spalding for good in 2015 for a new home in Skegness.

In January 2015, when the campaign to have the water tower cleaned up stepped up a gear, Sandra told us: “Spalding should be a beautiful town but a building left in this condition is sending out the wrong message.”

She had collected signatures on a petition in 2010 and said she remembered standing at the bus station.

Sandra told us then: “It didn’t take long to get enough signatures. The tower looks its worst from that side.

“It’s the first thing everybody sees when coming into Spalding to park on Holland Market.”

In January 2015 Coun Taylor revealed he had again written to Anglian Water asking them to clean the tower, work he understood could be done for £3,000.

He told the company then: “I find it hard to understand why, when the water authority makes a profit of £202million, it doesn’t fund this work.

“I’m not asking Anglian Water to neglect any of the other projects it is working on but to put some of their resources into the water tower.”

Chatterton Water Tower was officially opened on April 27, 1955, and stores treated water for Spalding town and district.

There are two tanks inside the tower which together hold 3,409m3 of drinking water, enough to supply 340 average homes for a year.

• What do you think? Email lynne.harrison@iliffepublishing.co.uk

The new Chief Constable of Lincolnshire Police has pledged to “listen and support” eastern European communities when he starts work next week.

Bill Skelly, currently Deputy Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall, takes over from Neil Rhodes in the £148,857 role in charge of policing the county on Wednesday after a confirmation hearing last month.

Mr Skelly, appointed by Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones, was given the rubber stamp to take the job by members of the county’s Police and Crime Panel (PCP) on December 19.

During the hearing, details of which were made public by the PCP last Friday, Mr Skelly said: “I have a desire to make a difference and wherever I have been, I have given (my) full commitment.

“I have a passion and willingness to listen to the communities themselves and I can create an environment where it is the norm for people to have confidence to speak to the police service.

“This comes by giving people the opportunity and show them that they are being listened to.”

As well as working with people originally from Latvia, Lithuania and Poland who have now settled in Lincolnshire, Mr Skelly also pledged make rural crime “a priority” to work within the force’s tight budget.

He said: “Police officers have the desire to protect members of the community, but it is more than just about the language barrier.

“There are EU citizens all over the country and I have found that by demonstrating to that community, or individual, that it is about confidence and trust by engaging and making an effort, it breaks down barriers.

“It is about values versus how this community wants to be engaged with, making the language barrier less important.

“Two factors highlighted in Lincolnshire are sparsity and the seasonal variation in the population, so we need to be serious about community safety and partnerships.

“The rural nature of communities here means that rural crime is a priority.

“But it is not just about responding or reacting as there is an element of prevention and intervention as well.

“There could be a benefit by shifting the balance of how these are dealt with, resulting in huge benefits for victims and organisations.”

Supporting his choice of Mr Skelly as new Chief Constable before the PCP, Mr Jones said: “I was looking for someone who was a strategic thinker, but also to go above that and be strategic in this role.”

The media is full of stories about the unprecedented pressures on the NHS and particularly in our hospitals. Overcrowded hospitals can of course be more dangerous for patients and unfortunately we have been here before. However, unlike some earlier years, ministers have made it clear that waiting time targets must not come before safety. In addition there is now a ‘duty of candour’ on the NHS to be open and transparent in their dealings with patients.

However it has not always been so. Research carried out by Cure the NHS, with the support of Prof Brian Jarman, 
eminent health analyst, showed that Lincolnshire’s hospitals were some of the most overcrowded in the country from late 2009 until spring 2013 when ULHT was put into special measures. This overcrowding will have placed some patients at increased risk. Legal advice is clear that if you or a relative came to harm during that period, as a result of overcrowding, you may be able to seek legal redress against the NHS.

More details are on the Cure the NHS Lincolnshire website.

Whilst the information there relates particularly to late 2009 to spring 2013 it does also give patients, who may be facing treatment over the next few months, an indication of the sort of problems which can be experienced in overcrowded hospitals.

Before you commence treatment it should be explained to you if overcrowding could compromise the quality of your care and add to risk. From investigations, that has not always happened in the past and Cure the NHS are seeking to publicise the issue to make sure that it does happen in the future.

We all recognise that many hospital procedures are not without risk. The NHS, however, has a duty to patients to be clear about both the risks and benefits of treatment.

If readers have had poor care in the past I would urge them to look at the information on Cure the NHS Lincolnshire’s website.

Finally, of course, our hospitals in Lincolnshire are some of the worst funded in the country.

It is about time our hard working NHS staff had the resources to provide, consistently, the quality of care they and we would like.

It is high time councillors took action over the cleanliness and state of Spalding Pool and other leisure facilities in the area. How councillors have the nerve to announce a proposed £2.7m facelift of council offices when such shoddy facilities exist purely beggars belief and shows the arrogance and disrespect towards council tax payers and the residents of South Holland.

The pool is verging on being a health hazard. The mould in the gaps of the benches in the poolside sauna are digusting and full of human detritus. As for the pictures seen online as ‘alleged’ I can well and truly vouch for the authenticity of the pictures taken by Mr Whyte.

Particularly the portfolio holder should hang his head in shame, surely he should be pushing for improved facilities or is this just part of an unseen agenda to run facilities down to facilitate a ‘it’s no longer economical to run, let’s close it’ strategy....? I would ask when was the last time the portfolio holder actually visited the pool or had an actual swim there? I also have it on very good authority that a senior member of South Holland District Council was seen at a very swanky private pool in the Wisbech area. If Spalding pool is not good enough for him why should it be for the local tax payers?

Quite simply all we hear is rhetoric and we will get this seen to but it falls on deaf ears and nothing gets done and just adds to the feeling of a general malaise.

This argument has gone on long enough and the people of South Holland deserve far more from SHDC and their councillors.

I feel sorry for the staff, they try their best with ageing facilities only for it to pop up every three months or so in the local papers, but nothing ever gets done.

They are losing custom without a doubt. I am aware of a number of people who have cancelled memberships and gone elsewhere. Are the council so short-sighted to see that vastly improved facilities would bring in more revenue? Why don’t we build a new sports facility to be the envy of the county if not the country and put an Olympic size pool up with adjoining gyms, etc? Put South Holland well and truly on the map for serious leisure facilities.

A detective who investigated some of the most shocking crimes committed in Lincolnshire over recent years has cracked her final case.

Detective Inspector (DI) Helen Evans (49), leaves Lincolnshire Police today after a 30-year career which included spells in Spalding, the Deepings, Bourne, Stamford and Grantham.

Among her many cases were the deaths of Claire, Charlotte and Lance Hart in Spalding last July, the manslaughter conviction against prison inmate Krysztof Mroz, formerly of Holbeach, in May 2015 and the unsolved murder of Grantham mum-of-two Julie Pacey in September 1994.

DI Evans, who was born in Nottinghamshire before moving to Gainsborough as a child, said: “I’ve dealt with a lot of tragic and terrible cases but, hopefully, the way I’ve run the investigations have left the victims’ families with very positive feelings about myself and my team.

“I try to do this in every case as you’re dealing with families in the worst of circumstances and if we can make that experience as reassuring and honest as possible, hopefully, it makes things easier for them to deal with.”

DI Evans, who is married and lives in north Lincolnshire, started her career as a Police Constable in Stamford in February 1987, before spending 21 years primarily based at Grantham.

She said: “Both myself and a friend thought about the police service when we were at school in the 1980s, a time when you either went on to university or you didn’t.

“So I stayed on at school to do my A-levels and then, rather than think about becoming a Special Constable as I was told to do, I applied for selection to join the police service.

“When I was going through the selction process, I remember them saying to me ‘you’re a bit young’, but I became a regular WPC instead.

“There were a few young officers at the time, including one colleague I knew of who was a similar age to me.

“But most new recruits had either done previous jobs, such as working in the NHS, or had careers in the Armed Forces before becoming police officers.,

“In my first couple of years, I saw some things that you wouldn’t necessarily want to see.

“It was a bit of a shock, at the age of 19, to be sent to Stamford where I was supposed to have spent the first two years of my career as a police officer doing my probationary period.

“You have to achieve certain competences, but Stamford wasn’t busy enough a patch to police so I moved to Grantham where I worked from 1988 until 2009.

After five years as a uniformed police woman, DI Evans worked in child and adult protection from 1992 to 1997 before she became a Detective Constable, Sergeant and finally Inspector.

She said: “You have to apply to go in for the detective’s recruitment process which involves an interview, as well as written and practical exams.

“I became a Detective Constable and had the opportunity to do some acting up work as a Detective Sergeant before taking the exams.

“Then I went before a promotion board for interview which you have to work hard for as it’s not given to you. “I was overjoyed when I became a Detective Inspector because to have worked hard for it, then to achieve it, was utterly satisfying.

“It gives you the opportunity to do a job that you were doing before, but just on a temporary basis.

“I became a Detective Sergeant on 2002, but went back into uniform for two years to work as a Response Sergeant in Grantham.

“Then I moved back to Stamford which was really strange, having started there as a Police Constable.

“But crime is very similar wherever it occurs, although the one thing I do remember about working in south Lincolnshire was that a lot of people tend to travel into the area to commit crime, rather than people who live there committing it.

“A lot of criminals who committed crimes in south Lincolnshire then went out again, making it harder to trace them because you have no links as to where they might be.

“Crimes in south Lincolnshire can be harder to solve but everybody is very helpful, contrary to the portrayal on TV that people don’t want to help the police.

“In the majority of cases, people want to help the police and in connection with the Julie Pacey murder, I went on Crimewatch in May 2015 to make a public appeal for information.

“We were overwhelmed with telephone calls, each of which was thoroughly investigated.”

DI Evans’s secondment from Lincolnshire Police to the East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU), a collaboration of five police forces established in 2011, came after working alongside some of Lincolnshire Police’s most well-known staff.

Superintendents Paul Timmins and Chris Davison, Chief Inspector Jim Tyner, all three having been former Community Policing Inspectors for South Holland, Inspector Mike Burnett and even retiring Chief Constable Neil Rhodes have all crossed DI Evans’ path over her 30 years in the police service.

She said: “I would be at Grantham, then go to Spalding for a year before spending a year at Grantham.

“We’ve all worked with each other over the years and we would often come across each other at different times.

“Every case has an impact on me but, for me, it’s about working together as a team, finding the person responsible and making sure they are prosecuted for their crime.

“A lot of it is how you deal with things personally and I’m also trained as a Family Liaison Officer, although I’m now a Family Liaison Coordinator which has given me more experience in being able to deal with everybody else’s grief.

“But there’s an element of looking after myself as well, referring people to the expertise they need.

“If you don’t feel right about something, being able to talk about it through the professional support you have within the police organisation.”

Following her retirement this month, DI Evans will have more time to spend with her husband’s family in Spalding after showing her police badge for the final time today.

For the last six years, she has been based in the East Midlands Special Operations Unit - Major Crime team, drawing together detectives from across the East Midlands to work on murder and manslaughter cases.

DI Evans said: “When I decided upon a career in policing as a teenager, I was attracted to the role portrayed by the TV character Juliet Bravo.

“My best friend’s father was a Police Constable in Lincolnshire and so, when I was at school, we used to get involved in talking about the things we were going to do as a career.

“However, the path I have taken throughout my service has ended up bearing more of a resemblance to that of Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison (from the TV series Prime Suspect), dealing with homicides across the East Midlands.

“There are certain things that make you raise your eyebrows and wonder ‘What’s happened here?’

“But whatever the circumstances are, our goal as police officers is to trace the offender and see to it that they are prosecuted.

“It doesn’t make any difference whether it’s a burglary, car theft or murder because it’s part of my job, I chose to do it and I enjoy the investigation, bringing cases to a successful conclusion.

“I’ll miss the feeling of working with a great team of people, which is something that’s of a great deal of importance to me.

“I’ve been completely and fully supported as a woman in the police service and there are no barriers in terms of the roles that I do.

“I’ve achieved what I’ve wanted to achieve, so it’s time to look forward and do something else.

“There’s nothing that has taken me by surprise in my job, but I’m going to take a few months off because I’ve spent an awful lot of years on call - waiting at the other end of a telephone until it rings.

“I’ve got some good friends who I’ll miss terribly and I had a nice chat with the Chief Constable about retiring.

“I did my job to the best of my ability, without shouting it from the rooftops, so it’s very nice when people say ‘well done Helen’.”

Any shop owner will tell you that profits have to be earned and turnover is the lifeblood of all retailers.

But increasingly, market towns like Spalding, Holbeach, Long Sutton and Crowland need to have “unique selling points” to make them attractive, both for the people who live there and for those who visit.

Likewise, large villages such as Sutton Bridge, Pinchbeck, Gedney Hill and Donington, survive and thrive on shops that combine speciality with hospitality.

In Spalding, Mason Models (Electrical, Lighting and Model Supplies), of New Road, has captured a market in catering for ready-made and do-it-yourself model kits, as well hard-to-get household and electrical goods.

Steve Mason, who runs the specialist shop with his wife Dee and son Ed, said: “On April 6 this year, we celebrate our 21st anniversary and we’re very proud to be here.

“Our customers come from all over the country, but our furthest one so far has been from Canada.

“It was a man who came over to the UK to see his mother and father, but he also wanted to come here.

“Another customer from North Wales comes in to see us regularly, with others from Peterborough, Boston, Skegness, Grantham and Stamford.

“We’re unique because we’re the only model shop in the area and we don’t just specialise in one thing, covering lots of areas and catering for all ages.”

Masons Models, or rather the shop now occupied by Steve, Dee and Ed, has a history stretching back to the 1900s when it was a garage where David Stanger built coaches and carriages.

Steve said: “This shop and the one next door (now The Ivy Wall pub) used to be joined together as W.H. Stanger Record and Radio Services.

“A garage was also part of it and the people who ran the business lived here as well.

“Then Ernest Wilson took it over as more of an electrical shop until his son Jim Wilson turned it into a model shop.

“We took the shop over from Jim in 1996 and now we get people coming in to buy paint kits for model sets, model aircraft, cars and hard-to-get electrical items.”

Like other shops in South Holland, Masons Models are feeling the effects of competition from online retailers.

But Dee said: “People want knowledge, information and the chance to take things home with them as well, so we do try and help customers where we possibly can.

“They tend to be people who like making things themselves, rather than buying models in a box, and we get customers who buy large amounts of the model paints we stock because you can’t get them anywhere else in Lincolnshire.”

Steve has turned what was a personal interest into a fixture on Spalding’s shopping landscape.

He said: “I used to work in the telecommunications industry, but my hobby was flying model aircraft.

“When we bought the shop as a going concern (continuing to trade into the future), it was a case of ‘now or never’.

“But the model industry has moved on over the years and now you have specialist manufacturers from Japan, China and the Czech Republic, as well as the UK.”

Next week’s featured business will be Spalding Travel.

Students in Spalding and Holbeach have been learning the art of making deals as part of a scheme that is just the business.

Year 12 students at Spalding Grammar School and University Academy Holbeach (UAH) have set up businesses as part of the Young Enterprise scheme which aims to bring out the skills needed to become an entrepreneur.

Brandon Pontin, managing director of Glow!, a company which runs discos at Spalding Grammar School, said: “We spent a day brainstorming various ideas and then chose to put on parties for students in Years 7, 8 and 9.

“Every penny we make goes into the Glow! bank account and it’s a one-year business that we liquidate at the end of the school year.

“We’ve made just over £300 profit so far after an event two weeks ago, a disco for just over 100 younger students.

“The Glow! team loved it and we have another event coming up for the students in March.”

April Smith, Head of Business and Economics at Spalding Grammar School, said: “The Young Enterprise Company Programme is part of the Year 12 Enrichment curriculum where students work in teams to develop their own businesses.

“This involves designing a product or service, then finance, produce, market and selling it, with students even getting to keep the profits.

“Students follow the Young Enterprise national programme, leading to entry into the regional and, if successful, national competitions.

“Throughout the course, students develop skills in project planning, delivery and presentations.

“Students are be mentored through the process which means they will have full control of the team’s progress through the course.”

Meanwhile, 15 Young Enterprise students from UAH have set up Panthera Apparel, producing a range of custom-dyed T-shirts, bags, mobile phone cases and hoodies.

Donna Allen, head of sixth form at UAH, said: “The products have been popular with members of the public at events across Lincolnshire, including the Crowland Abbey Craft and Food Fair.

“Participation at these events has given our students valuable life skills, such as the confidence to approach members of the public and handing money.

“We are extremely proud of the initiative, motivation, and commitment that the students have demonstrated in setting up and running their company, Panthera Apparel.

“They have been proactive and innovative in their marketing which has resulted in high sales so far.

“The group now intends to develop their product portfolio and are looking forward to the Young Enterprise area finals in March,

“We are sure that they all have a bright future ahead of them in business.”

Prime Minister Teresa May has provided much needed clarity in her Brexit speech where she set out the Government’s 12 negotiating objectives.

I know people across the East Midlands will be pleased that she has listened to their views on the Single Market, tackling immigration and leaving the jurisdiction of the European Courts of Justice.

It is good to know that there will be no half-in half-out arrangement. And that Brexit really does mean Brexit. 

Mrs May is right to seek a bold and ambitious trade agreement with the EU and with the rest of the world – to make Britain a global trading nation once again. We have the fastest growing global economy and have bucked dire economic predictions since voting to leave the EU in June.

My colleagues and I here in Brussels will work with the Government to do whatever it takes to help secure the best deal for Britain.

I am also glad that Britain will seek to retain its friendship with the European Union. We can only hope that the Member States and the European Commission will approach the negotiations in the same spirit of maturity.

Spalding and District Round Table have scored a knockout blow by landing a world champion VIP guest for its annual Premier Boxing Event next month.

Carl “The Jackal” Frampton, of Northern Ireland, generally recognised as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the UK, is due to be the star name at this year’s charity night in Spalding on Saturday, February 18, at 7pm.

The event, taking place at Springfields Events and Conference Centre, is due to welcome Frampton just three weeks after defending his WBA (World Boxing Association) featherweight crown in Las Vegas, USA.

Also on the night will be a series of ten amateur fights between teams from the Police and Army and a three-course meal.

Matt Burchnall, chairman of Spalding and District Round Table, said: “This is the 23rd year that we have organised this fantastic event and in that time, over £250,000 has been raised and donated to good causes locally.

“This simply wouldn’t have been possible without the generosity of local businesses and individuals who attend the event each year and so, on behalf of Spalding Round Table, I would like to thank them for their support.

“We do have a limited number of tables and individual tickets still available for this year, so I would invite anybody that is interested to contact us.”

For more details on how to book tickets and tables, call 07960 654741, email boxing@spaldingroundtable.co.uk or visit https://www.facebook.com/events/692344837601556/

Fire crews from Long Sutton attended a one-car accident on Bridge Road in the town yesterday (Sunday).

The crew administered first aid to one casualty after the incident, shortly after noon.

Four people received street warnings from Bourne Police after being found with cannabis on Saturday.

The incident happened in Morton, near Bourne, and the drugs were destroyed.

Cannabis was found on a motorist when a vehicle was stopped in Thurlby on Sunday.

The drug was found in the driver’s purse and a street warning was issued.