Police have issued a warning after a number of cases of cold callers today (Tuesday) in Spalding.
A spokesman said: “If you are targeted by these canvassers, please do not buy items from the door as items are often overpriced and of low value.
“Do not open the door if you are not expecting visitors.”
Any information can be reported to police on the 101 number by quoting incident 125 of March 21.
DOCTOR CALLING: By Dr Kevin Hill
Over 90 per cent of practices in South Lincolnshire CCG area already have more than 10 per cent of their patients registered for patient online services (14 of the 15 practices have achieved this).
This makes them the highest performing CCG in the Central Midlands region.
Patient Online is an NHS England programme designed to support GP practices to offer and promote online services to patients, including:
• Access to coded information in records;
• Appointment booking and
ordering of repeat prescriptions.
Digital technology allows patients to access services from their own home, much in the way that technology is already impacting on our day to day life, including online banking or shopping. It can make services more convenient, personal and efficient.
We are delighted to be the highest performing CCG in the Central Midlands region for patient online services.
Being a rural county, as Lincolnshire is, is it important that we offer patients a range of ways to access their services including being able to book an appointment or order prescriptions from their own home.
This freedom allows patients greater choice and ways to access healthcare. We are always keen to explore new ways of working and are committed to providing high quality healthcare using a range of technology to help our patients receive care close to home.
Many GP practices already offer online services, including appointment booking, ordering of repeat prescriptions, and access to summary information in records.
GP practices will increasingly expand online services over the next year. By the end of next month, online patient records should include coded information on medication, allergies, illnesses, immunisations and test results.
Online services will be offered in addition to the traditional telephone and face-to-face means of interacting with a GP practice.
Spalding’s important and iconic water tower is undergoing a six-month facelift which will result in it being transformed back to its former glory.
Preliminary work by owners Anglian Water started on Chatteron Towerthis week and, when work finishes in September in will be totally cleaned and re-painted in its hallmark tulip colours.
The tower priovides clean drinking water for 22,000 properties in Spalding and the surrounding rural area.
It was painted terracotta and white in 1997 and previously being a concrete building without paintwork.
But over the years it had got more and more dirty. In 2010 our sister paper the Lincolnshire Free Press helped launch a campaign calling for a clean-up and hundreds of residents signed a petition.
People power didn’t win the day on that occasion but in 2015 local councillor Gary Taylor and clean-up campaigner Sandra White revisited the campaign – and this time Anglian water listened.
Supply manager Mick Cox said: “We’re really excited to be getting started. We know this project is important to the local community, and we’re pleased to be able to restore the iconic water tower’s paintwork to its 1997 condition.
“The facelift was promised three years ago during conversations with the council. We listened to what customers had to say then, and it’s now going ahead having been incorporated into our 2017/18 investment programme.
“Across the region we will spend nearly £445million pounds over the course of the year. Millions of which will be spent in Spalding, maintaining and improving the water and sewerage networks - including the repainting of Chatterton Tower.”
The first deliveries of scaffolding starting arriving on site this week. It will take up to six weeks to complete the scaffolding alone.
After that, the scaffolding skeleton around the tower will be wrapped in a polythene cover. Although the steam clean techniques being used to clean and repaint the tower are gentle, the polythene covers provide an extra barrier to stop any debris escaping.
After steam cleaning the tower – an effective, yet gentle, cleaning method which minimises the amount of water used, the tower will then be repainted.
In total, the project will take six months, including the set up and removal of the scaffolding, which alone will take 12 weeks.
All work will take place between normal working hours, 9am- 5pm, so that local disruption is kept to a minimum.
Mick added: “Chatterton keeps taps flowing by providing a steady, secure store of clean drinking water. It provides both water storage and pressure for customers.”
Before the painting gets under way, colour swatches will be painted onto the tower for local councillors to preview.
New manhole covers and chambers are being installed to reduce the risk of flooding in Spalding.
Anglian Water is investing in the upgrades in Fairview Way, where residents have been affected by flooding in the past. The new manholes will increase the capacity of the sewer on Fairview Way during heavy rainfall.
Sarah Dobson, from Anglian Water, said: “This part of Spalding has suffered from flooding when it has rained heavily and Anglian Water engineers have designed a solution to help reduce the risk of flooding in the future.
“We will be installing two new manholes along Fairfield Way. When it rains they will reduce the risk of flooding for local residents.
“Responsibility for the drainage is very complex and sits with many different organisations.
“Anglian Water, Lincolnshire County Council, South Holland District Council, Highways and Environment Agency, as well as private landowners, each have responsibility for part of the drainage network, which is a huge spider’s web of pipes, pumps, watercourses, streams and drainage points – all interconnected.
Work started on Monday and Fairview Way will be closed until Friday, April 21. This is to make sure Anglian Water staff and customers are kept safe whilst the new manholes are installed.
A diversion route will be in place through the duration of the work.
Sarah added: “Of course we know whenever we carry out work it’s disruptive because our pipes and sewers are buried deep underground, but we’ll do all we can to keep disruption to a minimum and complete the job as swiftly as possible.”
Women from south Lincolnshire were part of a 6,000-strong pensions protest group at the House of Commons on budget day.
They were part of, or supporting, the ‘Women Against State Pension Inequality Campaign’ (WASPI) who were expressing their disappointment that another budget had been planned with no transitional arrangements for women born in the 1950s.
The noisy but peaceful protestors listened to speeches from members of all parties, former pensions ministers, personalities and activists, who pledged allegiance to WASPI and what they are seeking.
The national WASPI campaign is asking the Government for relief from the changes that have seen many women’s pension age rise twice, taking it from age 60 to 66, with little time, they say, to prepare and make alternative financial arrangements.
They claim the Department for Work and Pensions did not write to the first of the 1950s’ women affected until 14 years later and those born after April 5, 1953 some 17 years later. They say some women received no notification at all.
In total some 2.6 million women are affectedby pension age changes.
Lorna Edmonds, from Fleet, said: “ There are many 1950s-born women who still don’t realise that their State Pension Age has been extended to 66.
“ I was one of them until I learnt about WASPI and their campaign to rectify the problem.”
Local members come from Crowland, Fleet and Holbeach and other 1950s women can find out more about the campaign and how they can support it by visiting www.waspi.co.uk where they can find a WASPI Group near them.
Lincoln and Peterborough are the nearest groups at the moment.
Mrs Edmonds added: “We hope to attract the attention of women from Spalding, Deepings and Bourne too.”
• What do you think of the pension age changes and the way they were communicated to women born in the 1950s? Email jeremy.ransome@iliffepublishing.co.uk
Spalding in Bloom are adding flower power to springtime while launching their 2017 campaign to win a fourth consecutive East Midlands in Bloom gold.
The group’s chairman, Coun Angela Newton, and fellow volunteer Gunita Sele have been busy planting up troughs with spring flowers in Swan Walk and will soon switch their attention to the flower tubs near High Bridge.
While flashes of floral colour add to the joys of spring, the main focus is on the summer displays when Spalding must look its spectacular best.
This week Coun Newton – and colleagues Coun Christine Lawton and Pete Williams – will visit town businesses to encourage them to display hanging baskets throughout the summer.
Gunita Sele will visit Eastern European businesses to see if they will also sponsor baskets or tubs.
Coun Newton said it would be wonderful to have East European businesses on board and to see more town centre businesses join in.
She said: “The Crescent traders, the little independents, do a wonderful job but there are always comments from the judges that we are very short of baskets in the town centre.
“The cost of sponsoring a hanging basket for the season is £40.
“Baskets will be supplied at the end of May, filled with plants and we arrange watering throughout the flowering season.
“If people do not presently have a wall bracket for a basket, Spalding In Bloom can arrange to have them fitted free of charge.”
Spalding in Bloom are a small but perfectly formed team of a dozen people and rely on the support of businesses – by taking baskets or providing sponsorship – and volunteers to help out with things like litter picks.
The group have enjoyed strong support from Spalding and District Chamber of Commerce and companies like FESA, Plantifor and Kerry Foods, which have enabled projects such as charity shops having hanging baskets.
Spin-offs from Spalding in Bloom’s work have seen the transformation of gardens at Spalding Railway Station and also an area between the Sainsbury’s filling station and store on Holland Market.
• Businesses that want to display a summer basket or volunteers who could help with occasional litter pick can call Coun Newton on 07939 559764 or email anewton@sholland.gov.uk
A daughter has paid tribute to the mum she lost after an horrific gas explosion at her home in Moulton Seas End.
Thirty-six years have passed since the tragedy but memories are fresh for Mo Woodhouse (69) who is searching for the long lost school pal she last saw at the funeral of her mum, Ena Berridge, in 1981.
Ena died aged 53 in hospital after receiving 85 per cent burns in the explosion at Earlesfield on January 21.
Her husband John, known as Jack, was badly burned going to his wife’s aid.
With 35 per cent burns, Jack survived but life for him – and the family – was never the same again.
Mo recalls the retired chimney sweep was well known.
“He was the first electric chimney sweep around here for miles,” said Mo. “Everyone knew him, bless him.”
It was 9pm when Ena put the kettle on for a cup of tea but a spark ignited gas that had been leaking, unknown to the family, for up to two years.
The tragedy could have claimed more victims because, unusually, the couple’s grandchildren didn’t pop across the road to say “good night”.
At the time, Mo lived in the house opposite and told the Spalding Guardian then that she was putting her three children, Debbie, Gavin and Andrea to bed.
She spoke to her mum soon after the explosion. Speaking in 1981, Mo said: “My mother said she had just put the kettle on for a cup of tea and then she could not remember what happened.
“The children had been watching television, which was lucky in a way because they usually went to their grandparents to say ‘good night’ about that time.”
Neighbour Andrew Dobbie (19), was yards the Berridges’ home calling his girlfriend from a phone box.
At the time, he said: “I was ringing my girlfriend when I heard a terrific bang. It came from the back of the house. I could not see anything but I put the phone down without telling my girlfriend. I dialled 999 and asked them to hang on because I didn’t know what had happened.”
Andrew ran to the back of the house, where he found glass strewn across the garden and curtains on fire.
He then went to the front of the house and gave a door “a shove” so Ena and Jack could escape.
Andrew returned to the phone box to ask for an ambulance and the fire brigade.
Mo, who has since remarried, and her sisters, Linda Hodds and Jenny Hutchinson, spent days at Nottingham City Hospital.
Ena sadly passed away two weeks later.
Mo recalls: “We were there all of the time, me and my two sisters.”
She says her mum came in and out of consciousness and knew her family were by her side.
Mo said: “Mum was a lovely lady and she would help anybody.
“She was just a normal village girl. She never moved out of the village and stayed in Moulton Seas End all of her life.
“Dad was maimed for the rest of his life. He came to live with me and he couldn’t do anything for himself. Eventually he got a bit better and he managed to get out and about again.”
She said his main comfort was talking on his CB (citizens’ band) radio, using the handle (name) Henpecked.
Sometimes he would talk to her about the tragedy that claimed Ena’s life.
“It was just the normal sort of thing,” said Mo. “He talked about ‘if he had done this, if he had done that’ and asked why did mum have to die.”
Jack had retired through ill health before the tragedy and passed away aged 69 in October, 1989.
He gave evidence at an inquest into his wife’s death.
Jack told police that he rushed into the kitchen, which was in darkness but for a few flames, and could hear his wife “moaning”.
His statement continued: “I tried to get my wife out of the back door, but it was too hot and my hands kept peeling.”
An inquest in May that year heard the couple had lived with a smell of gas without calling in an expert to find the cause.
That mistake proved fatal when a spark from an electric kettle ignited the gas and an explosion ripped through their home.
Jack Berridge told the inquest “there was always a smell of gas”.
He said: “The wife used to complain about it, but I thought it was just a normal gas smell.”
A new gas cooker was installed at the couple’s home two years previously but the 30-year-old Calor gas system was not replaced.
An accident investigator for Calor group, John Tickner, said the regulator on one of two gas cylinders connected to the system was out of date.
He said: “It was not fitted with a non-return valve and this caused a build-up of pressure which ruptured the diaphragm and leaked gas into the air.
“Had it been a modern valve the accident would never have happened.” The Coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.
• Maureen’s old school pal was with her at Gleed Girls’ School, in Spalding, and known then as Jill Danskin.
Her first married name was Calvert and she married again, perhaps to a Patterson or Pattinson. Jill or anyone who knows Jill can call Mo on 07565 722859.
Parish council negotiations with a third party looking to buy the town’s Bull Hotel came to nothing.
Council chairman Charles Moore told the annual parish meeting: “The council have over the past year strived to resolve the Bull Hotel issues, which continue to be a blight on our lovely little town.”
What appeared to be promising negotiations recently with a potential buyer did not come to fruition.
Coun Moore said: “We realise it’s a mess and we wish we could do something about it but, unfortunately because of the planning law that sits with it, it is restricted to the district council to take action.”
The historic, grade II listed building, which was fire damaged earlier this year, was at the heart of a major re-development in Long Sutton but work ground to a halt following the death of developer Brian Cobb last July.
Another hot issue in the chairman’s annual report was the higher cost of business rates, which has seen one Long Sutton trader close their doors and at least one other seeing their bill doubled.
Members of the public aired concerns about the risk of losing more shops and suggested lobbying MP John Hayes and Chancellor, Philip Hammond.
Coun John Clarey said: “It’s a good idea getting a petition up. How about inviting our MP down to one of our next meetings?”
Coun Moore said he was happy to issue an open invitation, through the Free Press, for Mr Hayes to attend.
• Email your views to lynne.harrison@iliffepublishing.co.uk
There was plenty of girl power as the Inner Wheel of Spalding celebrated its 63rd anniversary.
The ladies were joined by members of other clubs in the district including the Deepings, Sleaford and Stamford at a celebratory lunch at Spalding Golf Club.
The group, which was originally set up for female family members of Rotarians, currently has 30 members. Its oldest member, Dorothy Bratley (98), has been with the group since the start.
Around 60 people attended the lunch, with a few honorary men (husbands and partners) joining in the celebrations.
Joint president Pam Smith said: “We had entertainment from a singer, Winnie Clarke, who has performed in the West End.
“She was so professional. She sang songs from many London shows and we were lucky to be able to book her.
“By the end everybody wanted to book her!”
The Spalding club meets once a month on Thursdays at Welland Yacht Club and regularly holds fundraising events such as coffee mornings and bazaars, raising money for good causes. Their emphasis is on fun and friendship.
They also have guest speakers at meetings, with an upcoming talk about ‘integration’ in communities.
Anybody wanting to find out more about the Inner Wheel of Spalding can contact Pam Smith on 01775 724400.
• A full page of pictures in Thursday’s Spalding Guardian.
Firefighters from Spalding attended a car fire in West Pinchbeck on Tuesday evening.
The blaze, on Beck Bank, was extinguished using one hose reel. The cause was accidental.
Spalding police arrested someone for drink driving last night and then realised they had a rather appropriate registration plate.
The driver, whose plate ends with the word BAN, will face an automatic driving disqualification when brought before the courts.
A police operation is in progress at a flat in Spalding after a number of cannabis plants were discovered there today.
Officers are currently based at the flat in New Road which they initially called at during what a Lincolnshire Police spokesman described as “routine enquiries in connection with another incident”.
The spokesman said: “Whilst there, a number of cannabis plants were discovered so there is ongoing activity at the address.
“Electricity engineers have also been on scene to ensure the supplies are safe, but no arrests have been made at this time.”
One eye-witness reported seeing a number of people outside the flat, along with their belongings on the pavement.
A man from Spalding accused of downloading over 60,000 indecent images of children is to face trial later this year.
David Paul Alexander Kaye (43), of Spring Street, appeared before Lincoln Crown Court today (Wednesday) charged with three counts of making a total of 62,166 indecent photographs and videos of children between December 25, 2015, and July 22, 2016.
The case was adjourned for a trial which is due to begin on August 2 and Kaye was granted bail.
Political leaders representing South Holland have expressed their shock and sadness at a suspected terrorist attack near Parliament in London.
Four people are reported to have died, including an armed police officer who was stabbed at the House of Parliament, and 20 people were injured in the incident this afternoon.
Proceedings in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords were suspended as news of the attack broke, with Lord Taylor of Holbeach among those at Parliament when the incident took place.
A spokesman from Taylors Bulbs of Holbeach, which Lord Taylor used to run, confirmed that both he and his wife were “absolutely fine”.
Meanwhile, the Leader of South Holland District Council, Coun Gary Porter, was elsewhere in London at the time the attack began.
Coun Porter, who was made a Peer (or member of the House of Lords) in September 2015, said: “I was supposed to be in the House of Lords when it all kicked off.
“But I had to be at the Local Government Association offices in London for a special executive meeting which meant that I was running late in trying to get back to Westminster.
“It’s a tragedy to hear what’s happened and my heart goes out to those people who have died or been injured.
“But it won’t change the way London operates.”
John Hayes, MP for South Holland and the Deepings, was in Coventry on a visit to a new factory in his capacity as Transport Minister.
He said: “I arrived back in London for my late afternoon appointments when I got the news.
“It was quite fortunate that I wasn’t in and around Westminster as I normally am.”
A good excuse for a great night out and a chance to support good causes is promised for Spalding in June.
The 22nd annual Spalding Midsummer Ball takes place at Springfields Events and Conference Centre on Saturday, June 24, from 7pm.
Organisers hope that more than 500 people will warm to the “White Tie and Tiara” event which includes a four-course meal, prize auctions and live music, all for Macmillan Cancer Support and Action Medical Research.
Tanya Beresford, part of the organising committee, said: “The Midsummer Ball started off at Spalding High School and over the years, it’s evolved into an event that supports both local and national charities.
“In the past, we’ve done balls based on Alice in Wonderland, Best of British, Moulin Rouge and, in 2015, a Chinese theme.
“But this year, we wanted to make it simple and elegant because our objective is to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support and Action Medical Research which some of our committee members have dealings with.”
Since its inaugural year, the ball has raised more than £250,000 for the two main charities and others based in South Holland.
These include The Spalding Special Schools Federation, which runs the town’s Garth and Priory Schools, Age UK in South Holland and Here4U, a Holbeach-based charity supporting people and carers of people with dementia, Parkinson’s Disease and strokes.
Tanya said: “We do like to give back to the community and although it’s quite a big job to organise the ball every year, we get great feedback on social media about how great a night people have had.
“People tend to book tables for ten or 12 guests, but we would never turn anyone away if they couldn’t fill their table.”
For more details on booking a table, email tanya.beresford@infotelsolutions.co.uk
Hat’s the way to raise cash for charity
Health and social care organisations across Lincolnshire are looking for people’s views own how to change and improve services in the county.
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT), which runs Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital, wants to get patients and the public more involved in its decision-making.
The trust is asking people to respond to its Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) which includes proposals to shake up clinical services, hospital care, recruitment and training of staff, patient safety and lower mortality rates.
Lincolnshire County Council leaders have “serious concerns” about the STP and its ability to improve healthcare services for people living in the county.
Coun Martin Hill, Leader of Lincolnshire County Council, said: “Although we accept and understand the rationale for change within the county’s health services, the executive has serious concerns that the proposals in the current STP will not improve services for everyone.
“Making things better for most people, at the detriment of others, is not good enough.
“We also agree that money needs to be spent on better facilities following years of under-investment on our hospitals.
“However, it is entirely unclear as to where the money for this would come from or if it is even available.” ULHT leaders also wants to hear from anyone interested in being kept informed about the Trust’s work as a patient representative.
For more details about the STP and to share your views with the ULHT, visit https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/
Motor bike enthusiasts recreated history in Spalding by turning the clock right back to pre-First World War times in the town.
About a dozen bikers formed their own starting grid outside The Red Lion Hotel in Market Place where they re-enacted a meeting of Spalding Bike Club from 1912-13.
The collection of bikes were fit to grace any vintage display, from a 1930s Velocette to an up-to-date 1,000cc Honda.
Alan Barker, of Spalding, who organised the re-enactment, said: “A friend of mine found the picture online and, with my connection to Spalding, sent it to me.
“We then emailed each other a little bit and said to each other ‘Why don’t we try and put something together in 2017?’
“So we hatched a cunning plan around it by contacting motor bike enthusiasts who we both knew, asking them to meet outside the Red Lion Hotel in Market Place where the original picture was taken about 100 years ago. Then we planned to head off to a motor sport event in Upwood, near Huntingdon, for bacon rolls and refreshments.”
At the time when the original Spalding Bike Club met up, Britain was still reeling from the sinking of the Titanic.
Alan said: “Everybody was quite excited and there was even talk that it would be good if another group did it again in 100 years’ time.”
The wife and mother of a self-confessed “rugby family” will take centre stage at next month’s London Marathon.
Kelly Shields (41), a self-employed consultant for the food industry, is preparing for a journey into the unknown on Sunday, April 23.
But Kelly has the backing of husband and Spalding Rugby Club junior coach Mark Shields, mini rugby playing sons Sam and Oscar, nephews Ben and Will and the wider rugby family in raising money for sports injury charity, The Matt Hampson Foundation.
Kelly said: “It’ll be my first-ever marathon and I’ve heard it’ll be the most amazing experience I’ll ever have.
“But I’m very nervous as well because even though I’m not new to running, I’ve only done the Cambridge Half-Marathon a couple of times.
“I’ve also done triathlons but I’ve always wanted to do a marathon and I’m finding out how hard it is.”
Kelly is set for a 20-mile training run this weekend, followed by a 22-mile run next weekend just three weeks before her big day on the streets of London.
She said: “I tried to get into the London Marathon a couple of times but I’ve not been successful.
“Then my husband saw that the Matt Hampson Foundation had a marathon place available, so I contacted them in January and got in that way.
“It was all very quick but the Foundation has been really supportive and it’s been an easy charity to raise money for because everybody knows someone who has been supported by its work.”
To sponsor Kelly, go to https://www.justgiving.com and then type in her name.
Spalding United fans were well-fed on and off the pitch as one of the club’s most popular fans went bakery crazy for charity on Saturday.
Peter Bailey (nine) gave football fans from Spalding and visiting Nottinghamshire side Belper Town a delicious selection of cakes to choose from, whilst fundraising for The National Autistic Society.
The cake sale raised £285.20 ahead of World Autism Awareness Week, from next Monday, and Jo Bailey, Peter’s nan, said: “It was quite a good afternoon, apart from the rain.
“We got absolutely soaked but we didn’t give up and just carried on.
“People were really good in putting money in the collection boxes, buying cakes and then coming back for more.
“We had fruit cakes, banana tea loaves, chocolate brownies, Victoria sponges, cup cakes and even Spalding United-themed cakes.
“All the players and staff at the football club contributed and Peter will be taken some more cakes to the next home game on April 11.
Spalding’s historic White Hart Hotel is to be the new home of St Barnabas Hospice from this July.
The charity, which currently has a shop in New Road, is to move less than two miles into the centre of Spalding where the Grade II listed building will house the hospice’s “flagship store” in south Lincolnshire.
Plans for the move were first revealed by our sister newspaper, the Lincolnshire Free Press, last August when details were announced that part of the building would be converted into a shop and cafe.
Caroline Peach, retail manager for St Barnabas Hospice in Lincolnshire, said: “This is a really exciting time for us as we work with local architects to bring our shop to life.
“We are also working closely with South Holland District Council’s conservation department to ensure that we protect the heritage of this beautiful and iconic building.”
The new shop will be spread across 2,000 square feet within which clothing, books, household goods and gifts will be sold.
It means the eventual closure of the hospice’s current shop in New Road where St Barnabas has been for 30 years.
Mrs Peach said: “We are always looking for new ways to help generate the money needed to be able to continue to deliver our care and services across the county.
“But what makes this launch even more exciting is the opening of our first-ever café which will be found towards the back of the store.
“The café will have space for 30 seats and will serve drinks and light bites made from locally-sourced produce.
“We are appealing for people to donate their time and help in the running of our new shop and cafe which we hope will become a central part of the Spalding community.”
Coffee and clothes shop plan for historic Spalding building