A man of 36 pleaded not guilty to two assault charges when he appeared before Spalding magistrates on Thursday.
Philip Malone, formerly of Godsey Lane, Market Deeping, and now of no fixed address, will stand trial at the court on March 5.
Magistrates extended his bail.
A teenager ended up in court for a public order offence after police warned drivers their cars were illegally parked.
Marie Stace, prosecuting, said police saw a group of males and females by the side of Winsover Road, and there were two cars parked within zig-zag lines for the crossing in the early hours of July 1.
An officer warned the group the cars would have to be moved or the drivers would get penalty points on their licences, but Jake Molsher told them: “There is no need to be like that. We are not doing anything wrong. You can’t give us tickets for that.”
Miss Stace said an officer approached the group and was met with hostility – Molsher swore and there were people in a nearby takeaway at the time.
Molsher, of Livingstone Drive, Spalding, was conditionally discharged for a year and ordered to pay £43 costs when he pleaded guilty to a public order offence.
He told Spalding magistrates on Thursday that there was no one in the takeaway at the time.
Molsher said: “He got in my face. Obviously the first thing you are going to do is defend yourself.”
Criminals in Spalding are among thousands in the county being dealt with out of court in Lincolnshire for offences including sexual assault and robbery.
Police are using restorative justice rather than send offenders to court if they decide it is not in the public interest to prosecute them.
But although child rape is listed among 3,300 crimes dealt with in this way in the county, police say statistics should be viewed in context.
Spalding’s Sgt Stuart Hurst said he could not comment on how police dealt with serious crimes in other areas, but on lesser offences, dealing with them out of court often brought a fairer justice.
Sgt Hurst said in spite of the figures released, more people were still sent to prison in England and Wales than in India and Turkey.
He said: “Habitual offenders will never be dealt with in this way. But no two people will view crime in the same way.
“There are those who think taking drugs as a crime and others who believe it should be made legal.
“If two consenting teenagers under 15 were caught having sex, would it really be right to drag them through the court? It’s a tricky one.”
Among figures released by Lincolnshire Police, are a reprimand given for street robbery, 263 cautions for shoplifting, 54 cautions for heroin and cocaine possession and 367 cautions, 44 warnings and 93 reprimands for assault causing actual bodily harm.
Chief Ins Philip Baker, of the criminal justice department, said: “Cautions are not a let-off or a slap on the wrist. The offender admits the offence and it sits on their police record.”
An incident in Spalding where restorative justice has been successful includes a case of shoplifting at Sainsburys.
Sgt Hurst said: “Two lads were caught shoplifting and they paid for it by doing unpaid work.
“The victim was happy and the offenders were made to pay without the cost of police time and sending them to court.
”In most cases dealt with in court, compensation is never enough.”
Cyclists caught riding without lights in Spalding were also dealt with in this way, with police giving them the option to buy lights and have them fitted rather than face a fine.
Sgt Hurst said: “We knew that if they were prosecuted and fined they would not be spending money on lights and all but one complied and had them fitted.
“Dealing with crime in this way makes criminals accountable.”
A man accused of impersonating a police officer on the A16 at Stamford faces a trial in March.
Louis Jon Woodward, formerly of Six House Bank, West Pinchbeck, Spalding but now living in Peregrine Place, Bourne, is also accused of driving without due care and attention.
Woodward denies both charges which date back to August 11 of last year.
A trial date was set for March 15 at Grantham Magistrates’ Court.
Woodward (23) was given unconditional bail.
A drunken motorist who caused a head-on collision has escaped an immediate jail sentence after police took nearly six years to arrest him.
Judge James Sampson said “police incompetence” was a factor in the delay in bringing to justice Renatas Bartisius and suspended his sentence instead of sending him straight to prison.
Bartisius had been drinking at a friend’s house in Spalding when he got behind the wheel of his car in May 2007.
Gregor Purcell, prosecuting, told Lincoln Crown Court that Bartisius began veering onto the wrong side of the A151 at Weston.
As Bartisius approached a staggered junction at a right hand bend he began to overtook the car in front of him.
He accelerated to 70mph and went the wrong side of keep left bollards directly into the path of oncoming traffic and collided head-on with an oncoming car.
Mr Purcell said “The oncoming car was knocked to the side of the road and spun. The defendant’s vehicle spun into the centre of the road.”
Both men were trapped in their vehicles. Bartisius was lapsing in and out of consciousness and was overheard to be saying “big trouble”. He became aggressive and agitated when ambulance staff tried to remove him from his car.
The other driver was off work for six months. His injuries included a fractured vertebrae and damage to a previous knee replacement.
Police only took the decision to charge Bartisius seven months after the accident. They were then unable to find him but did not make what the court was told were “obvious checks” with the Inland Revenue and Department of Work & Pensions.
His name was circulated as wanted but this was cancelled only to be later reinstated when the officer investigating the driving matter discovered what had happened.
Bartisius, who had been living and working in the UK, was eventually arrested in August after returning from a holiday.
Bartisius (43), of Willowherb Close, March, admitted dangerous driving on May 13, 2007. He was given an eight-month jail sentence suspended for 12 months with a £1,000 fine and £670 prosecution costs. He was also banned from driving for two years.
Neil Sands, defending, said that since the incident Bartisius had committed no further offences.
Judge Sampson told Mr Sands: “There is here a degree of police incompetence mixed in perhaps with a measure of evasion by your client.”
Addressing Bartisius the judge added: “Undoubtedly you were drunk and not in a fit state to drive. You drove directly into your victim who was doing absolutely nothing wrong.”
The former food court at the controversial Red Lion Quarter is to be turned into a hair and beauty training salon.
The food court closed in October 2011, just six months after the grand opening of the £6.5m building, which was billed as a monument to South Holland’s food heritage.
It is now to enjoy a new lease of life after Boston College, which bought the troubled building for £2.4m last year, listened to feedback from residents, students, employers and businesses of Spalding about what they would like to see the hall used for.
A spokesman for the college said numerous suggestions for potential uses were received, but the one that received most consistent support, from potential learners and customers, was for a salon.
It is hoped the new facility will give students the chance to train locally in a fully-functioning salon under the direction of industry-qualified hair and beauty tutors.
Paul Collins, director of business development at Boston College, said: “We recognise the increasing role of the service sector in the economic recovery of the local area and hope the new plans will help to boost presence in the town.
“We are very pleased with how Boston College in Spalding is progressing and are positive about the future at Red Lion Quarter.
“We have already seen almost 1,000 students and look forward to welcoming many more.
“We have also enjoyed getting to know the business tenants that occupy our office space, where we now have just one retail unit and four office units left to let.”
An open evening for potential students will be held on Wednesday, February 6, or for more information call 01775 715880.
Police were called after a man stole property from three cars and found him hiding behind a garden tree in another street.
Tomas Lazdauskas (26) was caught in the act by a resident in Spalding’s Halmer Gardens who was at home at 10.30pm on December 2 when he saw his car door open and the vehicle’s interior light come on.
Marie Stace, prosecuting, said the man shouted: “What are you doing?”.
Lazdauskas ran off and the man gave chase.
Miss Stace said Lazdauskas stumbled, leaving items behind, and the resident called police.
Officers arrested Lazdauskas in Cley Hall Drive, where he was hiding behind a tree on the driveway at a house.
Lazdauskas, of Lancelot Way, Spalding, pleaded guilty to stealing property including a tax disc, golf shoes and bowls from a car on Halmergate, belonging to Oliver Hewitt, guilty to stealing property including a sat-nav, saw and two toolboxes from a car on Halmer Gardens, belonging to Marcin Sobiepan, and guilty to stealing property including a pushchair, sunglasses and sat-nav from a second car on Halmer Gardens, belonging to Andrew Laithwaite.
Spalding magistrates on Thursday adjourned sentence to January 17 for a probation report.
Miss Stace said Lazdauskas told police he had been watching films and then decided to go to a friend’s.
He couldn’t find his friend but saw an open car door and got inside.
Lazdauskas told magistrates: “I would like to apologise for everything. I am very embarrassed. I will never do this ever again.”
* Please note, it is our policy not to allow comments on cases until they have reached a conclusion.
A market stall remained empty on Saturday as a mark of respect to a fruit and veg trader who has died.
Tony Secker, who had suffered heart problems in recent months, died on December 29, aged 64.
Mr Secker ran the fruit and veg stall on Spalding market on Saturdays and Tuesdays with his wife Sandra.
The couple, who lived in Spalding, took over the stall from Sandra’s father in 1988.
Their stall was set up and dressed in red, white and black fabric by South Holland District Council on Saturday, and flowers and messages were left from fellow traders in tribute to Mr Secker.
Street scene manager (enforcement) Barry Bradley said: “Tony will be really missed by us all.
“He was always very straight and direct and told you exactly what he thought.
“He was a likeable chap and always the sort you could share a laugh and joke with.
“He was a good, reliable trader.
“He had been a regular in Spalding since 1988 when he took over the stall, with his wife, from his father-in-law.”
Mr Secker worked at Boswell scrap yard in Clay Lake before taking over the stall and was involved in the local grass track racing club.
Mr Secker’s funeral service will take place at Boston Crematorium on Tuesday, January 15, at 1.45pm.
Wednesday: A woman cyclist was taken to Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital with a suspected leg injury following an accident with a car near St Mary’s Church, Pinchbeck, this morning.
Emergency services were called to the B1356 Spalding Road shortly after 8.20am.
The woman, who is aged 39 and comes from Spalding, was taken to hospital by ambulance.
The car driver, a 29-year-old man from Pinchbeck, was unhurt.
Traffic was reduced to one-way working on the B1356 and there were queues.
A man of 25 suffered serious head and chest injuries when his car was involved in a crash with a JCB tractor on Tuesday morning.
The man, from Kirton, was taken to Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital.
Police say his injuries are not life threatening.
The accident happened at the A16 junction with Gosberton Bank shortly after 5am and the road was closed until 7.20am.
Police have asked witnesses to contact their collision investigation hotline on 01522 558855.
The heat is on and even this relatively mild winter, the house would feel decidedly nippy without it.
But comfort comes at a price – so how can we get the best out of the boiler at reasonable cost?
Here are some tips from Martyn Bridges, marketing and technical support director at Worcester, Bosch Group.
The optimum temperature for comfort is between 18 and 21 degrees, and turning down your thermostat by just one degree will cut the heating bill by ten percent – so try setting the whole-house thermostat at 17 degrees or alternatively getting programmable room thermostats. This will ensure the heating doesn’t have to work too hard to get cranked up when you return home.
Inquire if your heating system has the correct controls as these can increase the efficiency of a condensing boiler by as much as 13 percent.
Don’t cover radiators with curtains or furniture and don’t dry or warm clothes on them.
Insulate any pipework that gives off heat.
If your boiler is more than 15 years old, you’ll be wasting 40p of every pound spent on fuel. Updating it to an A rated condensing boiler is the most fuel efficient improvement you can make, and with appropriate controls this could cut your bills by £235 and save over one tonne of CO2 a year.
A Gosberton Clough man has been left to pay £400 after losing his appeal against a five year ban from keeping animals.
Nicholas Hayes (24), of Fifth Drove was ordered to pay the prosecution costs bill following his unsuccessful appeal to Lincoln Crown Court.
Hayes was convicted of causing unnecessary suffering to two ponies at a hearing before Spalding Magistrates in November.
He was given a 12-month community order with nine months supervision. Magistrates also disqualified him for five years from owning, keeping or participating in the keeping of animals.
He appealed against the ban on “participating in the keeping or animals” asking that he be allowed to assist his 66-year-old mother in the running of her kennel breeding business which she runs from the family home business.
Christopher Knowles, for Hayes, describing the original offences, said: “It was merely not feeding the animals. It was an oversight by the defendant due to factors surrounding him.
“It was clearly the wake-up call the defendant required. It was a mistake. He clearly went into himself at that time.
“This is a man whose life clearly revolves around animals. This is a man brought up on a small-holding surrounded by animals.”
He said Hayes suffers from mental health problems, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and working with animals was therapeutic for him.
Beris Brickles, for the RSPCA, said Trading Standards visited the Hayes on February 8 after a tip-off that there were dead horses on the smallholding.
They found a dead pony and two others in an emaciated condition. One of the live ponies was little more than half its expected weight and appeared to have been neglected for at least ten weeks. The other live pony was also seriously underweight.
Judge Michael Heath, sitting with two magistrates, rejected the appeal saying: “We feel it is not manifestly excessive to impose a disqualification.”
Residents are being urged to write official letters of objection to plans for renewable energy farms in the Crowland area.
They have until February 1 to lodge an objections to Peterborough City Council’s plans for 900 acres of solar and wind farms across prime farmland.
As reported in the Spalding Guardian and Lincolnshire Free Press, tenant farmers stand to lose their livelihoods if the plans are passed.
Tenant farmers, residents and supporters packed Newborough Village Hall on Tuesday night to take their protest a step further.
They were offered advice on what matters to highlight in letters, including the council’s alleged failure to consult efficiently, threat to wildlife, visual impact, flooding, impact on the community and loss of prime food producing land.
Jackie Dugdale, vice-chairman of Newborough Landscape Protection Group, said: “We were thrilled with the turnout - there were at least 20 new faces among the crowd.
“Now we need people to write letters to let the council know we do not want this.”
Supporters can also sign a petition at the fruit and vegetable shop run by tenant farmers Graham and Rebecca Cave in Peterborough Road, Crowland.
Mrs Cave said: “We stand to lose our farm and, if the plan goes ahead, we’ll have to look at it from our shop.
“The thing is in ten years time wind and solar farms will be out of date.”
For more information, visit http://newboroughlandscapeprotection.wordpress.com
At this time of year on the arable side of the farm we tend to review the past year and look forward and plan for the coming year.
This autumn has been exceptionally difficult for everybody who works outdoors. We have achieved 80 per cent of our planned wheat drilling, which according to press articles is about the country average. I am quite pleased with this achievement considering the conditions and the amount of time we had to do the job. We only need another couple of nice days to finish. Winter wheat can be drilled up to the end of February, so given some luck we still have time.
Of the crops in the ground, 75 per cent of them have established OK; the rest is suffering in the constant wet and we will have to look at fields carefully in the spring to decide if they will make a crop or not.
We have kept off our fields recently as we felt that it is now just too wet to do any jobs and we will cause more harm than any good we could do.
Our free range chickens have been in about three months now and settling down well, keeping three people busy collecting eggs and looking after them every day, so over weekends and holidays we spread the load, with extra help to allow us all some time off.
As for the coming year, we are planning for more spring crops than we would like, which on wet heavy soils is not going to be easy. We certainly will need the weather with us.
Farm minister David Heath has unveiled a government drive to get more young people working in food and agriculture.
The Future of Farming review will investigate ways of making agriculture a more attractive career choice.
Spalding and other towns on the eastern side of Lincolnshire will be under the wing of a newly strengthened police leadership based at Boston.
Chief Constable Neil Rhodes has put in a chief superintendent and superintendent team to help boost the performance of the police and strengthen community ties.
The move follows a 14 per cent fall in crime across the county – with 5,000 fewer victims – in the first nine months of this financial year.
Police and Crime Commissioner for Lincolnshire Alan Hardwick said: “I fully support the new policing model and I have every confidence that, with goodwill and flexibility, it operate to the greater benefit of the force and the people of Lincolnshire.”
A similar team will cover the west of the county.
More than 16,300 people have signed up to a reverse auction that could deliver cheaper gas and electricity bills. South Holland District Council is part of a consortium of councils led by Peterborough City that will go to the market on January 29 to get the cheapest prices available from suppliers.
Those who have signed up will be sent an offer price and can then decide whether or not to switch.
South Holland was part of a similar consortium in November and projected savings for the 270 people who have switched suppliers so far are £171 each per year – a total saving of £46,000.
South Holland District Council leader Gary Porter said: “Many people are already seeing the benefits of switching energy supplier and are saving on their hard-earned cash.”
• Anyone interested in expressing interest in the reverse auction can sign up online at www.sholland.gov.uk – clicking on the ‘Ready to Switch?’ banner – or get a paper registration form from the council offices in Priory Road, Spalding, The Market House, Long Sutton, Spalding’s South Holland Centre or Spalding’s Ayscoughfee Hall Museum. In order to receive an offer, you must make your application before the day of the reverse auction. The deadline for paper forms is last post on January 28.
The eyesore former Bull and Monkie pub in Spalding could soon be demolished to make way for a temporary car park.
A plan has been submitted to South Holland District Council by the Churchgate site’s owner Crispen Holdings Ltd, but is currently on hold while more information or a fee is received.
But council leader Gary Porter says he hopes the company does go ahead with its plan as it would remove a blot on the town’s landscape.
He said: “It makes sense for them to do this because at the moment it is costing them money for rates, but if they knock it down and tidy it up for a car park as a temporary measure it will be better for everyone.
“Even if they give the car park to someone else to manage it will still bring in revenue – whereas at the moment it’s a liability.”
Crispen Holdings were warned by the council it could be forced to sell the site last summer unless it cleaned up its act after the site became a magnet for vandalism, arson and rough sleepers.
The site had planning permission for a care home, but plans were shelved because of the economic climate.
Jennifer Cottis has designed everything from a surface grinder to a parcel sorting machine in her time as an industrial designer.
These days, she doesn’t feel the need to make things that function and isn’t even concerned if they don’t look quite right.
“They are as they grow,” says Jennifer, whose career in industrial design was followed by a spell in teaching.
Jennifer, who lives in Donington, eventually gave that up so that she could pursue the areas that had always been of interest: painting and drawing.
She says: “You are still looking at the form of things, for balance and symmetry and for a pleasing shape to the composition.”
Her work falls into three main categories: landscapes, seascapes and the human form – and this last might be work produced from life classes or it might be based on old Bones, the skeleton kept behind the door in Jennifer’s studio.
Her work is frequently on show in open exhibitions in Lincolnshire as well as London and other cities and Jennifer held a solo exhibition in Skegness last year. An exhibition at the Carre Gallery in Sleaford resulted in her winning an award for her sketch of a Boston fishing scene.
However, more recently her work has moved into other projects that almost hark back to her design origins. Jennifer is working in both 2D and 3D, producing series of drawings on one subject which might be turned into oil paintings and ceramic shapes.
For instance, Jennifer joined a series of sketches of Whitby to create a panorama and then produced paintings from various angles. About a year ago, Jennifer began working in 3D in ceramics and used the Whitby sketches for inspiration to create shapes inspired by two elements associated with the town.
“The steps are the fundamental essence of Whitby, that and its higgledy-piggledy houses that aren’t square or rectangular,” says Jennifer. “The painting has got an almost vertiginous drop; you feel that you are going to fall into the sea.
“I also started working on a series of sea pots and I like to think of them as 3D paintings rather than functional pots. I don’t work in function any more.”
Having said that, Jennifer is analytical when it comes to studying the form and movement of things such as waves, producing dozens of drawings before work is translated to paintings and pots.
See more examples of her work at www.jacottis.com
As well as turning her land and seascapes into 3D work, artist Jennifer Cottis has moved on to the human form, as her husband Peter will testify – that’s a bust of his head in the picture below.
It was sculpted after making lots of sketches and Jennifer considers drawing “extremely important”. Another area of interest in the human form is walking women – and Jennifer says it is the movement that interests her, although she has also produced big sketches from life drawing classes where models pose motionlessly. She also admits to sketching people as they sit around if she can do it without being observed.
Drawings of the human form have also evolved, recently using her skeleton Bones for a picture in ink and acrylic called Memories that was judged one of the top 40 in the First Culture Cloud exhibition in Nottingham.
People who visited a craft fair at Sutton St James before Christmas had the opportunity to buy some of Jennifer’s 3D forms – wizard bottles.