countycountynewsnews SUMMER 2015 ROYAL APPROVAL! Princess Anne at Lincoln Castle – page 16 COMMUNITY CHAMPIONS Meet the 2015 Good Citizens FOCUS ON LIVING WITH DEMENTIA WEST LINDSEY Help for residents and carers starts on page 21 countynews contents summer 2015 3 News in brief Four pages of stories from across Lincolnshire 8 7 Planning for places Creating new and bigger schools Leader’s welcome... Special feature: Good Citizens As this Summer 2015 edition arrives, many of 8 you will be looking forward to holidays with The winners of our 2015 Awards family and friends. To help you make the most of your time, our How safe is your home? extended Out and About section highlights wonderful 11 events across Lincolnshire over the next three months. Checking your house for fire risks They include more excitement at the newly transformed Lincoln Castle, celebrating 800 years Supporting vulnerable adults since the sealing of Magna Carta. 14 In late July, the attraction hosts a Grand Tudor Royal Help for residents with dementia 16 Pageant, while the Medieval Battle of Lincoln is vividly recreated two weeks later. Special feature: Lincoln Castle If you want to see Magna Carta itself, don’t forget 16 that the castle hosts one of only four surviving copies, Royal guest joins visitor “invasion” now housed in a special vault. Then there’s Lincolnshire’s Great Exhibition – a Great Exhibition 20 once-in-a-lifetime show bringing together local 20 Lincolnshire’s spectacular new show treasures on loan from around the world. Spread over various venues, it runs for three months, featuring unmissable items such as the famous 14th- 21 West Lindsey News century Luttrell Psalter illustrated manuscript. Eight fabulous pages of district news This County News also has our top 10 tips for family fun in Lincolnshire, helping you enjoy happy and active days with the kids without breaking the bank. Out and About 29 On a different theme, we’re delighted to introduce Your essential guide to summer events this year’s Good Citizens, chosen from the many volunteers who make such an amazing contribution to county life. 32 Contact us Thank you to everyone who took the trouble to send Web, email, phone or post – you choose! us nominations – all of them can be viewed online at 21 www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/goodcitizensaward. Elsewhere in this magazine, we feature an example of the vital work that goes on at this council throughout the year – the planning of new and bigger Contact information schools to meet rising demand for primary places. We also look at the life-changing opportunities EDITORIAL MORE INFORMATION open to unemployed young people on a Prince’s Trust Lincolnshire County Council Printing: Polestar Bicester Limited Tel: 01522 782060 Distribution: County News is published by Lincolnshire programme, run locally by Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue. Email: [email protected] County Council. Each edition is delivered to about For older people, we consider the help available By post: County News, Lincolnshire County Council, 334,000 homes and businesses by Royal Mail. for the estimated 11,000 local residents living with County Oces, Newland, Lincoln, LN1 1YL Next edition: The autumn 2015 edition of the magazine dementia, as well as their carers, plus work to keep Online: www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/countynews will be distributed in late September 2015. adults across the county safe from abuse and neglect. Editor: David Harding, communications ocer Audio versions: County News is available to download Last but not least, we explore Lincolnshire’s Managing editor: Karen Spencer, in audio format at www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/countynews communications manager or as a tape or CD on request from Listening Lincs on network of Household Waste Recycling Centres – the 01522 782010. perfect place to get rid of green waste or unwanted West Lindsey News: Communications team, 01427 676512, [email protected] Sustainability: County News is printed on paper from items after a summer holiday clear-out! responsible or well-managed sources. Please recycle the Design: Neil Lamont and Associates magazine when you have nished with it. FRONT COVER Crowds greeted HRH The Princess Royal at Lincoln Castle. Cllr Martin Hill OBE Leader of Lincolnshire County Council NEWS IN BRIEF Lincolnshire news round-up “Time for change” A cross-party campaign has been launched to get fairer authorities, it would have been £245m better off. funding for the county from the Government. If we’d been given as much as London areas, an extra £629m It’s long been recognised that rural authorities such as Lincolnshire would have been available for services in the county. receive far less money for each resident than urban ones. Cllr Hill is also calling for local government as a whole to “shoulder Now the county council is calling for that to change, taking its case less of the load” of national spending reductions. to new local government secretary Greg Clark. “We’ve achieved the biggest savings in the public sector, and it’s Leader Cllr Martin Hill said: “We’re now time for others to do more,” he said. not asking for special treatment, but Since 2011, the authority has cut its we do want a level playing field. annual budget by £129m, while still “A fair share of funding would Last year, if the council protecting frontline services and keeping enable us – for example – to meet council tax low. the growing demand for social care had received the same as However, we may have to find £120m of across Lincolnshire. extra savings by 2018, which would be “a “We’re also determined to carry metropolitan authorities, big challenge”. on investing in our huge road To help us meet that target, Cllr Hill network, boosting economic growth it would have been believes local authorities should be given for the future.” more local responsibilities and powers. Grants to local authorities have £245m better off “If unnecessary barriers are removed, been cut over the past few years as we can work much more closely with key the Government restores the national partners such as health, the police and other finances to health. councils across Greater Lincolnshire. The council strongly supports that work, but argues that the “That would enable us to innovate and find better ways of doing allocation system must finally be overhauled. things, closer to the people we’re here to serve.” Last year, if the council had received the same as metropolitan Road “recycling” Help us ght An innovative process is being used to repair 11 y-tipping miles of unclassified roads across the county, Residents across Lincolnshire are being saving £1m on traditional methods. urged not to use “man with a van” The council has developed the approach to offers to take items to Household Waste repair potholes and crumbling surfaces on these Recycling Centres (HWRCs). roads quickly, using recycled material from other The county council says the HWRCs are highways projects. only for residents to take their own waste. An Before After the top section of the road has been crushed, operator cannot do this on your behalf. the extra material is mixed with a binder and chippings. The special offers – sometimes via Facebook The road is then reshaped, with potholes eliminated, – are from unlicensed operators, who will be and surfaced. turned away if identified as non-householders. The current three-month programme of work is being What’s more, they may then fly-tip the waste carried out on 29 sections of unclassified damaged to get rid of it, creating clean-up and disposal roads, taking up to four days at each site. costs for local authorities. The repairs should last at least 10 years, removing the If you do pay for rubbish to be taken away, need to constantly repair potholes caused by extreme it must be through a registered waste carrier, weather conditions. who will then use an appropriate commercial Since 2013, the process has saved the council £3m site – not an HWRC. over 37 miles of repairs, and is now being looked at as To find a registered carrier, visit www. part of national studies. gov.uk/find-registered-waste-carrier. For After For more information about roadworks in more about Lincolnshire’s HWRCs, see Lincolnshire, visit www.roadworks.org. the story on p18. countynews summer 2015 • www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/countynews 3 NEWS IN BRIEF A voice for Lincolnshire The new chairman of Lincolnshire County Council plans to promote business during his year in office. Cllr William Webb, who represents Holbeach Rural, has served for 14 years on the authority, including 10 as an executive member. He was elected chairman – the 29th in the council’s history – at the annual meeting in May, following a year as vice-chairman. That post is now held by Cllr Martin Trollope-Bellew, the member for Stamford Rural. With a keen interest in economic development, Cllr Webb, who lives in Gedney, hopes to use his position to promote business and support employment in our largely rural county. He said: “I am greatly looking forward to serving as chairman and having the chance to meet people and organisations throughout Lincolnshire. “I’m very keen to promote the county, making it even better known Eastern Bypass update and helping to attract more tourists.” A vital county road scheme – the Lincoln Eastern Bypass – could take As chairman, Cllr Webb will be supporting two chosen charities a further step forward this summer. – the Lincolnshire Rural Support Network and the Juvenile Diabetes A public inquiry will consider legal orders needed for the project to go ahead. Research Foundation. During his year in office, previous chairman Cllr It will start on 11 August at the city’s DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel.