Lincoln’s Abbey ward community pulls together

Community spirit (L-R): Inspector Pat Coates, Paul Carrick from the City of Lincoln Council, Anne Brown editor of Abbey News, resident Katazyna Bednarczyk, Councillor Ric Metcalfe, resident Magdalena Bednarczyk and Igor Kartel, chairperson of EECG

An Abbey ward community agreement has been introduced, defining an action plan how local people, ward councillors and key organisations can work together to improve the neighbourhood.

The agreement was unveiled at Lincoln College on March 2, outlining how the community can help solve local issues such as keeping the streets clean, making sure play areas are safe, removing fly tipping and graffiti and tackling anti-social behaviour.

A survey of almost 400 residents found their main concerns were litter in the streets, vandalism and graffiti, anti-social behaviour, burglary and car crime and parents not taking responsibility for their children.

Councillor Ric Metcalfe, Leader of the City of Lincoln Council, is looking forward to seeing the positive outcomes from the Abbey Neighbourhood Agreement.

“We’re very pleased to get to this stage in Abbey ward and believe that the best way of injecting positivity into the local community is by involving the people who live there,” he said.

Lack of information has been a problem and development of a newsletter called Abbey News edited by resident Anne Brown has been designed to keep people more informed.

Resident volunteers are also being recruited for an Abbey Street Team to provide intelligence on their community, monitoring issues in the neighbourhood such as littering.

Abbey ward is a diverse area and Chairperson of the Eastern European Community Group, Igor Kartel, was present to see how the migrant community can become involved.

“The most difficult barrier is language as English people are so friendly and sociable and I want to bring the communities together as there is a lot of help and advice residents can give to us,” said Kartel.

Below is a video from Lincoln based voluntary organisation Off The Bench illustrating some of the work being done to improve life in Abbey ward.