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Lincolnshire continued to attract large levels of development, said Lincoln-based chartered surveyor Banks Long & Co, at a time when many transactions were put on hold due to the distractions of the Olympics and Jubilee celebrations.
The firm revealed it completed seven investment deals worth more than £12.5 million within the county, explaining that Lincolnshire continues to attract large levels of investment.
Banks Long & Co Director Tim Bradford said: “We have seen record-breaking activity. Over the last four months we have successfully completed on the acquisition of in excess of £14m worth of commercial investment property.
“Whilst we buy property investments all over the UK for clients, only one of the recent deals – a purpose-built surgery in Essex bought for £2.25m – has been outside of the county boundary.”
“The purchases have been across all sectors of the market and include a prime shop on Lincoln High Street, a retail warehouse which has been let to a household DIY chain, an industrial property with a large office content on the outskirts of the city and a prime bar/restaurant building in Lincoln as well as three properties in North East Lincolnshire – a new-build surgery and two convenience stores.”
“One of the above, The Lamb and Flag city centre bar in Lincoln let to Mitchells and Butlers Plc was completed in 10 working days for a private property company. The prime location of this property, Plc covenant and the strength of the city’s tourist, student and evening economy attracted the investor to make the purchase.
“We are seeing more opportunities in the market, although the gap between prime and secondary property investments continues to widen. Location is once again the key decision making factor – it is important to buy property where there is always going to be demand from tenants should the property become vacant,” said Mr Bradford.
“Prime properties should always re-let, whereas properties in secondary locations in secondary towns will struggle to attract new occupiers. There is substantially greater risk involved in buying secondary property and we can see this reflected in the gulf in pricing.”
However, Mr Bradford said that would-be investors should not be deterred by the current state of the economy: “It is important to understand the risks involved in acquiring commercial property as an investment in the current market, but with the right approach this type of investment asset continues to provide very strong returns compared with holding funds in a deposit account or investing in the Stock Market.”
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A 38-year-old man from a North Lincolnshire village charged with murder will face an eight-day trial later this year.
Emergency services were called at 4.23am on Saturday, July 2 to reports that a man was seriously injured on South Parade in central Doncaster.
The 28-year-old victim was taken to hospital but was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A post-mortem examination found that he died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
Formal identification of the victim is yet to take place, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week.
Steven Ling, 38, of Park Drain, Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire, has been charged with murder and was remanded in custody to appear at Doncaster Magistrates Court on Monday, July 4.
Ling later appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, July 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
No pleas were entered during the hearing, but an eight-day trial was set for November 28, 2022. Ling has now been remanded into custody until the next hearing.
The Lincolnite went on a ride-along with a Lincolnshire Police officer from the force’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which aims to disrupt criminals’ use of the roads and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents.
The team will support the county response including local policing, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation too.
Operations first began in Grantham in January this year and started in Louth earlier this week with a sergeant and nine PCs based in both locations.
The Lincolnite went out on a ride-along with PC Rich Precious from Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
PC Rich Precious has been a police officer for 22 years after joining the force in 2000 and he recently rejoined the Roads Policing Unit, working out of Louth.
PC Precious, who also previously worked as a family liaison officer for road deaths for 16 years, took The Lincolnite out in his police car to the A1 up to Colsteworth and then back to Grantham. He described that particular area as “one of the main arterial routes that goes through Lincolnshire”.
PC Rich Precious driving down the A1 up to Colsterworth. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Speaking about the new Roads Policing Unit, he said: “It’s intelligence led policing, it’s targeted policing in areas that have been underrepresented in terms of police presence, on the roads certainly, over a number of years.
“We’re hoping that the development of this unit will help address that balance, and look towards using the ANPR system to prevent criminals’ use of the road, and to identify key areas or routes where there’s a high percentage of people killed or seriously injured on the road, what we commonly refer to as KSI.
PC Precious is helping to keep the roads safer in Lincolnshire. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
When asked if he thinks the new team will help reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents in the county, he added: “That’s what the the unit designed for. Sadly, in Lincolnshire our road network does seem to incur a number of those KSI accidents year on year, and we need to reduce that.
“I’ve worked additionally in my roles as a family liaison officer on road death for 16 years, so I’ve seen first hand the impact that road death has on families and victims families.
“I know it’s important that we try and reduce those because, it’s very sad to see how a fatal road traffic collision can affect a family and the victims of that family.”
Marc Gee, Inspector for Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Marc Gee, Inspector for the Roads Policing Unit, told The Lincolnite: “Every day there will be officers on duty from both teams and they’ll cover the whole county or the county’s roads.
“Eventually, we’ll have nine police cars and we’ve got six motorbikes. We’ll be utilising them with as many officers as we can every day basically to make our roads safer and enforce against the criminals who feel like it’s okay to come into the county and use our road for criminal purposes.”
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones at the launch of the force’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
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