Lincolnshire business leaders and local council representatives travelled to Parliament on Wednesday to make the case for the Lincolnshire Pound.
The initiative is looking to make sure more money spent in Lincolnshire is retained in the county.
Lindum Group led the delegation to see Lincoln MP Karl McCartney. Herman Kok, Financial Director at the group, explained:
“The theme of the meeting was inspired by an initiative of Steve Galjaard, Financial Director of Lincolnshire Co-operative, who wrote to his supply chain asking every supplier how much of the revenue generated by Co-op work was used to procure local materials, supplies or services — for example how much of Co-op spending remained invested locally.
“We linked this to a similar initiative from Bristol, where they promoted local spending under the theme of the Bristol Pound.
“Lincolnshire companies are well placed to help the county economy and themselves by using local supply chains – buy from Lincolnshire companies and Lincolnshire people will benefit the most!” he added.
For example, Lindum is building the five new council houses in Lincoln, with materials and services 100% locally sourced, while the new Wagamama premises, also built by the group, are 90% locally sourced, with 100% of the materials coming from the county.
Richard Wills, the Lincolnshire County Council Executive Director for Communities, also discussed the initiative at the meeting.
He said: “The idea of the Lincolnshire Pound is to purchase goods as a local authority or as a business from local suppliers, so that each Pound gets spent again in the local economy.
“The concept is that if you can keep that local purchase several times in the chain, then the local economy gets maximum benefit from the public or private sector expenditure.”
From a programme of around £220 million, Lincolnshire County Council spent some 75% within the local economy. In this case, Mr Wills explained, the suppliers themselves spent their money in the county, which effectively means a Pound is spent nearly twice within the local economy.
Lincoln MP Karl McCartney sponsored the Lindum Group’s event in Parliament on November 7.
He said: “Fundamental to this proposition is the relationship between the public and private sector, the need for the private sector to engage in the outsourcing process at all levels and at all times before and including after the life of a contract and the need to ensure the need for, and maintenance of, a legacy.
“The number of work experience placements and apprenticeships; the efficiency of the supply chain: all can be directed to benefit the city of Lincoln and the county of Lincolnshire and the taxpayers who reside here.”
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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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