This year’s Lincoln Christmas Market will be able to cope with the large number of visitors expected, organisers have said.
Stakeholders in the annual event, including City of Lincoln Council, Lincolnshire Police, Fire and Rescue and County Council, met on Friday to review the crowd management plans.
Due to large numbers of visitors last year, more than 250,000 over the four days, crowd thinning measures were used for the first time in the market’s history.
Now the organisers say they have kept the same number of stalls as last year, 280, but spread them over an area double the size of last year.
The new areas are around the Cathedral east green, between Bailgate and Newport, and along Eastgate.
The organisers also detailed on the new one-way system to be put in place across the market, signalled at the six entrances to the market.
Here is the map you will need to best navigate around the Lincoln Christmas Market, between December 6 to 9 (click to zoom).
The market will then be open until 9.30pm on Friday 7th and Saturday 8th (10am start), and then on Sunday 9th from 10am to 7pm.
Around a quarter of the stalls at this year’s market will be from Lincolnshire.
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The number of patients with coronavirus being treated at hospitals across Greater Lincolnshire has dropped by just over 20%.
There were 324 patients with coronavirus in the county’s hospitals earlier this month on January 6. This has now dropped to 250, which is a decrease of around 23%.
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT) said on Tuesday, January 26 that it currently has 148 patients with COVID-19 infections across its hospital sites.
As of Tuesday morning, the Northern Lincolnshire Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLaG) has 78 patients with coronavirus.
Of the 78 patients, 33 are at Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby and 45 are at Scunthorpe General Hospital. Of these patients, seven were in ICU with three at Grimsby and four in Scunthorpe.
Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust currently has 19 COVID-19 positive inpatients across its community hospital sites.
The Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust currently has five patients with coronavirus.
This data comes after it was revealed that COVID infection rates in Lincolnshire are “bouncing around all over the place” after Boston and South Holland saw spikes in the past few days.
On Monday, January 25 there were 259 new coronavirus cases and seven COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire.
The City of Lincoln Council could close some of its public toilets in a bid to save £82,000 a year.
The authority has gone out to consultation on plans to close the urinals at The Lawn on Union Road and Newport Arch permanently, while only reopening facilities at Lucy Tower and Westgate car parks only for special events.
Under the proposals, toilet attendant jobs will be lost, while a new city-wide scheme will change access to disabled loos to be by an electronic card registered to a specific user.
Steve Bird, Assistant Director for Communities and Street Scene at City of Lincoln Council, said: “With cuts to our budgets now being necessary in many areas of the council as a result of COVID-19, including in the public conveniences service, we are looking at how best we can make savings whilst mitigating the impact on users.
“Through this consultation we are looking for the public to comment on some options under consideration.
“Although providing toilets is not a statutory duty for local authorities, we appreciate that these facilities are important in our city, not only for local residents but also for our visitor economy.
“This is why we are doing everything we can to ensure we get the best possible balanced outcome and the results of this consultation are important to us.”
The authority plans to retain toilets at the bus station, Castle Square, Tentercroft Street, Boultham Park, Hartsholme Country Park and the cemetery toilets.
Sincil Street facilities will be closed until the refurbishment of the market is completed.
They said the change to the way disability facilities were accessed was due to “some abuse of the alternative Radar key system” including damage to the facilities.
Public toilets at Tentercroft Street car park. | Photo: The Lincolnite
Access to public toilets will also be changed to take card payments as well as cash.
Sarah Loftus of Lincoln BIG said there were questions to be answered over how the disabled facilities would work for visitors to the city in order to reassure them they would be welcomed.
“How do you make visitors aware that the scheme exists and make it easy for them to have access to it?” she asked.
She added: “From a High Street perspective, good quality public toilets are really important to keep the high street alive.
“I understand if they need to close them because they become too old and they’re not good enough, and they’re going to be replaced and put something in that’s better, that’s good.
“But we saw very early on when the pandemic started and things started to open up there was a real need for the public toilets, because a lot of the cafes and restaurants were shut.”
A consultation on the proposals will take place until Sunday, February 7.
The new asymptomatic COVID rapid testing centre in Lincoln completed nearly 200 coronavirus tests in its first day.
The facility St Swithin’s Community Centre on Croft Street, off Monks Road, opened on Monday after relocating from Lincoln City’s LNER Stadium. It has so far found one positive case which had not shown symptoms — a rate of 0.53%.
So far 6,556 people have been through the rapid testing centres in Boston and Lincoln and 83 asymptomatic cases have been found, a positivity rate of 1.27%, down on 1.83% the week started with.
The breakdown for the rapid testing centres in Lincolnshire:
Lincoln LNER – 2,298 tests, 42 positive (1.83%)
Haven High Boston – 1,550 tests, 12 positive (0.77%)
Peter Paine Boston – 2,499 test, 28 positive (1.12%)
St Swithin’s, Monks Road, Lincoln – 189, 1 positive (0.53%)
Overall – 6,556 tests, 83 positive (1.27%)
The St Swithin’s centre allows those who live in the area to attend on a walk-up basis at the site, which will be open daily from 8am to 8pm until February 7.
There is no need to book and people can just turn up to the centre.
Online/follow-up testing will take place at the site between 9am and 3pm.
Anyone who appears positive on a lateral flow (rapid) test is encouraged to return for a confirmatory test using the PCR method (48 hours results).
The rapid turnout tests are supplied by NHS Test and Trace and deliver results within an hour via text message and/or email.
The initiative is run by City of Lincoln Council, in partnership with Lincolnshire County Council and the Department of Health and Social Care.
Health bosses are hoping for funding for further centres to open, along with re-opening the LNER, however, this has not yet been confirmed.
Greater Lincolnshire’s infection rates from Jan 18 to Jan 25. | Data: Gov UK / Table: James Mayer for The Lincolnite
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