So far 20 people have taken up the City of Lincoln Council’s mortgage help scheme, according to preliminary figures, after the offer launched in June.
The £1 million scheme can help up to 50 people in the city, and means new buyers only need to find a 5% deposit.
So far 7 have fully completed the scheme, using up £130,000 of the indemnity, 9 are in the process, amounting to £163,000 of the cash pot, and 4 are yet to find suitable homes.
The City Council launched the Local Lend a Hand scheme in collaboration with Lloyds TSB, which aims to help first-time buyers get onto the property ladder.
Prospective buyers can apply for a loan with Lloyds TSB on a house of up to £125,000, excluding new build homes.
The City of Lincoln Council provides a cash-backed indemnity of up to 20% as additional security. The Council then earns the interest on this amount.
One couple which benefitted the scheme so far is Lizzie Bruzas and partner Henry Rundle, who recently moved into their £117,000 Cecil Street home with the help of the scheme.
The pair had rented a house for over three years, saving for a mortgage deposit over the last 18 months. The scheme helped them put down a deposit on a house a couple of years earlier than expected.
New home owner Lizzie Bruzas said: “We were in limbo — we could afford mortgage payments, but as we were paying rent were not able to save a large amount towards a deposit. We were astonished when we found out that help was available to us. If it wasn’t for this scheme we would have been unable to buy for at least another three years.”
Councillor Ric Metcalfe, Leader of the City of Lincoln Council, said: “One of our priorities and commitments to residents is to ensure there is affordable housing available throughout the city. This scheme is one of many inititives we are running to help us achieve this aim.
“We hope to help up to 50 first time buyers in Lincoln to become home owners through the initiative. I encourage any first-time buyers in the city to check whether the scheme may be able to help them.”
There are still spaces left to apply for the scheme. For more information, visit a Lloyds TSB branch in Lincoln.
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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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