Lincoln residents discussed a future service to help protect Lincoln’s commons and green spaces at a meeting on September 7.
The special Commons Advisory Panel at the Grandstand, chaired by Carholme ward Councillor Neil Murray, invited suggestions on how the old Urban Ranger and Commons Warden roles could be replaced.
The Urban Rangers and Commons Warden ceased to guard Lincoln green spaces in July, as earlier in the year the posts were scrapped due to austerity measures.
Now, criminal or persistent complaints are usually handled by Lincolnshire Police or the City of Lincoln Council’s anti-social behaviour team.
However, there is an issue surrounding “low-level” matters, and how these are dealt with.
The meeting was attended by Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Hardwick, and representatives from the City of Lincoln Council, Lincolnshire Police and the University of Lincoln.
Councillor Neil Murray held the meting to figure out how best to protect the green spaces in Lincoln, looking specifically at a “Commons Watch” scheme.
According to the antisocial behaviour team, there has not been a rise in incidents since the wardens left the commons.
The council will continue to tackle anti-social behaviour though even without the wardens service.
The ideas coming forward from the meeting mainly focused on numerous volunteer approaches in the community, that could be uniformed.
The service would probably not run in the evenings, but training would be provided by the council if such a scheme was set up.
Police backup
According to Chief Inspector Lee Pache, Lincolnshire Police feels that the wardens should have been kept.
The role helped police manage issues in green spaces which were too low-level for police to get involved — for example playing football on the West Common bowling green — and saved police time.
Lincolnshire Police states it will be unable to fill the void left by Urban Rangers and Commons Wardens.
However, it does intend to slightly increase patrols within wards with common land and will continue to respond to serious incidents on Lincoln greens and always remain a backup.
Police had two suggestions to put to the panel: Commons Volunteers to support police, and “Commons Trustees”.
A number of trustees would use a group text service to give each other a briefing of what is happening in green areas.
These notes could then be taken to the City Council, or if criminal to Lincolnshire Police, to help tackle problems.
This could pass on a message that there are eyes and ears watching Lincoln’s green spaces for issues at all times.
Meanwhile, PCC Alan Hardwick agreed with Lincolnshire Police’s stance, but can understand the austerity measures faced by the council due to the force’s own cuts.
“If people are aware of figures of authority in the area, it deters low level crime,” said PCC Hardwick.
The PCC attended the meeting to listen to ideas, and see if any of the suggestions could be taken on by volunteers or by future volunteer PCSOs.
Community pride
Other suggestions included adding the council contact numbers to boards around the common to help with reporting incidents, and also adding panels within the city, explaining what the commons are and their importance.
The University of Lincoln attended the meeting to also listen to ideas in order to see if student volunteers would be able to help.
It was suggested that giving students a role within Carholme and Park wards helping to protect the common would make them positively active within the community.
The students could also sign up to the 1,000 Volunteers scheme run by PCC Hardwick in order to help.
However, the university also has a duty of care, and would need to consider any risks before putting students forward.
Students would most likely be of better use in a “monitoring and reporting” role.
Volunteering from cadets, Duke of Edinburgh, probation services and even ex-offenders were also suggestions put forward.
Positive meeting
Speaking after the event, PCC Hardwick said: “This has been a very positive meeting.
“It just shows how many people in this county are willing to do something for their community, in the way of volunteering or putting themselves out for the good of other people.”
“I don’t know what the answer is to the withdrawal of the rangers and that service in Lincoln, but I do know that whatever problems there are, they can be solved by partnership working.
“That’s the message coming loud and clear from today’s meeting.”
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A father was mistakenly mailed hundreds of addresses of parents with young children by North Lincolnshire Council.
The man received more than 200 letters intended for families with three-year-old children.
Instead of being sent separately to the correct addresses, all 208 letters were sent to his home.
They were all for parents with three-year-old children informing them they were eligible for funding, and had the intended addresses printed on them.
The North Lincolnshire dad is worried the details of so many people with young children could have accidentally ended up in the wrong hands.
He said: “I couldn’t believe that little kids’ information was sent out by mistake like this.
“I have two young girls, and I would hate to know that their information had been sent to someone else.
“The envelope was a huge package with my address on, so I assumed it was from work.
“I couldn’t believe when I opened it up and saw the identical letters with over 200 addresses on them.
“As soon as I realised what it was, I considered shredding it. In the end, I contacted North Lincolnshire Council to report it.
“How could a mistake like this happen? I dread to think if it has happened before.”
Letters with addresses of over 200 parents with three-year-old children were mistakenly sent to one home Credit: Submitted Approved for use by all partners
He has arranged to hand the letters back to North Lincolnshire Council to ensure that they are disposed of properly.
A spokesperson has promised that the way letters are posted has been changed to ensure it can’t happen again.
They said: “We take data protection very seriously and successfully send hundreds of thousands of letters each year.
“Changes have been made to the post system to ensure no such technical issues happen again and all the correspondence was eventually returned.”
The discussion was almost scuppered by a complaint, however progressed only to be deferred as members wished to visit the site.
Recommending approval, officers said the plans, which will include a mix of houses as well as bungalows for over 55s along with 12 homes classed as affordable, would provide “effective” use of the land and not create “unacceptable harm”.
The site is allocated for housing in the Central Lincolnshire Local Plan.
Mark Foster, land and planning director at Lindum Homes told the previous meeting the quality of houses was “vitally important” and the layout of the development was “extremely low density – incorporating more open space than required by planning policy”.
How the site could be laid out.
Objectors to the plans, however, said they presented a risk of overdevelopment and would have a long-term risk to the village infrastructure as well as biodiversity, residential amenity, the character of the village and highway safety.
Resident Nigel Heward, said existing infrastructure was “not fit for purpose” and that a lack of footpath provision at the proposed entry was “an accident waiting to happen”.
Lincolnshire County Council, as statutory consultees on highways, had not lodged any objections, but councillors wanted to see the situation for themselves.
As part of the plans the developers will be asked to make a £30,992.50 contribution to Welton Surgery so it can reconfigure its existing layout to create a larger clinical space and more flexibility to manage the projected patient increase.
A man accused of murdering Sam Davies in Lincoln has denied any involvement in the fatal stabbing, a trial heard on Friday.
The prosecution case is that Eimantas Gochman, who was 19 at the time of the attack on May 27 last year, was hired to carry out the hit on Mr Davies. Gochman is one of seven defendants on trial for murder.
The 23-year-old victim was stabbed twice in a park between Coleridge Gardens and Browning Drive at about 10.45pm and died hours later in hospital.
In police interviews read out to the jury at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday, January 28, detectives put to Gochman that there was a lot of contact between a mobile number associated with him and co-defendant Joe Jameson’s mobile in the minutes after the stabbing.
Earlier that day, Jameson had demanded to know from Mr Davies’ partner where he was because he wanted to kill him.
A detective said to Gochman: “We’re saying that after the stabbing, you’ve contacted Joe Jameson.”
Gochman, who denied the number was his, said: “Yeah, but you believe I killed someone, which is not true.”
In a later interview on May 31, Gochman is told that Mr Davies’ mobile phone had been found a few feet away from a knife they believe was used in the attack.
“Is it likely your DNA will be on that phone?” the suspect is asked. Gochman replied: “There’s no way.”
It was put to him that co-defendant Eric Kesel told detectives that he’d heard Gochman dumped the knife.
Gochman said: “I’m just labelled as this ****ing killer and it’s completely not me. It’s just not nice, it’s not nice.”
A message with a bunch of flowers left at the scene reads “Too young to be gone. RIP”. | Photo: The Lincolnite
Gochman said he had been at The Lincoln Imp pub with friends until about 9pm, then went home to get changed and on to co-defendant Charlie Wakefield’s.
He’d then spent the whole night there before having to contact his mum in the morning to get him to work in Newark.
He said he was late to work, felt rough and got his mum to pick him up before lunchtime.
Police interviews with Wakefield were also read out to the court on Friday. He told detectives that he was on a curfew tag so had to be at home between 7pm and 7am.
He said Gochman had called him from the pub at about 8.45pm on the day of the stabbing to ask if could come round for a spliff. Wakefield had said that was fine.
Wakefield said Gochman called again about ten minutes later to say he was leaving the pub at that point and was going home first to get changed.
Gochman called one further time to check it was still ok, about a minute before he arrived at Wakefield’s home in Broxholme Gardens.
According to Wakefield, neither of them left the house again before Gochman’s mum picked up her son at about 8am the following morning to take him to work.
Wakefield said in the interviews that a 17-year-old co-defendant, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, also spent the night with them and was sent out in a taxi to buy weed from a friend of Wakefield’s.
Flowers left in tribute of Lincoln stabbing victim Sam Davies. | Photo: The Lincolnite
Wakefield said co-defendant Eric Kesel told him on May 28 there was “armed police, CID, forensics, everything” on Browning Drive.
The detectives were told by Wakefield he went for a look and was told by a police officer at a cordon that there had been a stabbing. Kesel had arrived there moments later, jokingly calling him “PC Wakefield” and the police officer made a comment about the surname.
Then, later in the day, when Wakefield found out Kesel had been arrested, he said he started “panicking” that he would be “dragged into it”. He admitted making a quick internet search about being an accessory to a crime.
Wakefield said Gochman had been “calm” when he arrived and they had drunk beer, smoked and played Fifa.
He said: “I’m not being funny but if he came round my yard and said ‘Oh, I’ve just done this murder’, I’ll go in the next room and I’ll ring the ****ing police myself. **** that.”
All seven defendants face one count of murder, which they all deny. They are Billy Gill, 21, of Hatcliffe Gardens; Daniel Heydari, 25, of Chestnut Street; Joe Jameson, 24, of Whitehall Terrace; Eimantas Gochman, 20, of Sturton Close; Eric Kesel, 19, of Browning Drive; and Charlie Wakefield, 21, of Broxholme Gardens. A 17-year-old boy cannot be legally identified due to his age. Jameson is also accused of making a threat to kill, which he denies.
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