Lincoln City prepare for biggest FA Cup match in over 115 years

A developer has revealed their £150 million redevelopment plan for Waterside North in Lincoln.

Rizwan Haq, of Engineered for Living, was given permission to redevelop Waterside House into 49 apartments in October.

However, in his latest plans to the City of Lincoln Council, he has also revealed he wants to redevelop the area, including a 148-160-bed hotel and more than 600 homes as well as doctors, nurseries and childcare facilities, a swimming pool and other leisure services.

Waterside House is currently an office block. | Photo: Google Street View

Mr Haq said the city faced “a serious challenge ahead of an unprecedented magnitude”.

“The city centre needs to adapt rapidly and evolve to prevent a rapid decline into a ghost town of empty and abandoned retail outlets,” he said.

“There is a huge opportunity to repurpose the city centre to a provide a more dynamic, diverse and inclusive offering, allowing Lincoln to build on its traditional cultural heritage.

“Waterside North can act as the catalyst to pave the way for this transformation.”

The masterplan layout. | Image: Shaw and Jagger Architects

The latest plans are for two single-storey extensions to Waterside House to provide management accommodation and a sales suite and a new purpose-built bike store.

However, in the new year, Mr Haq wants permission to build a seven-floor apartment block with 126 one-bedroom and 28 two-bedroom flats.

He also wants to extend Waterside House up by an additional two floors.

The largest part of Mr Haq’s plans will be developing the riverside area, including the St Rumbold Street car park, into a ‘Little Holland Marina Living’ area.

A satellite image of the area. | Photo: Google

The land is currently owned by City of Lincoln Council and Mr Haq hopes his masterplan will inspire the authority to let him build on the site, or buy it outright.

He called on them to get involved at an early stage.

“We have investors who are fascinated by Lincoln`s 1,000-year-old cathedral coming from Dubai where the oldest buildings are 20 years old who are eager to invest heavily into the city providing that they can see a suitably interesting and ambitious masterplan,” he said.

Mr Haq’s spending plan includes £6 million on the Waterside House redevelopment, £8million to extend it, £15million on the apartment block and then £120 million on the marina.

Lincolnshire health bosses welcomed the first UK-approved COVID-19 vaccine, which will be rolled out from next week to priority groups such as NHS workers.

The Pfizer vaccine must be constantly kept cold at -70℃, so it’s likely rollout will begin in hospitals first as they have the equipment to regulate the low temperature.

It will be followed by local vaccination services in GP surgeries, as well as large vaccination centres across the UK.

Two doses will be offered around a month apart from each other.

Phase 1 vaccine priority groups:

1. Residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
2. All those 80 years of age and over as well as frontline health and social care workers
3. All those 75 years of age and over
4. All those 70 years of age and over as well as clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
5. All those 65 years of age and over
6. All individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality
7. All those 60 years of age and over
8. All those 55 years of age and over
9. All those 50 years of age and over

Professor Derek Ward, Director of Public Health for Lincolnshire, said: “This vaccine is a fantastic weapon in our arsenal,” but “it’s very early days.”

He explained “winter’s going to be difficult” but the NHS has “really good systems and processes in place” to combat the virus.

“Come spring time, we will be in a much better position… let’s keep pushing against this horrible disease.”

Similarly, health secretary, Matt Hancock said “By the spring we’re going to be through this.”

In a briefing this morning, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation said its “first priorities” were the prevention of deaths and maintenance of health and social care systems.

Data shows the Pfizer vaccine is 95% effective and, the committee said the safety was “similar to others” with “very mild side effects”.

They said a “rigorous” review had been carried out.

“Everyone can be absolutely confident no corners whatsoever have been cut,” said Dr June Raine, chief executive of the UK’s vaccine and medicine regulator.

People in Lincolnshire had mixed reactions to the new vaccine news on The Lincolnite’s Facebook page:

Jess Logsdail said: “Those who refuse the vaccine, antivaxxers, clearly don’t care about anyone else other then themselves, they don’t even care about their own family.”

Andy Baggot commented: “Does it seem strange to anyone else that it took a relatively short time to develop this vaccine, yet over years of development and research there’s still no vaccine/cure for cancer, common cold, AIDS, MS etc…..or is it just my cynical self?”

Prime Minister, Boris Johnson is set to speak this evening about the vaccine and roll out to the UK. Treatments from other manufacturers are also in the pipeline.

Debenhams was busy but Primark was quiet in Lincoln on Wednesday morning, as the national coronavirus lockdown was lifted and non-essential stores could reopen.

The country moved out of a national lockdown and into a tiered system on Wednesday, December 2, with the whole of Lincolnshire going into tier 3.

Despite being in the highest possible tier, the rules allow for retail, gyms and hairdressers to reopen, meaning the High Street could finally trade again.

Pubs and restaurants can only offer takeaway and collection services though.

Debenhams at St Marks saw plenty of interest out and about, with queues snaking around the building on Wednesday morning.

Shoppers couldn’t wait for Debenhams to reopen. | Photo: The Lincolnite

This could potentially be due to the news that Debenhams is on the brink of liquidation after JD Sports pulled out of a financial rescue deal.

All 124 stores will close and more than 12,000 staff are likely to lose their jobs as administrators try to find a new buyer.

Surprisingly, there were no queues to be seen at Primark, a shop that saw some queue outside from 5am after the first lockdown was lifted.

Primark looks as desolate as it did during lockdown. | Photo: The Lincolnite

This could be because Primark opened at 7am, so people avoided the rush.

There was an obvious presence in the High Street, but there wasn’t the shopping frenzy we saw after the first lockdown.

Some were perhaps getting the Christmas shopping done as early as possible. | Photo: The Lincolnite

The further uphill you went in town, the quieter it got.

There were still some browsing this morning. | Photo: The Lincolnite

Not many rushing out to shop. | Photo: The Lincolnite

Uphill Lincoln was considerably less populated in the morning, with the top end of the High Street and the Strait seeing next to no queues of eager shoppers.

Limited numbers seen near The Strait. | Photo: The Lincolnite