Lincolnshire unitary authority referendum plan scrapped after legal advice

Lincolnshire County Council is set to permanently scrap its Saturday waste collection service its Stamford and Mablethorpe.

The two towns do not have their own tips, so the waste collection service was run in Stamford’s Cattle Market car park, but it was suspended in March 2020.

And this week the Environment and Economy Scrutiny Committee at Lincolnshire County Council made the recommendation on Tuesday, October 19, to permanently discontinue the service.

The committee voted eight in favour and three against. A previous attempt to terminate the service was rejected by the committee back in 2016.

The supplementary waste collections will be subject to a decision by Daniel McNally, Executive Councillor for Waste and Trading Standards, between October 21 and 28, 2021.

Student Rose Battey presented a petition at the meeting, which demands that the county council restores the Saturday recycling materials collection from Stamford Cattle Market car park. | Screenshot: LCC meeting

A petition set up by 18-year-old Stamford student Rose Battey, which so far has over 1,600 signatures including from South Kesteven District Council Leader Kelham Cooke, was presented at the meeting.

Watch the full meeting here (from around 12.50).

The petition demands that the county council restores the Saturday recycling materials collection from Stamford Cattle Market car park. Rose said it is a “well-used, accessible, local service – there is no justification for removing it”.

On the petition page, she said: “Stamford, with over 20,000 residents, is the largest town in Lincolnshire without a waste recycling centre, and with proposed housing developments, it is growing. The absence of recycling options encourages littering and fly-tipping.”

She added: “Stamford residents are forced to travel to our nearest waste recycling centre in Bourne; not everyone has access to a suitable car, can afford the petrol costs or can spare the time for the trip.

“Notwithstanding that the journey creates CO2 emissions that are pumped into the atmosphere. How is that ensuring that Lincolnshire meets the government’s target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050?”

The petition has the support of both of Stamford’s county councillors. After the meeting Richard Cleaver, county councillor for Stamford West, told The Lincolnite: “I’m disappointed that the scrutiny committee decided to accept the recommendation to discontinue the Saturday waste collection services in Stamford and Mablethorpe.

“I think it was a wasted opportunity that they did not take up my suggestion to investigate how these once a week collection services could be retained and improved to increase recycling and avoid further waste being sent to landfill.”

Two mums from the Ingham and Saxilby villages near Lincoln earned thousands of pounds from selling fake designer clothes and watches, a court heard.

Sally Turzanski, 29, and Rebekah Groves, 30, set up a Facebook group to market their items with customers paying by cash.

The group grew to over 15,000 members and the volume of cash coming in was so much that at one point Groves texted her friend saying “RICH RICH RICH!!!”

The pair earned at least £20,000 each from the enterprise before they were raided by Trading Standards officers who discovered counterfeit designer items at their homes.

Lincoln Crown Court heard that fake items found during raids on the homes of Turzanski and Groves included Chanel shoes, Rolex watches, Ralph Lauren polo shirts and vests, Adidas trainers and T-shirts, Nike trainers and T-shirts and a Louis Vuitton baseball cap.

The court was told that most customers would have known they were buying fake items because of the prices they paid.

Alison Lambert, prosecuting, said: “The defendants were managing the Facebook group. They were purchasing goods, arranging orders and delivery.”

She said investigations into the enterprise began in early 2019 and Turzanski’s then home was searched, but no counterfeit goods were found.

Two months later Trading Standards discovered the group had been re-established with Turzanski and Groves being two of the three administrators, and the investigation resumed.

Raids were carried out in December 2019 on the homes of both women. A large amount of cash and 103 counterfeit items were found at Groves’ home. 12 counterfeit items were found at the home of Turzanski.

Miss Lambert said the investigation revealed that the two women initially ran the enterprise with a man, but fell out with him over the financial arrangement and by the end of November 2018 they had set up on their own.

The 1,400 text messages between the two of them found on Groves’ mobile phone included one in which she wrote “RICH RICH RICH!!!” and another when she wrote “We’ll be in the shit if we get found out”.

The court was told that neither of the defendants had any previous convictions.

Sunil Khanna, for Turzanski, said she was introduced to a man who told her he would show her how to make money. Initially she thought that ex-warehouse goods were involved only to discover they were fakes.

“At the time she had problems with her personal life. She was on benefits with two children.

“They thought that what they were doing was not bad. The customers pretty much knew what they were getting given the prices.”

Tom Heath, for Groves, said she was in a vulnerable position and suffers from anxiety and depression.

“She was trying to support three children on her own while in receipt of benefits. There was a shortfall and she was struggling to make ends meet.

“She has demonstrated remorse. She is desperately afraid of going to prison.”

Sally Turzanski, 29, of The Green, Ingham, and Rebekah Groves, 30, of The Sidings, Saxilby, each admitted two charges of possession of criminal property and eight charges of possession of goods with false trademarks for sale.

They were each given a 12 month jail sentence suspended for two years with a three month electronically monitored night-time curfew. A total of £3,954 was ordered to be forfeited and each was ordered to pay £200 towards prosecution costs.

Recorder William Harbage QC told them: “This was a systematic operation and although you may have been introduced to this by a third party it is absolutely clear that you picked it up and ran with it and when you were not happy with the terms and conditions of the other person you set up on your own and traded in counterfeit goods yourselves.

“Based on the banking figures you gained over £20,000 each as a bare minimum.”

The 67-year-old man who organised the flight that cost Lincolnshire pilot David Ibbotson and Argentine footballer Emiliano Sala their lives is currently on trial, with prosecutors saying he acted “recklessly and dangerously” to arrange it.

David Henderson, of East Riding in Yorkshire, is in court in relation to an incident in January 2019, which saw a plane piloted by Lincolnshire man David Ibbotson, 59, crash with Argentinian footballer Emiliano Sala on board.

The crash killed both men, and Cardiff Crown Court has heard how Ibbotson was unqualified to fly the plane. Despite this, Henderson asked him to fly Sala over to Cardiff to complete a record £15 million transfer from French club Nantes.

The trial, due to last two weeks, started on Tuesday, October 19, as Henderson pleaded guilty to attempting to discharge a passenger without valid permission or authorisation.

He did, however, deny the charge of endangering the safety of an aircraft after the Piper Malibu N264DB crashed north of Guernsey in January 2019.