The first full year of Lincolnshire Reporter has seen general and local elections, a host of exciting new and returning events from the Humber to the Wash, freakish weather and sadly more than a fair share of tragedy.
In this round-up, we take a look back at the stories that made the headlines across the county in 2017.
Tory Karl McCartney loses Lincoln seat in general election
New Lincoln MP Karen Lee
Nationally, the political scene was completely dominated by Brexit and the unexpected general election called by Prime Minister Theresa May for June 8.
The Conservative leader had wanted the election in a bid to boost her majority in the House of Commons and receive her own personal Brexit mandate from the electorate.
However, in a night of surprises, the Conservatives lost their majority, and had to end up negotiating a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland to hold on to power.
In Lincolnshire, despite earlier Conservative hopes of winning in places such as Scunthorpe and Great Grimsby, it was Labour who made the only gain of the night, with Karen Lee ousting Karl McCartney in Lincoln.
The rest of the county stayed pretty much the same, with veteran Tory backbencher Sir Edward Leigh winning his ninth successive election in Gainsborough, Nick Boles fighting off cancer to retain his Grantham and Stamford seat, and UKIP leader Paul Nuttall being humiliated in Boston and Skegness.
Lincolnshire County Council Leader Martin Hill. Photo: Lincolnshire Reporter
What perhaps made the general election result all the more surprising was the dominance of the Conservatives in the county council election just four weeks earlier.
The Tories banished the disappointment of failing to win a majority at County Hall back in 2013 by securing a remarkable 58 out of 70 seats, with county council leader Martin Hill visibly delighted by the results.
It was a night (and a year) to forget for UKIP, who lost all their seats on the council, with the other parties only faring marginally better.
Sporting triumphs, huge music acts and sparkling new events
Lincoln City had the most to cheer about last season in their successful campaign
2017 saw a whole range of familiar events on the Bomber County summer calendar, such as the ever-popular Lincolnshire Show, Armed Forces Day in Cleethorpes, the largest village show in the UK in Heckington, and the Woodhall Spa 1940s Show.
Alongside these favourites was the inaugural Scampton Airshow which will hopefully make a return for 2019, and smaller events such as the JoeFest music festival near Horncastle.
This year also saw huge live acts come to Lincolnshire, with Kaiser Chiefs playing their greatest hits at Market Rasen Racecourse and singer-songwriter Craig David performing on a memorable Friday night in Cleethorpes.
It was also a year to remember sporting-wise, with Lincoln City reaching the quarter finals of the FA Cup and more importantly gaining promotion back to the Football League.
Cyclists were also treated to a special 2017 in Lincolnshire, with The Tour of the Wolds earlier in the year followed by North Lincolnshire hosting a stage of the Tour of Britain in September, with thousands lining the streets of Scunthorpe and the surrounding areas.
Tragedies on our roads
Photo: Janos A
2017, as with all years, sadly saw far too many tragedies happen on roads across our large, rural county.
The death of Lincolnshire County Council business and public protection manager Ian Newell in a six-vehicle crash on the A1 in March hit the whole county hard.
Hundreds of tributes were also left to 24-year-old biker Josh Stepniewski, who died at the scene of a crash in Blyton in June.
Murders, serious crimes and Spalding killers named
Markham (left) and Edwards were sentenced to 17-and-a-half years in prison. Photo: Facebook
Lincolnshire, generally, is widely regarded as a safe place to live. However, a few sporadic incidents spread out across the year brought grave concerns and sadness to communities.
August Bank Holiday in Mablethorpe was marred by the stabbing of 36-year-old James Rudd on Victoria Road, with James Adam, 46, pleading not guilty to murder after being arrested by police.
One month later, seven men were arrested by officers following the death of Alberts Volkausks, who was found with serious head injuries at an address on Pen Street in Boston.
Earlier in September, the north of the county was rocked by the death of 58-year-old Mike Hawkins, who died after being reportedly knocked out with one punch outside a bar in Cleethorpes.
Moving down the coast to Ingoldmells, in December Lincolnshire Police confirmed that they were treating the death of 29-year-old Gareth Bailey as murder, with Skegness man Steven Feeley arrested.
Continuing the journey further south, 2017 was the year in which the infamous Spalding teenage killers Kim Edwards and Lucas Markham, jailed for murdering Spalding mother and daughter Elizabeth and Katie Edwards, were able to be named by the media for their gruesome crime.
A storm called Doris, and snow which never really came
Photo: Andrew Scott
The weather for 2017 caused much discussion among Yellowbellies, most notably when the final day of the Lincoln Christmas Market was cancelled due to the threat of heavy snow, which never really materialised.
Officials were widely ridiculed for the controversial decision, with outspoken television presenter Piers Morgan slamming the decision, and describing us as “a snowflake generation”.
Snowflakes aside, the start of the year saw the Lincolnshire coast braced for a storm surge, with the army even drafted in to deal with potential severe flooding.
Thankfully, again this was not as bad as predicted, with high tide passing without major incident on the coast.
In February, Lincolnshire was once again told to brace itself for another storm, this time affecting the land mainly and called Doris.
While not sounding overly threatening, the heavy rain and strong winds of Storm Doris did end up causing damage across the county, with trees falling down, public transport postponed and homes without power.
Syas relaxing in his new Horncastle enclosure. Photo: Steve Smailes for Lincolnshire Reporter
Lincolnshire being Lincolnshire, there were some slightly unfortunate, unusual and just plain bizarre stories which you enjoyed reading, sharing and commenting on throughout the year.
Christmas is described as the most wonderful time of the year. Sadly, it almost got cancelled in Gainsborough as the much-anticipated Coca Cola truck was hours late after ending up being stuck in a field!
During the summer, we visited surely one of the region’s most impressive collections of wild animals featuring tigers, zebras and camels…inside one person’s backyard!
And finally, if this Grantham vicar does not get you in the festive spirit, well I’m not sure what else we can do!
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A new partnership of councils could be a triple-threat – and save taxpayers £42 million.
Boston Borough, East Lindsey and South Holland District Councils have now formally signed off on plans to create the South and East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership.
The authorities say the agreement allows them to be ‘distinct entities’ and remain separate, however, they will share a senior management team – with Rob Barlow taking over as chief executive for all three – and reduce duplication across the authorities in order to make £42 million of savings over the next 10 years.
They will also support each other in bids to improve their respective areas, through funding or demonstration of ambition, or fight off unwanted developments.
Leader of Boston Borough Council Paul Skinner said: “It gives us an awful lot more resilience, and some of the ways the staff have come together expertise-wise will provide us with lots of strength in areas that we haven’t had before.”
And the move also strengthens the authority’s position for a devolution bid, if local government reorganisation is put back on the table.
South Holland District Council leader, Lord Gary Porter.
Leader of South Holland District Council Lord Gary Porter was very much in favour of the £450 million devolution deal offered to the county, but refused due to the requirement for a mayor back in 2016.
He said recent reorganisations in Cumbria showed the government were prepared to look at unitary councils of 300,000 population – the three councils have a combined population of more than 304,000.
“I firmly believe what we’ve done now, would give us a very good building block, if that agenda comes back again,” he said.
“If somebody did put the unitary conversation back on the table, we would be well placed to take that forward on behalf of our residents.”
East Lindsey District Council leader Craig Leyland. | Photo: Daniel Jaines
East Lindsey District Council leader Craig Leyland called the former bid a ‘missed opportunity’ but said the new partnership was a ‘progressive decision’ to take advantage of government talks.
“We’d be more than willing to have a devolution deal with our colleagues and partners across the county because we’re ready,” he said.
“There’s things we can do collectively, a huge opportunity was missed, but we’re not planning on missing other opportunities.”
He later added: “I think by dent of time and practice of working together, we will actually probably have very similar views on many things.
“The ambition, and the appetite, at the moment is to keep distinct councils in terms of local accountability, but the wider ambitions of the alliance are evident and clear.”
Boston Borough Council leader Councillor Paul Skinner.
The councils said the latest move will provide more efficiency, as well as shared resources and policies going forward.
Savings will be made through a series of service reviews over a number of years, but leaders were unclear about where those would focus on.
Joint bids are hoped to attract funding such as the town deals fund or money to tackle flooding problems, while the specialist knowledge each area has in, for instance coastal tourism, agricultural tech and other industries can be shared to bring skills to each area.
The partnership will look to utilise Boston’s port which has undergone revitalisation during the Covid pandemic, as well as attract new factories, warehouses and other major businesses to create hundreds of jobs.
Police are looking to track down two women after £450 of hair and beauty products were stolen from a shop in Sleaford.
The two women pictured in the CCTV images were seen walking into Delightful Hair and Beauty on East Road, Sleaford, at around 10am on Wednesday, June 30.
Police say two women removed hair and beauty products from the shelves and left the store without paying for any of it, totalling around £450 worth of goods.
The first woman has been described as Eastern European, in her mid to early 20s with long black hair. She was wearing a dark cardigan with grey ripped jeans and white and blue Adidas trainers.
The second woman, also described as Eastern European, is believed to be in her mid-50s with blonde shoulder-length hair. She was wearing a cream dress with white trainers that have a red stripe on them. She also has a large tattoo on her leg.
Police would like to speak to the women in the CCTV in connection with the investigation. If you recognise either or both of the women in question, contact police in one of the following ways:
Call 101 and quote crime reference number 21000364619
Email PC Kirsty Taylor at [email protected] and use the same police reference in the subject box
You can contact Crimestoppers anonymously by calling 0800 555111
A nursery in Scunthorpe has been ‘named and shamed’ by the government for failing to pay the minimum wage to nine workers.
Little Tots Nursery (Scunthorpe) Ltd on Oswald Road failed to pay £2,754.06 to nine workers, with the average arrears per worker at the nursery at £306.01.
The nursery is one of 191 businesses named for breaking minimum wage law. Following investigations by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, a total of £2.1 million was found to be owed to more than 34,000 workers. This is despite the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage increasing in April this year.
There was no answer all morning when The Lincolnite tried to contact the nursery, as well as no response via email. The nursery’s Facebook page was online earlier in the morning, but appears to have since been taken down as it is no longer available.
The latest Ofsted inspection, in 2019, rated Little Tots Nursery as ‘good’.
The breaches of the 191 businesses took place between 2011 and 2018. The government said the named employers have since been made to pay back what they owed, and were fined an additional £3.2 million in total, to show it is never acceptable to underpay workers.
Employers who pay workers less than the minimum wage have to pay back arreas of wages to the worker at the current minimum wage rates.
The employers can also face hefty financial penalties of up to 200% of arrears – capped at £20,000 per worker – which are paid to the government.
It is stated in the report that ‘whilst not all minimum wage underpayments are intentional, it has always been the responsibly of all employers to abide by the law’.
The report said employers had underpaid workers in the following ways:
47% wrongly deducted pay from workers’ wages, including for uniform and expenses
30% failed to pay workers for all the time they had worked, such as when they worked overtime
19% paid the incorrect apprenticeship rate
Business Minister Paul Scully said: “Our minimum wage laws are there to ensure a fair day’s work gets a fair day’s pay – it is unacceptable for any company to come up short.
“All employers, including those on this list, need to pay workers properly.
“This government will continue to protect workers’ rights vigilantly, and employers that short-change workers won’t get off lightly.”
The full list of employers named and shamed by the government on Thursday can be found here.
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