Two-year-old Lincoln Thomas Cook store closed in company collapse

There were 5,405 cases of coronavirus last week in Greater Lincolnshire, as health secretary Sajid Javid insists Christmas will be “normal” after £5.9billion have been earmarked for NHS improvements.

The figure is just down on the 5,589 (about -3.29%) cases on the previous week – despite a record breaking day last Wednesday with 965 cases. There were 1,354 new cases over the weekend.

The latest government data also shows there have been 14 deaths of Lincolnshire residents this week – one fewer than 15 last week – and, due to data not being updated over the weekend, eight deaths reported at Greater Lincolnshire’s hospitals, up from six last week.

The latest COVID stats for Lincolnshire are:

• 1,354 new cases of coronavirus in Greater Lincolnshire over the weekend with 1,004 in Lincolnshire, 167 in North East Lincolnshire and 183 in North Lincolnshire
• Six further deaths were recorded in the government figures including four Lincolnshire residents and two North East Lincolnshire
• Hospital data is not updated at the weekend

Appearing on BBC Breakfast this morning, health secretary Sajid Javid has said it is not necessary to start put the government’s Plan B into action.

He told the show the that COVID was “unpredictable” and that he wouldn’t want to predict where it was going to be.

However, he said: “For all those people like me that are hoping and planning for a normal Christmas – which I do, by the way, think that’s where we’ll be, we’ll have a normal Christmas – if we want let’s just keep playing our part.”

Mr Javid also confirmed he wanted to make it mandatory for NHS staff to be double vaccinated against COVID-19, saying it was “only right for someone working in the NHS” due to their close proximity to the virus and the vulnerable.

He announced the NHS in England would get an extra £5.9 billion in the budget to cut down waiting lists.

Alongside opening new community clinics for scans and tests, it will include:

• £1.5bn to be spent on more beds, equipment and new “surgical hubs”
• £2.1bn to be spent on improving IT and digital technology within the NHS

Reconstruction works on a key commuting route in Gainsborough will start this week, prompting up to six weeks of overnight road closures.

The carriageway at Bridge Street and Ropery Road needs reconstructing, and work will begin on Monday, October 25.

There will be rolling night-time closures on both streets from 6pm to 2am Monday to Friday, and only the section of road being worked on that particular evening will be closed.

The works are expected to last up to six weeks, subject to suitable weather, as the roads reach the end of their serviceable life.

The diversion route for the schedule of works at Ropery Road and Bridge Street in Gainsborough. | Photo: Lincolnshire County Council

The diversion route will be via A159 Trinity Street / Beaumont Street / North Street / Morton Terrace / Morton Road and vice versa.

Clio Perraton-Williams, county councillor for Scotter Rural and executive support councillor for highways, said: “When we start, the team will be carrying work out overnight, beginning in the south and working north.

“We’ll be doing everything we can to keep disruption to a minimum including only closing the sections of road being worked on at the time, placing signage out so drivers know where the road is closed, and maintaining access for residents as often as it’s safe to do so.

“I want to thank everyone in advance for their patience. Once complete, these improvements will make travelling around Gainsborough much safer and more comfortable for all road users.”

Boston’s biggest Brexit vote majority (75%) could be rewarded with a museum, with the Lincolnshire town shortlisted as one of the two potential locations for a so-called Museum of Brexit.

The Museum of Brexit describes itself a project that is “supported by many on both sides of the referendum question, and aims to provide a fair and balanced view of the campaign and what led up to the campaign”.

The trustees of the Museum of Brexit said they’re now deciding between Boston or Peterborough after 18 months of locational research, market trawling and site visits across the UK.

The location decision will be announced in early 2022 and the museum will open by late 2023, according to The Telegraph.

Also read: Boston city?! Council preparing bid to earn city status + What the locals said to our Local Democracy Reporter about the issue of Brexit last year.

In a questions page on the museum’s website it is asked if the museum will be balanced. The response stated: “Yes, because no story can be told in isolation. There were two sides to the 2016 Brexit debate, and both need to be explored.”

Lee Rotherham is a former director of special projects at Vote Leave and one of the trustees of the Museum of Brexit. He led the search for a permanent site and said: “This has been a long and involved process. Each of the 50 initial locations were put through a matrix of 14 criteria.

“This brought the long list down to a point where we could review individual sites on a separate set of fresh criteria relating to the buildings themselves. This was a difficult task as there are some remarkable sites out there.

“Everything from size, cost, transport links, support or otherwise from the local community, and council, through to ability to hire – local wage rates etc were considered.

“In the end we have decided that the two buildings most suitable for our needs are in the town of Boston in Lincolnshire, or the City of Peterborough. Both of these buildings would match the requirements of the museum in display space, archive space, and the ability to run educational programs.

“What is vital is that this project is sustainable, financially and historically. We are not looking at the next 10 years, we are looking at the next hundred.

“It is an exciting time for all of us at the museum, and we are now going through the plans and discussing with the relevant stakeholders about exactly where we will be based, and from there we will be able to start the process of creating a museum that will be able to talk about the history of Brexit, but also the longer story of the United Kingdom’s sovereignty, its international ties of trade and culture and the personal stories that bring this epoch making period of our history to life.”

The building earmarked for the Brexit museum in Boston has not been disclosed at this stage.

Reactions on Twitter to the news over the weekend weren’t so kind.