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Construction will begin in early 2021 on an expansion costing just over £6.5 million at a special school in Spilsby, including a new block with additional facilities.

Lincolnshire County Council is investing £50 million in improving and expanding special schools across the county over the next few years.

The latest project will involve extensive remodelling of the existing buildings at Eresby Special School in Spilsby and its capacity will increase by an additional 20 places.

The new block will include five classrooms, a hall, ICT and science spaces, as well as small group rooms, hygiene facilities and staff and meeting spaces.

The existing school will be remodelled to provide a design/technology and art room, a physiotherapy space, a visiting professional/therapy space, a parents’ room, a hygiene suite, a disabled toilet and staff/administration spaces.

Works are expected to be completed in early 2022.

Councillor Patricia Bradwell OBE, executive member for children’s services, said: “We want all local children to get a great start in life, and a good education is key to that.

“That’s why we are investing £50m in improving and expanding special schools across the county over the next few years.

“This will be the third project to begin construction, following Boston Endeavour Academy and The Willoughby Academy in Bourne.

“These improvements will ensure all children in the local area are able to receive high quality education as near their family and local community as possible.”

The final weekend road closure at Greetwell Road in Lincoln has been cancelled as good progress has been made on the bypass works.

Weekend road closures started on Saturday, September 19 and were scheduled to last up to six weeks.

However, favourable weather and good progress with the works means the closure for October 24 to 26 is no longer needed.

This was seen as the final series of road closures for the area as Lincoln Eastern Bypass continues to develop ahead of its expected completion later this year.

Lincolnshire county councillor, Richard Davies, executive member for highways. | Photo: Steve Smailes.

Councillor Richard Davies, executive member for highways, said: “Similar to our recent bypass works at Lincoln Road roundabout, I’m glad to announce that we were able to complete our works at Greetwell Road this past weekend.

“As a result, we won’t need to close the road this weekend, like we originally thought, meaning we can avoid the disruption this final closure would have caused.

“Ahead of opening Lincoln’s new bypass by the end of the year, the focus will be on finishing the installation of new drainage and kerbing across the entire route; laying road surfacing, painting white lines and installing road signs; and putting the finishing touches on two of the scheme’s biggest pieces of infrastructure – the new River Witham Viaduct and the new bridge spanning over the Lincoln to Market Rasen rail line in Greetwell.”

The £120 million single carriageway bypass will start at a new roundabout on the A15 Sleaford Road and finish at the A158 Wragby Road.

Health bosses expect more areas of the UK to go into higher tiers in the coming weeks, including potentially “some areas of Lincolnshire”.

Assistant director of public health Tony McGinty said there were “no discussions” currently ongoing with government agencies about numbers in Lincolnshire.

However, he said numbers of COVID cases will continue to increase.

On Thursday, the total number across Greater Lincolnshire passed the 4,000 mark — nearly five times September’s figure of 820.

The county is currently on the lowest tier (medium), which means it is subject to the general measures of tackling COVID, such as the 10pm hospitality curfew and the rule of six.

However, Lincolnshire borders tier 3 lockdowns in South Yorkshire, while to the west Newark and Sherwood district of Nottinghamshire has reportedly escaped the fate of some of its neighbours in going up to the highest level of restrictions.

Mr McGinty said: “I believe that more areas of the country, including potentially some areas of Lincolnshire, may be asked to consider going up a tier, or we may decide that we simply need to go up to tier to get to get additional control measures in place.

“That will be happening all over the country over the coming weeks now.” It is understood this could happen by the end of November.

Mr McGinty said more “sensitive” local control measures were still the best way forward for now, but added “the time may come where that isn’t feasible anymore”.

“The longer that we can allow areas that can manage it to have more economic, social and well-being freedom, the better.

“We face a very long winter otherwise, if we go to the higher levels of restrictions earlier than we need to.”

Lincolnshire is tier 1 – medium – lockdown.

Although there is no published criteria for which areas move up and down a tier, it is understood to include those areas with a rate of more than 100-150 cases a week per 100,000, as well as how long they have been in that bracket.

According to the latest government data, Lincolnshire’s latest seven-day rate was 102.1 per 100,000. Meanwhile North East Lincolnshire was 229.4 and North Lincolnshire was 159.

At a district level, Lincoln (166.2), South Kesteven (112.3) and Boston (106.9) all sit within the criteria level.

The worst affected parts of the Greater Lincolnshire region include New Waltham (409.5) and the Great Coates and The Willows (482.5) areas in the Grimsby area.

Greater Lincolnshire is doing much better than its neighbours for COVID-19 infection rates but numbers are rising rapidly.

In Lincoln, the Wharf and University (337.7) and Boultham and New Boultham (323.5) areas have the highest infection rates in the most recent figures.

However, health bosses warn that the more local you get with figures, the more variation you might see on a week-to-week basis.

This number can also be hugely affected by the density of population, as well as smaller localised outbreaks in locations such as a schools, care homes or factories.