Lincolnshire hospitals never hit capacity during coronavirus crisis

The owner of Browns Pie Shop in Lincoln has put the family-run business up for sale as he plots a completely different career path, which involves living with tribes in the Peruvian jungle.

The business has been somewhat of an institution in the city of Lincoln, serving local residents with delicious pies for 35 years on Steep Hill.

Browns underwent a huge change in 2017, when former owners Allan and Christine Gill sold the business to their son Danny, 34, who started out as a 16-year-old pot washer before eventually becoming chef and owner.

Browns Pie Shop on Steep Hill

After almost five years of ownership, Danny has decided to sell the business and pursue a recently found passion of his, personal and spiritual development.

As part of his training and courses, Danny will be heading to Peru to live with a tribe, learning all about holistic healing and studying plant medicine.

Danny (far right) took over the business from his parents Allan and Christine (left) in 2017. They are pictured with partner Carly Turner and Paul Fields. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Danny told The Lincolnite: “Browns Pie Shop means everything to me, it has inspired my whole career and been something I worked so hard on.

“However, for the first time in my life I am actually putting myself first, nonstop work was having an effect on me and I just felt the time was right for a change.”

Browns Pie Shop has become somewhat of an institution in the city of Lincoln. | Photo: Knightsbridge Business Sales Limited

Browns Pie Shop has been listed for sale by Knightsbridge Business Sales Limited, at a guide price of £250,000. You can view the listing here if you are interested in owning a slice of the pie.

The listing calls it an award-winning and highly popular restaurant and takeaway, with a turnover of £660,000 pre-pandemic.

The restaurant also offers drinks from the bar as well as a takeaway service. | Photo: Knightsbridge Business Sales Limited

Danny has said he truly hopes the legacy of Browns Pie Shop can live on in Lincoln for years to come, and that he did everything he could to keep the business afloat during lockdown.

“I gave everything to make sure that once lockdown was lifted, there was still a business for people to come to afterwards. It was tiring but I had to do it for the sake of Browns. It was like I was on autopilot mode to save the business.

“It’s a great place with huge potential, it’s heartbreaking to see what has happened to the amazing hospitality industry in the last 18 months, and I truly hope this place can get a new owner and continue to serve the good people of Lincoln for a long time.”

It caters for up to 52 diners. | Photo: Knightsbridge Business Sales Limited

Further discussing his eyebrow-raising career change, Danny said that spiritual development was a “really satisfying” line of work, which allowed him to directly help people.

“I guess I’ve just changed a lot over the years. I’m growing as a human and actively seeking ways to help others.

“I feel a holistic way of living is the way forward, the lines have been blurred as to what people actually need in the world.

“The last thing the world needs right now is another superstar businessman talking about their success online, what it needs is real help.”

Children aged 12-17 are among the highest transmission group for coronavirus and will “inevitably” get it, health bosses said, as 624 cases have been confirmed in Greater Lincolnshire on Wednesday.

Government figures on Wednesday showed 402 new cases in Lincolnshire, 62 in North East Lincolnshire and 160 in North Lincolnshire.

Four further deaths of Greater Lincolnshire residents were recorded in the government figures, with three in Lincolnshire and one in North East Lincolnshire.

NHS data reported one fatality at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Trust.

Nationally cases increased by 34,460 to 7,530,103, while deaths rose by 166 to 135,621.

England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty has told the government’s Education Committee today that there is “substantial transmission” of COVID-19 between the ages of 12-17.

“Virtually any child, unvaccinated, is likely to get an infection at some point between 12 and 15,” he said.

“There is definitely substantial transmission happening in this age group. In fact, the age group we’re talking about is the one in which the highest rate of transmission is currently occurring, as far as we can tell,”

Lincolnshire’s coronavirus cases up to September 22. | Image: GOV.uk

Professor Whitty told the committee that both the risk to children from COVID-19 and from vaccination was “small” but added the benefits of vaccinating them were greater than the potential for harm.

He added that vaccination was “not a silver bullet” but it would “significantly reduce… the amount of disruption” to education.

Also speaking about giving one dose of the Pfizer vaccine to school children, deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said the side effects of that first dose are lower than those from a second dose.

He went on to say it is “extremely inconvenient to be laid low” by COVID-19, albeit for a small number of days.

Mr Whitty said that half of children have already had coronavirus during the pandemic.

“Because the Delta variant is so infectious we’re not looking at a theoretical risk of children 12 to 17 becoming infected. I think it is really quite inevitable that they will be so at some point,” added Professor Van Tam.

Lincolnshire’s coronavirus cases broken down by age range up to September 22. | Image: GOV.uk

According to the government data, in Lincolnshire, the infection rate for those age ranges is 963.7 per 100,000 population for 10-14-year-olds and 547.6 for 15-19-year-olds.

In North East Lincolnshire the figures are 1,045.9 per 100,000 population and 552.2 respectively, while in North Lincolnshire they are 1,591 and 896 per 100,000 population.

ALSO READ: Lincoln MP speaks out against child vaccinations for COVID-19

Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Wednesday, September 22

109,625 cases (up 624)

• 71,913 in Lincolnshire (up 402)
• 17,370 in North Lincolnshire (up 160)
• 20,342 in North East Lincolnshire (up 62)

2,325 deaths (up four)

• 1,702 from Lincolnshire (up three)
• 316 from North Lincolnshire (no change)
• 307 from North East Lincolnshire (up one)

of which 1,395 hospital deaths (up one)

• 853 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (no change)
• 44 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)
• 1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)
• 497 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (up one)

DATA SOURCE — FIGURES CORRECT AT THE TIME OF THE LATEST UPDATE. POSTCODE DATA INCLUDES DEATHS NOT IN HEALTHCARE FACILITIES OR IN HOSPITALS OUTSIDE AUTHORITY BOUNDARIES.

Karl McCartney, MP for Lincoln, has asked the government to reconsider their stance on administering the COVID-19 vaccine to children, asking that they “do no harm”.

Mr McCartney gave the speech during a debate with fellow members of parliament on Tuesday, September 21, in which the topic of offering the vaccine for coronavirus to school children in the UK was discussed.

Calls were made for further trials of the vaccine to go ahead to ensure the safety of the doses before giving them to younger people, after the UK’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty recommended that 12-15 year-olds get jabbed on public health grounds.

This comes after the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation (JVCI) had previously said COVID-19 presents a low risk for healthy children, and that the vaccine would only offer slight benefits.

Lincoln MP Karl McCartney. | Photo: Daniel Jaines

In his speech, Mr McCartney said that 50-70% of children have contracted and survived COVID-19, and called the government’s claims that this will protect children “a fallacy”.

“Regardless of the chief medical officer’s overruling of the JCVI, I would say that when it comes to our nation’s children and young people, the people in these roles should remember that their actions should do no harm”, Karl McCartney said.

“Our colleagues in government—whether newly appointed or not—should also be mindful, in respect of the electorate’s children, that they should do no harm.

“We are told that any vaccination programme would not negate potential future school closures, so what is the point? Where is the political backbone? Is the government’s plan that any future upsurge in age 12-to-15 cases could be ascribed to an epsilon or a zeta variant, or perhaps an eta or a theta variant?

“Will anyone give an iota of credence to such an occurrence after what we have seen with hospital transference to care homes and the subsequent surge in cases in our older generation, and with the recent vaccinations and the delta variant that has emerged? We need to do no harm for myriad, if not a veritable plethora of reasons.”

Mr McCartney then went on to say that vaccine passports are neither a first nor second line of defence for young people against a “potential so-called winter wave of coronavirus”, suggesting there is no medium or long-term data to back up the need for mandatory vaccination.

He continues: “I admire Chris Whitty and his colleagues for many things that they have done in the past 18 months. However, citing educational disruption, or the fear of more of it, as a justification for child vaccination against JCVI advice seems a little desperate, as far as I am concerned.”

When asked by The Lincolnite about his stance on the coronavirus vaccine and if people should take it or he himself is double-jabbed, Mr McCartney twice failed to reply; once in July and again in September.