The MP for Grantham and Stamford said Lincolnshire should be divided into two lockdown tiers, with the south of the county going into tier 2, while central and northern areas remain in tier 3.
Gareth Davies MP voted in favour of the new three-tier system, but he disagrees with the ranking for his constituency: “In the south of Lincolnshire we all know that we very rarely travel to the north where they are having extremely high rates of infection, so it is only right that the government look at south Lincolnshire on its own merits.”
South Holland and South Kesteven are the only two districts in Greater Lincolnshire with lower infection rates than the national average, but are still in tier 3 restrictions.
Gareth Davies added: “I was profoundly disappointed to see this given that our rates of infection were more in line with a tier 2 classification.”
“We have been assigned to tier 3 because of the extremely high rates of infection in the north of the county, specifically East Lindsey and Boston.”
Gareth Davies, Grantham and Stamford MP
On December 2, South Holland had the lowest infection rate in Greater Lincolnshire, with 121 per 100,000 of the population. It ranked 208th in the country out of 380 authorities.
South Kesteven was the second lowest district in Greater Lincolnshire with an infection rate of 148.1 on December 2 and ranked 151th.
Both districts are below the national average of 157.6, and infection rates are reducing each day.
| Data: GOV UK / Table: The Lincolnite
Gareth Davies has worked with Sir John Hayes, MP for South Holland and the Deepings, to call for a review of their specific tier on a more localised basis, so that the movement patterns of south Lincolnshire residents are better reflected.
Together with Sir Edward Leigh MP, County Council Leader Martin Hill and other local leaders, they wrote to the Prime Minister to call for a district-based approach to tiering.
Sir John Hayes, South Holland and the Deepings MP.
Matt Hancock replied: “We will formally review the data and tier allocations for all area across England on December 16 and every two weeks thereafter, and I can assure you that we will again assess each area individually, including areas within Lincolnshire such as south Lincolnshire, on its own merits based on the five criteria we set out in the Winter Plan.”
He added the government will take “into account the very challenging impact of tier 3 measures.”
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A 38-year-old man from a North Lincolnshire village charged with murder will face an eight-day trial later this year.
Emergency services were called at 4.23am on Saturday, July 2 to reports that a man was seriously injured on South Parade in central Doncaster.
The 28-year-old victim was taken to hospital but was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A post-mortem examination found that he died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
Formal identification of the victim is yet to take place, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week.
Steven Ling, 38, of Park Drain, Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire, has been charged with murder and was remanded in custody to appear at Doncaster Magistrates Court on Monday, July 4.
Ling later appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, July 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
No pleas were entered during the hearing, but an eight-day trial was set for November 28, 2022. Ling has now been remanded into custody until the next hearing.
The Lincolnite went on a ride-along with a Lincolnshire Police officer from the force’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which aims to disrupt criminals’ use of the roads and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents.
The team will support the county response including local policing, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation too.
Operations first began in Grantham in January this year and started in Louth earlier this week with a sergeant and nine PCs based in both locations.
The Lincolnite went out on a ride-along with PC Rich Precious from Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
PC Rich Precious has been a police officer for 22 years after joining the force in 2000 and he recently rejoined the Roads Policing Unit, working out of Louth.
PC Precious, who also previously worked as a family liaison officer for road deaths for 16 years, took The Lincolnite out in his police car to the A1 up to Colsteworth and then back to Grantham. He described that particular area as “one of the main arterial routes that goes through Lincolnshire”.
PC Rich Precious driving down the A1 up to Colsterworth. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Speaking about the new Roads Policing Unit, he said: “It’s intelligence led policing, it’s targeted policing in areas that have been underrepresented in terms of police presence, on the roads certainly, over a number of years.
“We’re hoping that the development of this unit will help address that balance, and look towards using the ANPR system to prevent criminals’ use of the road, and to identify key areas or routes where there’s a high percentage of people killed or seriously injured on the road, what we commonly refer to as KSI.
PC Precious is helping to keep the roads safer in Lincolnshire. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
When asked if he thinks the new team will help reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents in the county, he added: “That’s what the the unit designed for. Sadly, in Lincolnshire our road network does seem to incur a number of those KSI accidents year on year, and we need to reduce that.
“I’ve worked additionally in my roles as a family liaison officer on road death for 16 years, so I’ve seen first hand the impact that road death has on families and victims families.
“I know it’s important that we try and reduce those because, it’s very sad to see how a fatal road traffic collision can affect a family and the victims of that family.”
Marc Gee, Inspector for Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Marc Gee, Inspector for the Roads Policing Unit, told The Lincolnite: “Every day there will be officers on duty from both teams and they’ll cover the whole county or the county’s roads.
“Eventually, we’ll have nine police cars and we’ve got six motorbikes. We’ll be utilising them with as many officers as we can every day basically to make our roads safer and enforce against the criminals who feel like it’s okay to come into the county and use our road for criminal purposes.”
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones at the launch of the force’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
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