With the ongoing cost of living crisis and the looming reality of school summer holidays on the horizon, businesses across Lincolnshire are doing their bit by offering discounted meals for kids throughout the season.
Deals can be found at supermarkets, garden centres, pubs and restaurants across our county, with businesses providing enticing offers that enable you to eat out somewhere without the need to break the bank.
Here are some of the places offering discounted, or in some cases free meals, for children during the school summer holidays:
Dough LoCo
| Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
One of Lincoln’s favourite pizza restaurants has offered its help to families “feeling the pinch” of the cost of living crisis. Dough LoCo on Drury Lane will offer a free kids pizza from the children’s menu when any adult pizza is bought from the main menu during the summer holidays.
This deal will be for dine-in and takeaway, but not via Deliveroo orders. Dough LoCo will also offer the free kids meal deal at its stall for the upcoming Picnic Social at Lincoln Castle between July 23 and August 7.
Stokes Tea & Coffee
| Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Lincolnshire family coffee brewers Stokes are also offering a helping hand with meals throughout the summer holidays. For each adult meal purchased at Stokes’ The Lawn cafe, a child’s meal for under 10s will be free Monday to Friday.
The options for kids include mini full English breakfasts, Lincolnshire sausage and chips, eggs or beans on toast, and a ham or cheese sandwich with crisps.
Morrisons
Lincoln Morrisons on Tritton Road. | Photo: Joseph Verney for The Lincolnite
Supermarket chain Morrisons offer up a deal in which you can get a free kids meal when you spend £4.99. Usually it applies after 3pm but tends to be available all day during school holidays.
Asda Cafe
The Asda superstore on Lister Way in Boston. | Photo: Asda
The cafe section of Asda supermarket has a deal where kids eat for £1 all day every day regardless of adult spend. This is running between July 25 and September 4 this year to cover the summer holidays. There is one listed Asda cafe in Lincolnshire, located on Lister Way in Boston.
Hungry Horse
The Hungry Horse Crown & Arrows pub on Moorland Avenue in Lincoln. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Hungry Horse is a pub chain that owns places such as the Crown & Arrows and the Gamekeeper in and around Lincoln, as well as a few other sites in the wider county area.
Children will be able to have a free breakfast with every adult’s breakfast purchased between 9am and 12pm daily.
Sizzling Pubs
The Cricketers in Grimsby is part of the Sizzling Pubs chain. | Photo: Facebook
With six sites across Greater Lincolnshire (four in Grimsby, one in Boston and one in Grantham), Sizzling Pubs could be an ideal spot for some discounted food this summer holidays.
For each adult meal purchased, a children’s main is also free during weekdays, excluding breakfast and set menus. In fact, kids can eat free on this deal between 3pm and 7pm any time outside the summer holidays, too.
Pausa Cafe at Dunelm stores
Dunelm at Lincoln’s Carlton Centre has a Pausa Cafe inside. | Photo: Google Street View
Home furnishings retailer Dunelm boasts Pause Cafes in a variety of its stores across the country, and Lincoln’s Carlton Centre site is one of those, along with one at Boston’s Alban Retail Park and a store in Grantham.
This summer, Pause Cafe will be offering one mini main, two snacks and a drink completely free for every £4 that is spent by an adult. This offer has been in place since June 27.
Farmhouse Inn
Windmill Farm on Whisby Road, Lincoln is a Farmhouse Inn pub. | Photo: Farmhouse Inns (Windmill Farm, Lincoln)
With two pubs in Greater Lincolnshire – one in Lincoln and another in Grimsby – Farmhouse Inn will offer email subscribers (sign up here) two kids meals, including a carvery, for £1 each from Monday to Saturday each week. This will apply when accompanied by any paying adult.
Brewers Fayre
There are more than 150 Brewers Fayre branches across the UK.
Pub and restaurant chain Brewers Fayre boasts multiple sites across Lincolnshire, including Lincoln, Grantham and Boston, and up to two children can get a free breakfast with one paying adult – providing access to the all-you-can-eat buffet that usually costs adults £9.50 per person.
Dobbies
Dobbies is open for business in Boston. | Photo: Dobbies
The garden centre company Dobbies has been in Lincolnshire since April 2021, after buying the old Johnsons Garden Centre in Boston. Across all its sites, Dobbies will offer a free kids meal with each adult main meal bought at the cafe.
If you are a Lincolnshire business offering discounted or free meals for children during the school summer holidays and wish to be included in this list, email [email protected] with the relevant information.
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Anglian Water has “a lot to answer for” after a long-running sinkhole debacle, Holbeach’s MP has claimed.
Nearly £500,000 has been spent over the last three years by various authorities attempting to repair the hole on Boston Road South.
People whose lives had been disrupted demanded answers from the water company and council at a town meeting on Wednesday evening.
The delayed sewer works have now been completed, and the road repairs are currently expected to be completed by Friday, August 26.
Most of the anger was directed against Anglian Water for not keeping people informed of what was happening.
Sir John Hayes, MP for South Holland and the Deepings, said: “There has been a breakdown between Lincolnshire County Council. Local people have been put out. Anglian Water have a lot to answer for,” he said.
“It is not acceptable that the people I represent have had to have this since 2019. This cost is our money.
Problems have persisted on Boston Road South for years | Photo: The Lincolnite
“It is not acceptable people not knowing what is happening next. There is also the noise which is affecting people’s lives.
“Only Lincolnshire County Council are taking responsibility and not Anglian Water. People will know who to hold accountable.”
He also called for people to be compensated for their trouble as a gesture of goodwill.
Anglian Water said they were very sorry for not communicating better, and claimed that they had been working closely with the council to fix the problems.
A spokesperson said they would look into compensation.
One resident told the meeting that they hadn’t been informed about recent roadworks, and hadn’t been able to get off their drive for work on Monday.
Lincolnshire County Council apologised for not dropping letters off to all houses affected.
Questions also revealed that tankers full of sewage and storm water were being taken away from the sinkhole daily.
Anglian Water has spent approximately £350,000 trying to rectify the problem, and another £115,000 has come from Lincolnshire County Council.
The road repairs were pushed back from July 4 after Anglian Water said that more time was needed to repair the sewer.
A former pub in Boston will be merged with a neighbouring building to create larger residential home.
Plans have been granted for a new use for the Red Cow Hotel on Wide Bargate.
The pub has had a turbulent history recently, briefly closing and reopening in 2014, before shutting again shortly after.
Planning documents say it’s fallen into a poor sate of repair. However, applicant SHWilkinson Architects Ltd is now working to bring it back into good condition.
Boston Borough Council has granted permission to build a two-storey extension to link it with the Georgians, an 18th century townhouse used as a care home for the elderly.
The extension will be set back from the road so it doesn’t detract from the historic architecture.
Artists impressions show what the larger, combined care home would look like.
The extended care home on Wide Bargate, Boston Photo: SHWilkinson
The recently-approved application states: “The link will allow both buildings to operate under a combined management and staffing rather than two independent staffing units, were they kept separate.”
It adds that the plans are an “opportunity to bring the derelict and deteriorating building back into use and to address localised issues with vermin appearance.”
The buildings’ external features will be restored and replaced where needed.