Alex Colman

An organised protest against government work schemes took place on Lincoln’s High Street on Saturday, March 3.

Around a dozen people from the Lincoln Youth Fight for Jobs group protested against the government’s Get Britain Working initiative.

Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants from 18-24-year-olds were originally meant to partake in an unpaid four-week placement at a store to keep claiming their benefits.

But in the run up to the protest, the government backed down on the initiative, announcing it would scrap the threat of financial penalties for people who do not take the placements.

The demonstrators accused the scheme of exploiting young people as under 24s get their usual £53.54 JSA per week with employers not obliged to cover expenses.

Dave Tompkins from Youth Fight for Jobs said: “Private companies are benefiting from essentially taxpayer-funded workers but the public can fight all the cuts by getting involved with groups like ours and their trade unions.”

With around fifty people signed up to the protest there was underwhelming participation on the day. Alex Moore from Youth Fight for Jobs commented on the local support for the protest:

“I think the turn-out is a bit disappointing as we had a lot more people sign up to the event on Facebook and it could be the weather or the day but we still have plenty of people who are passionate about it,” he said.

Community spirit (L-R): Inspector Pat Coates, Paul Carrick from the City of Lincoln Council, Anne Brown editor of Abbey News, resident Katazyna Bednarczyk, Councillor Ric Metcalfe, resident Magdalena Bednarczyk and Igor Kartel, chairperson of EECG

An Abbey ward community agreement has been introduced, defining an action plan how local people, ward councillors and key organisations can work together to improve the neighbourhood.

The agreement was unveiled at Lincoln College on March 2, outlining how the community can help solve local issues such as keeping the streets clean, making sure play areas are safe, removing fly tipping and graffiti and tackling anti-social behaviour.

A survey of almost 400 residents found their main concerns were litter in the streets, vandalism and graffiti, anti-social behaviour, burglary and car crime and parents not taking responsibility for their children.

Councillor Ric Metcalfe, Leader of the City of Lincoln Council, is looking forward to seeing the positive outcomes from the Abbey Neighbourhood Agreement.

“We’re very pleased to get to this stage in Abbey ward and believe that the best way of injecting positivity into the local community is by involving the people who live there,” he said.

Lack of information has been a problem and development of a newsletter called Abbey News edited by resident Anne Brown has been designed to keep people more informed.

Resident volunteers are also being recruited for an Abbey Street Team to provide intelligence on their community, monitoring issues in the neighbourhood such as littering.

Abbey ward is a diverse area and Chairperson of the Eastern European Community Group, Igor Kartel, was present to see how the migrant community can become involved.

“The most difficult barrier is language as English people are so friendly and sociable and I want to bring the communities together as there is a lot of help and advice residents can give to us,” said Kartel.

Below is a video from Lincoln based voluntary organisation Off The Bench illustrating some of the work being done to improve life in Abbey ward.