Lincoln Rugby Football Club Development Plans Stalled

The Lincolnshire Echo is today reporting that plans to spend £1.6m developing a new home for Lincoln Rugby Football Club have divided opinion in the village where it could be built. The Red & Greens are looking to move away from The Lindum in St. Giles Avenue, Lincoln, to a bigger purpose-built ground in Nettleham, north of the city.

As reported in the paper, the rugby club submitted plans to West Lindsey District Council last October to develop four full-size pitches and seven smaller ones on 32.5 acres of land based off Lodge Farm, Lodge Lane.

Parish councillors in Nettleham narrowly voted to oppose the proposal in November, with four members speaking out against it and three in favour, and Liberal Democrats district councillors Malcolm Leaning and Alf Frith unhelpfully expressing no view.

Traffic concerns were expressed by villagers, with an estimated 180 attending the parish council meeting along with club representatives.

In the most recent edition of Nettleham News a number of letters were published showing residents are both in favour and against the project, while West Lindsey has so far received seventy-two responses during the public consultation.

In total, fifty-nine have opposed the rugby club move with thirteen welcoming it.

The rugby club had hoped to start building work in April, but the paper reports that it understands the application is not currently scheduled to be considered at next month's planning committee meeting.

The authority is believed to be waiting for more information to be submitted before the application can progress later in the year.

Fly-tipped Waste Collected in West Lindsey in Just One Day

The stunning amount of rubbish above - five whole truck loads full and an assortment of doors and other flytipping debris - was collected in West Lindsey in just one day.

This has nothing to do with household wheelie bin waste; this is rubbish mainly collected from road verges and from the highways and byways of the four hundred and fifty square miles that make up our district.

It costs £832,730 a year or £2,281 a day to keep West Lindsey clean and tidy and quite a slice of that cash could be saved if people disposed of their rubbish properly.

The waste in this photograph is typical of the volume collected each day and Chairman of the Community and Waste Committee, Cllr. Mrs. Irmgard Parrott, Conservative (Cherry Willingham Ward) said:

"Our staff do a wonderful job keeping the district looking smart by not only collecting litter and clearing away fly-tipping but by emptying bins that have been used by people who have disposed of their litter responsibly.

"I urge everyone to put their litter in a bin, or better still if it is recyclable, take it home and put into a blue bin so it can be recycled into something else."

Triple Bin Success For Recycling Rates

West Lindsey District Council's recycling rate has shot up to over 50% since the introduction of the new triple bin collections and the council claims the dramatic success is all down to the way residents have embraced the scheme.

The council introduced a district-wide free green waste collection service and alternate weekly collections of refuse and recycling in September last year following a successful pilot scheme in Caistor, Keelby and Cherry Willingham.

Since then not only has amount of recycling increased by almost 25% compared to the same period last year, but landfill is down too. In the period from September to February the Council sent 7,076 tonnes of material to landfill - 1,916 tonnes less than that sent the year before. That's the equivalent weight of ten jumbo jets that have been saved from landfill in just five months!

The council now hopes to see its recycling rate improve even further as residents adapt to the new scheme.

Chairman of the Community and Waste Committee, Cllr. Mrs. Irmgard Parrott, Conservative (Cherry Willingham) said:

"While these are early figures, it is certainly encouraging to see that recycling has gone up significantly after only a few months of the changes being introduced. Hopefully as the scheme beds in and residents use their green bins throughout the summer for the first time, these figures will show an even bigger increase.

"It is vital that as many people as possible recycle garden waste because if it finds its way into a landfill site it becomes a major source of methane which is a damaging greenhouse gas."

West Lindsey's recycling spokesman Mr. Steve Leary said that the Council had achieved the dramatic increase by working with residents.

"We do understand that this was a major change for everyone and that change can sometimes bring about concerns. That's why we had a dedicated team of recycling advisors visiting homes throughout the district hopefully explaining all that you need to know about the new way of doing things.

"I'd like to personally thank residents for their recycling efforts so far. Together we have now achieved a recycling rate of more than 50%. It really is so important that we continue to safeguard resources and avoid government fines by diverting more waste away from landfill."

Poll Watch: Three New Polls Indicate Conservative Lead Growing After Labour's Budget

There are three new polls available tonight which will be published in tomorrow's papers; they all show a post-budget swing towards the Conservatives.

For The Sun YouGov has Conservatives 39% (up 2%) | Labour 32% (no change) | Liberal Democrats 18%(down 1%).

Meanwhile in The Independent, ComRes has Conservatives 37% (no change) | Labour 30% (down 2%) | Liberal Democrats 20% (up 1%).

Finally in The Daily Express, newcomer Opinium has Conservatives 38% (up 1%) | Labour 28% (down 2%) | Liberal Democrats 16% (up 1%).

YouGov’s daily poll for The Sun gives a seven point lead, up from five in YouGov's Sunday Times poll and equalling the highest they have given the Conservatives this month. ComRes show the Conservatives unchanged, but Labour dropping two since the end of last month. Opinium have a ten point Conservative lead.

The changes themself are not big, but every poll since the budget has shown a trend back towards the Conservatives. There seems little doubt that the budget has shifted things back towards the Conservatives, at least a little. The question now is whether it a lasting shift in public opinion, or whether it is just a brief downwards blip for Labour that will pass as new events take over the political news agenda.

Ministry of Defence: Treating Injury and Illness Arising on Military Operations

Edward Leigh MP, Conservative (Gainsborough), Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"We recognize the good work the MOD has done up to now in caring for servicemen and women seriously injured on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Department and its medical staff are providing a level of care which compares favourably with that provided by the best NHS hospitals.

"What concerns us is the extent to which the MOD would continue to be able to provide that high standard of care if the casualty rate were to increase significantly. Selly Oak Hospital, where returning casualties are first treated, offers injured troops a military culture and environment, expertise in dealing with serious battlefield injuries and wider support for families. The Department needs detailed and robust plans for how it would replicate these important elements in other NHS hospitals and provide the same high standard of care if Selly Oak became full.

"The MOD is planning to expand the capacity of Headley Court where troops with serious and complicated injuries go after Selly Oak for rehabilitation. Given that the facilities at Headley Court are likely to come under increasing pressure, the Department must make sure that the extra beds to be provided are enough."

Mr. Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 27th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Ministry of Defence (the Department), examined its treatment of injuries and illnesses arising as a result of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A total of 565 service men and women have been seriously injured in Iraq and Afghanistan since October 2001. Over the same time, some 125,000 troops who were based in Iraq and Afghanistan have sought medical help for minor injuries and illnesses, and a further 1,700 for mental health conditions. Medical care for troops injured or ill on operations is first provided by medical officers in the field. More serious conditions are treated at the field hospital at Bastion. Nearly all seriously injured troops who return back to the UK for medical treatment go first to the NHS hospital at Selly Oak and then to Headley Court for rehabilitation.

The Department’s care of the seriously injured to date has been highly effective and the Committee welcomes the efforts of the Department in this area. The Department has developed a number of new medical techniques which have contributed to this. The Department’s success is demonstrated by the rates of unexpected survivors, which are favourable compared to major trauma victims treated by the NHS. The Committee also commends the good work of the Department to support the families of seriously injured troops.

The main challenge the Department faces, should casualties increase significantly, is to ensure that all military patients will receive the same standard of care they currently experience at Selly Oak and Headley Court.

Some soldiers have suffered severe life changing injuries and will require specialist care for many years. This presents a further long term challenge not only for the Department who provide specialist care for them and support for their families while they remain in the Services, but also for the NHS and other government departments who will become responsible for the medical care and support of seriously injured soldiers after they leave the Armed Forces.

Minor injury and illness are a lesser issue but still have the potential to impact on the fighting strength and morale of our Armed Forces in Afghanistan and the increase in rates from 4% to 7% since 2006 is of concern. The Department believes that increased reporting is in part responsible for this rise but cannot quantify the significance of any one individual factor.

Councillor Calls for Supermarket Booze Ban

The Lincolnshire Echo is reporting that alcohol should be removed from supermarket shelves in Lincolnshire to help prevent alcohol abuse, a senior Conservative county councillor has claimed.

Cllr. Mrs. Christine Talbot, Conservative (Bracebridge Heath & Waddington) believes a pilot scheme should be tested by supermarkets to see what impact taking booze out of stores would have on drinking habits within the county.

The paper reports that the County Council member has said her personal vision for the next ten years would also include raising the age limit to purchase alcohol from 18 to 21.

Cllr. Mrs. Talbot told the Lincolnshire Echo that action is needed to be taken to change the drinking culture which had developed in recent years.

Cllr. Mrs. Talbot is reported as saying:

"The average adult would go and buy a bottle of wine for the occasion, not buy wine with your shopping. I know it's cheaper to do both but sometimes when you are in the supermarket there is more wine than alcohol."

Cllr. Mrs. Talbot said she was concerned about the trend of 'pre-loading', which involves people drinking large quantities of alcohol at home before going out into pubs and clubs. She added it would be interesting to see if business in pubs improved as a result of any supermarket ban.

"Supermarkets could remove alcohol for a pilot scheme for six months and see how it affected sales.

"I think people would be in uproar and say it is unfair to do this to people who drink responsibly, while others might see it as a good idea."

The Lincolnshire Health Scrutiny Committee, of which Cllr. Mrs. Talbot is Chairman, decided on Wednesday to examine what programmes existed within the county to tackle alcohol abuse and how to understand the contrasting problems between rural and urban areas.
The review is expected to take between six to eight months.