EXCLUSIVE: West Lindsey Conservatives Elect Leadership

Above: Cllr. Burt Keimach
Below: Cllr. Ian Fleetwood

West Lindsey District Council Conservative Group met in a closed session last night for their Annual General Meeting at the Guildhall, Marshall's Yard, Gainsborough and elected their leadership team for the coming civic year.

Re-elected as Group Leader was Cllr. Burt Keimach, Conservative (Market Rasen Ward), who will doubtlessly become Leader of the Council at the meeting on Monday, 23rd May 2011. Cllr. Keimach said:

"I feel confident that we are a strong team able to achieve our aims."

In a tight contest for the group's deputy leadership incumbent Cllr. Mrs. Irmgard Parrott, Conservative (Cherry Willingham Ward) was eased out by Cllr. Ian Fleetwood, Conservative (Bardney Ward). Cllr. Keimach is still to appoint a Chief Whip. Other elections included Mr. Giles McNeill as Group Secretary and Mrs. Meg Davidson as the Group Treasurer.

The Group also discussed the Leader's appointment of the various Chairmen for the Council's main Committees which will be confirmed at the Annual Council Meeting. A further meeting will be held next week to determine representaions on outside bodies.

Homeless Letters Are Hoax Declares Council

Hoax letters are being sent to people in West Lindsey saying that residents' spare bedrooms will be used to house homeless people.


West Lindsey District Council has stressed that the letters have nothing to do with the authority.
Director of Strategy and Regeneration, Mrs. Rachel North, said:

"We are extremely concerned letters claiming to be from the council are being circulated but we would like to reassure residents that this is a scam.

"We are working closely with Lincolnshire Police on this issue. West Lindsey District Council will not tolerate this kind of behaviour and will not hesitate to prosecute those involved.

"We would urge anyone who received a letter or knows where they originated from to contact us or the police with information."

Conservatives Strengthen Control on West Lindsey District Council

The Conservatives have retained their grip on West Lindsey District Council, dispite coming second to the Liberal Democrats in the poll of twelve of the twenty five wards of the local authority.

Following today's local election result the composition of the authority is: Conservatives 21 seats, Liberal Democrats 14, Independents 1, Independents (unaligned) 1.

Before the election the Conservatives had 20 seats, the Liberal Democrats 13, there were 2 Independents, 1 Independent (unaligned) and one vacancy.

The Liberal Democrats polled 9,770 votes whilst the Conservatives polled 9,553. Despite this the Conservatives made a net gain of one.

Meanwhile, Labour had their best showing in a poll for West Lindsey District Council with 1,902 votes representing over 8% of the popular vote. The United Kingdom Independence Party also performed well, securing over one thousand votes in five contest across the district - their highest poll since the boundary changes of 1999.

Unfortunately, Leader of the Council since January, Mr. Adam Duguid, Conservative (Market Rasen Ward), lost his seat in a closely contested battle for the Market Rasen Ward. Town Mayor, Cllr. Ken Bridger, Liberal Democrat (Market Rasen Ward) won the seat. Conservatives were celebrating their win in the Hemswell Ward when Cllr. Paul Howitt-Cowan defeated Mr. Scott Pritchard.

In the closest contest of all, Cllr. Mrs. Heather Shore took the Scampton seat by just one vote from Conservative contender Mr. Roger Patterson.

Deputy Chairman (Political), Mr. Giles McNeill, of the Nettleham & District Branch, said:

"We are very pleased with this result. We have managed to hold all the district council seats in the branch area that had a contest, it is good to see Cllr. Ian Fleetwood (Bardney Ward), Cllr. Mrs. Irmgard Parrott (Cherry Willingham Ward) and Cllr. Mrs. Meg Davidson (Fiskerton Ward) all re-elected.

"We are also pleased with the result in the Nettleham Ward, despite it being retained by incumbent Liberal Democrat, Cllr. Alf Frith, local conservatives increased our poll of votes by 341, which is very positive, which represented a 3.2% swing to the Conservatives from the prevous contest for the seat."

Full results are:

• Bardney: Ian Fleetwood (Conservative) elected 604, Robert Smith (Liberal Democrat) 321, Sharon Spicer (United Kingdom Independence Party) 169. Turnout 66.53%
• Cherry Willingham: Irmgard Parrott (Conservative) elected 1,204, Brian Gulliver (Labour) 534, Steven Pearson (United Kingdom Independence Party) 143, Trevor Stephen (Liberal Democrat) 1018. Turnout 73.19%
• Fiskerton: Margaret Davidson (Conservative) 502, Christopher Darcel (Independent (non-aligned)) 240, Clare East (Liberal Democrat) 180, Carol Pearson (United Kingdom Independence Party) 129, Melanie Tointon (Labour) 154. Turnout 71.47%
• Gainsborough East: Melvyn Starkey (Liberal Democrat) 1,019 elected, Timothy Davies (Conservative) 597, Richard Doran (Labour) 606, Thomas Johnson (United Kingdom Independence Party) 224. Turnout 49.21%
• Gainsborough North: Thomas Brown (Liberal Democrat) 1,457 elected, Nigel Bowler (Labour) 608, Julian Myers (Conservative) 854. Turnout 55.78%
• Hemswell: Paul Howitt-Cowan (Conservative) 599 elected, Scott Pritchard (Liberal Democrat) 536, Anthony Wells (United Kingdom Independence Party) 113. Turnout 65.52
• Market Rasen: Ken Bridger (Liberal Democrat) 1,292 elected, Adam Duguid (Conservative) 1,120, Deborah Theobald (Independent Group) 276. Turnout 64.11%
• Nettleham: Alf Frith (Liberal Democrat) 1,763 elected, Giles McNeill (Conservative) 1,098. Turnout 75.83%
• Scampton: Heather Shore (Liberal Democrat) 815 elected, Roger Patterson (Conservative) 814. Turnout 71.6%
• Thonock: Lesley Rollings (Liberal Democrat) 889 elected, Keeley Henderson (Conservative) 592. Turnout 67.72%
• Waddingham and Spital: Jeffrey Summers (Conservative) 1,014 elected, John Beaver (United Kingdom Independence Party) 355. Turnout 72.61%
• Wold View: Thomas Regis (Conservative) 555 elected, David Kitchen (Liberal Democrat) 480, Bernard Theobald (Independent Group) 228. Turnout 65.56%

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."

Snow hits green waste collections in West Lindsey

-But residents told to keep putting their bins out

Snow and ice has caused the postponement of some waste and recycling collections across West Lindsey yesterday, with the Council outlining plans to catch up on collections later this week in a bid to clear waste and recycling before Christmas.

The extreme weather has disrupted collections in many local authorities across the country, with more icy conditions forecast it raises the prospect of further disruption.

West Lindsey District Council explained that it had temporarily suspended all green waste collections because icy conditions had made it necessary to prioritise refuse and recycling at this time. The Council said that with temperatures predicted to plummet to as low as -6 degrees over the next few days emptying garden waste from the green bins is proving difficult it would resume collections after the thaw.

The Council advised residents to put out their waste and recycling as per the advertised times,(visit www.west-lindsey.gov.uk/mybinday for details) but pleaded for patience if collections are affected. It asked that, residents to leave uncollected bins out at their property boundary to enable crews to clear them as soon as it is possible.

As Waste Services Manager Glyn Pilkington explained there has also been some disruption to refuse collection services in some areas.

"The levels of snow and ice on untreated road surfaces in some rural areas around Market Rasen made it unwise to operate heavy machinery in these areas, or for teams to be lifting and carrying heavy waste long distances over slippery surfaces."

While noting that The Council would resume collections

"as soon as possible"

, he told residents in the affected areas that the safety of members of the public and collection crews was his highest priority and no risks would be taken

Adrian Selby, Operations Team Leader for West Lindsey Council explained the decision-making process used when suspending its collections today.

"The decision to make the collection, or to suspend, is taken by myself in conjunction with Senior Management immediately before the collections are due to start. In the event of a decision to suspend the collection, staff are retained until it is decided that collections during that day are impossible. Decisions are made on a day to day basis.

"When collections re-commence, the priority is to recover the lost waste collection routes as early as practicable using all available resources."

West Lindsey District Council stressed to residents that most waste and recycling collections were running today, as scheduled

Cllr. Irmgard Parrott, Conservative (Cherry Willinham Ward), Chairman of West Lindsey’s Community and Waste Committee, said:

"Our fantastic collection crews have been working hard to minimise any disruption to our services and they have been out as normal today.

"We are expecting some side roads to be impassable but any collections are unable to make today we hope to make tomorrow."

New campaign to seek out UFOs

New research into freezer use from Love Food Hate Waste in our homes, reveals a third of us find food in the freezer we had forgotten about or can't identify.

‘Unidentified Frozen Objects’ in our freezer are estimated to be worth £860m, but doubts about freezing a wider variety of foods, and a belief that freezing is only for long-term storage, means that we are taking the freezer for granted.

Food that is thrown away which could have been frozen adds to the food waste problem.

In the run up to Christmas when the freezer comes into its own, West Lindsey’s Love Food Hate Waste campaign is calling on us all to find out what's inside our freezers. By making meals from what is already there we can save money, postpone our regular shop and make room for new festive foods, homemade meals and those inevitable leftovers.

Cllr. Irmgard Parrott, Conservative (Cherry Willingham Ward), Chairman of the Community and Waste Committee of West Lindsey District Council, is calling householders across the district to join the ‘Freezer Expedition’ at lovefoodhatewaste.com this weekend in preparation for the festive season.

West Lindsey Love Food Hate Waste spokesperson, Elaine Bilton, explains:

“The Freezer Expedition is a journey into the unknown for some of us. Our new
findings show that most of us would never freeze traditional Christmas foods if
we've over catered, even though freezing means we can choose to eat them later.
So West Lindsey's Love Food Hate Waste campaign is giving myth busting advice on
what we can freeze - and it's practically everything.”

Christmas cake, leftover turkey, potatoes and any extra stilton can all be frozen for another time.

Based on 2008 figures, households are about to spend more than £520m on Christmas dinner alone this year. So, starting the season with more room to freeze our Christmas foods and leftovers should help us all save money and reduce our food waste.

You can watch TV personality Sue Perkins at lovefoodhatewaste.com taking part in her own ‘Freezer Expedition’ and discovering practical tips as she goes. Sue says:

“The freezer is just like a ‘pause’ button to help save foods – it’s no longer a
dark, distant place to me.”

The website also features a new range of freezable family meals to make at home, many of which can be cooked straight from frozen for convenience over the holidays.
Top freezer tips from Love Food Hate Waste:

1. Food can be frozen at any point up to the end of the ‘use by’ date
2. If you defrost raw meat and then cook it thoroughly, you can freeze it again. Just take care to defrost thoroughly and re-heat until piping hot
3. Freezing fresh foods and home-cooked meals is a great way to save food for later, sealing in the goodness until you are ready to eat it - freeze in portions or ‘meals’
4. Almost any food (including hard cheese, milk, mashed potato, bread, homemade meals and cakes) can be frozen - check the website for more information
5. Cooked food should be cooled before transferring into the freezer
6. It is safe to defrost food at room temperature, provided you intend to eat it as soon as it's thawed. Or defrost in the fridge overnight and plan to eat within 2 days
7. Labelling and dating foods before you put them in the freezer will help avoid 'UFOs' in the future
8. You can prepare ahead for Christmas by parboiling your potatoes and freezing them
9. If you're going away this Christmas don't forget you can freeze any unused milk before you go
10. If you're struggling to get your portions right why not go to lovefoodhatewaste.com and use our portion calculator to find out exactly how much you need to cook Christmas dinner