Sir Mo Farah support spurs on Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance Marathon runner
When North Hykeham marathon runner, Andy Ayer received the ultimate encouragement from Sir Mo Farah prior to the start of his London Marathon, he knew it would spur him on to cross the finishing line.
By pure chance Andy ended up staying in the same hotel, on the eve of the marathon, as the professional athlete.
Andy said: “Sir Mo was happy to give up his time and talk to me and my family. He high fived my children and chatted with them about which football team they supported. He also asked me about my marathon race and wished me the very best of luck. He was most personable, an inspirational athlete who has inspired a generation with such genuine humility.”
Andy was one of nine fantastic runners who took on the gruelling 26-mile London Marathon on Sunday 23 April in aid of Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance (LNAA) and together raised over £23,000 for the charity’s life-saving work.
LNAA events lead, Georgia Watson, said: “Our runners are an amazing group of people who, for a variety of reasons, chose to run the race in support of our work. The money they have raised will help keep our crew operational, delivering emergency treatment to people in our communities when they need it most.”
LNAA organise a variety of challenge events throughout the year. Their next challenge, 10k in May is open for registration: https://www.ambucopter.org.uk/events/6kaday/
Burghley to open the gates to exciting new woodland play area this Saturday
There’s only a few days to go until Burghley throws open the gates to its exciting new woodland play area, Hide & Secrets, on Saturday – 29 April.
Open daily from 10am to 5pm, Day Tickets and Annual Passes are available to book online now. From thrill-seekers to bug-hunters, there’s something here for everyone.
The awesome Hidden Towers
Two enormous slides, climbing walls, wobbly walkways, crawl tunnels and more. Climb, clamber, slide and explore. Imaginations will run wild.
Treetop Rope Bridge
Cross the daring Rope Bridge over the gorge to reach the treetop lookout platform. Speak with friends through whispering funnels to plan the next step of your adventure.
Toddler Play
Younger children will love their very own mini play tower. Featuring low level adventuring with a slide, rope bridge and balancing trail.
Refuel at The Muddy Mole
All of the play and exploring can be hungry work. When it’s time to take a rest, The Muddy Mole is the perfect spot to refuel. Grab a bite to eat and go again.
Fun packed play zones
Six fun packed play zones provide endless hours of outdoor fun for all ages.
Butterfly Banks
A nature haven made up of sky-high bug towers and wonderful wildflower plantings.
Mole Hills & Holes
Clamber over giant mole hills and scurry through a network of secret tunnels below.
Whispering Woods
Wander through the beautiful woodland and explore with your senses at the tactile Sensory Wall.
Woodland Play
Run, look, jump! A huge wooden Magpie’s Nest to climb into and supersized balancing logs to clamber over.
Den Building
Collect sticks and branches in the woodland to build your very own den or hideout.
Woodhenge
Gather together in the wooden storytelling circle and share a tale or two.
Your last stop before the Hidden Towers!
Meet Cecil the Mole
Hide & Secrets is themed around William Cecil as one of the country’s first Chief Spymasters.
Hide & Secrets’ very own Chief Spymaster is Cecil the Mole.
Cecil lives in this woodland and he needs your help finding his woodland friends.
Take on special spy missions with him, scurry through tunnels, crack the secret codes and follow his sneaky trails through the play area.
Make sure to pick up your free Spymaster’s Guide on arrival.
From ticket details to accessibility queries, find the answers to all of your Hide & Secrets questions here.
View the Hide & Secrets map to plan your visit and discover all the adventures that await. Download the map here.
Book your great adventure to Hide & Secrets today.
Clear the way! Council urges drivers not to block its drain cleaning efforts
Lincolnshire County Council is urging road users who park on roads and footpaths to take heed of essential drain cleaning notices after it emerged that 2,500 gullies couldn’t be cleaned because notice signs were ignored.
Streets with vehicles parked up have meant that as many as 60% of the gullies on certain streets that needed cleaning were blocked by a parked vehicle that couldn’t be moved.
Cllr Richard Davies, executive member for Highways said: “This is such an issue for us now that we need to address it in a public way and ask road users for their immediate help.
“As we have all seen in recent years, the issue of drainage is a very serious one and we desperately need access to gullies like this so that we can keep them in working order. As part of our need to get on with this essential cleaning and our messaging to everyone who parks on the street, we are using new temporary street signs to promote when we will be cleaning in a particular area where necessary.
“We appreciate that there will be a level of inconvenience in vehicle owners moving their vehicles when we need to clean these essential bits of the drainage system, but we really need to get to these gullies in particular.
“The size of the tanker that is needed to clean these gullies is about the same as an HGV, so the issue is immediately apparent when vehicles are parked up during cleaning schedules.
“Any assistance that drivers can give us in this respect would be a very real help. In a county as large as Lincolnshire, our crews have nearly 150,000 gullies to maintain and keep clear. We can’t carry out the preventative maintenance that we need to in some cases because of the 2,500 gullies that we couldn’t get to.
“This is currently having, and will go on to be, a huge impact on what we need to do to ensure that drainage maintenance is carried out and the impact from potential flooding threats are lessened.”
Gainsborough residents asked how they’d like the town’s green spaces to look
Everyone living and working in Gainsborough has been invited to offer their opinions to help West Lindsey District Council understand how they want the new town centre green spaces to look and feel.
This includes the design elements for Whitton Gardens and the former Baltic Mill site where Caskgate Street meets Silver Street and Bridge Street, with a separate survey for each.
Sally Grindrod-Smith, Director of Planning, Regeneration and Communities, is encouraging all residents to have their say. She said: “We are working with Project Centre to improve the high-quality green spaces that are Whitton Gardens and Baltic Mill. We encourage all residents of Gainsborough to help us identify what you want in these areas in order to move forward with this exciting project.”
The council has already secured £10m from Central Government in 2021 as part of the 20 year ‘Levelling up’ Programme, to regenerate the town and help create a ‘Thriving Gainsborough’.
The project has been co-produced with communities, politicians, local businesses and third-party investors. It develops the momentum created by previous interventions and implements further visibly impactful and transformational change.
The Council’s aim is to create an enhanced network of green spaces and embrace green technologies while addressing the most pressing systemic challenges and market failures that currently impact the town and community.
The survey will close at 9am on 9 May, where the results will be evaluated and fed into the regeneration of both sites. To take part in the survey, click here.
Image: How Gainsborough’s Baltic Mill might look
Grants available for artists and businesses coming up with ideas for art projects in Lincoln
Lincoln Creates is inviting artists and businesses to submit ideas for creative art projects to take place across the city.
Awarding grants ranging from £500 – £5,000 to help support costs, the projects could be installations, sculptures, exhibitions, street decorations, performances and/or workshops.
This fund aims to encourage artists and businesses to work together on visual art projects which will make Lincoln City Centre a more vibrant place to live, work and/or visit.
Sue Bell, project consultant at Lincoln Business Improvement Group, said: “We’re looking forward to seeing some exciting projects come forward for this third round of Lincoln Creates! This is a brilliant opportunity to revitalise the high street and bring the city centre alive with vibrant and creative artwork.”
An earlier project commissioned by Lincoln Creates was the Piecing Us Together Trail – 40 beautiful puzzle pieces were created by local artist Mel Langton and were placed in businesses’ windows around the city.
Through art, this jigsaw puzzle has showcased and celebrated the quality and diversity of businesses based in Lincoln City Centre. The Piecing Us Together project had great success with both the businesses and public.
Other previous Lincoln Creates projects include:
- Writing Wild Workshops: with artist Ruth Charnock located at Lincoln’s Liquorice Park and Happy Culture Café
- Wigford Way Bridge 2.0: with artist James Mayle and Luke St Clair-Pedroza located at Brayford Waterfront
- Giant Jeans Installation: with artist Kerry Gibson
- All We Need Is Love Projections: with artists from Different Light outside House of Fraser
- The Joiners Arms Bike Stands: with artist Kenny Roach and Landlord Paul Mann
- Dinos on the Loose Storybook: with artist Sian Ellis
- City Centre Stories: with artists Beth Lambert and Laura Mabbutt from Brew Projects
- Download the Application Guidance and Application Form from the Lincoln BIG website: https://www.lincolnbig.co.uk/projects/lincoln-creates
- Complete the Application Form
- Submit to: OliviaDexter@lincolnbig.co.uk by 5pm on Friday 28th April
Bourne goes on trial to understand groundwater flooding
A new project aimed at better understanding groundwater flooding will investigate Bourne and the surrounding communities in south Lincolnshire.
It’s part of Project Groundwater, one of 25 schemes awarded funding by Defra as part of the £200m Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme, announced in 2020.
Groundwater is the least understood flooding mechanism across greater Lincolnshire, and the project will create a better understanding of groundwater and how it can be managed, both in terms of flood risk and as a resource.
Bourne will now be included in the list of initial trial communities, alongside Barton-upon-Humber and Barrow-upon-Humber, Grimsby, and Scopwick. Investigations will take place in these areas over the next four years, and the results of this project will help inform future thinking to how organisations across the county, and more widely, approach challenges around groundwater.
There are between 37 and 74 ‘wild’ boreholes in the area between Bourne and surrounding communities. These are boreholes discharging continuously and uncontrollably, thus causing not only groundwater flooding issues, but also a significant loss of groundwater from a water-stressed area.
Matthew Harrison, flood and water manager at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “By including Bourne in the project, we will be able to gain a greater understanding of the existing problem, and identify new measures that could be used in this area and other areas to help address groundwater and flooding issues.”
Emergency Services converge on Lincolnshire for building collapse exercise
Emergency services from across the UK will be in Lincolnshire on Thursday and Friday to take part in an exercise to test their response to a major building collapse.
Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue’s training site at Waddington will host the national Urban Search and Rescue event with fire services from West Midlands, Leicestershire, Buckinghamshire, Norfolk and Essex taking part and up to 60 people working on the site at one time.
The exercise will be the first such event since the purchase of the Waddington site by Lincolnshire County Council last month. Activities include rescues from cranes, drone searches, dogs working, difficult breaching of concrete walls, abseiling into shafts to extract casualties and other USAR activities.
Chief Fire Officer for Lincolnshire Mark Baxter said: “Over the years we have developed this site into a first-class training facility and we’ve hosted emergency services from across the world to learn and develop life-saving rescue skills. The purchase of the site from the RAF gives us future security and means that we have can develop it further as training needs evolve. I look forward to being able to welcome even more events like this to Waddington.”
This will also be the first time the Rapid Relief Team – an international charity set up to provide welfare for people during emergency and disaster support operations – will be taking part in an exercise like this. A new agreement has been signed between the team and Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue to work together at major incidents.
Also participating in the exercise are:
- East Midlands and Yorkshire ambulance HART personnel.
- East Midlands Disaster Victim Identification team (police)
- Northumberland police dog teams
- Army support team (drones)
- Fire service national Drone team
Police appeal for witnesses after 35 rose bushes stolen outside Lincoln Cathedral
Lincolnshire Police are appealing for witnesses, CCTV and dashcam footage after 35 rose bushes, planted in memory of Prince Phillip, were stolen from outside Lincoln Cathedral.
The rose bushes, valued at around £700, were taken sometime between 11pm on Sunday 16 April and 1am on Monday 17 April.
The police say they would like to speak to a woman seen in the area with a pitchfork.
Lincolnshire Police said: “Investigating officers would like to hear from anyone who may have been in the area around the time the theft occurred, and are also appealing for anyone with CCTV or dashcam footage of this area.
“If you can assist with our investigation, please call us on 101, quoting crime reference 23000229058.”
Historic Lancaster aircraft to fly over Grantham
An historic WWII Lancaster aircraft will fly over Grantham on Saturday 13 May as part of the 80th anniversary commemorations of the Dams Raid over Germany in 1943.
The aircraft, part of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, will make three circuits over the town at around 2.45pm.
The flight path will include St Vincent’s Hall, which was Bomber Command 5 Group Headquarters in 1943, and Dysart Park, where residents can enjoy a close view of the UK’s last airworthy Lancaster.
Enthusiasts can also apply on Eventbrite for free ‘St. Vincent’s Hall with Lancaster fly over’ tickets to watch the flypast from within the grounds of St Vincent’s Hall.
The historic building is where engineer and bouncing bomb inventor Sir Barnes Wallis was waiting on the night of 16 May to hear the outcome of the 617 Squadron mission.
Grantham aviation enthusiast Mike Brummitt made the official application for the flypast, with South Kesteven District Council helping organise the invitation to St Vincent’s Hall.
Mike said: “It’s over a year since I saw the Lancaster flying. It looked absolutely wonderful, and I decided to apply for a flypast for Grantham.
“We only heard recently that we had been successful. It’s exciting to think that this amazing aircraft will be flying over Grantham as part of the Dams Raid commemorations, and I hope people enjoy it.
“Dysart Park is open public space and should provide a great place to watch and the whole town can look to the skies and enjoy the spectacle.”
Artist Tim O’Brien will be at St Vincent’s Hall as the aircraft flies over to capture the sight of the RAF’s principal heavy bomber during the latter half of the Second World War.
A spokesperson for SKDC said: “We are extremely proud of the aviation heritage of the district and the whole county, and this allows us to once again remember what a key role St Vincent’s Hall played during WW2.”
Apply for ‘St. Vincent’s Hall with Lancaster fly over’ tickets at Eventbrite: https://bit.ly/Lancflyover
Building’s reimagining creates new home for visual and performing arts
A fresh new vision and direction for the arts has been unveiled as the Lincoln Arts Centre opens its doors as the new home for contemporary visual and performing arts in and around Lincoln, nurturing the next generation of artists and artistic ideas.
Although the building itself has been open since 2008, its reimagining and renaming marks a key milestone for the future of creativity and the arts in Lincoln.
Part of the University of Lincoln’s wider ‘Strategy for Arts, Culture and Heritage’ the Lincoln Arts Centre is the first step in the journey to making Lincoln the ‘go-to’ place to experience the creative arts. This vision will also be enhanced with the addition of the Barbican Creative Hub, a place to inspire and develop creative businesses, which opens in 2024.
Ben Anderson, Creative and Executive Director of Lincoln Arts Centre said: “This is a very exciting time for the arts in Lincolnshire. The launch of the Lincoln Arts Centre is going to inspire future artists and provide a venue that the city will be proud of.
“In September last year we asked people from around the Lincoln area to let us know what we could do to shape the future of the arts.
“We had 260 responses and engaged in many conversations that have resulted in the Lincoln Arts Centre. The creative world around us has changed, and we wanted to make sure we changed with it.
“Our focus on artistic innovation, research and talent development will ensure that there will always be a home for the next generation of artists in Lincoln.”
This wide-reaching programme of activities has also benefited from funding by Arts Council England. The University of Lincoln, UK, has recently been awarded with Arts Council’s National Portfolio of Organisations status from 2023 until 2026, which will allow for the further development of the arts in Lincoln.
