The 150-year-old Mermaid Café building on Cleethorpes is to be reborn in its original guise – as a waiting room for the recently opened Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. Now part of the listed buildings on Cleethorpes Railway Station, its restoration project will involve conserving the Victorian cast iron framework of the building, full restoration and conservation of the timber elements of the building, and a new roof. The building will be repainted in the original livery colours of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway company. Leaseholders Charles Crawford and Craig Brown said: “This is something that we’ve been wanting to do for a long time, having gained planning and Listed Building consent back in 2021. Due to the complexities of the restoration, we knew that financial support would be required, and we’re really pleased to get the backing of The National Lottery Heritage Fund for some of the work. We can’t wait to see what the building will look like when it’s restored.” The Railway Trust will provide match funding for this project. The Trust’s Tim Hedley–Jones aid: “We’re really happy to be working collaboratively with both the leaseholders and the council, and provide this additional funding to help restore this former railway building.” Cllr Philip Jackson, Leader of North East Lincolnshire Council, said: “I’m really pleased to see this particular building come forward as part of the Townscape Heritage Project. It’s one of the key buildings that people see as they arrive in Cleethorpes on the train, and to have it restored to its former glory will be wonderful!” The work will be carried out by CAG, who have completed heritage works in other areas of the resort as part of the National Lottery funded Townscape Heritage grant programme. Planning permission is already in place for the work to the building, and initial internal work has begun, with hoardings already up around the building and the iron work set to be removed before Christmas. The main work will start in the new year, with a view to being completed before the main summer season.

North East Lincolnshire Council has committed to continuing with one of the largest property schemes it has ever undertaken – the Freshney Place leisure scheme and associated new food hall and complementary market. Council leader Philip Jackson said the council’s decision to bring forward and support the project would transform the centre of Grimsby. The leisure scheme will occupy the western end of Freshney Place, the area that is currently the Top Town Market Hall, and some units on the Bullring, which will provide a new offering for the people and businesses in Grimsby town centre. A pre-let agreement is in place with Parkway Cinema to bring a five-screen cinema to complement its offering at Cleethorpes. Richard Parkes, owner of Parkway Cinema, said: “We’ve long discussed options for bringing a cinema to Grimsby, and reinventing Freshney Place is precisely the right approach. Town centres are not just about shopping – that doesn’t work any more. We need to provide more reasons to visit and offer more things to do at more times during the day, and that’s just what we’ve signed up for – to bring that to Grimsby. “We’ll be a living, breathing presence right in the heart of the town, with a new cinema open to and accessible to everyone alongside a new market hall and food outlets. It’s just part of something that will improve the whole town centre for a new generation, alongside the youth zone and other areas of the town like St James Square and the Riverhead. There’s a lot going on, and we can’t wait to be part of it.” The development also includes plans for a new, vibrant food hall together with an attached complementary market on the area of the former BHS building. Four additional new leisure, food and beverage, or retail opportunities, including a larger unit to-let are also in the scheme footprint, alongside four refurbished units within Freshney Place, with the return of Starbucks already agreed, and discussions under way with a leading food outlet. Work is expected to start on site early in the new year.

A ‘Community RePaint’ scheme at Grantham Household Waste Recycling Centre is helping prevent unused paint from going to waste by setting it to one side and giving it to anyone who wants it.

  Image credit: West Lindsey District Council

Lincoln College, in partnership with Bauer Media Group, is running the Mission Christmas project in support of the Cash for Kids charity, spreading festive cheer to children across Lincolnshire. The project is not only about collecting gifts for children aged 0-18, but it is also deeply rooted in social responsibility, creating a positive impact on the local community. As winter sets in and the cost of living continues to stretch the finances of families, many face the harsh reality of making difficult decisions. For them, Christmas is no longer a time of excitement and joy but a time of stark choices between heating their homes, buying food, or providing presents for their children. Mission Christmas aims to restore some of the magic of the season by ensuring that every child in the county receives a gift that will make their Christmas special. Mark Locking, Principal and CEO at the Lincoln College Group, said: “At Lincoln College, we are committed to using our skills and resources to support those who need it most, particularly during the festive period. This project has provided our students with the opportunity to not only contribute to their local community but also to apply what they have learned in a real-world setting. “Whether through designing and constructing donation boxes or creating festive branding, our students are at the heart of this mission, and they are incredibly proud to be making a difference. It’s an invaluable learning experience and a chance for them to be actively involved in a project that benefits others.” Hannah Clark, Cluster Charity Manager East Yorkshire & Lincolnshire, said: “We are thrilled that we have been supported by Lincoln College – not only have they raised money and donated gifts – they have also donated their time to volunteer in the warehouse and make Christmas magical for 1000’s of local children.” Throughout the campaign, students have been involved in various ways. In addition to the physical collection of gifts, Lincoln College’s Carpentry & Joinery students put their skills to the test by designing a custom drop-off box for donations, while Painting & Decorating students added a touch of Christmas magic by decorating the box with festive branding. Through these hands-on experiences, students are not only contributing to a worthwhile cause, but they are also gaining invaluable work experience that aligns with their studies and future careers. The Mission Christmas double-decker bus visited the campus on 5th December, and students took on the role of Santa’s helpers, collecting the gifts and loading them onto the bus for its tour of the county. On 9th December, a dedicated group of students headed to the Mission Christmas HQ to assist in sorting the gifts by age and gender and packing them to ensure they fulfill the various requests from families in need. Level 3 Business student, Mollie-Mae Carlisle, said: “I found the experience great – we got to get work experience hours in while also helping other people, so it was a win-win for both sides. I enjoyed specifically picking out the gifts that children would be receiving, it was personal. It shocked me how many presents people donated.” Level 3 Business student, Ella-Louise Cross, said: “The amount of presents needed for boys ages 12-18 was shocking. Overall, it was a fun experience, finding presents and helping kids that are less fortunate.”

Following the diligent work of volunteers at the International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC), 6,200 airmen lost in the Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and North African theatre of operations in World War II will now be recognised on one of the world’s largest archival databases. The IBCC Losses Database has so far taken a team of volunteers more than 12 years to build and provides the world’s largest free-to-access digital archive of the airmen and women lost in the service of Bomber Command throughout its existence. It includes the lives and deaths of more than 58,000 Bomber Command and 2,400 Second Tactical Air Force (2TAF) members supported by an ever-increasing amount of biographical information, photographs, references to other memorials, and other resources. A cornerstone of the IBCC in Lincoln, the Losses Database is overseen by volunteer and losses archivist Dave Gilbert, who has spent 13,000 voluntary hours on the database so far. Dave said: “Although the Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and North African losses were not under the control of Bomber Command, many of its squadrons spent time in that theatre and we receive enquiries from family members on almost a daily basis asking whether they can be included, so it makes complete sense to do so. “For those in these additional theatres, it was a very different conflict to what Bomber Command personnel experienced. There were the added perils of diseases such as malaria and dysentery and the North African theatre was particularly hostile, with some airmen having survived a crash in the desert, then perished due to dehydration.” The latest additions to the database, researched by the volunteers, will take the total losses documented to 67,300. “Together we’ve built an archive that includes almost seven million individual pieces of data and growing,” said Dave. “It’s an amazing achievement of collaboration and a collective passion project for us all. “Expanding the archive to include the additional names was a natural progression. The work is never complete as there’s always something more you can write about every one of them, so I’m quite sure I’ll be doing this for the rest of my life. It’s vitally important that we continue this work.” Nicky van der Drift, chief executive of the IBCC, said: “No one is getting paid or being made to do this, all the volunteers are supporting this work because they think it’s important that these lives and losses are remembered and reconciled. “It’s our mission to honour those associated with Bomber Command at the IBCC and the incredible sacrifices they made, and the Losses Database is a huge part of that.” Once added to the database, the aim is to place the additional names around the IBCC’s Memorial Spire on new ‘walls of names’, once the funds have been raised to do so.