Three elderly residents have been targeted by courier fraudsters in the Horncastle area, seeing Lincolnshire Police appeal to the public to remain vigilant. In one of the reports, a woman in her 90s was contacted last Friday (20 January) by someone claiming to be DC Ryan Gosling from Lincolnshire Police. The alleged officer asked for the victim’s personal details and urged the victim to dial 999 during the call so his identity could be confirmed. Whilst still connected to the fraudster, the victim dialled 999 and a second individual claiming to be a Lincolnshire Police call taker confirmed the identity. The alleged officer then instructed the victim to withdraw foreign currency from a bureau de change as it was believed to be counterfeit. The victim was also told to put the cash in an envelope and was given a password to mention to the courier attending her address. On Friday afternoon, a male attended the victim’s address and collected the cash from her. It’s believed the same fraudster contacted the victim again on Saturday (21 January) and instructed her to take more cash out to help with an investigation into her bank. A female later attended the victim’s address and collected the cash. A woman in her 80s also received a similar call from someone claiming to be PC 9139 Ryan Gosling from Lincolnshire Police informing her that her bank card had been cloned. Thankfully the victim recognised that this was a scam and has contacted her bank since the incident. In another report, a man in his 80s was contacted by an unknown male who mentioned they had suspects in custody who they believe stole money from his account. It’s believed no money was lost during this incident.

A multi-agency operation between North East Lincolnshire Council, Humberside Police and a specialist search dog unit has seen a large haul of illicit cigarettes, tobacco and vapes seized from various businesses in Grimsby and Cleethorpes. North East Lincolnshire Council’s commercial regulatory team, including Trading Standards, alongside Humberside Police, and supported by specialist search dogs from B.W.Y Canine Ltd, visited three businesses in Freeman Street, one in Cleethorpes and another in Grimsby, on Thursday 19 January. Dressed in plain clothes, the raids were part of an intelligence-led operation targeting illicit tobacco dealers, which comes under Operation CeCe – a joint venture between National Trading Standards and HMRC. In total, 172,000 cigarettes (8,600 packs), 79.25kg of tobacco (1,585 pouches), 1.15kg of Shisha, and 1,662 illegal disposable vapes were seized during the operation. An estimated value for the cigarettes and tobacco would be a street value of £60,435 and a legitimate value of £149,552. The legitimate value of the vapes would be £18,282. Officers will review their findings and follow-up with enforcement action where necessary. Councillor Ron Shepherd, portfolio holder for safer and stronger communities, said: “This joint operation shows just how important it is to work together. Multi-agency operations such as these are keeping these products, that do not meet safety standards and are putting lives at risk, off the streets. We know illicit and fake cigarettes do not comply with the Reduced Ignition Propensity requirements and won’t self-extinguish, so are likely to start a fire. “When you buy these products, you could be putting your own health at risk. Not only has no duty been paid on them but they’ve not been tested to ensure they’re safe. “You can make a difference by reporting any suspicions you may have to Trading Standards on trading.standards@nelincs.gov.uk or call (01472) 326299, option 3.” Inspector Matt Stringer, Neighbourhood Policing Inspector for Grimsby East, said: “We deployed our teams in support of North East Lincolnshire Council during this important operation to combat illicit cigarettes and tobacco within North East Lincolnshire. This operation demonstrates the importance of different agencies working together in order to make our communities safer, which my teams are absolutely committed to doing.” Lord Michael Bichard, Chair, National Trading Standards, said: “The trade in illegal tobacco harms local communities and affects honest businesses operating within the law. Having removed 21 million illegal cigarettes, 5,800kg of hand rolling tobacco and almost 175kg of shisha products from sale, the National Trading Standards initiative in partnership with HMRC continues to successfully disrupt this illicit trade.” Since the commencement of Operation CeCe in January 2021, the council’s Trading Standards team have seized more than 1,083,220 illegal cigarettes (54,161 packs) and 332.2kg of tobacco (6,644 pouches), with a legitimate value of £833,701 and a street value of over £343,889.

Former Ilkeston Town chairman David Hilton has been appointed as chairman and owner of Scunthorpe United with immediate effect. Hilton replaces outgoing owner Peter Swann, who had a ten-year period at the helm of the Iron. Mr Hilton said: “I’m pleased to say the takeover has now been completed, and the deal includes the football club, stadium and surrounding land. “The first job I’ve got to do over the next 48 hours is settle the winding up petition with the HMRC, which will help us get out of the transfer embargo we’re under, so we can bring some bodies in and strengthen the squad. “Any remaining debts will be eradicated in due course and we’ll be looking to put the football club on a sustainable model as quickly as possible, while remaining competitive in whichever division we’re in. “I can also add, if there is to be any development in and around Glanford Park, it will be purely for the benefit of the football club and to help it move forward, not for personal gain. “It’s all been done very quickly, so there’s a lot I need to digest but I fully intend to interact with supporters. I just need a little bit of time for the dust to settle so I can understand the business fully.”

Planning permission has been granted for Lincoln City Football Club’s development of the Stacey West Stand at the LNER Stadium. This project will provide a range of infrastructure improvements to the LNER Stadium, including new power and mains water supplies as well as a pitch water recycling system. Working closely with the Sports Grounds Safety Authority, the club have also submitted an application to trial safe-standing in a small section of the Stacey West Stand – with the intention of installing rail seats throughout the entire stand and into the GBM Stand should the trial be successful. The project will create vital space for Lincoln City Foundation by providing a new Community Skills and Education Hub based at the stadium. Building a new Community Skills and Education Hub will help tackle the growing skills gap in the city by providing the Foundation with a fit-for-purpose facility from which it can champion the delivery of education and employability skills, all under the brand of the football club. Martin Hickerton, Chief Executive at the Foundation, said: “This is fantastic news for everyone connected with the Foundation – the work we do in Lincoln and the surrounding area has never been more important. “This will help us unlock the real potential of the Foundation and we cannot wait to watch the new building take shape.” The contemporary new-build will offer community space, offices and dedicated classrooms, enabling the club to increase its social impact value and improve the quality of life of local residents through its wide range of educational, health and wellbeing initiatives. Funding for the development has come from the Be Lincoln Town Deal board as well as significant investment via the Stacey West Investment Bond. The Be Lincoln Town Deal board are building on Lincoln’s strength as a centre for learning and research to promote and enable a tech-friendly environment to support the growth of the digital sector. Charlotte Goy, Town Deal Board member and Chief Executive of Visit Lincoln, added: “The plans we have all been looking at over the last 18 months as Town Deal Board members are starting to come to life and we can begin to realise the positive impact they will make to Lincoln. We are delighted that the pledges included in the Town Deal original investment plan will be delivered for the benefit of the local community.”

The 7,000 Acres Group, a collection of residents from villages between Lincoln and Gainsborough, are campaigning to raise awareness of solar farm proposals in the area, highlighting issues associated with their development: There are plans to develop over 7,000 acres of land in the area between Lincoln and Gainsborough, on productive farmland. Three industrial-sized solar farms are currently in formal planning. The two companies involved, Island Green Power and Low Carbon, are proposing to build these projects and once finished, they will each be larger than the largest solar farm development in Europe. A fourth solar farm is also being proposed by Tillbridge Solar, pushing to total land area to be used towards 10,000 acres mark. These developments will impact over 30 villages in the area. The reason that these proposals are so large lies, in part, with the fact that solar power has such a low power density – i.e. it takes a huge amount of space to produce energy, which makes it a very inefficient use of land, particularly where there are important competing demands for its use, such as agriculture. In addition, it may seem obvious, but solar gain in the UK is relatively low; this is the amount of energy that can be captured from the sun. Solar at this scale is being developed in India, China, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – places which have over double the solar gain, so each panel will produce twice the electricity of a panel in Lincolnshire. Despite the headline “power ratings” of 500MW to 600MW for these solar schemes, in the UK the average output from solar is around 11% of these figures (according to UK Government statistics), so the 4 proposed schemes potentially have a total headline power output of around 2000MW, but they would only provide 220MW over a year. For comparison, that is less than half one of the 8 generating units at the closing Cottam and West Burton Power Station sites, where the proposed schemes would connect to the National Grid – yet the solar schemes would use around 20 times the land of the old power stations. Solar power generation provides a sharp peak of output when the sun is at its strongest, in the summer, in the middle of the day, when there is no cloud cover. Without means of storing excess energy in summer for use in winter evenings, the schemes will contribute little to Britain’s energy mix – and nothing when the country is most hungry for power, despite the vast amount of land they will consume. These developments are being designated as Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, bypassing local planning laws and taking the planning decision out of the hands of local government, who are best placed to see the impact on local communities. The 7,000 Acres Group is a collection of residents from more than 30 villages in the area that have come together to raise awareness of the scale of these projects and to put forward the argument that the proposed developments are totally unsuitable for the area, as well as for the country’s needs. The Group are not against renewable energy projects, as they are well aware that energy security and reduction in carbon emissions are key to a sustainable planet. The Group are concerned that the proposed developments are taking up valuable farmland (Grade 3b and above), reducing our ability to provide food security for thousands of people. There is also the consideration that the production and transportation of the solar panels and equipment will create a substantial carbon footprint before these projects are built.  Covering our countryside with vast quantities of plastic, glass, metal and batteries is not “Levelling up the Nation.” The Group agrees with the UK Government, that a much more suitable approach to developments of this nature is that they are built on brownfield sites – in line with current guidelines. The Group does not understand why, in the name of the environment, thousands of acres of countryside could be covered with solar panels, when only around 3% of the UK’s households have solar panels fitted. Planning must change – to promote the installation on domestic and commercial rooftops, as a priority. There are a number of residential housing developments being built in the Gainsborough area, not one has made provision for solar panels to be installed on the roofs of these ‘new-build’ properties. Whilst the construction of these solar farms will require a considerable labour, the ongoing operation of these developments requires very little human interaction. Long-term job creation for these schemes is minimal, with many local farm workers at risk of losing their jobs as the farmland is taken over. The local community will receive very little in terms of community gain, in contrast to the hundreds of millions of pounds going into the pockets of investors. The 7,000 Acres Group will be campaigning to build up local awareness of these solar farm proposals and highlight the issues associated with their development. The Group also notes the actions of the ‘No Solar Desert’ campaign in raising the issues to the local community, and we welcome the recent announcement that a 616 acre development by Island Green Power for West Burton 4 site near Retford has been withdrawn. The basis of the withdrawal seems to be that the original assessment of land quality for agricultural designation was flawed and deemed to be wholly wrong. We believe this shows that we should challenge the assumptions and processes employed by the developers in selecting the remaining proposed sites, as those too may be flawed. The 7000 Acres Group continues to oppose the remaining proposals affecting around 30 villages between Gainsborough and Lincoln.