Nick’s Notes – September 2010



Nick’s Notes – September 2010

By the time you read this the school holiday season will be over and we should all be back in our everyday routines. Hooray! The holidays give teachers a well earned rest, but also have a big impact on businesses, as their staff with young children, take their holidays as well. As a motorist you suddenly notice the lack of cars going into and out of town during pick up and drop off times and local journeys suddenly become that much easier. The A17 becomes choc a bloc with holiday traffic going to the coast and trying to cross over it into Holbeach becomes a bigger nightmare than usual.

However it is the time to grasp opportunities. Major roadworks in towns, such as the bridge works in Spalding often occur at this time as they know the amount of traffic is greatly reduced from normal and therefore lessens the impact of the disruption.

There are activities galore for young people in particular right across the district, for both sporty and non sporty people and lots of lovely parks and open spaces for young people to hang out when the sun shines. No reason then to be bored and yet we seem to get more anti-social behaviour during the summer holidays than at any other time.

It is for this reason that I recently toured Stukeley gardens with our local police constable and officers from Lincolnshire County Council and Holbeach Parish Council to look at anti-social behaviour issues there. The first issue wasn’t one of anti-social behaviour but of flooding! The main driveway into Stukeley was ankle deep in water, so very satisfying to have an officer from LCC there to see it first hand. As a result it is now being dealt with along with the flooding of the overflow car park, which will require extra stone to be put down.

While we were there two young men came down the driveway in their scooters (to do what I am unsure), but managed to soak the police constable in the process – maybe in retrospect, not a wise move boys! Also a car loaded with young people who also decided to drive through the ‘lake’, albeit slowly, but slowly enough to spot that they were not wearing seat belts! Not a good day for our younger citizens.

We will be looking to put in a gate at the entrance to Back Lane from Stukeley gardens between the walls, which will be locked up out of school hours. We also noticed that there used to be (probably decades ago), gates to the central entrance to the gardens, which presumably were quite ornate. Does anyone know what happened to them or have a picture of them, as we would like in the medium term to replace them?

To the immediate future, the successful South Holland Boxing Academy in Fleet Street with well over 80 active members will be having a car boot sale on Sunday, September 19th which will officially act as the opening day for the new Teenage Drop In Centre, which adjoins the Boxing Academy. The Centre will allow young people to hang out somewhere warm and dry during the winter months, make use of laptops, do public art, watch TV, listen to music and play a variety of casual sport in a relaxed and friendly environment. The centre is fully equipped with CCTV for both parents ease of mind and the young people’s own safety and will always be staffed by two adults. Why not take the opportunity to come and see the centre and view the art that some of the teenagers have already completed.

Nick Worth

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