Long Sutton Barns welcomed people who came on foot, by bike, by car and even by bus to charity weekend fundraiser, Funder In The Fens.

Visitors were spoiled by a host of attractions, including a vehicle show with motorcycles from all over the world, a number of cars from King’s Lynn Kruisers and an Airstream travel trailer.

There was also a selection of stalls, including airbrushing and pinstriping, outdoor camping, hats and crafts, all raising money for FACET (The Fenland Area Community Enterprise Trust), a charity giving training and day care to adults with disabilities.

Live music by False Hearts, Tori Lamour, Mid Life Crisis and Ned Kelly’s Ambush, as well as a disco by Hot Pie Disco, completed the line-up.

Annabel Ladd, one of the organisers who works with FACET, said: “None of this would have been possible if the crew at Long Sutton Barns hadn’t given up their time and boundless energy, and offered the venue, which proved perfect.”

You can still make donations to FACET by visiting https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/facet

The hard work of two parish council workers who helped Gedney Hill through “a difficult year” has been recognised.

Interim parish clerk Shirley James and “handyman” Malcolm Ford were both praised by outgoing chairman Coun David Mann as part of his report on the past 12 months.

Coun Mann also paid tribute to former council clerk Janet Harrison, who served alongside him for 16 years until her death in December.

In his report, Coun Mann said: “It’s been a difficult year as we lost our parish clerk of 16 years’ standing, Janet Harrison, quite suddenly and we had to sort things out.

“But we’re very grateful to Shirley James, who took on the job as a part-time stand-in and did a lot of work sorting things out, especially the burial ground, which was absolutely excellent,

“The general upkeep of the village is very good and I’ve had comments from people who said Gedney Hill is a nice place to visit.

“For that, we have to thank our handyman Malcolm Ford, who does such sterling work to keep the village tidy.”

Coun Mann pointed to the renovation of Gedney Hill Sports Pavilion as the main highlight of the past 12 months after receiving a grant of nearly £3,000 from the Wryde Croft Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund.

“The sports pavilion is now in a first class condition for anyone who wants to hire it after using the grant from the wind farm to buy some security lights which were fitted by ourselves and some parishioners,” Coun Mann said.

“Apart from that, we’ve had no major projects in the parish except for the fact that we’ve done all the necessary things we’re obligated to do to keep the village shipshape and in good working order.”

Parish councillors are working alongside a new chairman after more than 20 years, with Coun Ken James elected to the role.

But experience will be alongside the new chairman in the form of Coun David Mann, who fellow members elected as vice-chairman during the council’s annual meeting last Monday.

Coun James has been a parish councillor for only two years, but in that time, he has played a leading role in securing grants for Gedney Hill Sports Pavilion and improving how the council operates administratively.

He said: “Gedney Hill is a very friendly community which is in good condition and we’re doing well.

“But we want to get the sports pavilion and playing field up and running because it’s costing is money to maintain.

“The grants we got to renovate it meant that it didn’t cost us anything to provide a facility for the village.

“Now we want to encourage people to use it because, at the moment, Gedney Hill only has one annual event and that’s expanding after we started it four years ago.”

Meanwhile, a fresh appeal has been made to villagers and groups to use the sports pavilion and playing field in North Road by new vice chairman David Mann.

The sports pavilion, built in 2000 and used by Gedney Hill Football Club until it was disbanded in 2014, was renovated in February.

But so far, community groups and sports clubs have been slow in coming forward to hire it.

Coun David Mann, vice chairman of Gedney Hill Parish Council, said: “We’ve done everything we can to get the sports pavilion and playing field in good condition and now we want to do something with it.”

• One of Coun James’ first jobs was to present a new set of guidelines for parish councillors to carry out their roles.

Policies on equal opportunities, health and safety, environmental matters, recruitment, complaints, risk assessments and safeguarding were all prepared after the parish council’s March meeting.

Coun Ken James said: “All councils should have relevant policies and procedures but, unfortunately, we had none.”

It gives me great pleasure to introduce to my local community our Labour parliamentary candidate for South Holland and The Deepings, Wojciech (Voyteck) S. Kowalewski.

Voyteck is an astute businessman and runs his own management consultancy company. He lives in Moulton and has a heart for our communities.

At present, Voyteck is chair of our local Labour party and has worked tirelessly to build up a strong and committed membership so that we can support folk with local issues, be a voice for the voiceless and provide a credible alternative to the Conservative Party.

We have had seven years of unrestrained austerity measures, or cuts, foisted upon us by the two most recent governments; the Conservative/LidDem coalition then the Conservatives.

These measures have resulted in untenable pressures to our NHS and social care, education, police, ambulance, prison service, our standards of living as well as impacting negatively on our environment and even local government. Austerity is a political choice and not a necessity, in other words, our two previous governments have chosen this reckless pathway intentionally rather than examining alternative policies.

Voyteck has promised that he will address our education system to ensure that all of our children have the same opportunities to prosper. He will protect our NHS.

It is heart-breaking that, even in our community, there are many homeless people and many who need to access our foodbanks in order to survive. This is no exaggeration and, contrary to negative comments from regular subscribers to this letters page, many of these people are in work or have previously contributed to our nation but have fallen on hard times. Voyteck echoes our thoughts as he declares that there is “no place for poverty and homelessness”.

Voyteck has also pledged to make our national security his first priority. The Conservatives even cut the military budgets despite claiming that they are the party to trust in order to protect our nation.

Finally, Voyteck has pledged that he will protect our environment. One obvious way to decrease emissions would be to tackle our local transport infrastructure. It is impossible for most workers to use public transport as part of their daily commute. We have set up a crowdfunding appeal in order to help Voyteck reach out to all in our community with his message of hope. Please find it at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/support-your-local-labour-party.

I’m deeply disappointed with the misleading impression your front page/page 2 lead story entitled ‘Outcry over special needs transport plan’ will give to parents.

In particular, to highlight the phrase ‘bloodbath’ to describe the new operator model in the front page sub-heading 
(repeated on page two headline for those who’d missed it), taken from a quote, will cause unnecessary anxiety to parents who read the publication.

To use a word like ‘bloodbath’ to suggest lives are at risk and the connotations it evokes is totally irresponsible.

We note that you have quoted one resident with concerns for their child and their child’s passenger assistant but this hardly constitutes an ‘outcry’ as you state in your headline.

While you do use the county council’s quote at the end of the article on page two, surely in the interests of balance and fairness to the structure of the article, by the third paragraph you could have stated something like: “But the county council has confirmed there will be no reduction in provision for transport and no change for entitlement for pupils – all will continue to receive it.” Or something similar.

It’s also odd there is no reference to school support for the new ‘one school/one operator model’, when you 
received comment from Spalding Special Schools Federation (SSSF).

Leaving this for another edition of your newspaper is all very well, but it doesn’t do anything for the reader’s perspective of balance and substance to this story.

Both the council and the SSSF appreciate that relationships of trust with transport operators can take time. We both acknowledge that in cases like these there will be some obvious anxiety and we’ll be doing our best to overcome this through continued support – expressed in further comment to your journalist.

This again would have given added context to the story.

While we are happy to provide comment over difficult issues and face up to criticism when it’s deserved, we do 
expect a reasonable balance and context to an article and its headlines.

EDITOR: I am happy with the story and the fact we published the schools’ views in another edition. The main focus had to be on the reactions of children and their parents.

Hopes that Gedney Hill could be provided with a new drainage system appear to have faded after talks between parish councillors and Anglian Water.

An extract from records of the meeting said: “It appears that Anglian Water is looking at a prospective new sewerage system for the village.

“This is to be a long-term issue and there will be a number of investigations into the feasibility of the scheme.

“But, in principle, the scheme would benefit the villagers of Gedney Hill.”

However, at Monday’s meeting, Coun Paul Redgate confirmed that the plans had been temporarily shelved due to a lack of past pollution problems in Gedney Hill.

Coun Redgate said: “If we have incidents of pollution then Anglian Water said its engineers would come out straight away.

“But there will come a point where it will have to build a new drainage system if new houses are built here.”

• County highways officers are being urged to repair one of Gedney Hill’s main roads.

The parish council is to write to Lincolnshire County Council about the state of Station Road which drivers can use to reach Throckenholt, Parson Drove and Wisbech.

Coun Ken James, parish council chairman, said: “There are a number of roads in the village that are falling away and collapsing.

“It’s an ongoing thing but, to be fair, the council does an inspection of the roads and earmarks the most pressing ones regularly.

“However, it’s a funding issue.”

A Lincolnshire County Council highways spokesman said: “We carry out condition and safety inspections of the network on a regular basis, ranging from annually to monthly depending upon the hierarchy of the carriageway.

“We are not aware of this recent issue and we will inspect the roadway in question to determine whether any works are required in accordance with our highway asset management plan.

“If the travelling public do wish to report a highways fault, they can do so through the county council’s website or through our customer service centre on 01522 782070.”

Forty students from the Ministry Of Dance in Deeping St James are travelling to London to perform at The Royal Albert Hall.

The students, aged from six to 16, will be performing on Monday with Mardi Gras, the leading show producers for young dancers in UK, for their 20th anniversary.

The day will include practicing and training with the Mardi Gras team of performers and ex-performers as well as the final show in the evening.

Ministry Of Dance are one of the 21 dance troops who are taking part in the unique dance show that will take place on the arena to 360 degree auditorium.

Ministry Of Dance will be dancing and singing to ‘I Sing The Body Electric’ from the original television series ‘Fame’. They will also take part in a finale dance, choreographed by the Mardi Gras dancers.

Tracy Macullum, Ministry Of Dance principal, said: “I am incredibly proud of how hard the students have worked in rehearsals.”

Firefighters from Holbeach released a female who was locked in a bathroom in Long Sutton this morning (Sunday).

They attended Midsummer Gardens at 10.04am and released her by removing the door handle.

Holbeach firefighters attended after reports of a large goods vehicle engine compartment on fire this morning (Sunday) in Sutton Bridge.

The incident was in Millennium Way at 9.37am and was quickly under control.

Firefighters from Kirton attended after reports of a fire off the A16 at Sutterton yesterday (Saturday).

The incident, at 3.46pm, turned out to be burning of refuse that had got out of control. It was extinguished using one hose reel.

Deepings firefighters came to the rescue yesterday (Saturday) after a mother was locked out of her house while her young child was inside.

The incident was in Black Prince Avenue, Market Deeping at 11.19am and the crew used a ladder to gain entry into property.

Holbeach firefighters attended a gas barbecue blaze in the town on Saturday morning.

They attended Oxford Gardens at 10.27am but the fire was out on arrival and the barbecue moderately damaged.

Young artists in the Deepings area have been impressing supermarket shoppers with their creative work.

The youngsters have been taking part in the annual Young Art Competition run by the Rotary Club of the Deepings.

The competition, established 16 years ago, was set up to encourage young people to take an interest in art

This year the competition was opened up to children in both Key Stage One and Key Stage Two, with entries invited from schools in and around the Deepings area. All the submitted artwork was displayed at the Tesco store in Market Deeping.

A panel of three independent judges had the difficult task of selecting the winners from a total entry of 90 pieces of work.

The results of the competition were:

Key Stage One: 1. Charlie Doud (Market Deeping Primary School); 2. Liam Adcock (Market Deeping Primary School); 3. Flo Munton (Kirkstone House School).

Key Stage Two: 1. Megan Smith (Langfoft Primary School); 2. Lilley McCann (Northborough Primary School); 3. MacCauley Wicks (Market Deeping Primary School).

School prize: Northborough Primary School

A prize of £50 was awarded to each of the individual winners, with £25 going to the runners-up and £15 for the third placed entries. The winning school received £50.

The prizes were presented by Mayor of Market Deeping Coun Wayne Lester and Rotary Club president Carl Midgley, with Tesco providing chocolate goodies for all the prizewinners.

Competition organiser John Lavery said: “The standard of entries this year was as high as it has ever been and all the young artists who took part should be proud of their efforts.

“We are grateful once again for the continued support of the local schools and, of course, to Martin Reece, manager of Market Deeping Tesco, who has been a good friend to the competition over the years.”

Spalding firefighters had a unique chance to practice their stretcher rope rescue drill high up inside the iconic Chatterton Water Tower on Tuesday.

With the water tower shrouded in plastic sheeting, hiding a network of scaffolding and walkways, a team from Spalding Fire Station safely lowered a stretcher-borne, dummy casualty 20 metres from one of the walkways to a first-floor area.

The rescue exercise at the water tower was only made possible because the building is being steam-cleaned and repainted – and it came about through a partnership between Anglian Water, contractors Barhale and Spalding Fire Station.

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue has carried out similar drills at Lincoln Cathedral, as well as real-life rescues there, and last year undertook a rescue drill from height at Spalding Power Station.

Sean Compton, one of the watch managers at Spalding Fire Station, said: “Obviously we have a facility to rescue from height but, actually, we are quite lucky in this town because there’s not really a lot of tall buildings.”

Fellow watch manager Paul Barkway said: “It’s not often we get a chance to do this from this height. It’s just for preparedness.”

Once inside the water tower, a team of firefighters prepared their ropes high up on a walkway before one of the crew, Petra Barneveld-Taylor, came over the edge of the scaffolding and inched towards the ground, guiding a stretcher as it was gently lowered by her team-mates.

Paul Barkway was on the first floor, holding one of the ropes, and told us: “If we did have an emergency up there, we would have a paramedic working alongside us, assessing them.”

Ian Lewis, Barhale’s water tower project engineer, said: “We are very pleased to be able to give the fire service an opportunity to practice in this way.

“Opportunities to work inside tall structures such as this don’t pop up very often.”

It has taken several weeks for the scaffolding to be put up around the outside of the water tower, with work starting on March 20.

Ian says the tower is virtually a 30m cube – the actual height is 30m while the width is 29m.

“An optical illusion makes it look much higher than the width,” he said.

Painting begins next week, in the same colours as before, and council officials have already okayed test paint areas.

Anglian Water says some 180 tonnes of scaffolding poles were used for the job and a further 70 tonnes of board to create the walkways.

The scaffolding has been wrapped in 3,500sq m of plastic to stop paint spray drifting when it’s applied.

There is a whopping 4,000 sq metres of steam cleaning and painting to complete.

Some 400 25-litre cans of paint will be used for the job, equal to 10,000-litres.

While that’s a massive volume of paint, it pales into insignificance compared to the 3.4million-plus litres (750,000 gallons) of water held in the tower.

Ian says the water is kept at height so it can be gravity fed along a network of pipes to people’s homes.

He explains: “The water is pumped up to that height to get the pressure to push it to the furthest extremities of the area. That’s the whole point of water towers.”

Chatterton Water Tower has served the Spalding area for the last 62 years.

The site has 24/7 security for the duration of the project, including a night watchman.

• More dramatic pictures inside your Spalding Guardian.

Spalding PCSOs Emma Cinavas and Tracey Abbott will be meeting shoppers at Sainsbury’s, Holland Market, on Tuesday between 5.30pm and 7.30pm.

Anyone with questions about policing in Spalding or wanting crime prevention advice and internet safety materials is welcome to come along.

The pair will be repeating the exercise at Spalding Library in Victoria Street where they will be available on Tuesday, June 6, from 12.30 until 1.30pm.

Halmer Gate in Spalding has been closed to traffic since early this morning due to a burst water main.

It is not yet known when it will re-open.

Drivers should be aware that Pinchbeck Road in the town is also closed at the moment because of a sink hole.

Boaters travelling on the River Glen from Baston to Surfleet Seas End can call in at The Mermaid Inn, Surfleet.

Just yards from the semi-circular iron bridge that spans the river, the 19th century inn on Gosberton Road has gone from what was a private house to a place where guests are served food, drinks, bed and breakfast.

Owner Karen Swindells understands the sentiments of author Ruby Hunt who, in her book “Surfleet, The Story of a Fenland Village”, said: “At the present time, the Glen is Surfleet’s most attractive asset”.

Karen said: “We’re old-fashioned and homely, with a friendly atmosphere in which our staff serve traditional food that is predominantly made up of pub favourites.

“Our beef and lamb come from our own farm in Nottinghamshire, while our pork comes from W. Hargrave and Son in Pinchbeck.

“The Mermaid isn’t a hotel, it’s an inn which is run on a bed and breakfast basis, from Tuesday to Sunday.”

The inn dates back to 1864 when it was called Ivy House until its conversion in 1910 when builders joined together several neighbouring cottages, one of which was called The Mermaid.

There are also accounts of The Mermaid Inn having been used as a base for the Home Guard during World War II when the bridge and River Glen were protected from invasion.

Today, the Home Guard has been replaced by Karen and her team of about 12 staff, including a gardener, handyman and head chef Mark Tomeo who said: “I’ve only been here four weeks but I’m enjoying it and everyone is really supportive.

“I grew up in London and spent ten years working at gentleman’s clubs, big and small restaurants and hotels until I moved to Spalding in 2001.

“After working at a hotel along the Norfolk coast and then in Peterborough for a year, I moved to the Mermaid Inn to be closer to my home.

“I see my job here as helping to promote the business and I’m trying to take on what has been done in the past, but also building on that by providing pub food done in a gastro-type way.”

Some of the Mermaid’s attractions for visitors include a mooring for boats that was built by the Environment Agency as part of its Fens Waterway Link project launched in 2009.

The inn also has an outdoor bar, tables and seating area where guests can take advantage of the riverside location.

There is also a grassed area where families can meet to enjoy the spring and summer weather.

Karen said: “It would be great to see more boats on the waterway, mooring up for drinks and enjoying the newly refurbished outdoor bar and seating area alongside the river.”

One of the hallmarks of Karen’s ownership of The Mermaid Inn, which she took over in 2010, has been her willingness to take on younger staff and give them experience of working in a customer service environment.

Helping Karen at the Mermaid are Eleanor Smith (20), of Cowbit, and James Brand (18) of Surfleet, who share with her the general running of the inn.

Eleanor said: “I’ve worked here for nearly five years after starting in a part-time role when I was at school.

“We’re part of a really good team and you can build really good relationships with the customers.

“We get lots of people who come in and say ‘this is the first time we’ve tried The Mermain Inn’ or ‘we didn’t know you were here’.”

James said: “I’ve been working here for four years, starting off as a young lad in the kitchen and then working my way up.

“Now myself and Eleanor share the responsibilities between us, while Karen makes the final decisions about things.

“As a child, I never thought I’d be working in an inn and playing the role I do now.

“But Karen is one of the most wonderful managers you could ask for and she makes us feel like we’re a family.”

The Surfleet Parish Plan 2009 set out to “safeguard those things about the village that we value”.

The Mermaid Inn is one of the elements to a village that “has everything”, according to Karen Swindells.

She said: “There’s a tremendous park where people can play hockey and football, the beauty of the River Glen, with walks along each side of its banks, and a lot of other facilities as well.

“The people who live here are tremendously lucky to be in a village that has everything.”

Blokes in the Suttons are busy building the area’s first ever Men’s Shed in Long Sutton.

Forget the idea of a lonely man cave – or a hideaway at the bottom of the garden – this Men’s Shed is all about friendships, skill sharing and serving the community.

Oldest member Eric Seeking (90) has already crafted a wooden wheelbarrow for Long Sutton In Bloom while, all around him, new-found mates are transforming the glasshouse ‘shell’ at Silverwood Garden Centre into workshops, with a kitchen and social seating area.

Some cladding is already lining glass walls and sparks Pete Beeby (66) is up a step ladder, fixing the wiring, as one of the team transforming the place.

In one spot, a donated trailer is waiting to be restored to its former glory before eventual sale to help fund the running of the Men’s Shed.

There’s a lathe for the woodworking workshop and a forge for the metal working workshop.

The Men’s Shed has only been going for eight weeks but it has already attracted members from all walks of life, who are currently spending their Sundays creating their workshop and home-from-home space.

The project is led by Silverwood boss Jack Tyrrell, who is chairing the steering committee with help from secretary Barry Meade and treasurer Ray Cutbill, who got his first taste of Men’s Sheds while living in Perth, Australia.

Jack said: “At the end of June, we will have our first annual general meeting and I will be stepping down so someone else can take over.”

The idea is that members run the Men’s Shed themselves.

“We’ve only been going eight weeks and we’ve already got 22 members,” said Jack. “We seem to be getting two more each week.”

It was a special day on Friday as members welcomed their new patron, John Hayes, who was MP for South Holland before Parliament was dissolved for the General Election.

He spoke of the “great thrill” at being asked to become patron, about the members’ many skills and of the sense of purpose that the Men’s Shed would give to its members, 
especially those who live alone. “For some, it has been their life-line,” said John.

As the Vote Leave constituency coordinator for South Holland and The Deepings, I have to ask the question ‘What is the point of UKIP having a paper candidate when John Hayes – who is committed to Brexit and campaigned alongside me and our volunteers as part of the Vote Leave movement – has consistently campaigned for Britain to leave the EU?’

In the 1997 General Election the Referendum Party did not field a candidate in the constituency because John Hayes is a staunch Euro-sceptic – I was the local press coordinator at the time for Sir James Goldsmith’s Referendum Party – who was campaigning for a referendum on our future relationship with the EU.

When that referendum on whether we should leave or remain in the EU was finally called by David Cameron, John Hayes rose to the challenge. Despite being a Minister in the Government, and despite being a personal friend of David Cameron, John had the courage of his convictions and joined ‘Vote Leave’.

Unlike many of his colleagues who prior to the referendum talked the talk by claiming to be Euro-sceptics, failed to walk the walk when the referendum was called and their careers were potentially on the line.

To John Hayes’ great credit he didn’t just talk the talk; he walked the walk in spades, and put the national interest ahead of both his party, and potentially his career.

I have been campaigning for a new relationship with the European Union for a quarter of a century. I first met John Hayes in 1997, and since then we have been continuously working and campaigning together for an independent, self-governing Great Britain. In that time I have learnt, and know that John Hayes is a true patriot, a man of honour, and a man who will each and every time do the right thing by his country and his constituents.

John Hayes is our local Brexit leader and I call on UKIP, Labour and Conservative voters across the constituency to support John Hayes on Thursday, June 8, to ensure that we have a strong local voice in Parliament, and to secure the Brexit we all voted for last year.

More than 40 people joined 
together for a walk and a buffet lunch to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Walking For Health in Spalding.

In May 2007, Lincolnshire County Council started up a Walking For Health group in Spalding because walking has been proven to help people cope with stress, depression and anxiety, as well as being a low-impact, everyday activity that people don’t even realise is exercise.

It has also been proven to prevent a number of different illnesses, including some cancers, diabetes and heart disease.

Walking For Health even has trained walk leaders that walk with people who have disabilities or certain illnesses such as cancer, heart problems, diabetes or athsma.

The group also helps people meet new friends who are also fellow walkers and 
who encourage each other to walk more and find other places to walk.

Now, almost 50 people meet up every Monday at 10.45am and choose between walking for either the short distance of 30minutes or one hour, from the South Holland Centre.

Once a month, people from the walking groups all over South Holland get together and go on a walk, the most recent yesterday in Crowland.

The group’s funding came from Lincolnshire County Council for almost ten years but the funding was cut in April. They are now funded by Lincolnshire Co-op, who wanted to ensure the people of Spalding could carry on walking because of the many physical and mental benefits it has on people’s health.

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Walking For Health in Spalding, Roy Harrison, one of the walk leaders, organised a buffet lunch, including a homemade anniversary cake, as well as their usual, weekly walk.

Mr Harrison said the celebration went “very well” and “everybody was very pleased” with how it turned out.

Spalding was the first place in the South Holland area to have a Walking For Health scheme put in place and was quickly followed by Crowland, Donington and Long Sutton.

OnJune 21, there will be a tenth anniversary celebration for all the South Holland Walking For Health groups at the South Holland Centre.