Communities across the county were put through their paces as disaster after disaster struck in the national pilot of a mock-emergency excercise.

Communities in Wyberton, the Suttons and Anderby took part in Excercise Barnes Wallis, a fake disaster designed to test the groups’ responses.

The theoretical excercise revolved around the aftermath of a large explosion.

Groups from Wyberton and the Suttons completed ‘tabletop’ exercises, while the Anderby Voluntary Emergency Response Team (AVERT) took part in a practical challenge to inform their residents what was happening, set up and manage places of safety, evacuate people from their homes and communicate with the emergency services.

All three were supported by Lincolnshire Police, Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue, the British Red Cross, Lincolnshire County Council and other voluntary and statutory organisations.

County emergency planning staff revealed the full horror of the task as they gave details, at pre-programmed intervals, of the developing scenario.

It began with an explosion of uncertain origin, and developed into a fire, the death of a builder and then the discovery in the footings of the construction site of the bomb.

In an incident such as this, local emergency planning groups can prove vital as they are likely to be first on the scene before the assistance of blue light professionals arrives.

As the groups waited for emergency services to arrive they were faced with moral dilemmas around rescue and recovery that might endanger others and the practicalities of assisting in warning and informing, and then the evacuation of near neighbours including dealing with the distraught wife of the dead builder, assisting with the evacuation of care homes and a school and keeping people away from danger.

David Powell, head of emergency planning for Lincolnshire County Council, said: “With any emergency you might expect that the police or fire and rescue will just take care of it, and most of the time you would be right.

“But if there was another emergency elsewhere in the county, we might need the help of community groups. This is about improving our resilience.

“Community groups can play a really important part by informing other residents what is happening, encouraging them to take action and by offering support.

“The local knowledge they have can also be extremely useful.”

During the tabletop exercises groups were tasked with setting up cordons, evacuation centres and using local knowledge.

Anderby’s excercise lasted 40 minutes, whereas Wyberton and the Suttons took three hours each.

Sue Whitton, senior emergency planning officer, said: “It was a fantastic opportunity for the community groups to test aspects of their plans and to liaise with the emergency services as they would in a real life situation.

“Using feedback from those on the ground, we will now put together an exercise report which will allow us to review the Community Plan and make any necessary amendments.”

Any community group can come together to form a local voluntary emergency response team and develop 
an emergency plan for their area. For more information about making an emergency plan call 01522 582220 or email jems@lincoln.fire-uk.org

The community group dealing with the emergencies in the Suttons was praised for rising to the occasion.

Lincolnshire County Council emergency planning officer Hayley Harrison said: “The exercise at the Suttons went very well.

“The group rose to the challenge and dealt well with the scenario.”

CHAMBER CHATTER: By Phil Scarlett of Spalding and District Chamber of Commerce

Looking at my words from last year’s November column, I asked you to seriously consider shopping locally at Christmas – a sentiment I would reiterate this year.

By all means, search for items online, but before you hit the “buy” button, take the time to check out the local stores as you won’t have to pay any delivery charge or collect from a sorting office – and you can actually see what you’re buying.

Put simply, we need to use these smaller businesses or we will lose them.

On a similar theme, my wife and I had the opportunity to visit the New Home and Garden Centre, at Springfields, with its luxurious new Noshery restaurant.

I’m told that Springfields and the outlet have jointly invested around £1million and it is certainly a dramatic and great refurbishment.

Next will soon be opening a new 10,000 square foot store and, with the addition of a new Craghopper, Dare2B and Regatta Outlet stores, the centre is fully occupied again this Christmas.

A couple of interesting statistics for you on Springfields. It has more than 2.4 million visitors per year, with the catchment map highlighting a population of three million within a 90-minute drive time of Springfields.

We should also recognise that with around 450 staff employed at the centre in more than 50 stores including M&S, Gap, Game, Radley and Sketchers, it is a major employer in the area.

Concluding on what may appear an advertisement for Springfields, I must thank its management team for supporting Spalding town centre with various initiatives, including the food festival and Christmas market.

Business Awards

This year’s awards took place earlier this month at Springfields Event Centre.

Each year, this event gets better and better.

I would like to thank our main sponsors, PSP Design and Development, which has helped us take it to a new level.

I must also mention the other award sponsors: Holbeach Academy, South Holland District Council, Definitions Health and Fitness, Ringrose Law, Duncan and Toplis, Chattertons Solicitors and the Butters Group.

We had two new sponsors this year, with the drinks reception being sponsored by Candour Associates and the program by Newton Press.

The judges were impressed by the quality of entries this year. The competition was stronger than ever and it is a significant achievement to have been honoured in the awards.

The standard of entries meant that it was difficult in most cases to clearly identify the winner, which is why we decided to recognise entries that narrowly failed to win a category by awarding them a highly commended or commended.

This years winner’s included Ringrose Law, The Voice, Holbeach Academy, Freshlinc, Lincs Computers and Kawstore.

The awards served as a celebration and showcase of the most inspiring examples of South Holland businesses and organisations and their performance, innovation and staff development, while also making a contribution to the community.

The keynote speaker was Major John Mayo, from Headquarters 7 Infantry Brigade, who entertained the audience with his tales of being in the military from Norway to the Falklands.

He also enlightened the audience on the benefits of hiring service personnel as employees.

It was a hugely enjoyable evening to be a part of.

Lots of little girls dream of growing up to become a princess – and for Zoemarie Sheldon the dream has come true.

She spends the majority of her working life playing the Snow Queen – based on the character Elsa from Disney’s smash hit film Frozen – and loves every minute of it.

The 36-year-old mum-of-two launched her entertainment business PartyAngelz in 2005, providing entertainment packages for children’s parties, discos, plus corporate and charity events up and down the country.

“I love my job so much. It’s such an honour to be part of someone’s special memory,” says Zoemarie, who lives in Gedney, with fiancé Martin Morris and their children Joel (13) and Jade (5).

“PartyAngelz is all about making dreams come true; there are loads of kids who don’t get to go to Disneyland, so I like to think that if I can do a little something to bring the magic to them, that can only be a good thing.

“I want to inspire them, and to help make them believe in themselves.”

It was after watching Frozen with daughter Jade she tried out a party package based on the movie, and two years on it’s still her most requested. With a sequel in the pipeline the bookings don’t look like slowing up either.

“I learnt all the songs, bought a blue dress for £10 from a car boot sale and a wig and tried it out at one event and the kids absolutely loved it,” she laughs.

“Since being Elsa I’ve gone through four dresses, five wigs and I’ve even had hair extensions put in to make me look more like her! She’s definitely one of my favourite characters – she’s such an inspiring woman.

“I asked my kids recently if I embarrass them – well it’s not a normal job. I’ve turned up at the school gates in costume, but they don’t seem to mind.”

After starting off as a team of two, PartyAngelz now has an entertainment crew of ten, who cover up to five events a week. And Zoemarie has entertained at numerous events.

Having just returned to college to complete an art and design course, Zoemarie is hoping to grow the PartyAngelz brand further and is looking forward to making many more dreams come true.

Positive attitude shines through

Zoemarie’s positive philosophy has stood her in good stead over the years. After losing her father to cancer when she was just 16, she decided on a career in the caring profession, rather than her favoured choice of the performing arts. But she quit her life in Lincolnshire following the death of another family member.

“I just thought life is too short,” she recalls. “So we sold everything we owned and went to Portugal, where I ended up as the head entertainer in a holiday resort.”

After returning to England and the birth of her son, she decided it was time to follow her dreams and start her own business.

“When Joel turned two I did him a little party. I built a stage and a DJ booth and loads of kids came along and we had a great time. Then my sister-in-law asked if I’d do my niece’s party and I just got more and more requests,” she said.

She started providing entertainers for corporate and nightclub events, organised pub karaokes and parties for older children, but the smoking ban marked the end of many of the pub events so she launched party packages aimed at younger children.

These include games, songs, face-painting and activities with themed characters including Scooby Doo, superheroes and Minions.

* For more information visit www.partyangelz.biz or contact Zoemarie on 01406 258549.

Police seized a vehicle yesterday (Friday) evening when dealing with a suspected hare coursing incident at Kirton Holme.

The move by Boston Police was part of Operation Galileo, which targets those involved in hare coursing.

News of the vehicle seizure was tweeted by Boston Police and further highlighted by Chief Insp Jim Tyner with the message “#longwalkhome for #harecoursers as #OpGalileo continues”.

HAYES IN THE HOUSE: By MP John Hayes

Perhaps there are no greater challenges in our age than that of Islamic terrorism. The horrific attacks in Paris on November 13th, which killed at least 129 people and left hundreds more with life changing injuries, were the worst acts of violence in France since the Second World War.

The terrorists murdered innocent people attending a concert, dining at a restaurant and watching a football game. Had the suicide bombers at the French national football stadium succeeded 
in entering the Stade de France we may have been talking of a death toll in the thousands.

These sickening attacks are a reminder of the fragility of civilised life, the vulnerability of societal wellbeing. It was, to quote from John Buchan, the author of The Thirty-Nine Steps, a reminder that while we may “think a wall as solid as the earth separates civilisation from barbarism … the division is a thread, a sheet of glass.”

Britain is not immune from such savagery; David Cameron recently revealed that our intelligence agencies have foiled seven plots in the UK over the last year. The security services are working relentlessly to prevent attacks taking place here; the police have increased their presence in high profile locations, we are stepping up co-ordination with our international allies, and Border Force is intensifying checks on people, goods and vehicles entering the UK.

In my role as Security Minister I am acutely aware that the intelligence agencies need greater powers to protect the public, which is why the Investigatory Powers Bill that the Government is bringing forward matters so much. We are also hiring 1,900 extra intelligence staff, and doubling funding for aviation security.

The Prime Minister has been clear that the police have the right to use lethal force in the event of a terrorist attack here. The terrorists show their victims no mercy, and we must respond with absolute resolve – indulgent pious debates about the legality of such a shoot-to-kill policy are of no interest to me.

Revelations that some of the attackers in Paris had been fighting with the so-called Islamic State must also stiffen our determination to eliminate their self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria. Just as we must defeat their barbarism in the Middle East, the siren call of their poisonous Islamist ideology which has drawn young men and women from across Europe –including, of course, Britain – to their cause must be drowned out by the angelic sound of virtue.

As Thomas Mann said, “tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil” - and so we must never appease, excuse or tolerate those who wish to do us harm and destroy our way of life.

The British people stand shoulder to shoulder with the French in the aftermath of the atrocities in Paris. I marked my own sorrow and sympathy by signing the book of condolence at the French Embassy in London. Tackling the generational threat of Islamic terrorism will require strength, unity and certainty. Together, we will defeat this evil.

During the last few months, I’ve had casework that involves the county council and it’s not been a happy experience.

Information is hard to extract, sometimes misleading and the default answer to any request seems to be a polite form of “No, go away and stop bothering us”.

This is admittedly not entirely the council’s fault, with financial support from the Government again being heavily cut.

I’m told that the county’s budget next year may be half what it was just two years ago, with Lincolnshire among the worst hit councils in the country. This is a terrifying prospect.

Libraries and local rubbish recycling points will be just the tip of a very big iceberg. There will be knock-on effects for our district council, too.

All this at a time when our population and demand for services is rapidly growing.

We have a Conservative MP and Conservative-led councils fond of claiming that a Tory affiliation is some sort of advantage. In fact, it seems to achieve exactly the opposite.

We are taken for granted, in the same way that banks, energy suppliers and insurance firms regard loyal customers as prime targets for price increases.

Ordinary people are being punished for the ineptitude of politicians and the greed of the financial industry.

Local politicians who claim they have influence in high places must start to use it, even if it goes against party policy.

All of us have to become a lot more vocal in our opinions about how poorly the present administration treats rural areas like ours.

Here are a few of the places across Lincolnshire you can go if you feel unwell, or suffer minor injuries, both locally or further afield, which may not necessarily need the accident and emergency department.

lGeneral Practitioner – your GP may be able to deal with you over the phone or by an appointment.

lNHS 111 – a service which makes it easier to access NHS services. NHS 111 is available 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year and is free. You can call 111 when you need medical help fast but it is not a 999 emergency.

Both the above have access to the GP Out of Hours service.

lYour local pharmacist can also provide confidential, expert advice and treatment for a range of common illnesses and complaints.

Minor Injury Units

lJohnson Community Hospital, Spalding Road, tel: 01775 652000. Open 8am-6pm, seven days a week

lJohn Coupland Hospital, Ropery Road, Gainsborough, tel: 01427 816502. Open 8am-8pm, seven days a week

lStamford Hospital, Ryhall Road, tel: 01780 764151. Open 9am-5pm, Monday-Friday

lSleaford Medical Group, Boston Road, tel: 01529 419100. Open 8am-8pm, seven days a week (closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and Easter Sunday)

Urgent Care Centres

lSkegness Hospital, on Dorothy Avenue, tel: 01754 613504.

lCounty Hospital, High Holme Road, Louth, tel: 01507 600100 ext 1223.

Both the above are open 24 hours, seven days a week (including Christmas Day and Bank Holidays)

Walk-In Centres

l Lincoln Walk-In Centre, on Monks Road, tel: 01522 528153. The centre is open from 8am-8pm, seven days a week (except for Christmas Day and Easter Sunday).

I’ve just read Thursday’s Spalding Guardian and the letter from David Turp.

Unfortunately, I do not understand exactly what he is getting at.

Did our MP do something wrong or fail to do something to Mr Turp’s satisfaction? I ask because he does not explain.

Since the terrorist attack was in another country, I am not sure what Mr Hayes was supposed to do as a result. I did see on TV there was extra security at Wembley for the England versus France football match. Was that supposed to be too little/much?

Two motorcyclists were convicted of dangerous driving after they were shown to be riding at 126mph on the A151 at Edenham, near Bourne.

One was seriously injured and is now in a wheelchair after the second rider hit him.

Obviously reckless speeds like these are certain to make headlines.

But what about drivers “pinching a bit” by doing 35mph in a 30mph limit?

Hit a child at that speed and it’s a 50-50 chance whether they live or die.

More than 38,000 people were caught speeding in Lincolnshire last year – some 10,000 above the population of Spalding in the 2011 Census.

Around 1,200 of those each month opted to do a speed awareness course to save getting points on their licence, shave a tenner off the £100 fine and avoid higher insurance bills.

Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership spokesman John Siddle said the aim of speed awareness courses is to persuade people to change their driving habits.

He said: “A lot of people often get caught in a speed limit when they have failed to identify as a driver what the speed limit is. Helping them identify what speed limit they are in is a massive step forward in people actually driving to the speed limit.”

For many it will be their first driver training since they tore up their L-plates.

“You pass your test at 17 or 18 and thereafter (legally) you need no further training until you are 75 and you give up your licence,” said Mr Siddle. “I would say 99 per cent of people come out of a speed awareness course saying ‘I didn’t know this’ or I didn’t know that’.”

A TV advertising campaign of a few years ago highlighted the dangers of speeding in a 30mph limit with a young girl saying: “Hit me at 30 and there’s an 80 per cent chance I will live – hit me at 40 and there’s an 80 per cent chance I will die.”

Speed awareness courses delve into that a little more deeply and throw up the statistic that it’s a toss of a coin whether a child lives or dies if a driver’s speedo creeps up to 35mph.

When there are no speed limit signs – and lampposts are evenly spaced – you are in a 30mph limit.

Mr Siddle says: “It’s 30 for a reason and that reason is you are surrounded by vulnerable people – children, cyclists, pedestrians.”

In 2014, 42 people were killed on Lincolnshire’s roads and 356 people were seriously injured. A further 2,711 sustained slight injuries.

Up to November 1 this year, 35 people were killed and 224 seriously injured.

“Probably about one-third of collisions are speed related in some way, shape or form,” said Mr Siddle. “We can add a few more in there in terms of loss of control, because the speed is inappropriate for the conditions, and we’re probably getting up to nearly half of all collisions.”

On October 27, we revealed in our sister paper The Lincolnshire Free Press that average speed cameras are going to appear next summer on the A16 at Crowland to cut the death toll on an £80.3million road built to replace the “killer A1073”.

It was meant to be the super highway that stopped the seamingly endless run of fatalities on the former Spalding to Peterborough link.

But, since the new stretch of road opened in 2010, eight people have died and 15 have been seriously injured.

Speeding is singled out as the main factor in a catalogue of accidents.

Mr Siddle said this week finances are in place and subject to technical issues, like resolving the 4G link, cameras could be up and running by April or May to cover the Crowland junctions.

He said: “People are driving at high speed and are not affording those who are emerging from junctions the chance to do so safely.”

The new road’s reputation is such that BBC 1’s Countryfile has done some filming there for a feature looking at rural roads that will be broadcast on December 6.

After the county’s first average speed cameras were put in at Ropsley, near Grantham, crashes dropped by 57 per cent and there was a 70-plus per cent drop in the number of deaths and injuries.

Mr Siddle described the county’s yellow safety cameras as a “visible deterrent” and says just under half are “loaded up” at any one time to catch errant mostorists.

Where safety cameras aren’t recording, monitoring equipment checks drivers’ speeds – if high speeds are detected, the safety camera will go live and drivers will face the consequences.

• Daniel Metcalfe-Hall (27) was the motoryclist injured and left in a wheelchair after fellow rider Paul Alderton (30) crashed into him when they were riding at high speeds on the A151 at Edenham.

Both men pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving, but were convicted after a hearing at Grantham Magistrates’ Court.

Each man was banned from driving for a year, and must pass an extended re-test to drive again, as well as being fined £300 with £400 costs and a £30 victim surcharge.

Mr Siddle said it was proved in court they reached speeds of up to 126mph, but footage from their helmet cameras showed even higher speeds, and the men were using track practices to maintain their high speed, “knees down when cornerning”.

“Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership and Lincolnshire Police engage with bikers who enjoy Lincolnshire roads on a daily basis and provide good training to keep them safe,” he said. “However if riders want to travel at speeds such as this they should confine themselves to a race track.”

Metcalfe-Hall, from Grantham, and Alderton, from nearby Gonerby, were in court on November 11.

Previously ...

Average speed cameras to cut death toll on A16 at Crowland?

Is speeding a deadly threat where you live? Please tell us ...

Holbeach road racers are ‘unreasonable’

A former Spalding cinema projectionist has found royal connections in his family tree, including ancestral links to the Tudor dynasty founded by Henry VII in 1485.

David (66) began researching his family history in 1999 but it wasn’t until last year that he began finding royal blood.

He can trace the Webb family back to the early 1700s but, before that time, the name disappears and it becomes “the duke of this and the duke of that”.

With the help of a researcher, David has managed to go back to a time before the Battle of Hastings and has more than 6,200 people named on his family tree.

David said: “I have the family tree right back to 1050 now and a copy has been put in a vault in Salt Lake City for safe keeping.”

Spalding-born David is the son of George and Sylvia Webb, who were window cleaners and decorators.

He attended Spalding Parish Day School and Gleed Boys’ School before starting work at the town’s Odeon cinema as a trainee projectionist, eventually becoming its chief operator. He left in 1983 when the cinema closed and then worked in emergency planning.

As well as being linked to the Tudors, David has also found family links to Queen Victoria and says the royal connections have made his research all the more interesting.

David, who now lives in Suffolk, says his ancestral research began as a hobby.

He said: “I just wanted to do something on the computer.

“I thought I would start a family tree as a hobby, which it still is, of course.”

Asked why he decided to put the history in a vault, he says he didn’t want his research to be lost.

He said: “It’s been quite a lot of hard work and quite a lot of cost over the years.”

From October 23 to November 9 this year, there have already been four level four black alerts.

A Pilgrim Hospital spokesman said each one had been for less than a day but said each one had been triggered by the number of people in A&E and lack of beds.

Here’s some of the criteria United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust’s executive directors use to escalate to level four, which is decided by health and care servies partners.

There are more but these are the primary criteria:

* A&E - All bays and resuscitation trolleys full on all sites

* Number of acute beds available including whether there are no beds available or upcoming in the next two hours

* Unable to open any more escalation beds

* Whether the bed capacity in community services such as respite care is 100 per cent full with no discharges for 24 hours.

Patients asked to consider their need

Although the hospitals and trusts say they are doing more to help ease the pressure on health services this winter, there is more that patients can do too.

Director of operations at Pilgrim Hospital Tina White told the Free Press that people often bypassed GPs and came straight to hospital because they know that they’ll be seen – even with minor illnesses or injuries.

She said: “People come to us because they know we can’t turn them away, we have a statutory obligation to treat people.”

She said people often don’t know about, or ignore other services that could be just as helpful to them.

There were also cultural differences with those from other countries who may be used to going to a hospital for all their illnesses.

She said people were, for example, choosing to travel from places such as Skegness to Pilgrim for minor ailments or cuts and scrapes.

Mrs White added: “We do have a GP out of hours service in the A&E department and we do work with GPs.

“When we triage people if they could have used a GP we ask them if they would like to.”

There are other places people can go to get treatment such as pharmacies, urgent care centres and the 111 number as well as the NHS Choices website – which Mrs White admits some people may not be aware of.

There are dangers and inconveniences in attending unnecessarily too - such as with illnesses like the norovirus which can spread across a hospital.

When a patient attends with such an illness, once they are processed a cleaning team has to be sent in to prevent the spread of germs.

Following an outbreak of illnesses such as norovirus, wards have to be closed and quarantined.

Once cleared they then have to undergo a ‘deep clean’ including taking the light fittings out and the radiators off the walls and the ward being steam cleaned.

Mrs White said this can mean a ward can be out of action for a number of days.

Where can you go instead of A&E?

Here are a few of the places across Lincolnshire you can go if you feel unwell, or suffer minor injuries both locally or further afield which may not necessarily need the accident and emergency department.

* General Practitioner – your GP may be able to deal with you over the phone or by an appointment.

* NHS 111 – a service which makes it easier to access NHS services. NHS 111 is available 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year and is free. You can call 111 when you need medical help fast but it is not a 999 emergency.

Both the above have access to the GP Out of Hours service.

* Your local pharmacist can also provide confidential, expert advice and treatment for a range of common illnesses and complaints.

Minor Injury Units

* Johnson Community Hospital, Spalding Road, Pinchbeck, tel: 01775 652000. Open 8am-6pm, seven days a week

* John Coupland Hospital, Ropery Road, Gainsborough, tel: 01427 816502. Open 8am-8pm, seven days a week

* Stamford Hospital, Ryhall Road, tel: 01780 764151. Open 9am-5pm, Monday-Friday

* Sleaford Medical Group, Boston Road, tel: 01529 419100. Open 8am-8pm, seven days a week (closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and Easter Sunday)

Urgent Care Centres

* Skegness Hospital, on Dorothy Avenue, tel: 01754 613504.

* County Hospital, High Holme Road, Louth, tel: 01507 600100 ext 1223.

Both the above are open 24 hours, seven days a week (including Christmas Day and Bank Holidays)

Walk-In Centres

* Lincoln Walk-In Centre, on Monks Road, tel: 01522 528153. The centre is open from 8am-8pm, seven days a week (except for Christmas Day and Easter Sunday).

Forecast bad weather has cancelled the Christmas markets planned for Spalding and Stamford today (Sunday).

Spalding town centre manager Dennis Hannant contacted traders shortly before 6.30pm yesterday, saying the Spalding Christmas market was being called off due to expected high winds – gusts of 30-45mph – and rain.

He said he had spoken to the council’s market inspector, Mike Knight, who agreed with the decision and told him that planned markets for Bourne and Stamford had also been cancelled – but the Spalding Guardian has now been told Bourne’s market went ahead yesterday (Saturday).

Mr Hannant told the traders: “I will look into the possibility of re-scheduling next week and let you know the outcome.”

From October 23 to November 9 this year, there have already been four level four black alerts at Pilgrim Hospital.

A Pilgrim Hospital spokesman said each one had been for less than a day but they had each been triggered by the number of people in A&E and lack of beds.

Here are some of the criteria United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust’s executive directors use to escalate to level four, which is decided by health and care services partners.

There are more but these are the primary criteria:

lA&E - All bays and resuscitation trolleys full on all sites

lNumber of acute beds available, including whether there are no beds available or upcoming in the next two hours

lUnable to open any more escalation beds

lWhether the bed capacity in community services, such as respite care, is 100 per cent full with no discharges for 24 hours.

TRISH TAKES FIVE: By Trish Burgess

Was Barney rattling through your rafters last week? Now that the Met Office is giving storms a name, as they do in the US, we have someone to blame for the weather: this should take the heat off the TV weather forecasters.

The name Barney reminded me of Fred Flintstone’s best pal or that large purple dinosaur with the annoying voice: either way, there was a primeval force at work – well, he tipped over our garden swing seat as he whipped through Holbeach.

My husband preferred to picture the storm as a set of arrows, flicked from the wrist of Dutch darts player, Raymond ‘Barney’ van Barneveld.

The previous week, we experienced the effects of Abigail. I hadn’t appreciated the (unintended?) humour of ‘a big gale’ crossing the country until a friend pointed it out.

Which makes me wonder about the names that have been chosen for subsequent storms? Suggested by the general public and selected by the Met Office, the storms, after Abigail and Barney, will be Clodagh, Desmond, Eva, Frank, Gertrude, Henry, Imogen, Jake, Katie, Lawrence, Mary, Nigel, Orla, Phil, Rhonda, Steve, Tegan, Vernon and Wendy.

We can look forward to a winter of wordplay as the media will take full advantage of the personified weather.

I am sure they are already working on their front pages, keen to print ‘Horrid Henry wreaks havoc’ and ‘Gone with the Wendy’.

One memorable storm happened some years ago when we were camping in France. Thankfully, it was not proper, under canvas, camping. This was camping for wusses, in a mobile home. A huge storm was forecast one night and we were praying that our mobile home did not live up to its name.

All the cars were moved to the car park outside the campsite in case of damage from the numerous trees towering above us. We went to bed and waited anxiously for the storm to pass; Dougie clutching our passports, money, car keys and torch in case we needed to make a frantic escape.

The storm was very scary and, as we peered out of the window, we could see lots of white plastic chairs flying across the sky: it was like a scene from The Wizard of Oz.

The next morning, as the winds subsided, we ventured out. Campers and their cars were all safe but, unfortunately, the kids clubs had blown away.

Yes, the three huge circus-like tents had been plucked from their moorings and deposited somewhere in the Loire countryside.

I suspect if this happened now, in the UK, with our new collection of storm names, the headline might be ‘Clodagh causes chaos in campsite: kids club calamity’.

Any other suggestions? If you feel the urge to create some headlines with our new storm names, do share them with me.

Police in Bourne are investigating suspected arson after a burnt out Land Rover was found at Sempringham Fen yesterday (Saturday) morning.

PCSO Sandra Brommell, of the Bourne and Billingborough Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “Police believe this was a deliberate act of arson as the Land Rover appeared to have been hidden over a mile on the eastern side of the fen.”

Police gave a partial registration number – N323 – and have asked witnesses who saw the vehicle to call them on 101 or contact Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.

Callers are asked to quote incident number 152 of November 28.

The conservation group dedicated to saving the old railway signal box at Deeping St James has been granted charitable status.

The decision has been made by the Charity Commission following representations by the St James Deeping Signal Box Group whose members are currently in negotiation with Network Rail to preserve the building for future use.

The signal box has been one of the great landmarks of the railway era in South Lincolnshire for almost 140 years. It was built in 1876 by the Great Northern Railway Company on the main line from Peterborough to Lincoln and sited about 1½ miles outside Deeping St James at a spot where the line crosses the B1166. There was originally a station here to serve the Deepings employing a small staff but that closed in 1961 because of the decline in rail usage and the stationmaster’s house is now a private residence.

It was an integral part of the rural rail service and forty trains a day once thundered past, passenger services between Spalding and Peterborough as well as freight trains from Boston, Lincoln and as far north as Doncaster. This meant a busy time for the crossing keeper who was alerted by a bell which rang to warn him that a train was imminent and he then had five minutes in which to close the gates and change the points and all of the signals to green by operating the huge brass levers inside the box.

But advancing technology heralded the end of the signal box which was closed and the gates replaced by automatic barriers controlled from the signal centre at Lincoln. Then in October 2014, the building was dismantled by Network Rail and removed despite protests from the local community who insisted that it should be preserved as a railway heritage museum.

This proposal is now well on track to becoming a reality. The building has been stored in sections and the group plan to re-erect it close to the original site. The task will be formidable and costly but now that the registered charity has been formed to handle the finances members are confident of success.

A “Support our signal box” campaign is already underway with various schemes in the pipeline such as local fund-raising events and a sponsor-a-brick-campaign at £10 a time. “This signal box has always been a local landmark and is therefore worthy of preservation at a time when so many are being closed throughout the country”, said committee member John Clare.

He added: “The decision to grant us charitable status gives us the advantage of owning property such as the building and we can also obtain gift aid on all of our fund raising and apply for grants to help us with the rebuild.”

Once up and running, it is envisaged that the heritage centre will offer open days, information events and regular talks on railway history and in this way the signal box will become a significant reminder of the way things were.

Although the hospitals and trusts say they are doing more to help ease the pressure on health services this winter, there is more that patients can do too.

Director of operations at Pilgrim Hospital ,Tina White, told the Standard that people often bypassed GPs and came straight to hospital because they know that they will be seen – even with minor illnesses or injuries.

She said: “People come to us because they know we can’t turn them away, we have a statutory obligation to treat people.”

She said people often don’t know about, or ignore, other services that could be just as helpful to them.

There were also cultural differences with those from other countries who may be used to going to a hospital for all their illnesses.

She said people were, for example, choosing to travel from places such as Skegness to Pilgrim for minor ailments or cuts and scrapes.

Mrs White added: “We do have a GP out of hours service in the A&E department and we do work with GPs.

“When we triage people 
if they could have used a GP we ask them if they would like to.”

There are other places where people can go to get treatment, such as pharmacies, urgent care centres and the 111 number, as well as the NHS Choices website – which Mrs White admits some people may not be aware of.

There are dangers and inconveniences in attending unnecessarily too - such as with illnesses like the norovirus, which can spread across a hospital.

When a patient attends with such an illness, once they have been processed a cleaning team has to be sent in to prevent the spread of germs.

Following an outbreak of illnesses such as norovirus, wards have to be closed and quarantined.

Once cleared the wards then have to undergo a ‘deep clean’, which includes taking the light fittings out and the radiators off the walls and the ward being steam cleaned.

Mrs White said this can mean a ward being out of action for a number of days.

Here we are again – yet more delays in the Sutton Bridge marina saga.

I noticed in the Lincolnshire Free Press of November 17, a notice under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 that Fenland District Council is only now applying to install a marina and commercial mooring station in Sutton Bridge.

Why is Fenland District Council applying? I understood that the long delayed project was being managed by Lincolnshire County Council.

Is the county council passing section 106 funds over to Fenland? Will Fenland District Council be the only organisation to benefit from the spending of funds due to Sutton Bridge?

Nobody has yet been able to explain to me and others how the marina will benefit Sutton Bridge, apart from changing the west bank.

Claims of business development and a financial spin-off of up to £200,000 per year still do not stack 
up.

Is it too late to scrap this ill-fated and badly thought out project?

Any other use of the money would be better, benefitting the people, rather than a few boat owners and commercial users who, apart from their mooring fees, will contribute nothing to the village.

A well-known local music maestro has signed up to join in the fun at the Spalding Guardian’s free Christmas Day lunch for the elderly.

George Gragg is best known for playing at tea dances in the area and has offered to lead a singalong at the Ivo Day Centre in Albion Street.

Mr Cragg told us: “I’d really love to come along and get everyone enjoying a good old Christmas singalong.

“It will be nice to do my bit to make sure everyone has a great time.”

Those who prefer to sit back and relax to some festive ‘Buble’ magic will also be in for a treat because local crooner Phil Wigger is also coming along.

Phil – whose repertoire includes songs by Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond, Matt Munro and 60s and 70s favourites, as well as Michael Buble – has appeared at Macmillan charity and other events in the area.

He said: “I just want the people that are going to be there to have a great day, and if I can help make this happen, then it’s all worthwhile.”

Our volunteers will soon be heading to the Ivo Day Centre to help decorate the hall and entrance so clubs and groups can also enjoy them in the run-up to our event on Christmas Day.

Last year Baytree Garden Centre donated some trimmings and this year they are offering a few more to replace the older ones that were already there.

The Spalding Guardian’s free Christmas Day meal for the elderly is open to single people and couples in the area who might otherwise be alone on December 25.

Guests will be welcomed by our volunteers and introduced to others on their table so they soon feel at home. They will also be greeted with a glass of sherry or soft drink if preferred, before our volunteers serve up a freshly cooked three-course meal, followed by tea or coffee and mincepies.

Entertainment will follow, including a raffle and a visit by Santa.

There is still time to book a meal and organise free transport to the event and home again afterwards.

To book or get involved, call 01775 765415.

Read more:

Don’t be lonely on Christmas Day...we’re having a party in Spalding again

Police are warning Lincolsnhire farmers to step up security following a rise in tractor thefts.

The warning follows a spike in tractor thefts in some parts of the UK.

PCSO Robert Childs said farmers should review their security measures because Lincolnshire could also be targeted.

He said: “There has been a spike in tractor thefts across parts of the UK.

“Past experience has shown that we can expect to see an upturn in tractor thefts in Lincolnshire.

“The current trend has been for mid range rather than high end tractors to be taken.”