PLANNING GREEN LIGHT FOR CHILDREN'S HOME DESPITE OBJECTIONS FROM NEIGHBOURS

VILLAGERS have failed in their bid to prevent   a semi-detached bungalow in New Waltham being  converted to a residential children's home.

Protests letters, emails and a petition cascaded into the offices of  North East Lincolnshire Council. 

The parish council also objected to the change-of-use proposal for 35 Peak Avenue.

Their concerns focused on the following:

* Congestion, traffic and parking
* Inadequate public transport
* Noise
* Crime, security, safety and anti-social behaviour issues
* Site management arrangements

However, there were also a few letters of support.

At this month's meeting of the borough planning committee, members approved the planning application which was  drawn up for NELC itself by its private sector contractor, Engie

A note of recommendation from the planning officer states:"The proposed development seeks to provide essential accommodation in the form of a small children's home which is to be delivered by the local authority. 

"The proposal will maintain a residential use in a residential area albeit of a different use class." 

It continues: "The overall intensity of the use of the site would not significantly change to what may reasonably be expected at a dwelling house.

"It is not considered that there would not be any significant impacts on the neighbouring properties' residential amenities, nor  harm to highway safety, nor crime. 

"The general appearance of the property will not be altered, so the visual character of the area will be unaffected."  

Up to four children (between the ages of five and 18) will live at the property, with a minimum of two members of staff providing permanent 24-hour care on a shift basis. 

This will be the children's permanent home, with the council acting in a parenting role.

FORMER COUNCILLOR VOICES DOUBTS OVER ECO-FRIENDLY BOASTS OF WIND POWER INDUSTRY

Windfarm off  Spurn, on the Yorkshire Coast. Are turbines as planet-friendly as developers claim?

A FORMER North East Lincolnshire councillor has voiced doubts on the much-proclaimed eco-friendly credentials of wind power.

At a  meeting of the Grimsby branch of the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, John Stockton spoke of his dismay at what he encountered when he visited an offshore development - mangled corpses of "guillemots, gannets and Manx shearwaters.

He went on to query whether they were as planet-friendly as the industry professes given the amount of energy required to manufacture, transport, install and maintain the turbines.

Mr Stockton, formerly UKIP representative for the South ward, made his observation at the end of  a presentation by Paul Learoyd, chief executive of the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust.

Mr Learoyd acknowledged that windfarms were a controversial subject, voicing his own misgivings about the prospect of new wind developments in Scotland doing harm to carbon-capturing peat moors.

Earlier in his fascinating presentation, held at Grimsby Town Hall, the chief executive provided a whistlestop tour of how the Trust has gone from strength to strength over the course of its 70 years. 

Paul Learoyd - Trust supremo

He described the red squirrel as “one that got away”. Up until the 1970s, it was still breeding at Lynwood, near Market Rasen, but, as in most of the rest of the UK, it failed to survive disease and the onset of the larger and hardier grey squirrel.

Paul cited the red squirrel as example of a species where choices about nature conservation are on the horns of a dilemma.

There is a colony in pines on the Lancashire coast. But pines are not native to this part of England. If they were to be removed, the red squirrels would also be lost but  it would open up the dunes, offering prospects of a return for an even scarcer species, the nattterjack toad.

Paul lamented the loss, through disease, of almost all of Lincolnshire’s elm trees. He feared, too, that a similar fate beckoned for 75 per cent of the county’s ash trees.

However, he hoped that prospects might be  better for species such as oak, beech, silver birch and some varieties of cherry.

In response to a question from the audience, the chief noted there was a lot of talk from politicians, about planting millions of trees, but not so much about the species or the location. “Important grassland could be at risk,” he warned.

At its HQ in Horncastle, the Trust  has a trove of photographs from yesteryear.

Many were taken at Gibraltar Point - for instance, the first bird-ringing station, scenes from shooting of The Dambusters film and even a visit in 1974 from 19-year-old Patricia Orfila, Gibraltar’s entry in the Miss World contest.

Miss Gibraltar - visited observatory

Over the years, David Attenborough seems to have been a regular visitor to Gib, not least because he had a friendship with the late Ted Smith, a great pioneer of the nature conservation movement in Lincolnshire and beyond.

There have been  many battles along the way. For instance, Malcolm Campbell wanted the sands given over not to providing nesting habitat for little terns, but to a track for setting on-land speed records.

Paul  described the Trust's longstanding initiatives with little terns, with safeguarding breeding grey  seals at Donna Nook and in protecting wildflower-rich roadside verges.

Seals at Donna Nook - as many as 7,000 animals (adults and pups) currently in residence

He also expressed concerns about current river management practices and the loss of important flood plains to housing and other development.

Although there is a widespread clamour for intensified river dredging, this only hastens the flow, worsening downstream flood risk.

An example was the episode in June this year when 50 homes flooded in Wainfleet and Thorpe St Peter in Lincolnshire.

As a result, five members of the  Trust's staff had to leave their homes for two weeks.

The event included, during the interval, festive refreshments supplied by members.

It concluded with a presentation of a £1000 cheque from the Grimsby branch to the Trust to further its important work.

***

* Available now as a Kindle ebook:

A Fault to Nature: Birds, Migration and The Problem  with Windfarms

TOUGHEST TIME OF YEAR FOR NORTH EAST LINCOLNSHIRE'S WASTE COLLECTION CREWS

Binmen walk an average of ten miles a day

Whether you’re enjoying your Christmas dinner leftovers or snuggled up on your sofa binge watching your favourite programme, remember to spare a thought for your bin crew and street cleansing teams this festive season.

That is the plea issued today by North East Lincolnshire Council.

Binmen will be hitting the street at 7am the day after Boxing Day to collect leftover turkey carcasses, reams of wrapping paper and mountains of polystyrene packaging, clearing away 500 tonnes more rubbish than normal.

A bin crew worker will typically walk 10 miles a day in all weathers collecting and hauling about 10 tonnes of waste and recycling.

During the Christmas holiday, the team takes an extra 122 tonnes of dry recycling and 400 tonnes of household waste than they would in a usual month - about the same weight as 130 cars.

North East Lincolnshire Council is hiring extra staff to help cover the rounds to help with the demands of the festive season.

It will also be doubling up on its recycling vehicles, going from nine to 18, and it will have 12 domestic waste vehicles, instead of the usual eight.

You can help the bin crews through the Christmas holiday by following these simple tips:

* Plan ahead and think about how you are going to dispose of your waste this Christmas

* Check your Christmas and New Year collection calendar

* Leave your bins and boxes out by 7am at the boundary of your property

* Most people manage their household waste well, but if you have too much rubbish for your bin, check you’re recycling as much as you can

*Take any excess waste to the Community Recycling Centre in Grimsby or Immingham

*Recycle as much as you can. Don’t forget to squash down plastic bottles and drinks cans and cut down cardboard to fit into your recycling boxes. Crews will take all recycling that has been correctly presented in the recycling boxes. They will not take large cardboard boxes that have not been folded up to fit in the blue recycling box.

*Break down cardboard boxes and remove all polystyrene, bubble wrap and other packaging before disposing of them

* All household rubbish that can’t be recycled goes in the green wheelie bin with the lid down. All rubbish needs to be in the bin and the lid closed.

* Recycle your real Christmas tree at a Community Recycling Centre (the tip) in Grimsby or Immingham or chop it up and put it in your garden waste bin if you have one. If your tree has a root-ball and has been watered regularly, you can re-plant it for next year.

*Wrapping paper can only be recycled if it passes the scrunch test – simple paper wrap can be recycled but foil or glitter-decorated paper cannot and needs to go in the green bin. Only wrapping paper that stays scrunched up can be recycled. If it doesn’t, don’t recycle it.

*If you live in a narrow street, park tight against the kerb, fold in wing mirrors, don’t park at a junction and never park on double yellow lines. Our bin wagons are big and need a gap of 3m (10ft) to pass safely, about the same as a fire engine. We can’t empty the bins when cars block the street.

*Stack your boxes with the green box on top so it stops your paper from getting wet and your plastic from blowing away.

A North East Lincolnshire Council spokesperson says: “Our bin crews work extremely hard to empty thousands of bins each day - often walking 50 miles a week dragging heavy bins and heaving recycling boxes.

“The crews empty more than 7,300 wheelie bins and more than 22,000 recycling boxes a day - in all sorts of weather.

“The work they do is vital to keeping North East Lincolnshire clean and safe.

“Please be patient during the Christmas holiday and do what you can to help them get the job done.”

All households in the borough will be sent a holiday waste and recycling leaflet with their Christmas collection dates, including lots of other useful information about waste and recycling in North East Lincolnshire.

GRIMSBY FARMER WAS AT FOREFRONT OF CAMPAIGN TO END SEABIRD SLAUGHTER

Today, Britain's seabirds face many threats to their survival.

These include:

* Commercial overfishing
* Rising sea temperatures disrupting their food sources
* Predators plundering the eggs and chicks from their nesting sites
* Disturbance from eco-tourism
* The loss of foraging habitat as the result of the rapidly increasing proliferation of windfarms.

But at least they are no longer - not legally anyway - shot at their nesting sites.

Leaf back to the mid-19th Century when attitudes to birds were very different.

Every spring and summer weekend, parties from the cities would head to seaside cliffs for the purpose of shooting birds, either in order to gather and sell their feathers to the millinery trade or, more likely, just for the ‘fun’ of it.

Inevitably, were this practice to have continued, many seabirds would have faced extinction.

Step forward four determined individuals - Grimsby farmer John Cordeaux, Bridlington clergyman Henry Barnes-Lawrence, Cambridge academic Alfred Newton and Beverley MP Christopher Sykes.

Appalled by the extent of the suffering and slaughter, they resolved not just to highlight what was going on but to persuade the public - and parliament - that what was happening was morally indefensible. 

Their campaign succeeded. 

It resulted - 150 years ago - in the passage through Parliament of the Sea Birds Preservation Act (1869).

It was the first act that sought to protect wild birds in the UK and, as such was to lead, over the years, to even more far-reaching legislation.

* Saving Britain's Birds is available now (price £2) as an ebook on Kindle.

GREEN MP'S POLICY DOCUMENT HIGHLIGHTS WILDLIFE DISTURBANCE ISSUE WITH DOGS

Dogs can make life difficult for  birds that feed, nest or roost on the ground

AN alert has been sounded on the threat  posed to wildlife by dogs.

It comes in a policy document commissioned by Green Party MP Caroline Lucas.

It states: "Dog ownership among the British people has increased substantially in recent years to nearly 9 million animals. 

"Dogs are a cherished part of home life. 

"Most of the British countryside is a dog-friendly environment, but while the impacts of cats on wildlife are well known, dogs also place major pressures on nature-rich areas. 

"They can cause damage and disturbance to livestock, to wildlife and to some habitats, for example, rivers and lakes. 

"In areas with statutory designations - national parks, AONBs, SSSIs, NNRs - dogs should be kept on a lead, especially at certain seasons or not permitted at all in some instances."

Dogs are very popular pets in the Grimsby area, but they can cause disturbance to birds - for instance, when owners allow them to chase ground-feeding birds on Cleethorpes Beach or on the RSPB reserve at Tetney Marshes.

It is not known yet if tighter controls on dogs will form part of the Green Party's official  policy on the environment.

The document can be read in full at:

https://bit.ly/34XuUiU

                                    

Beach-feeding  snow bunting seen on the beach at Cleethorpes earlier today

DECENT SHOWING BY MELANIE ONN AND MARTIN VICKERS IN LATEST LEAGUE TABLE OF MPs

Melanie Onn - just missed out on the top 100

THE two MPs for North East Lincolnshire wards have both come out relatively well in a performance survey.

The openness and responsiveness of all 650 UK MPs were assessed in a so-called People-Power Index compiled by Change.org.

Martin Vickers - a creditable 92nd place

Martin Vickers (Con), who represents Cleethorpes and Immingham, was 92nd while Labour's Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby) was 105th.

Judged to be the top 10 MPs were:

#1.Wayne David, Caerphilly, Labour
#2. Justin Tomlinson, North Swindon, Conservative
#3. Caroline Nokes, Romsey and Southampton North, Conservative
#4. Jim McMahon, Oldham West and Royton. Labour
#5. Tracey Crouch, Chatham and Aylesford, Conservative
#6. Owen Smith, Pontypridd, Labour
#7. Ian Austin, Dudley North, Independent
#8. Virendra Sharma, Ealing, Southall, Labour
#9. Nigel Evans, Ribble Valley, Conservative

#10.  David Hanson, Delyn, Labour

Judged to be the bottom 10 out of 650 were:

#640. Neil Parish, Tiverton and Honiton, Conservative
#641.Tom Tugendhat, Tonbridge and Malling,Conservative
#642. Bob Stewart, Beckenham, Conservative
#643. Priti Patel, Witham, Conservative
#644. Stephen McPartland, Stevenage, Conservative

#645. Jonathan Djanogly, Huntingdon, Conservative

#646. Jared O’Mara, Sheffield Hallam, Independent

#647. Ken Clarke, Rushcliffe, Independent

#648. Alex Burghart, Brentwood and Ongar, Conservative

#649. Hugo Swire, East Devon, Conservative 

#650. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, The Cotswolds, Conservative

For the full list and more details, see:

https://bit.ly/2Ymv2pA