CALL FOR FULL-TIME COVID TEST CENTRE TO BE ESTABLISHED AS "MATTER OF URGENCY"

                                                       

Matthew Patrick - risk of spike

WITH cases of Covid-19 showing a worrying increase in North East Lincolnshire, a call has come for a permanent test centre to be set up within the borough.

It has come from the leader of the Labour Group, Cllr Matthew Patrick, and colleague Cllr Marie Green on the back of news that the area currently  has 267 cases - up by 19 over the past 10 days.

They are urging the council's administration  to press Whitehall " as a matter of urgency" for the establishment of a permanent full-time testing site within the boundaries of North East Lincolnshire as soon as is practically possible

Assuming it is established, they want the facility  to operate as long as the Covid crisis continues.

The duo state: "In North East Lincolnshire, we are  highly vulnerable, owing to such issues as a high proportion of older residents, some with underlying health issues, and many workers employed in  food production."

Although there is a testing centre on Duchess Street in Grimsby, it is not available every day.

The nearest, full-time permanent testing site for Covid  is in Hessle, near Hull, at least a 50-mile round trip by car. 

The councillors add: "This distance increases and is more expensive for those who do not have access to a vehicle, therefore acting as a deterrent against testing, increasing the risk of a spike in transmissions in our area."

Their comments are due to be discussed at a full meeting of the council this evening.

                                       

Marie Green - area highly vulnerable

END OF THE ROAD FOR EVENTS COMPANY THAT OPERATED OUT OF THE KNOLL?

                                              

The Knoll - prestigious HQ

THE curtain appears to have  fallen on a short-lived events company based in Cleethorpes.

Go-getters Tanya Thomson (50) and Gemma Leaning (43) set up G& T Events (North East Lincs Ltd) in summer two years ago.

With The Knoll in Cleethorpes as its HQ, the business was registered with Companies House in August 2018.

However, despite marketing qualifications, enthusiasm and perhaps the most prestigious address in  Cleethorpes, the duo probably lacked the capital, the contacts and the experience to stage any money-spinning events sufficient to  generate revenues from ticket-sales and/or sponsorship.

A Meet-Santa-in-His-Grotto  event was tolerably successful, but  a proposed Sunday artisans' market never got off the ground.

In March this year, the two directors applied for the company to be struck off the Companies House register.

Pending the strike-off, the duo have other interests to pursue - for instance, Tanya helps husband Barry to run The Farmhouse pub in New Waltham while Gemma is a fundraising co-ordinator for the Royal British Legion.

COUNCIL'S OUTRAGE OVER CONTAMINATION OF NEW WHEELIE BINS WITH - SOILED NAPPIES!

                                                         

Thumbs-up for new bins from Stewart Swinburn - but, please, no nappies!

SOILED nappies are being dumped in the new wheelie bins being issued this month to North East Lincolnshire residents.

The practice has dismayed Cllr Stewart Swinburn who is portfolio holder for waste disposal.

He said today: “I am disappointed that some households are choosing to put nappies and other unapproved waste in their blue bins.

“There is no excuse for this.

"It contaminates the whole load, and can mean the paper and card cannot be recycled.

"What is more, it undermines the effort most people are putting in to recycling.

"Our crews will not empty bins if people put the wrong items in them.”

NELC is working with a specialist distribution company to deliver  new bins to about 73,000 households by mid-November.

Bins have this week been arriving at homes in parts of Scartho, Haverstoe, East Marsh, Heneage and Healing.

Households in parts of The Willows, Bradley, Nunsthorpe, Sidney Sussex, Humberston, East Marsh, West Marsh and Waltham will be receiving their bins later this month.

The initiative coincides with Recycle Week which runs from 21 to 27 September 21-27.

Meanwhile, a company called Grimsby Granulation Ltd has been tasked to collect the old recycling boxes though it is not known to what use these will be put.

The council has reported instances of unauthorised people taking the boxes for commercial or other purposes.

It says bins can also be returned to the community recycling centres in Grimsby or Immingham.

 

COUNCIL PLEDGES CRACKDOWN ON MOTORISTS WHO PARK ON VILLAGE FOOTPATHS AND VERGES

A CRACKDOWN is looming for motorists who park on verges and footpaths in North East Lincolnshire.

Starting on Monday September 28, the council's parking enforcement officers will target four villages - New Waltham, Healing, Barnoldby-le-Beck and Humberston.

According to portfolio for environment and transport Cllr Stewart Swinburn, unlawful parking is "allowing these villages to lose their character and appeal".

He continues: “Parking  on grass verges causes unnecessary damage and increases our costs of maintaining them

"The practice also causes an obstruction for pedestrians."

Signs have been installed on entry and exit of the verge parking enforcement zones.

There will also be regular repeater signing  to remind drivers of the restriction.

Those caught disobeying the regulations face on-the spot fines, though no details have been released about how severe these might be.

STORE DIRECTS CLEETHORPES CUSTOMERS TO 'NEAREST TESCO PETROL STATION' - AT BRIGG!

                                                          

Pictured is the scene today at the Tesco superstore on Hewitts Avenue in Cleethorpes where an improvement project on its petrol station started on Monday. Until this is completed on Friday, all fuel sales have been halted. In the meantime, the company has refrained from directing motorists a few miles away to competitor petrol stations in New Waltham, Humberston or Grimsby. Instead, it is suggesting they drive to its store in Brigg - almost 20 miles away - for their fill-up. Hardly encouraging reduced carbon emissions, is it?                                      

WHAT'S SO WRONG ABOUT GRIMSBY COUNCILLOR'S WILD FLOWERS BACKDROP?

                                                                   

Bright, fresh and 'outlawed' - Steve Beasant's controversial wild flowers

A STORM has blown up over a councillor's use of wildflowers, such as poppies and corn cockles,  as a backdrop during internet screening of council meetings.

Cllr Steve Beasant, Lib-Dem representative for Grimsby's East Marsh ward,  has been reprimanded over his choice, for instance, at the September meeting of the planning committee.

The poppies have been flowering in Grant Thorold park which is within Cllr Beasant's ward.

But the council hierarchy has told him them they are insufficiently formal.

In future, he has been told to opt for a 'neutral' backdrop or one more representative of the borough - say Grimsby dock tower or  Cleethorpes pier.

But is Cllr Beasant being picked on because he is not part of the council's controlling group?

At the same meeting, the backdrop for the deputy mayor, Cllr David Hasthorpe, was decidedly Shakespearean in theme.

At a previous cabinet meeting, NELC's deputy leader, Cllr John Fenty, chose a scene with the unmistakable flavour of exotic holidays.

                                              

To be or not to be? David Hasthorpe goes Elizabethan

                                         

Caribbean? Mediterranean? Only John Fenty knows

                                            

The sun sets on Grimsby - Callum Procter (that's him on the right) and the dock tower

                                                  

Come to Cleethorpes! Stephen Harness and the pier

The Grimsby News says: For the most part, Grimsby is a seriously nature-depleted urban environment where few birds sing and  few wild flowers bloom. Yet when a fresh-thinking and imaginative councillor seeks to show this is not the whole story, what does NELC's hierarchy do? It seeks to censor him. Cllr Beasant should continue displaying the poppies and corn flowers. Would that other councillors might be equally inspired by nature and the splendid example their colleague has shown.

DESTINATION HOLLAND FOR THIS CONTAINER SHIP AS IT SAILS PAST CLEETHORPES

Sailing past Cleethorpes - the good ship Henrike Schepers

This container ship, the Henrike Schepers, arrived this morning at the port of Waalhaven, part of the huge complex at Rotterdam. 

Built in 2012, the vessel  currently sails under the flag of Antigua and Barbuda.

Waalhaven used to be home to an airport and aircraft factory, but the Dutch army destroyed both in 1940 to prevent them falling into the hands of the Germans.

So complete was the devastation that neither were deemed worth the expense of repairing.

The Henrike Schepers regularly crosses the North Sea to and from Hull, and can been seen as it passes Cleethorpes.