Opportunity beckons for new traders at Farmers and Craft Market in Grimsby's Riverhead Square

                                                         

The weather forecast is good for Friday's market in Riverhead Square

North East Lincolnshire Council has issued this upbeat  news release  ahead of the next Farmers and Craft Market which is due to be held  in Grimsby's Riverhead Square this Friday ( May 16).

The Farmers and Craft Market runs on the 3rd Friday of every month in the town centre, subject to weather conditions.

It will open at its new location, Riverhead Square, at 9am on Friday morning until around 3pm that day.

On sale will be locally sourced produce and goods including cheese, meat, chocolate and cakes as well as gifts, flowers and plants.

Attending the market this month will be:

* Redhill Farm (all things pork, cooked and raw)

* Sticky Fingers Cakes and Bakes (traybakes, doughnuts, brownies & savoury bakes)

* The Cheese Den (variety of cheese and dairy products)

* Campbells Cakery (hot crumble bar, homemade cakes and bakes)

* Daryl's Shed (flowers, plants and bulbs)

The Star of Lemuria (ethically sourced gemstones, essential oils and healing tools)

Eve Honey Bees (honey, homemade chocolate and all sorts of wax products)

LittleInferno Co (all sorts of gifts)

New traders will be offered a ‘buy one get one free’ offer for their first eight months’ trading, providing an opportunity to trial or grow their business. 

Stalls cost just £24 a day (gazebo and table included), but a new  can pay for a month, then get the next month free, for a period of eight months.

Says Cllr Stephen Harness, NELC's portfolio holder for assets: "It's great to have the market in its new space, and along with Top Town Market, due to open shortly in its new location in Freshney Place, it will provide a really good, regular shopping alternative for people in the heart of the town."

For more information or to speak to the markets team, call (01472) 325836 or email market.hall@nelincs.gov.uk.

Alternatively, visit www.nelincs.gov.uk/markets.

                                                

Freshly baked pies and pastries are always strong sellers

Plan to convert a residential house to a children's home sparks controversy in Healing

                                          

The Healing property at the centre of the rumpus

PLANS for a four-bedroomed  Healing house to be converted to a children's home have sparked objections  from neighbours.

The proposal is for 3 Buddleia Close in the village to provide a loving home for up three children at a time.

Says the application, which has been submitted by North East Lincolnshire Council: "There are insufficient homes within the borough to enable all children in care to remain within their local area, so many have to live at a distance from their local support networks.  

"This is costly in many ways and has a proven negative impact on the young people themselves as they navigate adolescence and become young adults.  

"Establishing this property as a children’s home is thus part of the council’s wider strategy to provide sufficient local homes for children in its care. 

"The property will become a home for up to three children in care, with adult carers on-site 24 hours a day."  

However, residents of at least four neighbouring properties fear such a change of use could lead to loss of parking space and a reduction in value of their own properties.

One resident of The Avenue has written thus to North East Lincolnshire Council's planning department: 

"Changing this ordinary residential dwelling into a children's home for children with  additional needs is  unsuitable. 

"These additional needs will mean emergency services, caseworkers and  healthcare professionals will all need to access the site at a far higher rate than the  occupants of a normal residential dwelling putting strain on parking.

"It will also mean increased noise and visual pollution for the  immediate neighbours who will have to put up with late-night emergency service call-outs and  potential antisocial behaviour from the children, thereby impacting the lives of all others who live near the property.

 "These children would be better off in a dedicated built-for-purpose children's home with  proper overnight facilities for the carers, ample parking and where they can make as much noise as they like without being  a burden on neighbours."

The application is likely to be determined later this summer.

Hopes of more Grimsby jobs in renewables sector take jolt as windfarm giant halts 180-turbine project

                                                    

HOPES of further local jobs in the offshore windfarm sector have today suffered a setback.

Danish company Ørsted today announced that it is discontinuing its  Hornsea 4 offshore wind project whose 180 turbines would probably have been serviced from its Grimsby dockside hub.

It has attributed its pull-out to ever-increasing supply chain costs, high interest rates and construction risks.

Says its chief executive Rasmus Errboe: "We remain fully committed to being an important partner to the UK government to help them achieve their ambitious target for offshore wind build-out and appreciate the work they’ve done to deliver a clear framework to support offshore wind. 

"However, our capital allocation is based on a strict and value-focused approach, and after careful consideration, we’ve decided to discontinue the development of the Hornsea 4 project in its current form."

He continues: "We have been maturing the project over the past nine months and have been working relentlessly with stakeholders and suppliers to manage the different project risks for a project of this scale. 

"Throughout the development phase, we have been diligent in our approach to capital commitment to our suppliers, and our committed capital is well below our threshold. 

"The adverse macroeconomic developments, continued supply chain challenges and increased execution, market and operational risks have eroded the value creation."

Ørsted will take a huge financial hit - upwards of £500-million according to some estimates - as a result of today's decision.  

Controversial Pier Gardens revamp on hold as NELC axes procurement exercise

                                           

The artist's impressions mostly looked pleasing but the reality might have been very different

A CONTROVERSIAL scheme  to revamp Pier Gardens in Cleethorpes has suddenly been thrown into doubt.

 North East Lincolnshire Council has  today scrapped until further notice its procurement exercise to hire a contractor.

All the designs and tender documents will now come under review.

A memo sent to the few firms who had expressed an interest in tendering reads as follows:

Dear Tenderers,

We hope this message finds you well.

We are writing to inform you that, due to a need to revisit our tender documents, the Council has made the decision to cancel  the current procurement exercise for the Principal Contractor Pier Gardens.

Our plan is to restart the procurement process as soon as possible. We will notify all tenderers with the new procurement plans,  timeline and all the revised documentation.

We appreciate your understanding and patient, and thank you for your cooperation.

Kind regards,

Procurement Team

The wording leaves the door open for some sort of rejig in the future.

But unless the authority can come up with a more coherent proposal, one that is backed by formal planning consent, it is possible that the £8.57- million project will quietly be left to die a death.

Today's revelation will come as a blow to skateboarders who had been looking forward to the creation of a skatepark at the north end of the site near the junction of Alexandra Road and Sea Road.

But there will be few tears shed by those who feared proposals to hard-surface much of the site greenery would be detrimental to the gardens which date back to 1885.

When one of its features, the maze, was removed in spring last year at estimated cost of £17,000, there was a massive backlash from disgusted residents.

Today’s decision means that Cleethorpes will be spared having the whole perimeter of Pier Gardens being surrounded by ugly hoarding until next Easter and beyond with all that might imply for events such as Armed Forces weekend.

* See also previous Grimsby News post

Interest from contractors in carrying out revamp of Pier Gardens appears to be lukewarm

Pier Gardens - will it really benefit from Chinese granite paving and other hard surfacing?

FIRMS interested in carrying out for the proposed  revamp of Pier Gardens have been given until noon next Monday, May 12, to submit their tenders bids.

North East Lincolnshire council had hoped that work would already have been underway by now, but interest in the contract has been lukewarm, prompting the deadline for bids to be extended on at least two occasions.

When an open day was held on site, only one firm sent a representative!

The skateboard park element of the proposal has proved popular with young people, but the rest of the project appears to have generated little, if any, enthusiasm.

The council’s cabinet decided to proceed with the venture apparently on the whim of a London-based consultant and an £8.57-million levelling-up grant from Whitehall.

Since then, the scheme has been subject to numerous tweaks and amendments making it difficult for potentially interested contractors to finalise costings.

Because the Pier Gardens site has significant undulations, there is a question mark, for instance, over how many tonnes of earth needs to be either added or removed to flatten the land in readiness for  installation of Chinese granite slabs, gravel and other hard surfacing.

Officials believe the hard surfacing will be just as permeable as the turf it replaces, but can they really be confident that a flash flood would not cause water to cascade into Alexandra Road and/ or Central Promenade with potentially unhappy consequences for traders?

A proposed water feature is also problematic. It is fraught with health and safety issues and myriad possibilities for "things to go wrong" as has been the case with previous water installations in Grimsby’s Top Town.

Controversially, NELC’s administration has opted to proceed without first seeking to obtain planning consent, thereby thwarting any opportunity for scrutiny of the project or for residents to submit comments either for or against the project.

In the absence of transparency, we do not know the advice, if any, of the following

* NELC's heritage officer

* NELC's ecology officer

* NELC's planning department

* NELC's private sector partner, Equans

* English Heritage

* Natural England

* Anglian Water

* Drainage authorities

* Environment Agency

* Humberside Fire and Rescue

* Humberside Police

* The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents

NELC has indicated that this important information will be shared with whichever firm secures the contract - but it should surely be available for scrutiny not just by potential bidders but also by the public. 

A formal planning framework would provide transparency and a form of due diligence. 

Without it, the project runs the risk of multiple misunderstandings and disagreements between council and contractor.  

It is understood that the venture is being overseen by a  Project Board consisting of up to 14 council officers, but no councillors, not even cabinet members nor any of the three Croft Baker ward representatives.

As of mid-February, some £617,000 of the grant had already been spent on consultancy fees, and this figure may now have reached £1-million or more.

                                           

Functional perhaps, but not all that pleasing on the eye - how the north end of Pier Gardens might look 

The Grimsby News says: Pier Gardens probably would benefit from  'refreshing', but that could be achieved at relatively modest cost by replacing much of the existing asphalt hard-surfacing with a more pleasing material  and by more ambitious planting of shrubs and flowers. For the administration to proceed with what looks like an incoherent  scheme without a formal planning process, shows a corner-cutting disregard for democracy which it may well come to rue if (or when) things to start to go wrong. The current administration's track record in project design and management scarcely inspires confidence. Perhaps, its wisest course would simply be for NELC to walk away from this venture, hand back any unspent monies to the Government and crack on with the day job.

Triumph for Reform UK candidate Dame Andrea as she sweeps to victory in mayoral election

                                                   

Success! A winning smile from Dame Andrea at today's declaration  

REFORM UK candidate Dame Andrea Jenkins is the first mayor of the newly-created Greater Lincolnshire combined county authority.

She swept to an easy victory in yesterday’s county-wide poll, the result of which was announced in Grimsby Town Hall at breakfast time today.

The count was as follows

Sally Horscroft (Green): 15,040

Andrea Jenkins (Reform UK): 104,133

Marianne Overton (Lincolnshire Independents): 19,911

Jason Stockwood (Lab): 30,384

Rob Waltham Conservative): 64,585

Trevor Young (Liberal-Democrats): 13, 728

The declaration did not come until 6.30am - more than eight hours after the polling booths closed.

The figures are an amalgamation of the votes cast in North East Lincolnshire and eight other authorities - namely Boston, City of Lincoln, East Lindsey, North Kesteven, North Lincolnshire, South Holland, South Kesteven and West Lindsey

Part of the delay was caused by the need for a recount in North Lincolnshire, but the last authority  to declare was East Lindsey District Council.

The votes cast solely in North East Lincolnshire were as follows

Sally Horscroft (Green): 1,225

Andrea Jenkins (Reform UK): 12,523

Marianne Overton (Lincolnshire Independents): 980

Jason Stockwood (Lab): 6,419

Rob Waltham Conservative): 6,239

Trevor Young (Liberal-Democrats): 1,022

There is no doubt Dame Andrea, a former Conservative minister before she switched political allegiance, will be a flamboyant and feisty mayor.

From the outset of the evening, she caused a stir, wearing a sparkling blue jumpsuit and accompanied by her “best friend”, Gloria, who was also theatrically attired.

With the duo were Dame Andrea’s older sister and agent, Debbie Landymore, who is on the mend from a health condition which, 18 months ago, temporarily left her in a coma with the prospect of never being able to walk again.

Following the declaration, the new mayor sparked immediate controversy when she hit out at the “smears” she said had been aimed at her - particularly by her Conservative opponents.

There were more sparks during subsequent interchanges  with TV and radio representatives, when the mayor cut short one interview, accusing the reporter of being “divisive” in her questioning.

It is understood that Dame Andrea and her friend and agent later retired to a local hotel rather than driving back to Bassingham where they had been staying during much of the campaign.

Happy ladies! Dame Andrea and her friend, Gloria

                                                  

The new mayor cut short her interview with this radio reporter

                                     

Reform UK MP for Boston & Skegness Richard Tice was present in support of Dame Andrea 

Smiling in defeat - unsuccessful candidates Marianne Overton, Rob Waltham, Sally Horscroft and Jason Stockwood 

Grimsby and Cleethorpes MP Melanie Onn and Labour colleagues look less than enchanted by the result 

Convenience store on Cleethorpes residential street opens under new management

 

After being closed in recent times, the convenience store at the junction of Thrunscoe Road and Nicholson Street in Cleethorpes has re-opened. North East Lincolnshire Council has received an application for a premises licence from Mr Partheepan Marimuthu. If granted, this will allow him to sell alcoholic drinks for consumption off the premises. The hours sought are 6am to 11pm.