Kids Play Equipment: Lincoln Road; Holdingham; Sleaford

Wear and Tear or Vandalism?

The Town Clerk mentioned to me about having to remove a piece of Play Equipment in the KId(ies) area on the Lincoln Road Play Area. 

Whetr or not it was vandalism ot wear and tear is hard for me to judge. The inference was that it is due to damage. 

Here are two photographs. It is a pity as the play area is used frequently (weather permitting). 

Holdingham Woodside Trees Growing well

I took photos of the trees (1st June) on the official first day of summer. The weather has varied but has been sufficiently wet (and relatively warm)!!!

I couldn't see any damaged trees the (in June) apart from one or two hanging branches that could easily have happened naturally due to wind and the weight of growth. Nice to see a number of kids playing in the field and on the play equipment.

Update: 

These photographs were taken on September 23rd 2017. All surviving.

New Sleaford Mayor

Plenty in the local press about resignations from the Sleaford Town Council.  

But what about our new Mayor (or is that Mayoress). Or Chairperson? It is explained at the recent Annual Meeting of the Town Council. 

Video footage is available on Youtube. 

Town Polls: have views changed in Holdingham and Sleaford?

I was browsing through Blog posts written years ago - at the time during and before the debates about Compulsory Purchase Orders and Closure of the Station Gates. 

It is interesting as the 2005 poll provided a complex result. This was about have road through part of the Boston Road Recreation Ground.

The second, in 2011, was about the issue of closing the Station gates on Southgate. The second I remember well due to the queues of people trying to vote at the Jolly Scotchman but some being turned away (they had either come to the wrong polling station or maybe were not eligible). Polling cards had not been issued and the Polling Station (3 in total) were only open from 1600 hr to
2100 hr.

Anyway here are the results that I logged at the time>

Boston Road Poll Results: 17 November 2005

The full poll results were: The votes have been counted in the Sleaford Parish Poll, which was held on Thursday 17 November 2005.

Q1. Are you in favour of a road being constructed across Boston Road Recreation Ground now or at any time in the future?

YES = 1,438

NO = 1,351

Q2. Are you in favour of retaining Boston road recreation ground as a recreation ground, now and in the future?

YES = 2,250

NO = 386

Station Gate Poll: May 19th 2011

The Poll, asking residents if they approved or disapproved of the proposal to close the Station Gates, was as follows:

YES (approve): 200 (8.1%); NO (disapprove): 2,274 (91.9%).

Note: There were queues at the Jolly Scotchman and the 2 other Polling Stations.  Some were turned away as they had come to the wrong polling station.  

The 3 Polling Stations were open from 1600 hr to 2100 hr. (Polling Cards had not been issued).

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Will we need to return to these findings and perhaps try again. U cannot believe the issue has gone away forever.

Sleaford: One Poll Down & One to go! Where are the voters?

Post note: Lots of comparisons are coming up about the December by-election. Some are on Facebook and it looks as though some Candidates will be standing this time. 

Guardian Video about Sleaford: Lincs Independent Interview 2016 (not yet confirmed for June 8th). Also poll Count December 8/9 2016

I went to the Jolly Scotchman yesterday afternoon to cast my vote. There were quite a few election posters on the Lincoln  Road.

 They couldn't be seen from the Jolly Scotchman entrance so I think that is OK - as the rules stand. However I did point it out at the Polling Station!

The results are on the LCC web-site and were covered in the Local and National media as well as Twitter and Facebook. Sleaford turnout was, once again in my view, disappointing (28%) on a fine day.

LCC Results. BBC Result

There are many issues in Sleaford (and Holdingham) that have been mentioned in my Blog posts. Traffic congestion will get worse - especially at school arriving and going home times. Places like the Cemetery entrance gets blocked for a while as cars park there.  The photo below is how it ought to be - but sadly at times not so.

The next step is to see if the same pattern is repeated on June 8th. Hopefully our turnout at Sleaford will be much higher.

  

Elections, Elections: where and for what will the Holdingham Sleaford Residents Vote?

In the past (recent times) it has only been the Jolly Scotchman - certainly for  local elections. Before that, and in General Elections we had more than one. 

I do remember voting at the Methodist Church and was aware also that the mini-Community Centre (Communal Centre/Bungalow) (if that is the right word) in Greenfield Road. This time round, for the General Election on June 8th and the County Council Elections on May 4th I am not too sure. Certainly the Jolly Scotchman (even if only an outside Porta Cabin) will be one.

Anyway it will be interesting to see if the turn-out in the Sleaford and North Hykeham area is above the 37%  turnout achieved at the By-Election December 2016. That, I thought, was not a good turnout given all the coverage (Locally and Nationally) it got.

It is often a choice of using National Polls to express dissatisfaction with local issues or looking to a wider picture. Will plans for massive expansion and impact on Services and transport problems predominate over say the Brexit outlook (whatever Brexit means in practice)

Many Party top brass came to the area. 

The local press has issued a release suggesting that (at this stage) only the sitting MP has declared that she will stand. It will be interesting as maybe one or two potential candidates are putting up for the County Council  Elections in May. 

General Election Sleaford & North Hykeham  

Previous election results are at: Wikipaedia

Sleaford Town Council Meeting: 12th April 2017 - Holdingham aspects!!

A video recording has been done for the Sleaford Town Council meeting of April 12th.

Some parts of the items recording had a bearing on Holdingham.

Woodside Play Area/Open Space  and the Lincoln Road play area. I have, in the past put many posts on this Blog relating to these areas. However there has been a marked improvement and increase in the use of the facilities: aided by the Easter Holidays and generally mild and warm weather we have had.

The Annotated video of the Town Council meeting is on (click here) YouTube!