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Letter writers from Stamford, Spalding, Grantham and Rutland share their views with LincsOnline




Readers have had plenty to say on what’s in the news.

Here we share some of the letters, emails and comments that have come in over the week, including this cartoon from John Elson.

Cartoonist John Elson takes a wry look at life. Sponsored by Assist Group.
Cartoonist John Elson takes a wry look at life. Sponsored by Assist Group.

Send your letters to: news@lincsonline.co.uk

Chance to have a go at Morris dancing

May I firstly thank the astonishing number of people who turned up to join us on Boxing Day either at Manton or Uppingham. It was truly heartening to be cheered on by such large crowds. Thank you!

Rutland Morris is determined to ensure that the tradition of Morris Dancing stays alive in the county and thus are very keen to keep recruiting more of you, as dancers and musicians, to join in the fun and come and join us. We are now unisex and welcome all into our folds.

We are planning a free ‘have a go’ at Morris Dancing workshop on Sunday (January 26) in Ashwell Village Hall, LE15 7LW. The session will run from 10am until 1.30pm and will include a free light lunch. Prospective dancers and musicians are all welcome. The plan is that by the end of the session, participants will be able to perform two complete dances, which they can show off to their family and friends at a public display at the hall at about 1.15pm! All you will need is to wear trainers and loose clothing, and bring a water bottle.

To book your place and for more information please email: squire@rutlandmorris.org.uk. You will be so pleased you did! We look forward to meeting you all.

Dave Casewell

Rutland Morris

Fairness in council tax

The Labour Government, our party, has said that it will initiate a review into reforming council tax and business rates and consider new options such as a land value tax, to ensure local government has sustainable funding for the long term. We agree with the need for such change but would highlight that for council tax, a wholesale change is required.

council tax is presently based on the value of a property relative to others in England on April 1, 1991. We know that if ‘levelling up’ highlights anything, it is that property values between London and the South East and the rest of England have hugely diverged over the past 34 years. Despite this fact, Rutland has the highest council tax in England. More generally, homes in the Midlands and North are often in too high a band and pay too much. By contrast, those in the London area are in too low a band, and many much more valuable homes pay too little. So, in its current form, council tax actually works against regional levelling up.

What makes this even more unfair is that council tax is a much higher proportion of property value for low value properties than high value properties. This penalises those who are less well off and our younger people, wherever they may live. Council tax represents less than 1% of the value of properties in bands G or H. Yet it ranges from about 6% to 3.5% of the value for those properties in bands A to C.

A government exercise to simply revalue all properties would not, however, address the blatant unfairness of the current banding system. This is because the distribution of more valuable homes has not fundamentally changed since 1991. What is needed is for council tax nationally to become proportional to the value of a home. This would eliminate the outrageous situation where a small detached house in Rutland pays more than a much more valuable town house in Chelsea. Such a change would be fairer across England as a whole, resulting in low and middle income households gaining, while those in higher income households would, on average, lose. Some might criticise this call as an example of the ‘politics of envy’ but it is not.

When a situation is unfair and needs to be corrected, there are inevitably winners and losers. The losers in this case will be those who – admittedly through no fault of their own – have in the past benefited from an unfair system.

So, we call on the government in its reform of the council tax system to place fairness at its heart.

Councillors Steve McRobb and Ramsay Ross

Oakham North West

Town needs affordable homes

A flurry of major planning decisions and applications over recent months appears to have ended uncertainty over the North Stamford/Quarry Farm developments, the St Martin’s Park project, and the site at Exeter Fields (allocated as a ‘strategic employment site’ in the local plan, now due to be deallocated a few years later by the local plan review). The first two will create 2,000 and 190 new homes respectively. The last will add 268. Other new housing developments nearing completion, or in the pipeline, are adding hundreds more.

We may hope that some of the more invidious aspects of some of the outline plans are corrected and that the redoubtable efforts of campaigns led by Carys Vaughan and Laura Upson are to that extent rewarded. But it’s the hope that kills you, while it’s a safe bet that all these developments will go ahead.

30% of this new housing will be ‘affordable’ but the applicable affordability ratio (of median salary to house price) prices too many locals out. The majority of buyers will be relatively wealthy and, if not retired, commute to work if they cannot work from home. The infrastructure burden will be substantial. Residents are rightly sceptical about developers’ promises to deliver benefits and mitigate damage to local economies, ecologies, and quality of life.

On the plus side, our cash-strapped councils will get some much-needed additional revenue to support essential services. If (always a big ‘if’ in this context) the original commitment to a mixed-use development at St Martin’s Park is fully honoured, there will be workshops alongside office space for start-ups and light industry intended to create some 500 new jobs. Let’s hope Burghley Land Ltd have more luck implementing the commercial aspect of this development than CEG and the Cecil Family Estate Trust have had getting a commercial development started at Exeter Fields.

Stamford needs developments that deliver genuinely affordable housing and generate employment to build a sustainable and prosperous community. SKDC’s Stamford Conservation Area Appraisal describes Stamford as ‘primarily a dormitory town’ whose ‘unspoilt character…makes it a popular tourist and retirement destination’. Stamford should be so much more than that.

Robin Lister

Rutland and Stamford Constituency Labour Party

Quarry Farm will be built on

Sad news for residents of Stamford that, at a planning meeting of Rutland County Council on January 14, it was finally agreed to build on our beautiful Quarry Farm land. It was approved by seven votes to one, with two abstentions. There was considerable debate, relating to potential traffic issues at junctions along Casterton Road and risk of gridlock in the town in general. There was also discussion about the effect on wildlife on the site. The developer (Alison Homes) sent along their own ecologist to give their perspective on this. He was obviously fairly positive that it would mostly be fine. The woodland is being retained but instead of the recommended 50m unbuilt land around it, the developers have decided (as it isn’t ‘ancient woodland’) that 15m would be enough.

It seems to me that this is a miscarriage of justice for the town. Nearly 3,000 new houses will be built across Stamford North and Quarry Farm, of which 650 are destined for Quarry Farm. SKDC have fostered the project to enable their North Stamford one, which requires a link road. Rutland has embraced the scheme, as it means that it fulfils half of their housing requirements for the next few years. Rutland is not offering to help with the cost of new infrastructure for schools, health services etc. Rutland will receive council tax from the new housing on Quarry Farm, but the residents will use Stamford’s services. A new school is proposed at the junction of the new road, which will cross Little Casterton Road at the edge of town, but the children from Quarry Farm housing will not be able to attend this school, which will be in Lincolnshire. There is no provision for new employment opportunities in any of the new housing developments, as the proposal for building of commercial premises on Exeter Fields has now been changed to 268 more houses

What is a countryside area, with natural paths and unrestricted wild areas, fostering natural habitats, will become a managed Country Park with much more limited wildlife at risk from human activity. In the meantime, Rutland breathes a sigh of relief. Its precious wild areas are safe for a little longer.

Nicki Morphy

Waverley Place, Stamford

Don’t merge Rutland with SKDC

Alicia Kearns MP is right to call an urgent public meeting in respect of smaller unitary councils like Rutland being merged with other larger councils, or other local authorities under new Government guidelines.

Rutland has one of the highest unitary council taxes in the country and, with an approximate population of just 41,000 and a tiny tax base, needs more than ever to go back and merge with its real spiritual council tax base in Leicestershire. The independence game is truly up.

Any talk of a joined up merger with SKDC, which has a much higher council tax base and population, is a non-starter in my view, and should be resisted by SKDC councillors at the earliest opportunity.

It is not rocket science to grasp where a move such as this would lead for South Kesteven taxpayers; it would most certainly mean much higher council taxes imposed on us to bail out the now failed Rutland independence movement.

SKDC already lacks proper Government funding itself and its tax payers do not want to be saddled with Rutland's huge, never-ending adult social care and children's services costs on top.

We have already sampled in SKDC what any future joined up Rutland experience could mean in Great Casterton and Little Casterton, as a prime example. Rutland County Council ditches its local plan, costing its own taxpayers over £1 million to develop a new local plan, and a development free-for-all takes off on the Lincolnshire border.

The proposed development of 2,000 homes at North Luffenham airfield and the derelict officers’ mess was the right answer all along, not to mention the loss of the (MOD) £29 million+ housing infrastructure money.

Thanks very much Rutland County Council.

Name and address supplied

Thank you for helping

May I pass on my thanks to all the people that came to my assistance when I fell in Morrisons car park on Saturday, January 4. Just to let you all know, I am doing OK now.

Roy Prentice

Stamford

Myself and my friends The Dakins would like to thank Marshall’s Nissan for their help in retrieving the family’s Nissan car from Mr Dakin’s work place when he had a bad neck injury whilst at work. We felt they should have this great thumbs up for their assistance as they went over and above in this instance.

Kay Smedley

by email

Thanks to those who are caring for our river

Thank you to all the Grantham RiverCare group of volunteers who took the trouble last weekend to collect most of the frightening amount of large and small debris left behind when the River Witham flooded recently. We were also most impressed to see them using pans, brushes and buckets to collect many thousands of non-degradable polystyrene micro-beads from a burst bean bag which was washed into the river during the flood. The beads looked almost impossible to collect, but thankfully the volunteers stood on the slippery banks to retrieve most of them, as they were a serious threat to local wildlife.A big thank you to all those who care for our river regularly in all weathers. It is a sad reflection on our society that so many people think it is acceptable to regularly throw their empty cans and bottles etc into the river. Without the local RiverCare volunteers the Witham would be in a dreadful state and we would not be able to enjoy seeing all the local wildlife such as kingfishers, white egrets, herons and otters. Hopefully Anglian Water will also do their part by repairing the river banks where flooding occurred and prevent such serious events happening again.

Lynda North

Grantham

Are you a poet?

My name is Callum Brazzo and I’m a performance poet who would love to collaborate with businesses, venues and people to create more poetry content. I made a page called ‘Poetry With Purpose’ last year to ‘brand’ theme-specific sets around poetry and I connected with four venues in 2024 and I’d love to expand this!

So whether you want to be a venue for a poetry event, a long-term project or a one-off performance, let’s have a conversation!

Message the Poetry With Purpose Facebook page if interested!

The local arts scene feels like it’s reviving with the group for young people at the South Holland Centre, Galleries Reimagined At The Sessions having a second exhibition next month, the efforts of AE Collaborative and the consistent meetings and open mics of White Horse Creative Circle at Sergi’s all adding into the collective of our scene.So please do reach out!

Callum Brazzo

via email

Send your letters to: news@lincsonline.co.uk



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