Government cancels childrens' play equipment...

Our local paper, the Stamford Mercury, reports that the Government is refusing to hand over a grant apparently already agreed for childrens' play equipment.

I wonder if Alan Duncan, the children's MP, and a member of the ConDems, will be explaining to them that "we're all in this together"...

Care for elderly under threat again...?

The Tory council which trebled home care charges for some of the most vulnerable people in Lincolnshire are now considering cutting wardens at sheltered accommodation according to a report in this morning's Stamford Mercury.

Same old Tories, eh?

Who's holding our council to account...?

This week's Stamford Mercury has run South Kesteven District Council's press release on the appointment of the new Chief Executive word for word.

What, no questions...?

Tarzan fined over dog crash

Headline of the week from my local paper - and Britain's oldest - The Stamford Mercury.

I'll now be looking out for a car on local roads with a 'Tarzan' windscreen sticker on the driver's side and 'Jane' on the on the passenger side.

Stay tuned...

Lifeline scrapped for Deepings, but not for Grantham!

Dial-a-ride, a lifeline for elderly housebound people, is to be scrapped in The Deepings, Stamford and Bourne. But not in Grantham.

The Stamford Mercury report that Lincolnshire County Council will only continue to fund Dial-a-Ride in partnership with district councils.

Just a month after Grantham-based South Kesteven District Council was shamed as the only district in Lincolnshire to refuse to support extending bus passes for over-60s and disabled people, they - and Spalding-based South Holland are the only two districts refusing to back Dial-a-Ride.

The fact that South Kesteven will continue to fund Dial-a-Ride for Grantham only adds insult to injury.

A total disgrace.

UPDATE: I see there is a partial Call Connect service to be launched as a partial replacement for Dial-a-Ride where there are no local buses.

UPDATE 2: As of Friday morning, still no news on SKDC's own information website about the scrapping of Dial-a-Ride in The Deepings, Bourne and Stamford. SKDC's website has some info on the scheme, but says the last update on info on Dial-a-Ride was made in September last year...

More important, no information at all on the Call Connect 'service', which the Mercury says will not be provided on bus routes...The whole point of Dial-a-Ride was that it was specifically aimed at people who were unable to use local buses!

You can ask the Tories questions, but don't expect any answers soon...

Lincolnshire Tories hate being held to account. On Wednesday I spent a frustrating three hours asking questions but getting few answers on the Tory's cuts to home-school transport entitlements.

Not one backbench county councillor attempted to even justify the cuts - but they voted them through all the same.

Yesterday, perfectly legitimate questions on police funding - asked at question time - went unanswered at Lincolnshire County Council.

I notice from the Stamford Mercury that the Tories who run South Kesteven District Council are using procedural devices to avoid answering questions on why they offer local pensioners the meannest concessionary fares scheme in the whole of Lincolnshire...

Same old Tories, eh?

Brave words of veteran airman killed in Afghanistan...

A part-time airman based at RAF Wittering near Stamford has become the oldest British serviceman to be killed in war-torn Afghanistan or Iraq.

Before his deployment in February, Senior Aircraftman Gary Thompson, 51, told the Stamford Mercury:

I have five daughters, three of whom are at university. I want women in Afghanistan to be given the same opportunity that my daughters have had.

It means I can come back and say I have played my part in trying to make that happen.

His quote was picked up by tonight's News at Ten (who didn't bother crediting the Mercury) - and the BBC's national site (who did).

His daughters Laurie, 24, Aimee, 22, Jordan, 20, Jade, 17 and Kelly, 16, spoke of their unending love for a man they said was "more than our hero."

Their Dad left his job as a managing director in Nottingham to fight the Taliban. He was killed along with Senior Aircraftman Graham Livingstone - a young Scot also based at Wittering - when their patrol vehicle was blown up on a road close to Kandahar Airfield on Sunday.

Gary Thompson, a member of the RAF Regiment Auxiliary is the fifth TA or reservist personnel to be killed in Afghanistan since the deployment of British forces in 2001.

The Stamford Mercury has invited tributes to the two brave airmen.

Irony of Alan Duncan's civil partnership...

Ironic that the first MP to take advantage of Labour's progressive civil partnership laws is a Conservative elected in 2001 on a manifesto which promised to keep Tory homophobic Section 28 legislation firmly in place.

I congratulate Alan Duncan, MP for Rutland on his news revealed on the website of my local paper, the Stamford Mercury.

It is unlikely that such historic and progressive laws to allow civil partnerships would ever have been passed by a Government of Mr Duncan's party - and certainly not under David Cameron's leadership.

As recently as 2003, Cameron himself voted against scrapping Section 28 which stigmatised homosexuals.

It was introduced in the Thatcher Government by Michael Howard - who went on to become the Tory Leader before David Cameron.

And when Labour advocated abolishing Section 28, Cameron attacked the Blair Government which he claimed was "obsessed with a fringe agenda".

In fairness to Alan Duncan, he has in the past paid tribute to Labour's record on equality.

I'm pleased that Mr Duncan felt able to 'come out' a couple of years ago and publicly declare his homosexuality.

The Civil Partnership laws have brought joy to thousands of same-sex couples who have made their decision to share their lives, their home, their finances and the care of their children or older relatives.

Yet until a couple of years ago, their relationships were invisible in the eyes of the law.

Labour's civil partnership laws were a historic step in giving respect and dignity to lesbians and gay men in Britain and built on Labour's record of equalising the age of consent, outlawing discrimination in the workplace on the grounds of sexual orientation, securing protection from homophobic hate crimes...and abolishing Section 28.

I'm delighted that so many people are benefitting from Labour's legislation - including Tory MPs!

Support our local heroes...

With Gordon Brown visiting British troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, our local paper has launched a special appeal to make sure local service personnel are not forgotten this Christmas.

The Stamford Mercury devoted its front page to an appeal for people here in south Lincolnshire to support British troops.

With Wittering and Luffenham military bases close by, many families locally will be watching today's news from Afghanistan of some of the fiercest fighting to date with more than a passing interest.

And don't forget the part-time professionals from my old TA unit on London Road, Peterborough who have been serving Queen and Country in both in Iraq and Afghanistan.