Radical answers needed on Lincs roads...?

Lincolnshire roads have seen one of the biggest increases in traffic over the past decade - with central London the only place in the country to see a fall in vehicle numbers since 1997, according to tonight's Lincolnshire Echo.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone took a lot of flak when he brought in the controversial Congestion Zone - and it now costs £8 a day to drive into the centre of the capital.

But it's clearly effective in cutting traffic when all else has failed - and of course improving air quality in the capital. Ken has used the revenue generated by the Congestion Charge to massively invest in buses and the tube.

The result is that today, London is the only major city in the world to shift travellers out of their cars and onto public transport.

Local campaigners say Lincolnshire is heading for 'traffic hell' if action is not taken soon.

Central London and rural Lincolnshire could hardly be different, of course.

But radical solutions sometimes achieve results, as Ken clearly demonstrates.

I don't pretend to have all the answers - but I've long been convinced that sooner or later, we'll have to have some sort of Park-and-Ride service in the Deepings area to meet the extra traffic on the A15 Peterborough-Bourne corridor caused the huge increase in development in recent years.

What do you think?

Problems at Deepings Recycling Centre...

Big problem at Deepings Recycling Centre. I understand our home-grown recycler Ian Prentice is being forced to charge for dropping off wood, glass and green waste following a sudden decision by Lincolnshire County Council to withhold recycling credits.

As county councillor for Deeping St James, I'm trying to get to the bottom of what's going on but so far I've been unable to find out what the problem is.

I shouldn't be surprised: I'm sorry to say it took the County Council almost two years of dithering to decide they were unable to contribute towards a regular rubbish skip after they withdrew the much-valued fortnightly service at the Rainbow car park.

Now they appear to have pulled the plug on Deepings Recycling Centre too, with no notice at all.

Watch this space...!

What about your own village Ray...?

Bemused to see more controversy over a recycling centre for Stamford reported in the Mercury.

We also need recycling facilities to serve the Deepings and we have an ideal privately-run site here on Station Road - away from residential areas yet convenient for the 12,000 residents.

But trying to get local authority support for our own home-grown site over the past couple of years has been like knocking my head against a brick wall - despite the fact that it wouldn't cost hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money which councillors seem to want to throw at Stamford's problem.

I notice that district councillor Ray Auger was chairing a meeting about the controversial plans for a Stamford site...

Ray lives here in Deeping St James.

As a resident, Ray benefits from the weekly skip which is now paid for by Deeping St James Parish Council after total frustration at lack of support from South Kesteven District Council and Lincolnshire County Council.

I look forward to the day when Ray puts as much effort into getting recycling problems sorted in his own village as he does for Stamford...

New skip service starts for DSJ...

A new service started this weekend to provide residents of Deeping St James a way of getting rid of non-recylclable waste.

As county councillor for the village, I've been trying for almost two years to get an alternative to the much-missed 'bring to vehicle' service which was withdrawn by Lincolnshire County Council in December 2005.

Unfortunately, it's been like banging my head against a brick wall.

Incredibly, the multi-million business that is our county council took well over 18 months to decide whether they could provide a weekly skip at the privately-owned Deepings Recycling Centre.

I managed to get the Councillor Lewis Strange the Executive Member for Waste Services and senior officer to visit DSJ on several occasions, and each time there was much promise but no delivery of an alternative to the service they pulled.

I'm pleased to say that Deeping St James Parish Council took a more enlightened attitude than our county council.

When it became obvious that the county council were not prepared to help, the parish council agreed to fund a skip each Saturday from now until the end of March 2008 as a trial service.

I was unable to get down to Deepings Recycling Centre on Station Road yesterday to see how things went yesterday.

But I understand that parish council chairman Councillor Jim Blessett was one of the first to use the new service.

Ian Prentice who runs Deepings Recycling Centre tells me that the service proved popular on its launch day and that many items were recycled rather than ending up in the landfill skip.

Good news.