Local councillor says she is victim of BBC 'sting'...

A leading south Lincs councillor has been defending her actions after a BBC undercover investigation into alleged discrimination against migrant workers trying to rent accomodation in Spalding.

Angela Newton (Independent), Leader of the Opposition Group on South Holland District Council, who works as an estate agent, has strongly denied any suggestion of racism and says she was 'brainwashed' and has told the Lincs Free Press that she was the victim of heavy editing by the BBC programme which was broadcast earlier this week.

Strong stuff.

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!

ET's webcast slip confuses SKDC with SHDC...

The Peterborough Evening Telegraph don't seem to know their South Kesteven from their South Holland when it comes to local councils.

A news item in Monday's edition suggests that Peterborough City Council may take a leaf out of South Kesteven's book by webcasting council meetings to make them more accessible to council taxpayersPeterborough Evening Telegraph.

In fact it is South Holland who deserve the credit for currently webcasting their meetings, not South Kesteven who are not doing webcasts as far as I know.

The ET then compounded their error by referring to South Kesteven's Chief Executive as Terry Huggins.

Last time I looked, Chief Exec. of Grantham based SK was still Duncan Kerr. Terry Huggins is Chief Exec. of Spalding-based neighbours South Holland District Council...

Meantime, full county council meetings at Lincolnshire have been available by webcast for some time.

You can see the last Lincs CC meeting in its full glory (complete with contributions from yours truly!)HERE.

Just thought you ought to know!