Cllr Lindsey Cawrey, county councillor for Washingborough discusses the investment that the county council has made in the North Kesteven area over the last few years.
Cllr Cawrey said:
“Firstly, there are lots of everyday services that your council tax pays towards, across the county. This includes care for older and vulnerable people and safeguarding children, keeping roads safe, our libraries and our fire and rescue service, just as a few examples.
“Along with funding for schools, we manage a budget of around a billion pounds on running these services.
“But on top of this, the council has also invested in buildings, equipment, infrastructure and developments for our residents. In fact, we’ve spent more than £30million in this district over the last few years, and more on other developments that residents here will benefit from too.”
Around £15million has been spent on major road projects including:
- work to repair the A17 embankment in Sleaford in 2018 with new drainage put in
- the Sleaford Rugby Club junction which should be completed this month- taking 12,000 workforce hours. This will improve safety at this key junction thanks to new traffic signals, lanes and surfacing
- improvement works to Holdingham Roundabout start early next year, with adding additional lanes and new traffic signals
Cllr Cawrey said:
“Once the works to Holdingham roundabout are complete, combined with the rugby club improvements, people should experience less congestion, increased safety and better journey times when travelling around the Sleaford area.
“But the biggest infrastructure project running through North Kesteven is of course the Lincoln Eastern Bypass, which is progressing well. The surfacing is going down, signage is going up, the cycle lanes are being finished and it is still set to open by the end of the year.
“We’ve also spent over £3million on resurfacing smaller roads including in North Hykeham and around Metheringham and Blankney and St John’s Road in Bracebridge Heath.
“For families in North Kesteven, we’ve spent over £10million on improvements at 48 schools.
“In September 2016, your county council opened North Hykeham Manor Farm, a brand new primary school for the area. This £3.25m project created an additional 210 school places for local children, helping to meet rising demand.”
Other school improvements include:
- in 2018, a further 140 places were created at nearby Sir Robert Pattinson Academy, with £1.6m spent on remodelling, expanding and improving the school’s facilities. This project has helped ensure there are sufficient spaces for the future of this growing community
- £1.4m was invested in a new multi-storey classroom block at Branston Community Academy
- £1.1m was used to fund an extension at Witham St Hughs Academy
These projects not only created a total of 230 additional school places, but also meant improved facilities for existing students.
Cllr Cawrey continued:
“We are continuing to invest in our fire service buildings, appliances and life-saving equipment too.
“With a new joint fire and ambulance station for Sleaford in 2018, and the new tri-service fire police and ambulance station on South Park in Lincoln, we’re improving and joining-up the response our residents get from emergency services across this area.”
“Fire stations in Lincolnshire are already benefiting from the £8million purchase of 33 new fire engines and further investment in top of the range equipment; this includes the crews at North Hykeham, Metheringham, Waddington, Billinghay, Sleaford and Brant Broughton.
“And because public safety is a priority for your council, we have recently spent over £630,000 to protect homes in Digby, where there has sadly been flooding previously to improve drainage, vastly reduce the chance of it happening again and give our residents peace of mind.
“There’s a lot we’ve done and we have plans to do so much more!”
