Cllr Bunney's report November 2023
Report to Parish Councils – Market Rasen Wolds
November 2023
Flooding:
The incidence of heavy rainfall of ‘biblical’ proportions is clearly on the rise as Storm Babet on Friday October 20th and Storm Ciaran evidenced.
From a Lincolnshire perspective it was clear that The Environment Agency, Lincolnshire Highways, Lincolnshire Flood Management and Blue Light Services were overwhelmed and are clearly not adequately resourced to cope with the fallout of these events. In the current economic circumstances, it is unlikely that the required funding will be forthcoming, placing an increased burden on local communities and neighbours to provide support and relief, especially in the initial stages.
Cllr Colin Davie – Lincolnshire County Council Executive member for Environmental Matters – recognises the problems and has undertaken to be transparent about the problems and do all that he can to ensure that lessons are learned and measures taken to support local communities. He is clear that there is a need to lobby Government to rewrite the National Planning Framework to consider the increased risk of surface water flooding as well as ground water and fluvial flooding. He is also calling for all local planning authorities to ensure that developers build in sufficiently robust resilience measures to cope with the increased flood water. This will inevitably increase the cost of housing but is a necessity if we are to keep residents and their properties safe.
Devolution
Yesterday The Chancellor announced that the Councils in Greater Lincolnshire – Lincolnshire County Council, NE Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire Unitary Authorities can progress a devolution deal. The involves the setting up of a new Mayoral Authority, which will receive approximately £24m pa to boost infrastructure [transport], skills and the local economy. In addition, there will be a one off start up grant of £28.4m. The Mayor will act as an Ambassador and Champion for Greater Lincolnshire and will leverage further capital money for the area.
Under the proposed arrangements the existing authorities will remain and continue to provide the services that they currently offer the community.
The Three Principal Authorities LCC, North East Lincs and North Lincs are due to debate and vote on this proposal early next month. If they approve the proposal the scheme will go out to public consultation before The Secretary of State makes a final decision.
Inevitable there are a number of concerns about this new initiative – another layer of local politics – value for money -will the funds be distributed fairly around the wider authority – the role of District Councils in influencing and scrutinising Mayoral decisions. These will be mentioned in the debate in The County Chamber on December 1st.
Policing:
PC Rachel Turner [part time] and PC Simon Percy are the new community team in post at Market Rasen. The Team is over seen by Inspector Mike Head and Sergeant Paul Richardson. Their email contacts are:
michael.head@lincs.police.uk paul.richardson@lincs.police.uk
rachel.turner@lincs.polics.uk simon.percy@lincs.police.uk
Clearly crimes should be reported via 999, 101, or via the website https://www.lincs.police.uk
As these avenues can be time consuming and or cumbersome to use the Neighbourhood team are happy to receive email enquiries direct. Insp Head has issued an instruction to his officers that replying to these emails is a priority.
It would be true to say that Insp. Head is very efficient and honest about the policing situation in the Lincolnshire Area.
For the next three months their priority will be:
- Motoring Fatal Four: inappropriate speed, using a mobile phone, not wearing a seat belt, drink/drug driving
- Anti Social Behaviour [working in partnership with WLDC]
These priorities have been based on recorded crime figures for the area. Insp Head will liaise with parish and district councillors in the New Year when determining the next list of priorities.
In addition to the neighbourhood Team – RapidResponse Officers will be based at Market Rasen providing 999 cover for the area.
LCC has launched an e newsletter ‘County catch-up’ for the dissemination of information to local people. This will provide information on education and children’s development, adult care and public health guidance, community safety initiatives, trading standards and fire and rescue advice.
Individuals can sign up at this link; Lincolnshire County Council (list-manage.com)
New tool for reporting Fly Tipping
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A new fly tipping reporting tool has gone live following a collaboration between the System Development Team and Operational Services Report it | West Lindsey District Council (west-lindsey.gov.uk) The new tool provides a much slicker process for reporting fly-tipping and following the link to ‘Report a Fly Tip’ takes users to a mapping tool where the status of all current fly tips can be viewed and a pin can be dropped in the location where they wish to report a new incident. The system will also allow us to build up a picture of hotspots and hence, where to concentrate our enforcement activity. This new tool has been developed as part of the implementation of the Customer Relationship Management System (CRM). |
Please do not hesitate to get in contact if you require any clarification on the above or have any matters that you would like help on.
Regards,
Cllr Stephen Bunney LCC and WLDC – Member for Market Rasen Area
Cllr Moira Westley WLDC – Member for Market Rasen Area
Cllr Eve Bennett WLDC – Member for Market Rasen Area
A631 Rasen Emergency Plan - Flooding Phone Numbers etc.