Annual Parish Meeting 2023

Priorities for this year are;

Highway improvements.

Improvements to the A16 between Boston and Spalding and construction of the Grantham Southern Relief Road. In the planning stages of the North Hykeham Relief Road, due to start in 2025.

There are roughly 5,500 miles of highways to maintain in the county and a vastly reduced pot of money to fund that work. Spring Budget only gave approximately £6.8m for filling potholes in Lincolnshire. Just over half of what was taken out of our budget last year. 

However, the government have reduced the amount they provide for road maintenance by 25% in recent years, and this additional funding will not go far in addressing this shortfall. In effect, the cuts put in place by government until the end of 2024 will mean that we will have lost the equivalent of an entire year’s worth of roads maintenance funding – a huge £47m black hole in the resources we critically need.

Despite using £7m from our council reserves to prop-up the roads maintenance budget this year, the increasing costs of energy and materials, mean we can repair fewer potholes for the same money.

We are already lobbying the government and talking to our local MPs about this issue. With 660 miles of roads which are rated poor or very poor, we will continue to keep this at the top of our priority list to ensure our residents get the best standards of road we can deliver.

Closer working with N & NE Lincs on Adult and Children Services – looking to improve services between the 3 authorities and collaborate on what works best.

Better ways of delivering social care, against a backdrop of rising costs.

Integrated Care – working across Lincs with NHS & Partners.

Secondary education – large build projects to be completed across at least 6 sites.

Coastal tourism & coastal flooding working with Environment agency. Lincolnshire has the only coastline in the East Midlands, and yet it doesn’t feature highly enough yet, on a regional level, which needs to change. Coastal erosion not only means the potential loss of homes, but also valuable farmland.

Food economy, looking to future proof the industry through modern methods working with the Uni – aggrotech.

Migrant situation – bridging hotels, coastal hotels, RAF Scampton. – all ongoing situations which we engage with the Home office on.

Ukrainian refugee issues – homes, essol, jobs, schools. We continue to welcome people from the Ukraine, but the longer the situation continues, we will face difficulties dealing with and funding the support required.
New Environment act and issues it raises, especially with waste.

Locally 
Lots of potholes filled and where appropriate, now full repairs, rather than quick fills.

Speeding –  An issue being raised in several villages - I’ve raised this again with the Road Safety Partnership and asked for action.

Also had a meeting with the Assistant Chief Constable about the reduction in PCSOs. As this has been done to finance other in-service teams, there is now a clear expectation that we see results from teams such as the Road Traffic team, where we have persistent problems and not just on the major roads. 
 
Richard Wright
June 2023