12 highlights of 2024 in Lincolnshire that made the headlines

1. 2024 began with good news for Sleaford. Plans for a £1m revamp of the town centre market place were approved in January. North Kesteven District Council (NKDC) said it wanted to replace the car park outside St Denys’ Church in Sleaford with flowerbeds and outdoor seating.

Approval of the plans had twice been deferred after more than 200 objections and an online petition against the scheme, with concerns raised over the loss of disabled parking.

2. Questions were answered by the Environment Agency (EA) in February when it released its report on the flooding that devasted Horncastle and surrounding villages, stating the cause was “extreme” rainfall – not the delay closing the sluice gate.

Storm Babet brought two month’s worth of rain between October 19 and 20, 2023, causing flooding and damage to nearly 200 homes in town, plus 31 properties in Kirkby-on-Bain, as river levels rose.

Following the initial EA report published in November 2023, it was believed the cause was a sluice gate that failed to close automatically and was not operated manually until nearly 12 hours later.

3. An unexploded bomb found on Mablethorpe’s main beach was detonated by a military bomb disposal unit in April. The coastguard advised people to be cautious around washed-up metal objects on the coast and to never touch or move unexploded ordnance.

4. A new era for politics in Lincolnshire began in May as a result of the 2024 General Election, when the Reform Party deputy leader Richard Tice won the Boston and Skegness seat. In a dramatic night that saw the nation turn its back on Conservatives in favour of Labour, Mr Tice beat Matt Warman who had held the seat for the Tories for nine years, describing it as ‘the greatest night of my life’. “It is a great honour – I’m thrilled to have been elected,” Mr Tice said minutes after the results were announced at the count hall at Peter Paine Performance Centre in Boston.

5. A new future for the very popular Jossals cafe and bistro in Market Rasen that closed its doors earlier in the year was unveiled in August. There were fears the building would be left empty – but love showed the way forward when co-owner of the former Jossals, Jo Parsons, transformed the interior of the building in Queen Street into a showcase for her new wedding and events business.

Having worked in hospitality for most of her working life, Jo said she wasn’t ready to retire and so took on a franchise with Ambience Venue Styling. She commented: “I just love it. It is great to help take the stress out of it all to give couples their dream wedding.”

6. In September, a planning application for a multi-million pound regeneration project in Boston was submitted to Boston Borough Council.

The council said the application marked the first phase of the Rosegarth Square scheme which was awarded £14.8m of government funding in January 2023. The changes, between the River Haven and the bus station, will include green spaces, housing, retail spaces and improved pedestrian routes.

7. Opposition was mounting across the Louth and Alford area in October to controversial plans that could result in 400 electricity pylons ‘decimating’ the Lincolnshire countryside.

The pylons would be part of National Grid’s first overhaul of the UK’s electricity network, labelled the Great Grid Upgrade, for more than 60 years. But a public meeting, held in Huttoft, heard that councillors and residents are vehemently against the scheme.

The scheme, would see a total of 17 infrastructure projects in the pipeline in England and Wales, including a major £1 billion one that covers an area from Grimsby to Walpole in Norfolk.

The plans are in line with the new Labour government’s determination to fast-track its mission for ‘clean power’ to reduce energy costs and combat climate change.

8. The fight against clean power decimating the countryside saw a success in October with plans to build a new solar farm rejected after opposition from residents and politicians. East Lindsey District Council’s (ELDC) planning committee turned down a proposal from Push Energy to build a solar farm on land next to Sotby Woods in Sturton Road in Hatton, near Horncastle. The applicants said the development would have powered about 21,000 homes per year.

9. West Lindsey District Council joined the fight in November by formally lodging an objection to the proposed Tillbridge Solar Project in the district. The council is urging the Secretary of State for Energy security and Net Zero, to refuse development consent due to serious concerns over the project’s landscape impact, visual effects, and potential implications for local communities.

The Tillbridge Solar Project is a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP). Therefore, it is not decided through the normal local planning processes, which means that the council is not the decision-making body for this application.

10. Volunteers came out in darkness in late October to create a Remembrance poppy dream at the Clock Tower in Skegness – and nearly three hours later with the historic landmark lit, it was a vision in red. More than 37,000 poppies had been made in different mediums in a massive community effort including groups and schools inspired by the Skegness branch of the Royal British Legion.

People from abroad also took part after seeing articles online, and to get them all tied on camourflage netting, members of the public went along to the Poppy Shop in the Hildreds to help beforehand. After Remembrance Day they were returned to the Poppy Shop, where they remain on display.

11. Patients in Skegness no longer have to face long journeys for scans following the opening of the new £15 million Skegness Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC).

In November, the first patients were welcomed to the facility, which is situated on the former Kwik Save site in Old Wainfleet Road. It brings NHS diagnostic services to the town for the first time, including state-of-the art CT and MRI scanners, echocardiograms and dental X-ray.

Other services available at Skegness CDC include non-obstetric ultrasound and a range of physiological testing, such as blood tests for adults and children over the age of five, standard ECGs and 24-hour blood pressure testing. Blood testing for chemotherapy patients will also be available, in the first step to develop a chemotherapy service from the site.

12. The year ended with criticism of the level of communication from the government body behind a proposed underground nuclear waste facility in Theddlethorpe.

Members of Lincolnshire County Council’s executive raised concerns about a number of unanswered questions regarding Nuclear Waste Services’ (NWS) proposed Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) – specifically about where it could be built and, crucially, whether it is safe.

NWS was previously considering three sites to locate the facility, which is estimated to cost between £20 billion and £53 billion, making it the largest planned infrastructure project in the UK.

NWS claims the multibillion-pound project would create more than 4,000 local jobs over 25 years and help store about 10 per cent of the UK’s nuclear waste in a secure location for thousands of years.

In a response, NWS said it is engaging with local people to ensure they have the information they need to consider what hosting a GDF could mean for them.