I was deeply sad to hear about the recent passing of Cllr Bob Adams, the former leader of South Kesteven District Council. Bob served Lincolnshire with distinction for many years and I personally enjoyed working with him. Whether tackling littering in Colsterworth, or discussing byways in Skillington, he was a font of knowledge about his local community and will be greatly missed
Last week, the government announced the news that Harper’s Law will be carried into law, introducing mandatory life sentences for those who kill an emergency worker in the course of their duties. I met with Lissie Harper, the widow of PC Andrew Harper last year to lend my support to the campaign for a change in the law and was among the first MPs to voice my approval. I am delighted that Lissie’s tireless campaign to fight for justice for her late husband has been successful.
The government has stated that they will seek to bring the measures into law as soon as possible in order to give greater protections to all emergency workers - including police, prison officers, firefighters and paramedics while they are doing their jobs. It is only right that the people who put themselves at risk to protect us all should be afforded a degree of protection themselves.
Within the past week we have seen the identification of the Omicron Variant of Covid-19 and initial precautionary steps taken by the government to reduce the spread of the variant and expand the protections given by the vaccine.
I am encouraged that the booster programme has now been expanded to include all adults aged between 18 and 39, those with underlying health conditions and frontline health and care staff. The time between the delivery of the second vaccine dose and a booster jab has also been shortened to three months after the second dose. The vaccine is our strongest weapon to combat new variants and I would encourage everybody to check whether they are now eligible and seek and make a booking for a booster jab.
We are now also nearing the end of the Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) formal consultation on the future of four local healthcare services, including the provision of emergency care at Grantham Hospital. This is the best and most direct way to relay your thoughts on healthcare in Grantham directly to the people in charge of the delivery of services so if you want to make your voice heard around healthcare provision in our local area, this is the time so please do directly contribute to the consultation.
I recently met with the team behind the planned Mallard Pass Solar Farm near Stamford to understand their proposals and learn more about the scheme. I know that the scale of the planned development is a cause of great concern to local residents, and I made this very clear to the developers.
I will be following the next stages closely, as I am aware of the natural wildlife and ancient woodland especially close to Braceborough, where local landowners are also looking at rewilding their land and the creation of a community forest which must be encouraged and not impacted by this potential development.
The proposals as they stand are in a very early pre-planning form, with the first consultation stage now open until the 16th December. I strongly encourage all local residents to engage with this initial consultation over the next two weeks to help inform the process and ensure views and concerns are heard.
Finally, tomorrow is Small Business Saturday, a day to mark those fantastic local businesses who serve our community. I was pleased to be able to highlight this in PMQ’s this week and managed to give our own Kay’s of Grantham, Stamford Notebook Company, and Bourne Bookshop a little plug!
