CC Alex Maughan Newsletter - Spring 2024

Great Gonerby puffin crossing and road resurfacing scheme

We are starting our year of Grantham area road improvements with a set of works on the B1174, which started just after the first May bank holiday.

These improvements will see the High Street section of the B1174 in Great Gonerby fully rebuilt from the ground up, with a full rebuild of a failing section of Gonerby Road immediately after. And at the same time, we’ll be building the first of our new pedestrian crossings, part of our Community Crossings Initiative. This new puffin crossing, with six new traffic signal heads, is being built near the junction with Long Street in Great Gonerby.

Residents have been calling for an upgraded pedestrian crossing at Great Gonerby High Street for many years, so I’m delighted that Lincolnshire County Council has heard our campaign and are able to deliver this investment for the village. I’m also grateful to the local parish council, who are supporting the scheme with a contribution. The new crossing with traffic lights will make a great improvement to pedestrian safety, both at peak school times and other times of the day where traffic is busy. I am also pleased that the county council is taking this opportunity to resurface the roads on the approach to the new crossing, which are in much need of repairs.

Dates and timeframes

Tuesday 7 May for up to four weeks

Traffic management

• B1174 High Street
  • Night-time road closure from 630pm to 6am, weekday evenings only, from Tuesday 7 May

for up to two weeks

• Daytime temporary traffic signals from 6am to 630pm on weekdays and all-day weekend

temporary signals from Monday 7 May for up to two weeks

• 24/7 temporary traffic signals from Saturday 18 May for up to one week

• B1174 Gonerby Road
  • Night-time road closure from 630pm to 6am, weekday evenings only, from Monday 20 May

for up to two weeks

Location of works

• B1174 High Street reconstruction – between Belton Lane and Church Lane
• B1174 High Street pedestrian crossing – near the junction with Long Street
• B1174 Gonerby Road reconstruction – between Cliffe Road and Hazlewood Drive

Diversion route

The diversion route for both sets of night-time closures will be via B1174 / A1 / A607 Harlaxton Road / A52 Sankt Augustin Way / B1174, and vice versa

Meet your County Councillor at Lincolnshire Show – Wednesday 19th June

The County Council will again be exhibiting at Lincolnshire Show, giving the public an opportunity to learn more about Council services, what we deliver for the public, and of course to meet your County Councillor to discuss any local concerns.

I will be at Lincolnshire Show on Wednesday 19th June and would be delighted to see you at the “Your Councils” Marquee between 10:30am – 12:30pm for tea/coffee and a catch up on local issues in Hough Division.

Following a public engagement exercise which received over 4,000 responses, the highest for any similar consultation in the country, the County Council, together with the Councils of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire, have agreed a devolution deal with the Government for the Greater Lincolnshire region.

The devolution deal agreed will move important funding and choices about local investment, infrastructure and training from Government to local decision makers – similar to areas like Greater Manchester, West Midlands and Teesside It will involve the creation of a Combined Mayoral Authority, covering the region of Greater Lincolnshire from the south bank of the Humber down to the Wash. The authority will be led by a directly elected Mayor, with the leaders of Lincolnshire County Council, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire Councils also with voting rights and decision making powers.

The devolution proposals include:

• A Mayoral Investment Fund of £24 million per annum for 30 years to invest in infrastructure and skills development totalling £720m;
• A one off £28.4m capital investment in Greater Lincolnshire’s priorities;
• £2m capacity funding over three years;
• £1m skills for job funding;
• Local control over the Adult Education Budget from 2026;
• A consolidated, multi-year transport fund, providing increased financial certainty.

The proposals are now being taken through Westminster to ratify the devolution deal and prepare the required legislation.

We anticipate that the public will be asked to vote for our directly elected Mayor, alongside the next County Council elections, in May 2025.

Caythorpe High Street resurfacing plans

This summer Highways have plans to resurface the entire length of Caythorpe High Street from the junction with Church Lane to the triangular crossing with the A607. The High Street is in much need of repairs so this is welcome investment in our local infrastructure.

The scheme design is complete, and now awaiting appointment of a contractor to carry out the works for the Council. Once a contractor is in place further details including road closures and traffic management arrangements will be communicated locally. We anticipate the works to be completed in mid-August.

Fen Lane Long Bennington road recycling scheme

Following a number of years of local complaints I am delighted to see Fen Lane finally in the programme for carriageway recycling works. This is a cost effective way of repairing our unclassified rural road network, where the existing road material is recycled/relayed to create a smoother road surface. This work is scheduled for summer 2024, with traffic management arrangements already notified to local residents here.

A607 road improvements

The County Council has plans for three significant improvement projects on the A607 in our area. These being;

• Leadenham crossroad (just outside of Hough Division)
• Caythorpe A607 reconstruction – from the South Heath Lane junction up to Fulbeck parish boundary
• Carlton Scroop A607 reconstruction – from Honington crossing to the 30 limit

Works on the A607 are more disruptive than many other places due to the lack of alternative local diversion. The neighbouring road network is largely unclassified and therefore formal diversions have to be via Sleaford/Lincoln. This has a significant impact on local bus services and businesses along the A607. In order to mitigate this disruption as far as practical the County Council is delaying the Caythorpe and Leadenham schemes to find a suitable date these can be combined, in order to minimise disruption. At the moment the Council is considering programming the works for Spring 2025, and where possible we would look to do the Carlton Scroop works at a similar time.

I am in regular contact with the team developing these works to ensure that both the works go ahead and we see this investment, but also that we carry out the work in the most efficient way possible to reduce impact on buses and local businesses, such as our pubs, cafes and other businesses relying on passing trade.

Considerations are night time working, and back to back closures to condense disruption for local residents.

If you have any comments or feedback on these proposals and the possible impact on you/your business, please email me at: cllra.maughan@lincolnshire.gov.uk

Response to South Kesteven District Council local plan review consultation

Our local District Council has recently completed a public consultation on their local plan review, which sets out local planning policy and allocated sites for building over the next decade or so. Lincolnshire County Council is not a decision maker on local planning policy, with our involvement limited to consultation on the local plan review and on individual planning applications as they come forward.

Lincolnshire County Council has recently submitted a detailed response to the local plan review, with concerns raised about significant development proposed for a number of villages around Grantham, as well as concerns with proposals for further development at inappropriate sites within the town boundary.

Specifically the County Council submission has referenced the lack of mitigation plans put forward by SKDC for their proposed development sites at Great Gonerby.

My neighbouring Councillor Paul Martin has led a local campaign, the Gonerby Hill Foot Community Group, to object to SKDCs plans for a 600 home allocation at Gonerby Hill Foot/Great Gonerby. I am pleased to support this campaign and Lincolnshire County Council has provided in full their detailed document within the appendices of their technical consultation response to SKDC.

Flood response in Lincolnshire

Storms Babet and Henk posed a significant challenge to Council resources as we supported residents with requests for  help following  major  floods, and carry out our  responsibilities under  the  Flood and Water Management Act to investigate instances of internal flooding in the County.

Highways crews are still working through the backlog of requests for gully jetting and cleansing, and CCTV drainage surveys. We are also working with Internal Drainage Boards to support enforcement action where landowners have not maintained ditches and other drainage systems that are riparian responsibility.

Following the major floods there were 230 Section 19 flood investigations outstanding, and being worked through by the Council’s Flood Risk team. Many of these relate to multiple properties and takes the number of internally flooded properties in Lincolnshire as a result of these storms at approximately 400. These reports investigate the cause of flooding and make recommendations to reduce the risk of future flooding, which are shared with responsible agencies including Anglian Water, LCC Highways, Internal Drainage Boards, and local landowners.

Conservative Councillors at the County Council have recently agreed additional spend on a package of measures to bolster our flood response in Lincolnshire. This will ensure residents receive the support they deserve within an acceptable timescale. The measures agreed by Councillors were as follows:

• Highways draining and jetting – additional capacity to reduce the current backlog of reports for drainage jetting and other related requests - £1,800,000
• Flooding team – additional capacity to process Section 19 investigations and complete all outstanding reports over the coming months - £215,000
• Flooding design work – additional capacity to increase activity for design work of flood and drainage improvement schemes - £878,000
• Fire and Rescue flood response – funding for an additional flood pump in the county to support flood response, and new dry suits compliant with modern specifications for our firefighters - £400,000