This evening the first meeting of the Town Council’s Amenities & Open Spaces Committee was held following last month’s elections. It was a good meeting with several positive developments.

We first heard a request to organise a BMX club based around the Town’s Glebe Park track, which was welcomed by all. I agree that we should be encouraging our facilities are put to good use and promoting sports activities. We also agreed to a request to use the John Eve Field for children’s football coaching sessions.

The Committee received a petition from residents near to John Eve Field concerned about some of the events held on the field, such as the circuses and fairs. I have discussed this issue with residents and it is clear that the Council’s policy on events has some problems, even following a review earlier this year before I was a member of the Council, and there have been clear instances where the policy has not been followed by hirers of the field. I was surprised to learn that the first local residents knew about the updated policy was when I gave them a copy.

We’re going to look to engage with residents and other stakeholders to try to improve the events policy. I think this approach is much more likely to result in events being managed in a way which will work, allow us to address the problems that residents have highlighted, and continue to host events that the community wants.

We briefly discussed the zebra crossing on Godsey Lane adjacent to Tesco which has been the subject of some discussions online recently. There was broad agreement that we should investigate whether we can work with others to improve the crossing to make it safer. We are going to arrange to meet with Lincolnshire County Council to consider this further. We are also going to look at whether it may be possible to cut the Glebe Park hedge in such a way that might improve visibility of pedestrians approaching the crossing and access along the pavement.

Proposed memorial bench for Cllr Reg Howard

Following the sad death of Cllr Reg Howard, the Committee has agreed to purchase a bench as a memorial to be installed in a location to be agreed.

The Committee also considered the views of residents both in favour and against providing play equipment on the areas of open space on Tattershall Drive. There is currently no money allocated for this purpose. The Committee decided not to act at the current time but to continue to keep the provision of play equipment under review.

The next Council meeting will be a meeting of the Planning & Highways Committee on 12 August. Full Council meets next on 9 September.