A 31-year-old man has been arrested in connection with an incident in which an elderly woman was robbed as she walked along Laceby Road in Grimsby.

The incident happened shortly before 1516hrs on Monday 30 April 2012. Police were called right away and attended the area. Officers searched in the vicinity that the incident happened and soon located the male who matched the description of the suspect and hadn’t had time to discard all of the items stolen from the elderly lady.

He was arrested on suspicion of robbery and taken into police custody to be questioned about the incident.

Shortly after the incident, police received a number of calls relating to suspicious activity and sightings of a male acting strangely from residents around the Laceby Road area so thank you to everyone who called in to report these potentially vital sightings

AS crime figures have fallen across North East Lincolnshire in 2011, Confidence and Satisfaction in Police in North East Lincolnshire has risen.

Victims of crime satisfied by the service they received in North Lincolnshire has risen by 1.9% to 85.4%, which is slightly above the forcewide figure of 84.4% – which has also risen by 1%.

Confidence in the police in North East Lincolnshire has risen by 0.9% to 85.8%. Although this figure sits short of the forcewide figure of 87.0%, it is encouraging to see this heading in the right direction.

Police call handling figures, for North East Lincolnshire are slightly down on last year. National targets for call handling are 90% answered within the target time so this is still very good performance . It indicates that North East Lincolnshire are among the best in the country for emergency calls.

Detective Superintendent Judi Heaton said:

“This year we have seen a fantastic performance in reduction in crime, victims of crime and an increase in both confidence and satisfaction, which is pleasing for both the local community and Humberside Police . Each year we continue to strive to improve on performance .

“Attending crime and dealing with emergencies continue to be our priority. With the help of the public and local partners, we continue to meet the needs of our community.

“I would like to thank the local community for reporting crime quickly and efficiently, which enables officers to attend incidents in a timely manner.

“The coming year will be very tough as we continue striving to make further reductions in overall crime levels and continue challenging the way we work to ensure we are a more victim focused organisation, however we will continue working closely with our partners in order to maintain the momentum we have gathered over the last 12 months.”

Andy Globe, Command Centre Operations Manager for Humberside Police said:

“Our call handling performance continues to effectively support Humberside Police’s quality of service commitment. If you dial 999 your call will be answered within an average of three seconds by Humberside Police. This is an identical performance to last year and represents a level of service well in excess of the national standards for police forces.

“Non emergency calls on 0845 6060222 or the new 101 service are answered on average within nine seconds. Again this is in excess of national targets and consistent with performance in previous years.

“Members of the public in Humberside can be assured that if they need to call the police their call will be answered quickly and efficiently.”

The council is introducing a number of important changes to the waste collection service. These are:

- All residents must recycle as much as possible using the triple boxes.

- Side waste (extra bagged waste) will not be collected. All waste needs to fit inside the green wheeled bin.

- From 1st April 2012 residents must pay for a second garden waste bin collection. All residents are allowed one bin for garden waste collected free of charge.

- From 1st April 2012 residents will be charged for replacement wheeled bins and recycling boxes

- From 1st June 2012 cardboard will no longer be accepted in your brown (garden waste) bin. Instead it must be placed in the green wheeled bin or taken to the CRC. This is to improve the quality of our garden waste collections and the compost produced.

A leaflet will be sent to every household in our area by the end of April giving full details of these changes.
If you have any queries please contact us using the Waste Hotline 01472 325841

A version of the leaflet is available to view here

Last year, more than 40 libraries were closed by Conservative and Labour councils. In stark contrast, for the second year in a row, no Liberal Democrat-controlled council in England and Wales closed any library.

Liberal Democrat-controlled Cardiff is opening five new libraries and Portsmouth and Bristol are also opening new libraries.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Party President, Tim Farron said:

“While Conservatives and Labour councils their budgets without regard for the most vulnerable, Liberal Democrat-controlled councils know how to protect essential services.

“Encouraging and enabling reading is vital to the development of children and adults alike. If we don’t give our children the opportunity to practice and perfect their reading skills at a young age, they will struggle to catch up later in life.

“Libraries are a life-line for local communities, especially for those who are less well off, and give people the opportunity to relax, learn new information and skills or to use the internet if they don’t have it at home.

“Cutting services like Labour and Tory councils are doing will do long-term damage. Liberal Democrats are doing the right thing thanks to our financial competency in the councils we run. That is also the reason why not only have Liberal Democrat councils kept libraries open, but councils in England have also frozen council tax and are most likely to be giving the lowest-paid council workers a pay rise.”

Humberside Fire and Rescue Service is asking members of the public to nominate their local hero. The winner, who will be chosen following the result of a public vote, will then be honoured at the Service’s annual Community Awards Ceremony.

Last year’s shortlisted nominees were Danny Squires from Hull who rescued a young woman from her burning home and David gaunt who rescued a 31 year old man from a burning car on the A180, moments before it exploded. Following a tightly contested public vote, the eventual winner was Danny Squires.

Members of the public are being asked to think of someone they know of, it could be a family member, friend or colleague who they feel has acted in an heroic manner and is deserving of receiving such an award.

Katrina Horth, organiser of the Community Awards Evening for Humberside Fire and Rescue Service, said:

“There will be several different awards given at the ceremony to Service staff, members of the public and our partners, in recognition of the contribution they have made in creating safer communities. We are asking people to nominate someone they think has acted in an heroic manner. This does not necessarily mean that someone needs to have performed some kind of rescue, as heroic acts can be carried out by people who just make a real positive difference to others through their actions.”

Nominations can be forwarded to Humberside Fire and Rescue Service by calling or texting 07581 495960, emailing localhero@humbersidefire.gov.uk or by sending a letter to:

Local Hero
FREEPOST NEA3610
Humberside Fire & Rescue Service
HULL
HU4 7BR

The closing date for nominations is Friday 1 June.

Are you a North East Lincolnshire retailer that would benefit from a Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) warning sign to display in your shop?

This poster has been created by the Safer and Stronger Communities Partnership in conjunction with Humberside Police,
and copies are available for retail establishments in North East Lincolnshire.

Store logos can be added to the sign before they are printed.

Posters have already been distributed to numerous shops in the area in a bid to reduce shop lifting, as well as to allotments which were suffering from theft from and vandalism.

For further information or to request a copy of the CCTV poster please contact Tom Shaw, Community Safety Officer, on 01472 324944 or email +++.

Shall We Dance and Essentially Dance are two programmes inspired by dance champions Darren Bennett and Lilia Kopylova, stars of the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing show, that are run by North East Lincolnshire Council’s Specialist Health Promotion Team.

Essentially Dance trains teachers to teach waltz, cha cha cha, jive and quickstep in schools while Shall We Dance encourages older people to use Latin and ballroom dancing as a way to socialise and keep fit.

The two programmes are coming together to showcase dances from several schools, adult dance groups and professional dancers. There will also be a chance for everyone to take to the floor and join in a cha cha cha and a quickstep. Darren Bennett will compere the event and lead everyone in a final dance.

Laura Peggs, programme coordinator said:

“The dancing has been a great success; children in school and more senior participants have really taken to it. Dancing is a really great way to get moving and increase activity whatever age you are. Latin and ballroom are energetic, social and improves fitness, coordination and control.”

The Showcase takes place at the Grimsby Auditorium on Tuesday, May 1, 2012 from 5.30 pm. Tickets are available from the Auditorium and cost just £3.00.

If you would like to find out about you nearest dance group contact the Family Information Service on 0800 18 303 17 or Specialist Health Promotion Service on (01472) 325941

An excellent year in North East Lincolnshire has seen all crime reduce by 8.6% (1428 offences) which is a greater reduction than the force average of 5.3% for Humberside. The figures, which run from 01 April 2011 to 31 March 2012 sees crime in North East Lincolnshire at a record low and the divisions best ever year.

This includes a reduction in ‘serious acquisitive crime’ of 11.2% (298 fewer victims across the collective category for domestic burglary, robbery, and theft of and theft from motor vehicle) and also violent crime with a reduction of 6.9% (108 fewer victims) which sees the area performing well alongside the other divisions that make up Humberside Police. The record low levels of crime are a huge testament to the on going work, North East Lincolnshire Police and a large number of partner agencies participate in.

Excellent work with youth engagement and diversion, triage and keeping young people out of the criminal justice system for minor crime, restorative justice, the effectiveness of substance misuse and alcohol misuse strategies and Integrated Offender Management, have contributed to this success.

Detective Chief Insp Gerry Darling said:

“Our performance for 2011/12 clearly demonstrates the value of partnership working as we have continued to work closely with the other agencies that make up the Safer and Stronger Communities partnership as well as our local Neighbourhood Watch Groups in order to tackle both crime and re-offending levels and above all bring down the number of crime victims in North East Lincolnshire.

“It isn’t all good news though as despite seeing positive reductions in areas such as violent crime we continue to experience concerning numbers of burglaries which have occurred due to properties being left insecure and vehicles being broken into as a result of owners leaving valuable items on show when they are parked up so once again this year I can’t stress enough how important it is for the public to play their part by taking some very simple precautions.

“Without a doubt the coming year will be very tough as we continue striving to make further reductions in overall crime levels and continue challenging the way we work to ensure we are a more victim focused organisation however we will continue working closely with our partners in order to maintain the momentum we have gathered over the last 12 months.”

This work helps to make the community a safer place and another positive for North East Lincolnshire as it shows not only are the number of incidents across the borough reducing, but also the chances of becoming a victim of crime in the area are now lower than ever before.

th and North East Lincolnshire councils have created a fantastic opportunity for people with an interest in broadband and who believe that superfast broadband is key to the area’s economic success.

Over 1,000 people have now completed the on-line survey launched just a few weeks ago in a bid to get as many people as possible to tell us about their current broadband service.

We now urgently need broadband champions who can help sell the message that superfast broadband is the way forward and promote its many benefits.

You will help influence key decision makers into giving residents and businesses in Northern Lincolnshire broadband speeds on a par with major UK cities – what this area needs and deserves.

Your role will largely depend on you. As it’s a new role, it will develop as you bring forward your ideas on how we can engage with your community as we progress with the programme.

If you are interested, contact Yvonne Thompson on 01724 296926 or email yvonne.thompson@northlincs.gov.uk. You will be invited to a launch event to hear more about the initiative.

You can test your broadband speed at www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk.

Please also spare a few minutes to complete this simple survey:

Residents – www.shumberbroadband.info/residents
Businesses – www.shumberbroadband.info/businesses

There is no obligation to subscribe to the services when launched, but by registering your interest, you will be helping North and North East Lincolnshire get better broadband.

John Bullivent, programme director at North Lincolnshire Council, said:

“It’s amazing that in just a few weeks, over 1,000 people have responded to our broadband survey. It is crucial that even more do so if we are to provide a good case for getting 90% of northern Lincolnshire residents and businesses on superfast broadband in the next few years.

“That’s just one and probably the easiest and quickest things you can do that will make a real impact and will determine whether we get superfast broadband.”

Individuals and organisations in North East Lincolnshire are being given the chance to get involved in the formation of a new Local HealthWatch service.

Every local authority in England and Wales is required by the Department of Health to have a Local HealthWatch in place by April 2013. This new watchdog will strengthen the collective voice of local people in the shaping of health and social care, influencing local strategies and providing people with information and advice on accessing health and social care services.

Here in North East Lincolnshire, a consultation event will be held on Friday, April 20, at Grimsby Town Hall, for interested parties to get involved in defining the role and responsibilities of the new service.

Those who attend the event, which runs from 9.45am to 12pm, will discuss what good work is already being done, what could be done differently, and what issues need to be addressed in the area.

Places at the event are limited. If you would like to attend, please email mark.watson@nelincs.gov.uk or call (01472) 326421 by April 18.

Jack Blackmore, strategic director of people and communities at North East Lincolnshire Council, said: “When the new Local Healthwatch service is up and running it will be the key driver of service provision and quality for our health and social care services. One of the central elements of this service will be to ensure that local people’s needs and experiences help shape local healthcare, so it is vital that we consult with the relevant parties from the outset.”