Monthly Archive 4 March 2024

On Thursday 2 May people in North East Lincolnshire will have their say at local elections on who represents them locally, along with voting for the Police and Crime Commissioner. Residents must be on the electoral register to be able to vote in May.

With the registration deadline approaching, North East Lincolnshire Council is urging those who are not registered at their current address to make sure they are registered before it is too late.

British citizens living abroad are also eligible to register to vote in UK general elections, regardless of how long they’ve been living outside the UK. A new law has removed the previous 15-year time limit. Applicants will need to provide details of the address and time they were last registered or resident. North East Lincolnshire Council must be able to verify an applicant’s identity and past connection to the area.

More information is available on the Electoral Commission’s website- external site , along with a post code lookup tool- external site  that helps voters living overseas find the contact details for their local authority, using the postcode of the last place they lived in the UK. Many voters living abroad choose to vote by post or proxy. Applications for absent votes can now also be done online.

The deadline to register to vote is Tuesday 16 April. It takes just five minutes to apply online at gov.uk/register-to-vote.

This year residents in North East Lincolnshire will be voting to select:

• Councillors in 12 of our 15 Wards, who represent their local area and residents, and will help shape the future of their local area by making plans and taking decisions (there are no elections in Waltham, West Marsh or Wolds this year).
• Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner, who is responsible for holding the police to account and for policing as a whole in our area

Rob Walsh, Returning Officer for North East Lincolnshire Council, said:

“Local elections are an important opportunity to make your voice heard and have a say on who makes decisions about issues that directly affect day-to-day life here in North East Lincolnshire. If you have recently turned 18 or moved home, it is particularly important to make sure you are correctly registered to vote. If you’re in doubt, you can check with us by contacting us on 01472 324160 or by emailing elections@nelincs.gov.uk.”

Those intending to vote at polling stations in May will need to show photographic ID. A list of accepted forms of ID is available on the Electoral Commission’s website- external site . Those that do not have eligible ID can apply for a voter authority certificate – which can be done online- external site .

Jackie Killeen, Director of Electoral Administration and Guidance at the Electoral Commission, said:

“If you’re not registered by 16 April, you will not be able to vote this May. Registering to vote only takes five minutes and can be done online.

“Voters should also remember that they will need to bring photo ID to the polling station to be able to vote. Anyone that does not have an accepted form of ID can apply for Voter Authority Certificate.”

Article and image from NELC.

Work has started on converting five units in Freshney Place Shopping Centre into a bespoke Community Diagnostic Centre that will help to transform healthcare in North East Lincolnshire.

Once complete, the centre will allow us to offer around 150,000 additional diagnostic appointments a year to patients at a convenient, central location, rather than travelling to one of our hospital sites.

Due to open to patients in autumn this year, we will be able to offer a range of services, including ophthalmology, non-obstetric ultrasounds and a mix of pathological and physiological tests, such as ECGs and X Rays.

GPs will be able to refer patients to a centre, which are not only more convenient for patients but are also more efficient for staff and free up clinicians’ time to help further cut NHS waiting lists.

Now the demolition phase is underway and details of our plans are on display within the shopping centre, Leader of North East Lincolnshire Council, Cllr Philip Jackson and Deputy Leader Cllr Stan Shreeve, who is also the Portfolio Holder with responsibilities for Health, Wellbeing and Adult Social Care, joined NHS project leads for a tour of the facility.

They were guided around the site by Ivan McConnell, our Group Director Strategy and Partnership, Mark Edgar, Associate Director of Estates Projects, and Helen Kenyon, North East Lincolnshire Place Director for Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB).

Mr McConnell said: “It’s been a pleasure to take Cllr Jackson and Cllr Shreeve around the site today and explain more about our exciting plans for the site.

“It was also great to see so many members of the public stopping to read our information boards and find out more about the benefits this new centre will provide.

“Having this new facility and the capacity to conduct so many additional tests will be incredibly beneficial to the health of people across the area, as it will help us to detect and treat serious conditions such as cancer, heart disease, and respiratory conditions.”

Cllr Shreeve said: “As a council, we are delighted to see this development start and cannot wait to come back at stages during the development in the coming weeks and months.

“As the owners of Freshney Place, the council is extremely supportive of this. It will bring health care closer to the people, with thousands of residents within our communities having easier access to vital care. This is extremely important when we look at our priorities of working with partners to improve people’s health and wellbeing in the long-term.

“The new CDC also helps the council to realise its vision of supporting retail in Freshney Place and the wider town centre with a number of diverse leisure and community uses, which will drive footfall and help to create social and community hubs,” added Cllr Shreeve.

Article, image and video from NELC.

Work is now underway to do essential works to the three key bridges into Grimsby and Cleethorpes and protect them for the future.

Starting with Gilbey Road bridge, then Cleethorpes Flyover and followed by Alexandra Dock Bridge, there are works on both eastbound and westbound carriageways of each bridge which will be completed in phases.

The first few weeks:

From 26 February, there were overnight closures from 8pm to 6am on Gilbey Road flyover to enable contractors, VSL, to construct the crossovers between the carriageways. Traffic was diverted between Pyewipe and Westgate roundabouts around localised diversion routes during the closure.

The road over the Gilbey Road flyover (between Pyewipe and Westgate roundabouts) was opened up again during this first week through the daytime to normal traffic, but with a lowered speed limit of 30mph, which will be in force throughout the duration of the construction works for safety reasons.

On Sunday 3^rd March, there will be an overnight closure to implement the contraflow that will be used as the traffic management for the construction works and will come into force on Monday March 4. 

Once the contraflow has been implemented, traffic will be diverted onto the opposite side of the road, allowing one side of the flyover to be worked on at once during the main project. It is advised not to enter the coned work zones for the safety of the construction workers. Free recovery will be provided within the contraflow should any vehicles be unable to proceed with their journey. The recovery vehicle will place broken down vehicles at the nearest available place of relative safety to allow the driver to call their breakdown service.

Additionally, earlier this year, a “Bridgology” survey was completed by contractors, VSL. This was a GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) survey of the structure of the bridges and gave a good indication of the construction layers of the structures. In order to confirm some unexpected results recorded by the survey, trial holes need to be dug to expose a few areas on both Alexandra Dock Bridge and Cleethorpe Road flyover in the early weeks. These will be done during an overnight lane closure in the first few weeks, which will be lifted as soon as practical, and should not affect traffic flow. The holes will be backfilled overnight, and then normal traffic will resume.

The main project:

Once underway, the main project work will involve removal of the existing carriageway surface to get to the lower layers to start to inspect and repair the waterproofing layer of the bridge. Removing the concrete cover of the bridge deck to get to the reinforcement bars that are to be replaced, is unfortunately a noisy operation, and whilst noise reduction measures are being put in place, these will not completely mask the sound of the works.

Extra lighting will also be brought in for the project, which will remain on throughout the night to ensure safe working areas.

Once the works are underway, they will be operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to try to get the project completed in the shortest possible time.

Cllr Stewart Swinburn, Cabinet member for Highways, said: “These are critical elements of our highway system in North East Lincolnshire. If these fail, there would be significant impacts, both economically in terms of the amount of trade that use the route, but also for local people going about their everyday lives.

“If we don’t do the repairs soon, the structures will only get worse, meaning larger scale repairs, and potentially complete closure of the route in the future.

Cllr Swinburn continued: “Given the scale of the programme, it’s inevitable that there will be disruption to the highway network. VSL will be working 24 hours a day on the project to get this done as quickly as possible.”

If anyone has any queries about the works, please contact ProjectManagementTeam@nelincs.gov.uk.

Timeline in brief: project starting on the structures on 26 February

Week 1-2:

• Underneath Gilbey Road Flyover: contractor compound set up on the cyclepath.
• Crossover creation on Gilbey Road Flyover (overnight closures 8pm to 6am – localised diversion)

Week 2-3 Gilbey Road Flyover Traffic in contraflow 24/7. Speed restriction: 30mph

• Alexandra Dock Bridge: overnight lane restriction on a single night to allow for “window survey”. Speed restriction during works.
• Cleethorpe Road Bridge: overnight lane restriction on a single night to allow for “window survey”. Speed restriction during works.

Article and image from NELC.