During the last year, the Parish Council were asked to support our new Park by giving Ł10,000 subject to a donation from South Holland District Council, who are partners in working with us to improve our community. This money was handed over, along with Ł25,000 from South Holland DC, at the ground breaking ceremony on December 9th, which was attended by Santa Claus.

For a long time residents in Donington have wondered why we do not own our Market Place. Some years ago, when it was put up for sale, previous Parish Councillors who tried to raise the money were unable to purchase it. Now the present owner has agreed to sell it. The Parish Clerk, Diane Fairweather, has negotiated with them, agreeing a price of Ł10,000. This all came in the same financial year for the Parish Council. In order to meet these added expenses, the Council held a public meeting, asking residents if they would allow us to increase our precept for this one year. We promised to increase the council tax for just one year to meet these added extra costs, which would be assets to Donington. To have this money for one year we would not have to take up public loans, as Councils are allowed to do, if we had done that then the council tax would have stayed higher for some years to come. The Parish Council are now in a position to reduce the tax for 2007/08 as we promised. The Finance Committee met in December and were able to set the precept back to its usual level. The Market Place is in the process of being purchased and the donation to the Park has enabled work to start. We hope you will be happy with the decisions we made and thank you for your support.

IDEA was born out of a chance to improve Donington through a Government ’pilot’ scheme offered to us. We took the opportunity to have a go, with the support of South Holland District Council, the Parish Council and the Minister for Local Government in 2003 who all signed an agreement called the Rural Residents Compact. We identified areas for improvement in Donington which were

• Providing amenities for young people of all ages
• Tackling problems of vandalism
• Improving the environmental & economic aspects of Donington

This agreement was to be reviewed in three years time and so now we are in the process of doing just that. If you would like to come along and join us, please contact the Parish Clerk Diane Fairweather Tel 01775 820576.

From your District and County Councillor Amanda Puttick

Saturday Supplementary Waste Collection service

You may be aware that the Lincolnshire County Council funds the service that the District Council provides for collection of miscellaneous waste from the Red Cow paddock site off Church Street.

Every month the wagon takes away anything we wish to throw away that is not able to be taken on refuse and recycling collection days.

This extra funding from the County Council for this service has been threatened recently but the District Council has secured the money for this service for another year and hopefully for the foreseeable future.

I will be keeping an eye on this as the service may need to be revised but while this is being worked out we have our Saturday collection from February 2008.

Library review

Saturday opening at the Library

A major library service review was carried out between February and October 2007, involving extensive public consultation.

With this in mind from April 2008 our library in Donington has proposed new opening hours, these opening hours include Saturdays.

If you wish to contact me on matters concerning the District or/and County Council do not hesitate to call me on 01775-820731

or email cllra.puttick@lincolnshire.gov.uk