March 2026
RIPPINGALE NEWSLETTER MARCH
2026
Contact: rippingalenewsletter@outlook.com
Editorial
The recent monsoon like weather has made for a dreary start to the year but it’s
lovely to see the white snowdrops, yellow aconites and even early daffodils signalling
that Spring is not too far away!
The over-wintering onions, garlic and broad beans have somehow survived a good
soaking - hopefully that will keep them going if we get a long period of drought like
last year. Never satisfied, are we?
As the days continue to get a bit longer, here are some dates for the kitchen
calendar:
• Community Coffee Morning @ St Andrews Church: Tues. 3rd March 1015
• Parish Council Meeting: Monday March 9th, 7pm, Village Hall
• Coffee & Natter Morning at the Willows: Wed 18th March, 1015
• Mobile Library: Wed 25th March, 1345 - 1415
• Church Easter Fun Event: 28th March, 1200 - 1500.
I asked the baker, "How come all your cakes are 50p, but that one's £2?"
He replied, "That's Madeira cake".
We look forward to receiving any items for the April Newsletter by Tuesday
24th March 2026.
Parish Council News for March
Last month we reported that we had a full complement of councillors, which means
that we able to function a lot more efficiently, unfortunately Cllr Nichols has not been
able to devote the time required and has resigned. However, we are still in a great
place. We are making more progress on a lot of fronts with the extra commitment we
now have. There are no passengers in the Parish Council.
Not only have we seen people volunteering to play a part on the Parish Council, but
we have people who continually step up to help the community: be it emptying dog
bins, helping with the newsletter, the Hospital car Scheme or helping as part of the
Emergency Team. These people deserve thanks from all of the community, and we
thank them in helping us support the villagers.
A reminder that you do not need to be a Councillor to help in village activities.
If you feel that you have experience or enthusiasm in a particular field, such as HR,
teaching, health & safety, first aid, etc., then please get in touch. We can set up
separate “committees” to deal with various aspects within the village, as we have
with the Feast and the YETI teams.
Our New District Councillor – Councillor Kyle Abel. Kyle has been active with our
issues and was at the last Parish Council meeting. Kyle can be contacted on
kyle.abel@southkesteven.gov.uk or via SKDC’s website. Please let him know of
your concerns and how you feel he can influence the way in which SKDC operate,
particularly with regard to how it may allocate spending within our area.
Parish Council Meeting Dates for 2026 – held in the Village Hall at 7:00 pm:
9th March – 3rd April - 11th May - 8th June - 13th July - 10th August - 14th
September - 12th October - 9th November.
Parish Councillor Responsibilities
Roles and Responsibilities have been re-aligned and agreed as follows
Chair - Cllr Barry Ross
Vice Chair - Cllr Tony Creek
Finance Supervisor - Cllr Tony Creek
Human Resources - Cllr Annette Lumb
Emergency Plan & Flood Warden Coordinator - Cllr Tony Creek
Hedge, Grass Cutting & Village Maintenance Contracts - Cllr Sarah Earl
Liaison - Row Garden Allotments - Cllr Barry Ross
Liaison - Police Forum - Cllr Sarah Earl
Liaison - Rippingale Parochial Church Council (PCC) - Cllr David Warcup
Liaison - Village Hall Management Committee - Cllr Louise Lambord
Liaison - Village Contracts - Cllr Sarah Earl
Liaison - Feast Organising Committee - Cllr Louise Lambord
Fundraising - Cllr Louise Lambord
Jubilee Playing field, store and play equipment & YETI - Cllr Sarah Earl
Key Holder: Noticeboard - Cllr Barry Ross
Key Holder: Jubilee Playing Field & Portacabin - Cllr Sarah Earl
Planning applications etc. - Cllr Annette Lumb and Cllr David Warcup
General Village Maintenance - Cllr Sarah Earl and Cllr Louise Lambord
Village Welcome Pack - Cllr Barry Ross
Agendas & Minutes of meetings - Parish Clerk
Emergency team and planning - As we are sure that everyone has been aware,
this has been the wettest start to a year. In fact, across Lincolnshire and
Northamptonshire Area, January 2026 recorded an average precipitation of 90mm,
equivalent to 172% of the long-term average. We can only avert surface water
flooding by the manual intervention of members of the Emergency Team, who
monitor and clear the grilles at the bottom of Grinders Lane and by the Willows. Cllr
Creek has reached out to the Lincolnshire Resilience Forum, to see if telemetry
devices could be added to these water courses and the watercourses in Doctors
Lane. These devices used in conjunction with an App could provide some additional
automatic level warning, which would greatly help the team. Again, thanks go out to
the team for all their efforts in unpleasant conditions. If you feel that you could help,
please contact tonycreekrpc@gmail.com
Update from Anglian Water - Anglian Water have, as yet, not been able to
undertake the lining works they identified as potentially being of benefit due to
funding restrictions and the need for other schemes to be prioritised. We have
registered our disappointment that the issues in Rippingale are being kicked down
the road. However, Anglian Water have been able to take some mitigating actions
around the area of Doctor’s Lane where previously we have seen several flooding
events affecting one of the properties as well as several discharges from their
network into the watercourse, which have the risk of impacting the environment.
However, in the heavy rains at the start of February, the flooding in this area seemed
just as before. We have sent evidence to Anglian Water and await their response.
Steve Warcup tried to reduce the flooding and was soaked by an impatient driver for
his troubles. We would like to thank Steve, who is part of the emergency team, for
his efforts. We also hope that the inconsiderate driver was not a member of our
community. On a more positive note, overall Anglian Water have found that they
have had less instances of discharge from the manholes in this location compared to
previous years which indicates that the collective measures taken thus far do seem
to be having an impact. They will also continue to work with our colleagues at the
councils to continue to try and combat the root cause of this issue which is the
excess surface water getting into our systems. As we have seen this is still likely to
take time, however this Parish Council will not waver in keeping the pressure up.
Jubilee Playing Field Committee (incl. YETI) – Richard Shuttlewood and his
(small) team is continuing to drive forward with ideas to make more use of our
playing field and once again appeals to anyone in the village who feels that they can
help in this endeavour. We need a broad cross - section of people to help Richard,
so ask that the youth in the village also step up to add their ideas to the pot! We also
need help with moving equipment and decommissioning the existing building. If you
can help, please contact sarahearlrpc@gmail.com
Village Feast - The village Feast committee have analyzed what went well and what
could be improved for future events. It is worth reminding ourselves that the
committee were very new to this endeavour, and had a very short timescale to pull it
together. They are now focusing on how to raise funds for the next Feast.
After discussion, the proposed events are:
A Psychic evening in April/May
A Mini Feast & Dog Show in June/July
Family Film Night in August/September
Car Boot Sale in September/October
Village Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony in December
Dates have yet to be confirmed, as the committee felt that we should consider dates
of other village events to avoid clashes. It was suggested that all proposed dates for
village events be sent to a coordinator in order to spread events throughout the year.
Please support the Feast team, in the fund raisers and in the actual event. If you
want to get involved, please contact louiselambordrpc@gmail.com
Allotments – We have had further uptake of plots on the site so are reaching a point
where we may have a full take up. The RGAG are moving forward with the first few
water harvesting stations that we reported on last month. They were gifted some old
guttering from a resident, who has just had their guttering replaced. They were very
grateful for this. There are 2 IBC containers being fed from existing guttering on the
lean too. There are a further 3 IBC containers being fed the shed by the hedge.
There are some tweaks that are required, however during the first day about 175
Litres was collected. If you have any, roof panels, guttering, fixtures or even IBCs
that you do not need then the RGAG would be very grateful for these materials to
progress with the next stage. Please contact rgagchair@gmail.com
Planning Applications and Updates
List of current major schemes:
S25/2254 - 1 house - open countryside - consultation closed 1st Jan in Lieu of class
Q S25/1654 - withdrawn
S25/2183 - 10 houses - edge of village - consultation closes 19th Jan Brambling
Walk - awaiting decision
S25/1705 - 5 houses - High Street edge of village - approved conditionally
S25/1685 - 5 houses East Street withdrawn - edge of village - withdrawn
S25/1695 -10 dwellings class Q - open countryside - approved
S25/1654 - 5 dwellings class Q - open countryside -approved linked to S25/2254
S25/1476 - 2 houses - infill - approved conditionally - Station Street
S25/1769 - 5 houses - infill - in progress - East Street
S25/1272 - Car storage - sensitive historic part of the village - awaiting decision
S24/1278 - Traveller site - sensitive historic part of the village - awaiting decision
We have asked SKDC to provide clarification as to why the bottom two applications
are still awaiting a decision and we are collating information on house sales to
establish facts around the housing demand within the village.
Councillor Lumb and Councillor Warcup
Pylons in the Community
The groups who are leading the fight against the destruction of the Lincolnshire
countryside are planning a 'Community Action Day' on April 18th alongside the
Community Planning Alliance. They are encouraging parishes to get together as a
community to highlight the plight of rural communities and Nature in the face of over
development and the industrialisation of our green spaces. They suggest events
such as a bird box decorating coffee morning, a 'seed swap', a country walk or a
litter pick. If anyone would be interested in getting an event up and running, please
email me at juliejones1805@gmail.com and let's see what we can do as a
community!
If you didn't see National Grid's December update - you can find it here -
https://www.nationalgrid.com/document/566646/download
Please do keep referring to the Facebook pages of No Pylons Lincolnshire or their
website - https://nopylons.co.uk/ and LAND (Lincolnshire against needless
development). There is so much development being proposed through Lincolnshire,
not just the pylons. And if the pylons happen, it will be more difficult to oppose future
plans such as solar fields.
Jules Jones
RADWI - Pots, poppies and a birthday
This month we celebrated our 88th birthday at Paint a Pot in Bourne where we were
made very welcome. The latent creativity amongst the members surprised everyone
and even those who doubted their skill, used stamps to produce lovely plates and
pots. At the moment they are being fired but we are excited to see our results. Apart
from painting pots the visit was a great opportunity to socialise with one another.
Many thanks also to Paint a Pot for donating knitted poppies to National WI who are
collecting poppies from WI groups to refurbish the soldier displays in Normandy.
After tea and homemade cakes, birthday cards were given out, the raffle drawn
and members signed up for various activities we tidied up left for home.
We meet next in Rippingale Village Hall on Thursday, 5th March at 2pm to hear
from Martin Siddle about Charles Worth who was born 200 years ago in Bourne
and went on to found a famous couture house in Paris. If you would like to join us
or would like more information phone Janet on 0755269984
Church Development Open Weekend
After 16 months of work under the guidance of the PCC, the Church Development
Team (CDT) are finally in a position to present the results of an ambitious plan to
enhance church facilities and conduct major redevelopment work. This huge
undertaking will take a much determination to succeed but, since the concept was
first discussed in October 2024, we have established a great deal. Architects are
now on board and with positive support from the Lincoln Diocese, we are optimistic
in starting construction in late Summer, subject to funding.
There remains a great deal to do, but we are pleased to announce that villagers will
shortly be able to view the project for themselves. A full display will be available to
view in the church from 10th - 30th April 2026. Members of the CDT will be present
to answer any questions you may have during the following periods:
o 6.00 - 8.00pm on Fri 10th April
o 10.00 - 12.00 noon on Sat & Sun mornings, 11th & 12th April.
We look forward to seeing you and hope everyone will value the positive changes
ahead.
Community Coffee Morning…..
We start our 2026 Community Coffee Mornings with the first one on TUESDAY 3RD
MARCH 2026, 10.15am and our following Mornings always on the first Tuesday of
every month.
On our first morning we will be cooking Pancakes even though Shrove Tuesday (17 th
Feb) has been and gone! We will also have our fresh veg stall and other goodies for
sale.
The 200 club will be drawn for January, February (being the big one) and March!! So
please come and join us. It’s very much a Community event and an occasion to have
a catch up over coffee and cake.
LATEST NEWS:
o The announcement of your new incumbent Sunday 22 nd February 2026
o Service of Licensing to be on Tuesday 7 th April at St Johns Church, Corby
Glen 7pm
Jonathan Newell