Our candidate for Scotter Rural: Lesley Rollings

I live in Pilham in the centre of the ward with my husband John. We have 3 grown up children. After a career in teaching, I now work for the national STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Maths) project, which looks to encourage young people to take up careers in in the STEM industries where we have massive skill shortage.

I am delighted to be selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the 2021 County Council elections for the Scotter Rural Division. These elections are very important. The County Council is responsible for key public services and it is essential that residents are represented by councillors who are active and engage with them on a regular basis.

As your County Councillor, who lives locally

• I will continue to campaign to re-instate clinics, services and a minor injuries unit at John Coupland Hospital.
• I will continue to campaign for reduced speed limits in our villages and more local say on those speed limits.
• I will continue to campaign for better quality road repairs and fewer potholes, making our roads safer.
• I will continue to work hard to get agencies to work together to solve flooding and drainage issues in the area.
• I will continue to campaign for better Broadband provision for our area.
• I will continue to work on the Climate and Environment group on the District Council, pushing for more ambitious targets in reducing Co2 emissions.

Living locally, as a councillor is very important. Knowing when problems arise and being on hand to support, is key to being a good councillor. As one of your district councillors, I work closely with Cllr Liz Clews and Cllr Mandy Snee to make sure that all local residents are supported. We now have some very good parish councils who we work closely with and this also helps us to connect with people and issues in the community.

The Liberal Democrats are the only party to be actively working in the community in this area. We are the main opposition group to the Conservatives on the District Council, looking to take control of the District Council in 2023.

We work all year round, not just at election time!

John Coupland hospital

Our campaign to keep services and clinics at John Coupland hospital will continue. It affects people across the whole area.

We are not prepared to sit silently, whilst clinics are moved to places like Grantham, Boston, Doncaster and Louth.

The people most affected by these changes are the elderly and those who don't have cars.

The Health Trust are seeking to replace face to face consultations with more online services and this leaves some people unable to access these services.

Neither your current MP or the sitting Conservative councillor think that there is a problem with this! They have both sat by and watched the cuts happen. This is not acceptable.

Flooding

In particular, over the last few years, we have been working hard to ensure that the key agencies are working together to prevent the terrible flooding events that have occurred in parts of Scotter and Blyton. We are making good progress in seeking to convince the Environment Agency and the local Water management board that changes to the maintenance programme on the River Eau need to be made, if Scotter is not to flood again and acres of farmland constantly flooded.

Flooding affects everyone in many areas in Blyton, Scotter, Northorpe and Scotton. It is everyone's concern as it influences the economy of the whole area.

I will continue to work with local people, who know the land and who should be heard if future flooding is to be prevented.

Speeding traffic

We have been working with communities to support them in their efforts to reduce speeding in their villages and we have begun working with the national 20's Plenty For Us campaign, which towns and villages across the country are signing up to - having a say in the speed limits that are currently imposed in their areas and dropping those speed limits. Look at 20's Plenty.org for more information.

Since 2006 I have campaigned for speeding reductions on the A 614 Corringham Road junction in Gainsborough. With support from the District Council I am delighted that the speed limits have finally been dropped from 60mph and an effective traffic light system put in place.

However, speeding on the A 614 continues to be a real problem - one that needs to be taken seriously by the County Council. With the 20's Plenty Campaign behind us, we will continue to campaign to drag the County Council kicking and screaming into the 21^st Century and allow local communities more say on the speed limits through their villages.

Roads

Many of the roads in our area are in a dreadful state, with too many potholes and dangerous drop offs where roads join verges. Too many of us have suffered serious, unacceptable damage to our cars and in some places, the poor state of the roads is quite simply, a fatal accident waiting to happen.

We are encouraging residents to use the Fix My Street app and report serious road issues to us, which we will try to help with. It is time that this part of the county received its fair share of investment into quality road and footpath repairs.

Broadband

We now need someone at the County Council and indeed the government to get a real handle on what is going on with rural Broadband in Lincolnshire . Whilst superfast broadband has already reached the cities, the big companies are going to have to be forced to invest more into rural areas. BT are currently asking local communities to come together to fund their own superfast Broadband! Businesses in rural areas that rely on fast broadband must be really struggling to function. Current provision is patchy and too slow. We need our County Council to continually challenge on this and make sure our residents have good access to superfast broadband. I will continue to campaign for this.

Climate Change

We must continue to challenge our Councils to be ambitious in their aims to reduce CO2 emissions. Whilst strategies are slowly coming together, we must ensure that we set challenging standards in house building and that the councils use their positions as trusted sources of information to help ( though their websites and communications) the public make decisions about future energy use.

Engage with local politics

The Liberal Democrats are an inclusive party, seeking to work for everyone in society. We pride ourselves on being very active in the local community. We believe that this is what politics should be about.

Please get in touch if you would like to join us.

Engage with Lesley on social media:

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