GRIM DAYS ON HORIZON

THEY looks a bit forlorn but trees which once added greenery to Brigg County Primary School have been left standing – despite all the buildings on the site being knocked down. They were in the green area, enclosed on three sides by the school’s main classrooms – before the new facility was built on Atherton Way. There are suggestions the old school site, in Glebe Road, will become a housing estate. If this is so, will the council encourage the developers to build round the remaining trees? Or are they now living on borrowed time, and facing the axe in the not too distant future? Also still standing at the school site is a wall which once formed the corner of the boys’ toilets. Many of us who went to school there in the 1960s – and earlier – will recall the ‘standing’ part of the toilets was open air. On the wall which remains, some white tiles can still be glimpsed – a reminder of the former use. If, as expected, the old school site becomes a housing estate, North Lincolnshire Council should encourage a direct link through from Grammar School Road to Glebe Road, which could help reduce the severe congestion suffered in this part of the town. That might need some negotiation with the owners of the Ancholme Inn, on Grammar School Road. But it’s well worth considering?



REMOVAL of the two hours free parking concession in Brigg is the main talking point On Brigg Streets at present.
North Lincolnshire Council’s ruling elite is determined to press ahead with the removal of the concession. There does not seem any chance of them climbing down, giving an inch, or accepting reasoned argument for Brigg shoppers or traders.
(It would be great to be proved wrong!)
No, Brigg must be brought into line with Scunthorpe and Ashby, it is argued, where there’s no two-hour allowance. Things should be standard across the district.
Now, at this point, North Lincolnshire Council’s top tier might be well advised to stop and think before setting a precedent like this.
If everyone is to be treated the same on issues, let them consider sports facilities.
Scunthorpe has a full-sized, all-weather synthetic sports pitch, with floodlights, as does Winterton.
So, using the ruling Labour group’s own ‘fairness across North Lincs’ argument, Brigg is surely entitled to a similar sports outlet.
After all, the number of hockey teams in Brigg (10) far outnumbers those of the other two towns.
For more than 20 years, Brigg Hockey Club has been campaigning for an all-weather, floodlit facility in Brigg, rather than having to travel to play ‘home’ games at Quibell Park, Scunthorpe (when it’s back in action after being flooded with sewage).
Long before North Lincolnshire Council was set up – in the old days of the Humberside, Scunthorpe and Glanford authorities – Brigg was denied the ‘Astro’ pitch for reasons never fully explained.
Except one councillor, pressed on the subject at the time, did hint it was decided to build one at Winterton because it was Winterton’s turn to get something.
He pointed out Brigg was enjoying investment over its inner relief road and pedestrianisation.
Now that’s hardly logical – comparing a sports facility with a road scheme
Brigg Recreation Ground would make a great spot for an all-weather facility, which could be used for a lot more than hockey on a Saturday – including netball and football. Nearby Brigg Town FC might also find it useful for training, particularly during the winter months.
A public meeting is planned for tomorrow (Wednesday, October 10) so people can air their views on the car parking charges.
People will feel better getting things off their chests but North Lincolnshire Council is very, very, very unlikely to change its mind at the 11th hour, and the free parking concession will disappear in November.


HOW many Brigg residents have suffered the inconvenience which follows once their wheelie-bin has been ‘consumed’ by a North Lincolnshire Council refuse cart?
Ours could not be found after the binmen had been. They didn’t tell us the bin had been tipped into the cart. But once we rang, the council admitted their mistake and pledged to send a replacement.
They did – eventually - but not immediately. Not, infact, for many days.
No written apology, no reduction in council tax for the time we were without a bin, and no offer of recompense for the dustbin sacks we had to buy.
However, it must be said when the replacement green bin did arrive it was far superior to the old black one. It takes far more rubbish.

IT’S time someone got round to rehanging, or removing, the bunting which is trailing on the ground near to the takeaway at the corner of Queen Street. Over to Brigg Town Council on that one…



NICE to see the old front hockey pitch at Brigg Recreation Ground being put to use for sport by young footballers – watched and encouraged by their parents, who turn out in numbers.
In the old days, when hockey was all played on grass, this was the pride of the Brigg first team – carefully tended and rolled between matches.
Gradually its use for hockey got less and less, as the sport moved over to being played on synthetic surfaces.
Brigg’s lowest – fifth – team used to play there from time to time but it must be five years since that side folded.