By Tess Egginton -20th February 2020

Louth has issued a baking challenge to Lincolnshire’s best bakers, with the launch of the Lincolnshire Pie Championship.

The championship will be held in the town on Louth Pie Day, Wednesday 15 April, as the county celebrates all things pie!

The first-ever Lincolnshire Pie Championship is a free, open competition for all pie-makers, be they amateur or professional, and all ages. Entries are welcome from all over the county and beyond.

The Lincolnshire Pie Championship is being held in Louth’s St James’ Church with its famous soaring spire. Five judges, all of them Lincolnshire luminaries and food experts, will judge the pies on taste and appearance.

There are basically two rules for entered pies: they must be a homemade filling encased in homemade pastry and baked, or a dish widely known as a pie (such as lemon meringue pie). But aside from that, anything goes.

There are 10 pie classes covering traditional, savoury or sweet, with special classes for vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free. Aspiring pie champions are invited to start thinking about potential pies to show off their skills, and to put the date Wednesday 15 April in their diaries.

This is just one part of Louth Pie Day 2020, a repeat of the event that saw Louth become ‘The Pie Capital of the World’ for one day last year. How to enter the Championship, rules and classes can be found at www.LouthPieDay.com.

Louth Pie Day covers the whole town and features more than 30 stops on the Louth Pie Trail. Artisan bakers and pie makers will offer a special selection of traditional, international and inventive slices of pie during the pop-up event for visitors to enjoy.

Tickets will be on sale from 22 February and can also be purchased on the day from all participating businesses on the Louth Pie Trail. There will be a small number of Golden Tickets hidden among the ordinary tickets, which entitle the holder to an extra free ticket and a special pie-related prize that cannot be bought!

A five-strong team of judges, all of them Lincolnshire-based, includes:

• Linda Hewett Previous judge at the British Pie Awards and the UK-based World Bread Awards, Linda is an expert bread maker and food demonstrator based in Lincolnshire.
• Ronnie Ownsworth is an ambassador for Love British Food and a businesswoman, farmer, and a judge for the British Farming Awards. She runs the family farm of mixed arable and stock with her husband in Fulbeck.
• Steven Bennett learned his trade growing up as a baker and butcher’s son in Louth. He spent the early years of his 23-year career working his way up in award-winning and Michelin starred restaurants. He owned and ran the award-winning 2-Rosette restaurant, The Comfy Duck, and now owns Healing Manor Hotel with his partner Charlotte Hay.
• Danny Gill is chef patron at Browns Pie Shop in Lincoln, where his career started as pot-washer at the age of 12. He went on to train with Raymond Blanc at the two-Michelin-star Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, then worked as head chef in restaurants around the country.
• Rachel Green is a chef, author, TV presenter, food campaigner, and devout ambassador for British produce. She’s a judge at the British Pie Awards and supports the Taste of Lincolnshire Awards and the Lincolnshire-based ‘Yes Peas’ campaign for the British Growers Association.

Lincolnshire Police drone team is set to welcome new pilots after eight officers passed their theory exam.

The response officers will become part of the drone team after their practical flight training.

Celebrating the move on social media, the team explained how it doubles its cadre of trained officers

Brant Ward in Lincoln is set to reopen following a major £4million refurbishment to improve privacy and dignity for patients.

The 18 bed ward for older people over the age of 65 in mental health crisis, had dormitory style bays which are no longer considered good practice in a modern mental health care environment.  Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which manages the service, wants to ensure these are eradicated across all wards over the next few years and new en-suite bedrooms made available to patients.

The ward which has been closed since October 2018 has now been handed over by Vinci Construction via Integrated Health Projects (IHP), ready for patients to return in mid-February. Brant Ward will then become the Trust’s main older adult mental health ward in the county.

During the closure patients have been supported by an expanded community service, which has included a pilot of a new home treatment team. The pilot has offered intensive support seven days a week to patients in their normal place of residence, providing an alternative to hospital admission.

The pilot has been staffed and funded by the Trust whilst Brant Ward refurbishments took place and has greatly reduced the number of patients admitted to hospital during this time. It has also received positive feedback from patients, carers, clinical staff and partners.

Chris Higgins explains: “Over the past year we have been talking to service users, carers and our partners about how we could improve mental health services for older adults in the county. We have clearly heard that people would like increased community support, which is available seven days a week, close to home and with inpatient hospital care only when needed. During Brant Ward’s refurbishment we were able to test out a new model of care that is delivering this increased community support.

“Offering service users and their family support that enables them to stay at home safely will always be our priority, and as we continue our discussions with people on the Lincolnshire long term plan, we feel it is right to continue to offer home treatment across the county.

“The home treatment team has evidenced that we need less inpatient beds, which will mean we are able to use the best of our inpatient wards for our patients.”

Whilst Brant Ward now delivers single en-suite bedrooms in a modern, accessible and therapeutic space, Rochford Unit in Boston does not meet essential quality standards for mental health wards. The ward is based on the first floor and has dormitory style bedrooms. There are also a number of other factors which mean that it is difficult to protect the privacy and dignity of patients in this setting. This is something which has also been identified by the Care Quality Commission during inspections. 

Chris added: “To enable us to continue to deliver home treatment, we plan to no longer use Rochford Unit and instead use the recently refurbished Brant Ward as our main older adult mental health unit. The enhanced ward space is a truly outstanding environment for our patients.

“The home treatment team will continue to operate seven days a week across the county, with an additional hub in Boston. Patients currently receiving care at Rochford Ward are being informed of the change, and the intention to move to Brant Ward in the coming weeks.

“As Rochford has been operating as the county’s single older adult mental health ward for the last year we do not anticipate a significant change in the way we currently deliver services. Patients currently on the ward can be admitted from anywhere in the county and this will continue, however at Lincoln instead of Boston, with the added benefit of additional community support with the extra hub on the East Coast.”

Discussions regarding the longer term plans for older adult services in Lincolnshire will continue with service users, carers, partners and our commissioners so that the Trust can hear what is important as we further develop and improve our mental health services across Lincolnshire.

The Trust will also be hosting an open evening at the newly refurbished Brant Ward on Thursday 13 February for anyone wanting a tour of the new environment. People can drop in at Brant Ward in Lincoln anytime between 5pm and 8pm.

A Spalding mum has said there is “no greater gift” than being able to free her daughter of crippling pain which she had suffered since she was a baby.

Emily Parsons was just 18 months old when she was first diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) – an autoimmune disease which affects around 15,000 children and young people in the UK.

In Emily’s case the condition resulted in puffy and swollen joints, which some days would be so painful she would be unable to get out of bed.

Mum Rachel Farnsworth said: “One of the first sentences she learned to say was ‘Mummy, not walk this morning’, meaning that she couldn’t get out of her toddler bed because her joints were too painful.

“It absolutely broke my heart to see my wonderful daughter in so much pain and I felt so helpless to do anything about it.

“I am her mum – I am meant to kiss the hurt away, to make it all better, but I couldn’t.

“All I could do was take her to the hospital regularly and watch her self-inject the medication and hold her hair when she was being sick.”

Emily’s condition meant much of her young life was spent going backwards and forward from the family’s home in Spalding to the paediatric rheumatoid clinics at Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, where doctors prescribed her drugs which are more commonly used in cancer treatments to suppress the immune system.

The side effects of the drug included “brain fog”, nausea and frequent bouts of sickness, which eventually affected Emily’s ability to focus on school work.

Eventually the drugs worked and held Emily’s symptoms at bay for two years between the ages of 12 and 14, but when she came off the drug in June 2018, the pain in her joints returned and Emily’s doctors insisted she needed to go back on the drug.

But at about the same time, Rachel, who had previously had a career in banking and admin, had just qualified in Rapid Transformational Therapy, a combined talking therapy often described as “hypnotherapy on steroids”. 

Rachel had discovered RTT during a Google search as she tried to find a new focus after her relationship with her controlling husband broke down and her two teenage children left to live with their dad.

RTT uses hypnotherapy, cognitive behavioural therapy, neuro linguistic programming and psychotherapy to address issues on a deep level by accessing the subconscious mind which is the driver behind behaviours and limiting beliefs.

Rachel had already experienced the benefits of the therapy in her own life, including increasing her public speaking confidence and healing her eyesight, and faced with the prospect of watching her daughter suffer more years on the drugs that made her feel so ill, decided to give it a try on Emily.

She said: “I asked the doctors to give us a couple of months’ grace so we could try RTT and they very reluctantly agreed.

“The session itself was amazing and her subconscious mind revealed that the pain was there to allow her to connect to others. Her cousins had pain and illness, which needed operations, and her brother had asthma.

“She said that during the session she actually felt JIA leave her.

“We have continued to have regular check ups at hospital and in that time she has been drug free.

“She has now gone over a year without medication and her doctor described her joints as “perfect” when we went back last month.

“My daughter is now free to live the life that she was meant to.

“Her eyes are no longer dull from pain, but bright and shiny and she is energised.

“She is now able to fully take part in all physical activity that she couldn’t before, such as PE at school.

“She was climbing a steep hill on holiday last summer and she commented that previously she had believed that everyone else had the same pain as she experienced, but they were just better than her at pushing through it, I guess if you have been in pain all your life it is your ‘normal’.

“There is truly no greater gift than being able to help my own child in this way. I really don’t have the words to express my gratitude for Rapid Transformational Therapy properly.” 

RTT was founded by Marisa Peer during her 30 years of treating clients, including royalty, Olympic athletes, Hollywood stars and CEOS. Marisa has also been voted Britain’s best therapist.

Since then it has won awards for its effectiveness at reversing symptoms of anxiety and depression without the need for years of therapy. Usually a month’s package is enough, but no more than three to get the results you want.  It is not called rapid for nothing!

To find out more about Rapid Transformational Therapy and how Rachel can use it to help you, visit her website at www.wellnesswithrachel.co.uk

You can also email rachel@wellnesswithrachel.co.uk or call her on 07564 160818.

A 64-year-old man who raped a woman after a night out in Lincoln has been jailed for 12 years.

Stephen Doughty met the woman at a Lincoln pub in May 2018 and, although they remained there for a few hours, the victim did not consume much alcohol.

At the end of the evening they left the premises, at which point the victim began to feel strange and very drunk. The next morning, she felt extremely ill.

Despite initially telling the victim that they had not had sex, when they met several days later he changed his story. This caused her great distress as she had no memory of this whatsoever.

He told her that this was because she had been “out of it” and proceeded to show her a number of photographs he had taken on that night.

Doughty, who maintained his innocence throughout and insisted that the sex was consensual, was charged with rape, attempted rape and two counts of sexual assault.

Following a week-long trial at Lincoln Crown Court which began on July 8, the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts to all counts.

At the same court today (3 February), Doughty, of Newark Road, North Hykeham, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the rape, eight years for the attempted rape and six years each for sexual assault. The sentences will run concurrently.

Retired Detective Constable Robin Palmer, who investigated the case, said: “Doughty committed horrific acts against this woman, yet he continually and falsely claimed that these acts were consensual.

“Doughty will now serve a considerable prison sentence for his crimes.

“His actions caused her physical distress, but also significant mental and emotional pain.

“I would also like to pay tribute to the victim, who has shown a great deal of courage while we have completed a thorough investigation.”

Emergency services were called to a domestic incident at a house in George Street, Sleaford just after 8am on Saturday morning. 

A man in his twenties had climbed on to the roof of a terraced house and was causing damage to the roof. 

Police negotiators were called and following  lengthy dialogue with the man, about 09.30am he came down a ladder provided by Fire and Rescue and was arrested and taken into custody. 

Another man was arrested at the scene for obstructing police in the execution of their duty.

A man was arrested in Cannon Street, Lincoln on New Year’s day following three incidents on the same street.

At 9.30am a man attempted to gain entry to the home of a woman in her 60’s.

At 4.50pm the same man exposed himself to a woman in her 50’s and again tried to access a property.

At 5pm the same man again exposed himself to a different woman (also in her 50’s) and was masturbating.

In relation to these incidents, Eurico Carvalhohalel (26) of Cannon Street, Lincoln has been charged with two counts of indecent exposure and two counts of trespassing on premises with intent to commit a sexual offence.

Carvalhohalel was also charged with a sexual assault which was committed against a female police officer while he was in custody.

He appeared before Lincoln magistrates yesterday (7 January) and has been remanded in custody until the matter will be heard at Lincoln Crown Court. A date has yet to be set for this.

If you experienced a crime of a similar nature at this location on 1 January, please contact us in one of the following ways:

• By calling 101 quoting the reference 354 of 1 January 2020
• By emailing force.control@lincs.pnn.police.uk – please remember to put the reference 354 of 1 January 2020 in the subject box
• You can also contact us through the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111 or online at crimestoppers-uk.org