A prisoner walked out of North Sea Camp open jail after other inmates pressured him into getting involved with drugs, Lincoln Crown Court was told.

Lee Marten was only at the jail for five days but had already put in for a transfer back to a closed prison because of his experiences.

Andrew Scott, prosecuting, said Marten left during the early hours of 11 May and walked to Boston from where he hitched a lift to his home town of Grantham.

Marten visited his mother and his daughter and later the same day handed himself in at Grantham Police Station.

Mr Scott said Marten was serving a four-year sentence for burglary imposed at Lincoln Crown Court in March 2013.

He added: “When he was arrested he told officers he could not cope with an open prison. He wanted to go back to a closed prison and decided that the best way to do that was to walk out.”

Marten, 28, of no fixed address, admitted escaping from custody on May 11. He was given a three month jail term to run consecutively to the burglary sentence which he is continuing to serve.

Andrew Vout, defending, said Marten was only moved to the open jail after previously serving his sentence at the more secure Stocken Prison.

Mr Vout said: “At North Sea Camp he was being put under pressure to become involved with drugs. He didn’t want to have to deal with that.

“He put in for a transfer but that would take time. This short-circuited matters.

“He was only at large for a few hours and he handed himself in.”

With reference to last week’s article on the Persimmon housing plight.

I bought my house in Eyam Way little over two years ago and have had nothing but trouble with Persimmon since.

At first I thought I was being picky about the standard of finish to my house, but over time I realised it is sub-standard. I believe this to be a combination of shoddy workmanship and poor quality control.

I have sent numerous emails to the customer care team with varying results. Most of the time I have met with non-committal answers on some complaints and avoidance on others. They all end the same with them trying to do as little work to my house as possible and myself and my family left annoyed and worried.

My greatest concern has always been the subsidence in the garden, some eight to 10 inches in parts. The reply to our concerns was that a little movement was natural, and that was with no member of Persimmon even viewing the property.

Unhappy that nobody even came and looked, we went to NHBC with our fears after several emails and about a dozen photographs sent by ourselves they showed no interest and said the same as Persimmon.

All we wanted was some assurance that the ground beneath our house was sound. We have even been in touch with the council who, while pleasant, were of little help.

Living with an uneven and often sodden garden for two years I have had enough and will be having decking laid at no little expense to resolve the poor standard of the garden.

I eventually wrote to the managing director in Peterborough, stating my concerns and displeasure at the service I had received, and requesting a member of their company come to inspect the property. The reply was of a standard type stating that he felt the customer service team had covered all the problems, with no mention of the request for an on-site inspection.

We are still waiting for the plumber to arrive to address the leaking sink (third time it has leaked) and someone to address the ‘touching up’ of settlement. A new issue is the front door lock (that has been previously mended)!

Had I realised two years ago that purchasing my first home (at the age of 24) would be such an ordeal, I should certainly have thought twice. The sales team were extremely helpful, but it seems once I had taken posession the whole attitude change to one of complete indifference. In that time we have not only had to contend with a sub-standard property, but have had to live on a building site with all the inconvenience of noise, blocked road, dust and general apathy of many of the site members. Not to mention wear and tear on vehicles and numerous punctured tyres (another complaint that Persimmon have chosen to ignore).

I most certainly would never buy off Persimmon again and, if asked, warn people away from them.

We thank the Journal for taking an interest in our plight.

Nicholas Hardy

Eyam Way, Grantham

Grantham Town’s board of directors and management team this week agreed a player wage budget for next season.

Joint managers Jimmy Albans and Wayne Hallcro rejoined the Gingerbreads at Christmas after the sacking of Ian Robinson and Gary Sucharewycz.

Grantham were hovering just above the relegation zone when Albans and Hallcro returned to the dugouts, but the management duo guided the Gingerbreads to a 15th place finish in the Northern Premier League Premier Division.

Club chairman Peter Railton said: “We looked at the budget the managers wanted for next season and have supported that.

“It is an increase on last season and will enable them to implement their plans for the summer to move us higher up the table than where we finished last season.”

Co-boss Albans said he and Hallcro were close to agreeing terms as far as assembling a squad for the new campaign was concerned. He said: “We have had meetings with the board and the raise we have had gives us something to negotiate with the current squad on next season’s terms, and with new players we want.

“It will be a challenge to do what we want, but it’s achievable.”

Albans said that when the management duo returned to The Meres, they saw “massive potential” in the changing room that was not being put to best use.

The joint managers recorded their first win towards the end of January, a satisfying one at old foes Ilkeston, and the Gingerbreads’ first victory in 14 games.

Albans said: “The result away at Ilkeston kick-started things as far as we are concerned. Paul Grimes coming in and scoring on his return gave a lot of belief to the players who had stayed at the club. It gave everybody the appetite to move forward. The inconsistency that we showed in games that we were expected to win shows where we need to go mentally next season. We have to go out to earn a win in every game we play.”

Further to the correspondence about Grantham Hospital car park price rises.

It’s all too easy to find the motive. It lies in the values of the people who are running the NHS and the Government who use it as a political football. It is also about the values of Cameron and his poodle Boles whose slavish devotion to the so-called free market makes these things happen.

I would cite two examples.

A hospital I visited recently had a Costa Coffee shop inside the hospital and the MRI scanner outside in a tatty hut.

Cameron promises an extra 1147 GPs surgeries. GPs are to be open from 8am to 7pm, seven days a week. This of course after HE raided the GP budget to pay for an NHS reorganisation that no one asked for, voted for or needed. Now, there is a chronic shortage of GPs.

This reflects the values of the unelected coalition, business first, people second.

Anthony Hindmarch

By email

A child’s motorbike was among items stolen in a raid on a garage in High Street, Harlaxton, last night (Friday).

Burglars removed roof tiles to get in at around 1.30am, before opening the doors from the inside to get away with the bike and other items.

Anyone with information is asked to call Lincolnshire Police on the non-emergency 101 number.

** Meanwhile, police are also reporting an increase in burglaries to the east of Grantham. Residents are urged to remain vigilant and lock windows and doors.

Residents of villages to the south of Grantham are invited to a neighbourhood panel meeting on Wednesday.

The South Rural Neighbourhood Panel Meeting will take place at the Methodist Chapel, Back Lane, Colsterworth, from 7pm.

It is a chance for villagers to help set policing priorities and discuss any issues in their area.

Everyone is welcome but under-16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Anyone who would like to contribute but is unable to attend can call 101 and pass a message on to the South Rural policing team or call Helen Bill of the Neighbourhood Watch on 01476 861399. Alternatively, email granthamsouthrural.npt@lincs.pnn.police.uk or billsbanter@live.co.uk

Many people might agree with Coun Charmaine Morgan (Labour Group Leader, SKDC) when she says that our planning process should be transparent and democratic, but why limit this to planning?

Transparency and democracy should surely be essential pre-requisites for all decisions made by local and national politicians which affect ordinary voters.

So-called ‘public consultation’ is frequently no more than a cynical, cosmetic gesture, because decisions will already have been taken by political cliques with vested interests and/or by unelected officials and quangocrats.

Transparency is not well represented by South Kesteven District Council’s electronic voting system which gives total anonymity to councillors in terms of who votes ‘for’, ‘against’ or abstains on any particular motion. “Democracy”, according to George Bernard Shaw (1903), “substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few”. Is that definition still valid today?

Brian Bruce

Bourne Road, Colsterworth

A restaurant and hotel in the Vale of Belvoir has earned the top food standards rating of five following a re-inspection this month.

The former Vale of Belvoir Inn & Hotel, now known as the Haven in the Vale, previously received a zero, but in a complete turn-around has been awarded a five, indicating very good food hygiene, by Rushcliffe Borough Council.

Owner Roy Tripp said: “This is the first time since 1954 it has got five.

The Haven in the Vale is on the A52 near Whatton.

“We look forward to welcoming old and new faces,” added Mr Tripp.

With reference to parking enforcement officers. I would like to know why certain cars can park in Oxford Street, Grantham, on the single yellow line for a period of time and never get a parking ticket?

I am a resident of Oxford Street and my son has a car. Several times he has had to park on the yellow line as there is no space outside our house, due to people parking their cars in our street all day to either go to work in town or to catch a train and avoid paying for parking.

Do you think it is fair on the residents? The people who live on this road are then getting parking fines (my son up to present has had four parking tickets, the last one was observed by an enforcement officer for five minutes). How long do you get before a ticket is enforced? Surely more than five minutes?

I walk along London Road every afternoon and there are always cars parked on double yellow lines and I return to Oxford Street in the middle of the afternoon. Guess what? Cars are parked on the single yellow line for over an hour - but no parking ticket. It seems to me that it’s one rule for one but not others.

When my son has had to park over the road on a yellow line he seems to always get issued a ticket, but when he’s not there and other cars are parked, the enforcement officers are nowhere in sight.

It seems to me that certain cars get tickets. What do other people think?

J. Towning

Oxford Street

Residents in a Grantham street are angry after council officers gave permission for a house to be built, without the proposals being considered by the planing committee.

While decisions on the majority of planning applications are delegated to planning officers if they are not not judged to be contentious, several homeowners in Twyford Gardens say they wrote to the council to complain about the plans.

Eighty-two-year-old Alan Mallatratt sent several letters complaining that the planned house was too close to his home next door, affected his privacy and would increase traffic on the narrow road.

Mr Mallatratt was preparing to speak to the committee, but received a letter saying that planning permission had been given.

He said: “I have to accept that despite doing all I can to stop it, that building will go up. It has been a fait accompli.”

However, Mr Mallatratt is not content with the district’s planning system, which he describes as “unique”, and has contacted Coun Charmaine Morgan, a member of the Development Control Committee.

She agrees on the need for change.

The Labour councillor said: “Councillors should determine what comes to committee. We have the in depth knowledge of the area and are here to represent people’s views.”

“The Labour Group are currently reviewing the constitution, and hope for cross-party support to amend it.”

Another resident of Twyford Gardens, Richard Phillips, said he only heard about the plans from Mr Mallatratt, even though the new access road and house will be opposite his own.

Mr Phillips, 68, said: “We have no say in the area, and everything is just pushed through.

“There was a big problem with getting the road finally finished. Now they are going to come and dig it all up again.”

The district council’s head of development and growth, Paul Thomas, said: “A number of objections were received.

“However no objections were raised by the highway authority or our Environmental Protection Team.

“All the matters raised by the local residents were considered as part of the determination of the application, and appropriate conditions were put in place as part of the outline approval. Details of these conditions will have to be submitted to the local planning authority for approval before building can start.”

We would like to sincerely thank all those people who have helped, in any way, with our recent fundraising for St Barnabas Hospice.

For those who knitted chicks and donated chocolate eggs, and also sold them. The sale of Easter chicks raised the wonderful total of £2,850.

And also for those who helped with the Easter tombola in the Isaac Newton Centre, raising an amazing £1,051.

We are really grateful to everyone for their continued support of the Grantham hospice.

Fundraising Volunteer

A plastic bench was set alight in Grantham last night (Saturday).

A fire crew from Grantham was called to the Riverside area at 7.45pm to extinguish the flames.

Firefighters used a water backpack.

I would like to express my appreciation and grateful thanks to the lady and gentleman who kindly assisted me to my feet after I had fallen in the middle of the road outside Asda.

Also thanks to the first aid ambulance man, who they brought over to attend to me for his advice and first aid and to the wonderful staff at Grantham A&E department, who took a lot of time and trouble to make sure I was “roadworthy” again.

Noel H. Hopper

West Avenue, Grantham

Shown here are some of the projects which have done most to improve the look of Grantham in the last year or so.

The schemes include work carried out at the King’s School, at Market Place and to several town centre shop fronts.

Now Journal readers are being urged to come up with their own nominations for other outstanding examples as part of an environmental awards scheme.

Grantham Civic Society is to make a total of three Townscape awards for 2014 and already has nominations for three projects:

* Renewal of the old King’s School roof and garden.

* Refurbishment of Market Place and Westgate

* Clearing work at the Earlsfield section of Grantham canal.

But the society reckons there are other improvements worthy of recognition.

Now it wants nominations for other projects from members of the public.

A Civic Society spokesman said: “Readers’ nominations are invited for any projects they consider show good design and which perhaps make you stop, look and admire.

“It can be a shop front, an attractive house, maybe with a special effort in the front garden, or even a well loved building that deserves to be singled out for praise.”

Nominations should be received by the Journal or can be emailed to media@grantham
civicsociety.co.uk by June 9.

The winners will be chosen and the presentations made on National Civic Day at the Mayor’s Parlour in Grantham on Saturday, June 21.

LCC and Centrebus are a joke. My ageing parents have been forced to pay for taxis from Grantham to Woolsthorpe-by-Belvoir because of extended bus routes, all down to cost cutting.

The fear of walking across Wharf Road several times has put the fear of God into them.

Would the financial fat cats (high earners) like to go through this? Answer: No.

Name and address supplied

On Tuesday, May 20 I was shopping in Morrisons and unfortunately collapsed.

The care I received from the staff was excellent, especially Lynne and her colleague.

I’m back on the mend thanks to their quick response.

Joy Carrier

Belton Avenue, Grantham

People in the Colsterworth area can raise any issues about local crime with their neighbourhood policing team this week.

The South Rural Neighbourhood Panel will be meeting on Wednesday (June 4) at the Methodist Chapel, Back Lane, Colsterworth, at 7pm. The policing team will give a quarterly update and ensure any local concerns are heard and dealt with and set the priorities for the next quarter.

Everyone is welcome to attend. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

If anyone is unable to attend they can pass on their views to the South Rural Policing Team by calling 101, or email granthamsouthrural.npt@lincs.pnn.police.uk, or call Helen Bill on 01476 861399, email billsbanter@live.co.uk

Grantham Town Supporters’ Club lotto (sponsored by Galaxy Fish Bar), winners of May 31 draw:

£200 – 432 A. Cox; £10 – 305 V. Wright; £5 – 549 A. Chantry, 795 P. McHugh, 130 P. Eaton, 902 J. Patten, 688 M. Jacklin, 558 D. Short.

Planning applications before South Kesteven District Council include:

Colsterworth

S14/1562/TP05 - Mr G. Smith - Thin wood through removal of dead dangerous beech, scotch pine and Norway spruce, Water Lane, Woolsthorpe by Colsterworth.

Grantham

S14/1244/HSH - Mr G. White - Erection of detached garage to front of dwelling, Birchwood, 40 Beacon Lane.

Grantham, Little Ponton and Stroxton

S14/1389/DC - Andrew Russell-Wilks - Approval of details relating to pre-commencement conditions 2,3, 8, 18 and 22 of permission S08/0448 - erection of buildings and associated works, land at Tollemache Road (east of the A1, south of Gorse Lane, west of Spittlegate Level), Grantham.

S14/1488/NMA - Legal and General Assurance (Pensions) - Non-material Amendment to S14/0416 to reconfigure disabled and family parking bays to front of building, Unit 2, London Road

Great Gonerby

S14/1486/DC - Richard Brown - Approval of details reserved by Condition 2 (rooflight detail), 3 (materials), 4 (joinery details) and 6 (extension interface) of p/p S14/0535, 20 Green Street.

Londonthorpe and Harrowby Without

S14/1479/WAY - Antony Parker, Western Power Distribution - Partial rebuild of 33kV overhead line and install additional pole, land between Londonthorpe and Honington Heath.

Long Bennington

S14/1460/HSH - Mr and Mrs Chew - Proposed side and rear single storey extensions to dwelling and erection of boundary walls, 33 Manor Drive.

To view the forms and plans of any planning application, click on the link www.southkesteven.gov.uk/planning search

A former Central School student won a road race in Germany at the weekend.

Representing Grantham’s Pedal Pushers racing team, Steve Young triumphed in the Bavarian Road Race Championship at Rosenheim.

The race began quickly, with an average speed close to 28mph for the first half hour, as breaks went and were brought back.

Finally, a breakaway formed which consisted of seven riders. As their lead rose up to two minutes, Steve and several riders began to increase the pace of the peloton to start chasing the leaders down, closing the gap to 45 seconds.

At that point, a first attack came from the main group at the end of the 11th lap. Five riders began to eat into the lead break’s advantage, with Steve staying safe mostly at the back of the line.

Both groups ahead merged, creating a group of 11 riders at the front, The peloton was still being led by strong German riders but split as result of a fall in the 13th lap, causing some riders to slip back and lose contact with the bunch.

The pack closed the gap to about 21 seconds, with several riders including Steve trying to bridge the gap between the peloton and the leading bunch in small groups.

Eventually, all riders were brought back, with an RSV Sonthofen rider surviving the longest only to be caught to form a new leading group on the penultimate lap.

Two riders attacked but never got more than 10 seconds and were held very close by the peloton and caught a few kilometres later.

No riders managed to get away from the bunch after that, allowing Steve with the perfect position to sprint to victory.