A series of online arts events are planned during the lockdown, including ukulele lessons.

The lessons were revealed at a scrutiny committee meeting of South Kesteven District Council, which also heard that the 2021 Deepings Literary Festival has been cancelled due to uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and related restrictions.

But South Kesteven District Council plans alternative online events 'to keep its spirit alive.'

The scrutiny committee hearing heard from SKDC's Head of Arts, Michael Cross, that a meeting held before the end of December had decided to postpone the 2021 event, due to be held in April/ May, until 2022.

"There was uncertainty around Spring dates, even before the lockdown decision yesterday," Mr Cross told the meeting this morning.

Furthermore, the previous event, in 2019, had enjoyed much engagement from Deepings businesses and the wider community and with continued lockdowns, members "felt the spirit of the event would be diminished."

Mr Cross and others would continue to keep the 'profile' of the festival alive, with digital events taking place over Easter and the Summer.

There would also be a reprise of the successful November Nights, which featured a series of online events over three nights featuring authors.

There were also plans for a creative writing competition for children.

With a third lockdown, Mr Cross said there would be more digital events as well, with the council's arts staff looking to build on events staged in 2020.

"We are about to start a series of ukulele classes online."

But he admitted uncertainty due to various restrictions was making matters more challenging, though the arts community would pull through.

Mr Cross added there were many things 'in the pipeline' and the council's digital arts programme was receiving a positive response.

There was also an increased willingness from the public to pay for online events, he also reported.

Scrutiny committee chairman Coun Judy Stevens welcomed the progress made.

During the presentation from Mr Cross she commented: "One of the biggest problems that we are having is the stop-go thing. We don't really know what we are doing from one week to the other. We are having to second-guess. It's probably the biggest problem for business as well."

Coun Stevens confirmed the literary festival is still 'very much in place'. It was a permanent fixture going forward through with online content.