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Last Friday saw the final Lincolnshire County Council meeting of the year, and, in our unending pursuit of democracy, we visited the LCC website to watch proceedings live via the county hall webcam.
Readers even more senior than ourselves might well have strolled down Memory Lane in response to the programme which greeted them, to the days of the People’s Palace – better known as “
Ally Pally” - which in 1936 became the headquarters of the world's first regular public "high-definition” television service, operated by the BBC.
Documentaries of those bygone days depict the jerky camera movements, the crackling soundtrack, and the unexpected blackouts in transmission as the flickering, delicate valves frequently gave up the ghost.
Those days were reprised in all their dubious glory on Friday.
At the last meeting in September, faults with the soundtrack made it all but impossible to follow the agenda item where rank and file councillors ask questions of the Chairman, Leader, executive councillors, and committee chairmen – which is the bit we tune in for … to see what sort of interest our local councillors are showing at county level.
Friday not only still had occasional sound problems which saw members resorting the use of a hand held radio microphone, but numerous breakdowns of both sound and vision – often at crucial moments in our viewing.
For instance, the first local questioner was Boston South Conservative Councillor Paul Skinner, who wanted information from Councillor Sue Woolley, the portfolio holder for health, housing and community.
Due to a technical failure, we missed the question and half the answer – but gathered from what we did hear that it concerned the Councillors'
Big Society Fund, which sees cash saved by a members' pay freeze spent on community projects.
Boston West’s Councillor Ramonde Newell - who is listed as an Independent; was elected as a Boston Bypass Independent, and who has avoided any further association since the BBI rebranded itself as the BDI (Boston District Independents) - was next to ask a question.
Whilst he was fortunate in that his query survived intact, he was less so in that the person to whom it was directed was not around.
The question concerned last Thursday's incident when a car "plunged" into the "f
ast flowing, wide and deep" River Haven.
Although the driver was rescued by firepeople, Councillor Newell wanted to know “Was the fast water rescue boat and team available from Boston’s fire station, and was it used?”
This is something that Councillor Newell - a long standing critic of the decision to relocate the boat from Boston to Spalding - has raised before ... last time at the May 20th meeting.
Then, Councillor Peter Robinson, who is responsible for Community Safety, told him that after
Exercise Watermark, the government promised extra funding for up to
ten water rescue units - and he hoped that one could eventually be based in Boston.
Asked and answered, as they say in court.
The third and last local member to ask a question was Boston East’s Mike Gilbert, who raised the vexed issue of the Punchbowl Lane/Ingelow Avenue
fiasco facing the Boston Town Area Committee
Regular readers will recall that some residents’ lives are being ruined by anti-social behaviour, but the council seems unable to address the problem (see our most recent story by clicking
here.)
“One possible solution is what’s called a gating order, which effectively cuts off access to the area associated with the anti-social behaviour,” said Councillor Gilbert.
“Without prejudging the merits of the particular case for a gating order in the area, could the Portfolio Holder for Highways confirm whether or not the County Council is currently considering a policy for gating orders and whether there will be a timetable for its likely completion in case it is required at some time in the future?”
Portfolio holder Councillor William Webb was in an area of the chamber where the sound appeared not to be working, and was handed a radio microphone - which he then held within an inch of his lips and bellowed into like a fairground barker, which did little for the audibility of his reply.
On top of that, the screen went blank for the umpteenth time during the broadcast, but he was still replying when normal service resumed – and the drift of his answer was not, we suspect, what Councillor Gilbert wanted to hear.
“We don’t want to close thoroughfares. It’s always a last resort and if we put a gate across we are denying access …”
He did, however, add that the county council was considering gating orders, but stressed “our chief aim is to make sure that all thoroughfares are open and are safe to use.”
At one point during the meeting we heard that no fewer than
five members of staff were in the chamber dealing with the communications side of the event – which seemed hard to believe given the problems that we witnessed as interested viewers.
Lincolnshire County Council meetings are always dreary, poorly run affairs – and Friday’s was not helped by Chairman Neil Cooper flinging his weight around by frequently and rudely hectoring questioners for taking too long to make their point – thus delaying events still further.
Still, at least
Boston’s voice was heard in
Lincoln – which is never a bad thing – although Fishtoft’s Councillor Raymond Singleton-McGuire sent apologies for the second consecutive meeting.
His last appearance at a full council meeting was on May 20th, which means that – if he attends the next one on February 17th – it will be almost eight months since last he has shown his face.
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It beggars belief that our local celebration of the UK's biggest women-only charity fundraising event - in which almost 1,500 Boston women took part this year and raised £80,000 for charity - has been dumped because the charity concerned doesn’t think that it is cost effective. Cancer Research UK – which has organised Race for Life in the town since 2005 – says it has to raise as much money as possible in the most “cost-efficient” way possible, and the Boston event has been cancelled because of the costs of staging it. Outrageous! This was an excellent community event which brought people from all walks of life together in a good cause. Cancer Research will not disclose how much it cost, but if an event that raised so much money is not deemed cost effective, then something is badly wrong somewhere. Not only that, but the charity is now hoping that previous participants will trek to Lincoln to take part in next year’s event. Let us hope that somewhere in the borough there is someone who will organise an alternative event – perhaps not quite as lavish as the previous Race for Life - but which can raise enough to shame the bureaucrats at Cancer Research. We wonder whether the decision is in any way connected with the decision by Tesco to end its support for the event, whilst instead deciding to be a headline sponsor of Pride London - Britain’s largest gay festival.
We note with some satisfaction the pledge by Lincolnshire County Council to bring superfast broadband to at least 90% of homes and businesses in the county by 2015. The council is to add £10m to a central government grant of £14.3m to upgrade the county's broadband network with fibre optic cables, plus improved equipment and exchanges. Although our internet will then move at the speed of light, the county is taking it more easily – with no plans to appoint a contractor for the project until “the end of 2012.” Meanwhile, BT has already announced that it is extending its roll out of superfast broadband to Grantham, Spalding, Gainsborough and Bourne. Gainsborough? Bourne? Bourne? Yet again, Boston is left at the bottom of the list as usual.
Issues surrounding immigration have emerged in the past few days. Firstly came news that the government e-petition 'No to 70 million' recently reached 126,156 signatures - and the government has notified the Backbench Business Committee in the House of Commons. Whether it will result is a debate is anyone's guess. Meanwhile, in an update on the petition, which was signed by many people here in Boston, the government says the response "shows that the public feel strongly that immigration is too high and that it should continue its work to bring numbers under control.”
Snap, crackle and pop ... welcome to LCC-TV!
As the council pursues its citizens for every last penny it can wring from them to shore up its tottering finances, would it be unfair to suggest that at little more prudence is paid to retrieving what it’s owed before moving on to shooting fish in a barrel – such as racking up parking charges? 
As a gesture both to the occasion - and also one that indirectly benefits the town in a small way for a few hours, we have sponsored the lights at Boston Stump for today. They will go on this afternoon at around 4pm and off again at around midnight. It costs just £25 to do this, and you can mark any event that you like. A notice is posted on the south door of the Stump - the entrance from the Market Place - saying why the lights are being turned on. As good luck would have it, a couple of sponsors have ensured that the Stump will be lit over Christmas – but the scheme needs much more by way of support. The rates are £25 per day, £100 a week, £300 a month and £3,000 a year, and they were once sponsored annually by Oldrids.
Think twice before diving in and hiking car park charges
A bin for all seasons - or unpopular bags for green waste future collections?
Hearing - but are they really listening?
Our Friday miscellany 
Boston’s Market Place – pictured at the top of the page in its prime - is Georgian-ish which means that apart from the style of its architecture, certain colours would have predominated.
