Our Friday miscellany of the week's news and events ...

 Despite the alleged Herculean efforts to address concerns about the proposed Matt Cardle concert at Boston Town football club, we can’t help but feel that more might have been done to facilitate the event had the desire to make it succeed been in the hearts of the official "experts." We were particularly struck by a couple of items in the reports of the refusal of Boston Borough Council’s licensing sub-committee to permit the event due to “public safety” fears. Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue raised concerns about the lack of emergency plans to evacuate disabled people, and a lack of traffic management plans to let emergency vehicles access the venue. We’re not sure how much planning is needed to get to somewhere in the middle of nowhere – as our picture below shows.

photo: Google maps

Not only that, but just 250 tickets had been sold – so it wasn’t exactly Glastonbury! Meanwhile, Lincolnshire Police raised concerns  that some posters had appeared in Polish offering tickets at £25 instead of £31.50 which they said could “cause tension” in the community.  Really?  The timing of the meeting, coupled with the subsequent refusal, then left it too late to re-plan the event for the original date. And so it went from Cardle to the grave  within hours. Whatever the wrongs of all this – and there  obviously were some – the bottom line is that a local businessman trying to do some good for his football club, and possibly for Boston as well, is almost £20,000 out of pocket and many of the fans planning to visit now view the town in a bad light.
We hope that all the proper paperwork is in place for Boston’s Jubilee bash in Central Park – especially with so many cabbages flying around!   We’re pleased to see that at last, common sense has prevailed, and the Jubilee fountain stands in what is now being referred to as a Jubilee Garden rather than a Victorian one. Time and again, we have pointed out the incongruity of the nomenclature, and are glad to see that someone has taken notice.
Another thing that we mentioned last week was the absence of the opportunity for taxpayers to create an e-petition on Boston Borough Council’s website. That has been put right as well – but in the council’s usual haphazard way.

click on photo to enlarge it

Granted, the e-petition facility has reappeared - in fact it is exactly as it was before it vanished. This includes a reminder of two polls – one for garden waste bins and the other for the return of a dog warden – both of which closed almost five months ago!
Another item of news that we like to feel we played a part in concerned a recent piece pointing out that the only leaflet promoting Boston in the local places of interest rack at a holiday cottage in the Wolds was for the Guildhall. It informed readers – in May – that free admission was available until the end of April!  Now we hear that free admissions have been extended for another year. Perhaps we helped jog someone’s memory!
We’re starting to become a little confused about how the plans to elect a Police and Crime Commissioner for Lincolnshire are working. The other week we said that Spalding-educated Lee Rotherham was the Conservative choice for the elections in November – which resulted in an e-mail from Richard Davies, who is currently Conservative County Councillor for Grantham North West, telling us that he was also a candidate. We explained to him that our “mistake” was due to the ambiguity of information available – and it now emerges that there are  “approximately” six people on the Tory shortlist for the post … although the names of the others are not yet in the public domain unless they decide to tell us!. At least Mr Davies plans to tackle a problem close to the hearts of local people if elected -  the issue of street drinking. He told Boston Eye: “Quite simply street drinking must be banned, it's a blight on our towns and is a catalyst for all manner of other problems. The police seem disinterested, and I am determined to work with local authorities to ban it throughout Lincolnshire and then dedicate police resources to enforcing the ban.”
We mentioned the Market Place yesterday, and apparently the BBC (the real one that is, not Boston Borough Council)  was so impressed by it that it decided to upgrade Boston’s status – and promote us from a town to a city. So slapdash.

click on photo to enlarge it

Meanwhile, whilst most  important opening events are marked by smashing a bottle of champagne against something, things are done a little differently here.

In the absence of a formal opening ceremony, we note that Messrs Brylaine appear to have taken charge of the honours. No Bollinger, La Grande Annee 2002 to mark  the foundation of the proposed Five Lamps feature - just a smear of Brylaine's trademark yucky coloured paint to announce that they are here again ...
A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned plans by Boston Councillor Raymond Singleton-McGuire to use of part his house and garden for civil wedding ceremonies, including providing parking and occasional erection of marquee in the rear garden. A number of neighbours got in touch with us  and the council to express their concerns - including issues regarding noise and road safety. However, their complaints have apparently fallen on deaf ears, as next Tuesday’s meeting of Boston’s planning committee has been recommended to approve the scheme. The number of wedding ceremonies will be no more than six a year with a maximum of 120 guests, and could run between 10am and 11pm. Events might include live music and outside catering – and there is an oblique reference to requirements if alcohol is to be made available. Looking back at our first item, perhaps someone should have asked Councillor Singleton-McGuire to organise the Matt Cardle concert!
Daftest quote of the week  (or perhaps the year) came at the call-in meeting to ask for another look at Boston Borough Council’s parking strategy. With the Tories ruling the roost in terms of numbers, it was never going to succeed, but we were tickled ... and then appalled ...  by the naive quote below from Councillor Gloria Smith  - echoing the lame excuse first advanced by Councillor Derek Richmond.

Councillor Smith doesn't share the nature of her disability, but from the idiocy of the quote we think that it must be some kind of inability to talk sense!
Something else which we read with a wry smile concerned last week’s rapid police response after a woman celebrating her birthday in the White Hart  Hotel got a little carried away and became “aggressive and verbal” towards BBC presenter Peter Levy as he relaxed after last Thursday’s Look North broadcast from the Assembly Rooms. According to reports: “The woman had left by the time police arrived … but was tracked down using CCTV. Officers issued a warning about her conduct and helped her home.” We are told that Peter Levy was “happy with the police action.” We bet he was.  Contrast such fawning around  so called "celebrities" with a recent report of a man seen on CCTV kicking road signs on the Town Bridge going on to smash a shop front window.Only later was he brought to court.
Talking of Look North, we remarked earlier in the week how it has pigeonholed Boston in terms of an area with problems such as flooding and immigration - and will continue to do so unless the authorities try to find ways to get the borough seen in a better light. An interesting example appeared in the Sunday Times motoring section a couple of weeks ago. In a feature about dangerous roads - which showed Boston as second worse in the country after North Kesteven in terms of hospital admissions caused by accidents – the following appeared.

The soubriquet Little Poland was a new one on us – and eventually we tracked the reference back to an item in the Daily Telegraph more than two years ago. Now of course, the title is back in the common currency, and we’re sure that it will appear again and  again in the future.
Still with Look North,  we noted Council Leader Peter Bedford’s claim that the number of empty shops in Boston was the lowest percentage in Lincolnshire. As far as we can find out, the figures are more than a year old – and other shops have closed since. We’re not saying Boston may not still be among the lowest – but simply trotting out ancient statistics to ward off criticism is no help at all. We must face up to the reality that much needs to be done to improve the outlook for business in Boston - and if Boston BID  can’t or won’t do it, then someone else must. Only this week the latest casualty was announced - the Giles 52 Gallery in Wide Bargate  which  is closing “purely because of financial reasons.”
Another  business which became empty recently was the Boston branch of Subway, the national sandwich company, whose spokesman said: “We hope to relocate this store in Boston town centre in the near future.”

We trust that he was not talking literally – as the photo above shows what happened the last time the store - actually the 550 year-old Pescod Hall – was "relocated." One thing that we hope is that a more appropriate tenant is found for this historic “shop” the next time round. Or why not take it on as a new and perfectly located Tourist Information Centre? If Oldrids still own it, they might be persuaded to come up with a deal with the borough council.

You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com  Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.

Our former blog is archived at: http://bostoneyelincolnshire.blogspot.com