Years ago, we worked with a journalist whose expenses were regularly challenged because the bosses thought that they were too high.

His response was always to ensure that the next claim was even higher, to get in their faces and irritate them still further.
We wonder whether a similar idea was in the mind of Councillor Yvonne Gunter after recent criticism by a colleague that she was moving too far into the limelight when her name appeared alongside that of the Mayor on the plaque commemorating the switching on of the Jubilee fountain in Central Park.
“I have no problem with elected members using their position and publicity to promote or defend important constituent or electorate matters, but arrogance such as this, smacks only of shallow self promotion,” commented Independent Councillor Brian Rush.
Well, in the latest issue of Boston Borough Council’s monthly bulletin, Leisure Portfolio holder Councillor Gunter appears in no few than five photographs – bringing her total since publication began to 28.
Not only that, but the most prominent picture shows her dominating a group including Boston’s first Olympic torch bearer and the Mayor and Mayoress. Such is the composition of the photograph that Councillor Gunter – posing on the commanding left hand side of the picture - stands head and shoulders above the rest  ...  firmly reaching across the civic duo to clutch the Olympic flame.
In the case of the Jubilee fountain – the tottering concrete tower was paid for by the Boston Town Area Committee, and not from the Leisure Services budget – as was the Elizabethan Garden in which it resides – so if it was really felt  absolutely necessary to immortalise a councillor alongside the Mayor, that person should have been the Chairman of BTAC – and not Leisure Services.
Similarly, we cannot see why the portfolio holder appears in the Olympic torch photo at all.
The visit of the Olympic flame had little to do with Boston – aside from costing a great deal of money … and certainly had no association with the borough’s leisure services, parks and open spaces.
Without any sense of irony, Councillor Gunter is quoted on the borough council website as saying: “It was wonderful to see the Olympic flame here in Boston, and for us to be the centre of attention and guardians for a short while of such a global phenomenon.”
This got us thinking, and when he’d finished feeding the office cat, we asked Boston Eye’s Head of Graphics  HoG) to conjure up a few more events of a global nature in which Councillor Gunter might like to have  appeared.
We hope you enjoy them …

 

 

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