In the unlikely event that waste disposal is ever admitted to the Olympic programme, Lincolnshire County Council and Boston Borough Council will have a head start on other would-be contenders – as they are already in training for the Synchronised Dumping on Taxpayers’ Marathon.

A report to Clownty Hall’s environmental scrutiny committee on 18^th March seeks approval to build a £1.5 million council-owned “exemplar” Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) on Nursery Road, in the Boston Riverside industrial estate, rather than pay for a service from a third party as at present.

If agreed the new tip will open on 1^st April next year.

Given the date, we assume that someone is having a laugh at the taxpayers’ expense – as the plan is a one-sided affair whose benefits are all in favour of Clownty Hall and Worst Street and against the interests of the people that they purport to “serve.”

The alleged window of opportunity to open a new rubbish tip centres on the arrival of a paid-for garden waste collection services in Boston – according to Lincoln’s account.

The present tip on Slippery Gowt is purpose built and privately owned and costs the county council £670,000 per year – which makes it the most expensive dump in the county.

Clownty Hall says that spending on an invest to save basis will save at least £300,000 a year, so the pay-back period is expected to be five years and four months.

Somewhat cryptically, Lincoln says: “As there is now a Boston Borough Council-wide green waste service provision, there is the potential for additional savings by aligning the present seven day opening to four day opening for a LCC owned site.

This is the point at which we start to smell a rat – and it’s not on a rubbish tip either.

Will someone tell us why County Hall is linking what to them seems to be a newly arrived Worst Street-wide green waste collection service with the building of a new facility?

The county council says that “the present site is open seven days a week due to the previous recognition that there was no provided green waste service by Boston Borough Council – which is untrue.

Boston’s brown bin collections began in 2013 – and if their arrival was contingent on a decision to relocate a tip and bring it under the county umbrella, why has it been left until now?

The only difference for some obscure reason appears to be that we now pay for the service, whereas before it was free – and accompanied by the false promise that this would forever be the case.

Given the current financial problems faced by Lincolnshire County Council we think it strange that the not-insignificant sum of £1½ million can be conjured out of thin air at a time when the county is looking at cutting such things as street lighting, and was also once contemplating doing away with local bus services.

The spending of such a sum must surely have been planned some time ago in budgetary terms – and as it is entailed with the advent of not just a green waste collection service, but a paid-for green waste collection service, the conclusion that there must have been some sort of connivance involving Boston Borough Council is inescapable.

Did Clownty Hall demand the imposition of a charge to remove green waste to fit in with its plans to save money and slash availability to the waste tip by a stonking 47% from seven days a week to four?

It seems that we are looking at another case of Lincoln telling Worst Street to jump, and Worst Street merely asking how high?” – yet again to the disadvantage of Boston taxpayers.

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