It seems that our local members of the great and the good
have become so used to Boston taking last place that they don’t even notice
when they’re being patronised by the greater and the gooder. A junior transport minister has declared that
the town’s planned distributor road will “make a magnificent difference”.
The ever faithful Boston borough Beano quoted leader ‘Nipper’ Bedford saying: “It is always an
encouraging sign when a Government minister deems a project worthy enough to
come and take a look for himself.
“We discussed the distributor road project in some detail as
the most viable solution to traffic congestion and the bigger picture of the
ways in which it will bring other economic benefits.”
***
It may well be that we are getting a little jaundiced in our
views, but this much vaunted “opportunity” to link the A16 to London Road, which
the developer says represents the first part of a “distributor” road network
around “this part of the town” appears to be nothing more than a purpose-built rat run through a housing estate to link two roads.
Not only that, but it is duplicated no more than a few
hundred yards north by Tytton Lane East – which will always be the less busy of
the roads because of the lower housing density.
Give the complexities of ever trying to create a faux-bypass for the town in piecemeal
fashion, we somehow doubt that Boston will ever obtain something that can
remotely be called a “distributor” road of any kind.
***
It really does show how more and more people are willing to
accept less and less.
Leader ‘Nipper’ has always been an exemplar of this – and
his most recent contribution is in a letter in this week’s Boston off-Target. Hooting with glee at the “great news” that Benson’s for Beds is replacing the
former Carpet Right store on Queen
Street he says “any new business coming to town – and a national retailer at
that – is certainly good news in my book.” Doubtless he will also salute the
news that Poundworld is taking on the
former Brantano shoe store on the so-called Boston Shopping Park.
***
Lost from among the pages of the leader’s book is the
announcement that Morrisons supermarket is to close on 3rd April
leaving shoppers in the north of the town without a decent-sized similar store.
But never mind. Whereas Marie Antoinette famously said “let
them eat cake” we are sure that ‘Nipper’ is quite content with the aphorism
“let them buy beds” as far as the people of Boston are concerned.
***
It is strange how any shop described as “national” seems to
turn the knees of normally rational people to jelly.
MP Matt Warman was another to roll over – this time at the
news that bookmaker William Hill
wants to open up in the former Serenity Hair Designs unit … next door to a Coral bookmakers.
“Any new shop opening
in Boston is to be welcomed and the fact that a major brand such as William
Hill is keen to expand in this area demonstrates yet more evidence of how the
effects of Britain’s growing economy are being felt in Lincolnshire.” What
tosh. We can’t think why Mr Hill wants yet another shop just across the road from
one he already has in the Market Place. If approved – and it surely will be –
the new shop will bring the total number of bookies in a very small area of the
town to seven. As is this wasn’t sufficient indictment of Boston’s dismal
shopping offer, the betting shops will join five e-cigarette shops, nine
charity shops, and heaven known how many mobile phone sale and repair shops
around the place.
And don’t forget the cheapo “pound” type shops – we can’t
get enough of these, as the latest news proves, it seems. By our rough count,
there will soon be around ten.
***
Talking of dismal shopping offers … When Pescod Square
opened, it offered many opportunities, few of which have been fulfilled. One
was the chance to stage small events or exhibitions in the open area outside
Pescod Hall. Nothing much has even been made of this, but still less was
achieved this week on market day, when the space displayed two used cars for sale – although they did
have a few balloons attached.
***
As we all know, Worst Street endlessly bleats on about
flooding in Boston – almost as though we need it on a regular basis to prodice
a topic of conversation. One way that the risk could be minimised and road
safety enhanced would be if councillors rattled the cages of Clownty Hall over
keeping roadside drains free-flowing. Last week’s downpours brought scenes like
the one here to many areas of the town
The sender of these photos counted four consecutive examples
along the roadside – whilst we noticed several more as we wandered the town.
It’s a simple phone call to the appropriate department in
Lincoln to get the problems dealt with, and prevent them from getting bigger.
But many of our councils appear to be too important – they’re
surely not too busy.
***
It seems it’s not enough that Worst Street’s off-the-leash
Boston Town Area Committee – BTAC-ky – is planning to build a kitty of hundreds
of thousands to fund projects for which it is not authorised … the raid on its
funds from other areas continues. A letter to next week’s meeting from the
silver tongued Councillor Claire Rylott, the portfolio holder for parks and
cemeteries, “invites” BTAC to fund the purchase and installation costs for a
CCTV camera in the park. As any fule kno
CCTV provision is a central council responsibility and not a “parish”
responsibility. But given its malleability in the past, there is no doubt that
BTAC-ky will fork over the cash Buying
£9,000 worth of cameras for Burgess Pit and Emery Lane will be cited as precedence
if needed – which it won’t be.
***
This week Boston Borough Beano
scores a lowly 1.35 out of five for relevance to Worst Street. A mere name
check doesn’t count as “packed” with council news.
***
Our thanks go to Police and Crime Commissioner wannabee Marc
Jones for his “fact of the day” – the news that there will be 595 polling
stations available across Lincolnshire for PCC elections on 5th May.
Aside from the ridiculous costs involved, it’s comforting to know that there will
be such a lot of places to sit in the warm and read a book in peace now that so
many of our libraries have closed.
***
Finally, here’s proof that those libraries are really needed.
It comes in this comic website clipping from the Boston sub-Standard.
“A” English for work course is just wot we knead, aren’t it?!
We’re back again on Tuesday
Our former blog is archived at:
http://bostoneyelincolnshire.blogspot.com
We are on Twitter
– visit @eye_boston
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