Election fever in Boston seems to be little more than a sniffle so far – although at least some taxpayers turned up to a recent meeting to learn more about standing for office.

The seventeen pitched up at an “informative meeting” at Worst Street at which their enthusiasm was tested by the “premiere” of a 15-minute “unique film, prepared in-house at Boston Borough Council.”

Its woolly, acoustically poor narration was read in a way that made eating sand seem infinitely preferably to standing for civic office. 

But at least a timetable has now emerged for the run up to voting on Thursday 2^nd May – which we’ve reduced to the interesting bits for voters and ditched the more technical waffle.

Delivery of nomination papers is between Monday 25^th March and 4pm on Wednesday 3^rd April with a list of  nominees published  by 4pm the next day – which is when we will get our first full glimpse of who’s seeking to represent us.

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A writer in one of our local ‘newspapers’ recently recalled that donkeys’ years ago  the list of nominees was also that of the great and the good of the borough – the people whose love of Boston and desire to work for its betterment shone like a beacon.

Sadly these days, we wonder why some of our current councillors bothered to seek election in the first place … but are sure that won’t stop quite a few from seeking a return to office.

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Whatever the outcome of the elections – when the council resumes work after 2^nd May it will by all accounts be under slacker rules as far as reliable reports of events are concerned.

Concerned Councillor Brian Rush has been in touch to tell us that Boston Borough Council in the shape of the officer cadre has, without warning, withdrawn recording facilities at all future meetings ...  something he describes as “a very large slap down for democracy which seems to have been done, without reason, explanation nor warning.”

He continued: “I am not in the least bit surprised by this; it is a prime example of what happens, when councillors get used to having their feet too far under the cabinet table.

“This is only one example, of elected members casually passing over too much control to paid officers!

“And I am told there is yet more to come...

“I am absolutely astounded by what seems to be a "unilateral" decision made it would appear by the Corporate Management Team.

“In case anyone is unaware this is yet another internal “quango” – a small, exclusive, panel of senior officers, who I have been told are considered to be a law unto themselves.”
More on this next week – as not only is it a slap in the face for voters, it turns out to be  a scandalous waste of money as well

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After a week away it seems that little has changed.

More jobs are under threat – firstly Tulip Ltd has been unsuccessful with a major tender … ironically it exists solely to operate a Marks & Spencer contract, and their store in town is also closing soon. The lost contract affects 464 jobs.

And another food manufacturer that employs about 680 people is set to close a site in Holbeach St Marks – although it’s hoped that as many as 520 employees could be offered roles at other sites in the county.

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Incidents such as these make brief headlines then get forgotten – but Boston seems to have been victim of a lot of job losses lately.

One apparent reaction to this is the news that the Assembly Rooms nightclub has closed – allegedly temporarily – with the owner reportedly blaming increases in violent crime and loss of employment.

Matt Clark was quoted as saying: “It is no secret that the town as a whole, and certainly the late night economy, has been in decline, making the last year extremely challenging.

“There is a clearly advertised increase in violent crime and, of recent months, loss of employment, which are bound to have impacted footfall to the town.”

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Yet despite this employment fall-off, more and more people are moving to the borough and applying for National Insurance numbers.

The most recent figures from the Lincolnshire Research Observatory show that between 2,300 and 2,700 registrations for a NI number we processed last year as a result of inward migration to Boston.

Then – and for the past ten years at least – Boston has always been the bluest spot on the statistical map – with a minimum of around 18,000 registrations between 2010 and 2017.

The pressure that this must place on local services is unimaginable.

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The matter of the Assembly Rooms arose at the full council meeting in a question from a councillor expressing concern at the apparent deterioration of the Grade II listed building.

How short the political memory is.

The building was sold in 2012 after successive Worst Street administrations deliberately avoided maintaining it for decades until finally putting it on the market after lamenting that it was then too expensive to repair.

At no point did Worst Street consider issuing itself with an enforcement notice to make the damage good. Well, it wouldn’t, would it?

So this piece of piety is even beyond irony.

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Interestingly the question about the building – and a number of others from other councillors and the public appeared on the agenda of the full council meeting.

But there was no such luck on WorstWeb – the council's website –which could eassily have been updated to inform members of the public what was coming up on the night.

As we have said so often before, the rules demand that questions be submitted well in advance and making them available on the website was once done without any trouble.

Now though, it is just another example of Worst Street’s indifference to the public – along with the apparent decision not to record meetings ... anything that makes an officer's workload lighter!

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The full council meeting followed last month’s BTAC-ky meeting – which by all accounts  played more like a farce at Blackfriars than a piece of taut political drama.

As is nearly always the case, neither of our local ‘newspapers’ attended – nor did they bother with the full council either.

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But luckily for Boston Eye we were still able to obtain the details, which we will share with you over the next couple of editions.

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In the long-standing Worst Street tradition of not bothering with appearances or thinking ahead, the meeting almost never happened.

In the general mutterings ahead of the 6-30pm start time a discussion began as to whether the meeting could go ahead as it appeared it was not going to be quorate.

But thankfully (!) at 6-31pm in tottered one councillor followed a minute later by another, meaning that the meeting could go ahead.

And as a bonus just as the preliminaries ended, another councillor arrived making his apologies and explaining his lateness was due to running an errand for his wife.

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An early item on the agenda  concerned traffic speed monitoring and was listed as an update – which it has been claimed means it doesn’t require an advance document that can be digested days ahead of the meeting … even  though that was contradicted by other items on the same agenda that included helpful reports.

The officer who was due to update the committee arrived just bfore the meeting began and headed for the piece of equipment to be used for his update.

After a couple of minutes it was obvious something was wrong, and after a frantic search he announced the mouse was missing and so he would not be able do his update as planned.

Five minutes later he returned with half a dozen pages of A4 paper which he passed around the table.

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The BTAC-ky meeting before this one featured complaints by members about the speed – or rather the lack of it – that officers ‘worked.’

Clearly, no lessons have been learned since then..

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Next week: More from the meeting – including the context of the line from one member:  "we have plenty of money; let’s just give it to them"

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Meanwhile, we’d like to think that some good news is on the horizon – with the government announcement of a £1.6 billion fund to boost growth and give communities a greater say in their future after Brexit – also known as the Brexit Bribe … depending on your political viewpoint.

According to Whitehall: “The Stronger Towns Fund will be targeted at places that have not shared in the proceeds of growth in the same way as more prosperous parts of the country.

“It will be used to create new jobs, help train local people and boost economic activity – with communities having a say on how the money is spent.”

The East Midlands is due for an allocation of £110 million – and given the size of the area the amount is not an encouraging one.

Nonetheless the news has fired up local MP Matt Warman – who seems to think that a few quid might be coming our way.

Money coming our way, perhaps? What on earth could there be to worry about?

Well, as regular readers will know, Worst Street has a somewhat patchy record where free dosh is concerned.

Whilst the government can promise community input, Worst Street always prefers to keep its grubby mitts on the strings that tie the money bag.

Witness a government grant of many tens of thousands to mitigate the eyesore of empty shops. Frittered away with no result and lamely declared a “learning curve.”

Witness the council involvement with the Boston “Improvement” District – a money pit that achieved nothing in its five-year existence and which was emphatically voted out of existence by local businesses at the first opportunity.

Witness the £1million-plus Controlling Migration Fund with huge sums diverted to tart up the Moulder Leisure Centre and an already well-heeled project at Boston Stump.

Witness the Boston Big Local project – in which the council has a pie finger – steadily working its way through £1 million with ideas such as building a massive cat litter tray in Central Park once a year and calling it a beach.

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Rest assured that – should Boston get to benefit from this Stronger Towns Fund – the first thing that Worst Street will do is appoint an officer to administer it … or failing that form a committee.

Fate forefend that it should seek to involve Boston Big Local as an “experienced” administrator of this sort of thing.

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Still with money – and the business of Boston and its borrowings gets more and more confusing month by month.

Regular readers will recall that one of Worst Street’s more recent cunning plans was to borrow £20 million over a 50 year term to invest at a higher return than the cost of the interest.

We all thought that this would be done using the Public Works Loans Board – a statutory executive agency of HM Treasury whose job is to lend money local authorities, and collect the repayments.

Then – towards the end of last year – as well as investments in established property funds, we found that we had temporary borrowed £4 million from Edinburgh City Council and repaid £5,500 interest twenty seconds later.

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Fast forward to January’s spending and Worst Street borrowed £3 million from Vale of Glamorgan and shortly after paid £4,100 interest.

A similar arrangement with the Staffordshire Police and Crime Commissioner’s office saw £1,800 repaid on a short-term loan of £1.5 million.

We’ve asked before, and we’ll ask again – what the hell is going on?

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Short straw award of the week goes to Councillor Anton Dani, who has been named as the borough’s next mayor – although he has to be re-elected in May, first.

At least he probably has a better chance now that he is in his third political incarnation – having started as a Kipper, then a BiGger but is now a Conservative.

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We sampled the controversial parking system at the Pilgrim last week – and went from encouraged to zero in as long as it took to check into the hospital reception.

Signs in the disabled parking areas say that it is only necessary to register a holder’s blue badge once for it to be logged so that thereafter a £1.90 all day parking fee will automatically be charged.

No so, we were told.

Apparently, whilst they do this in Lincoln – the scheme has not been extended to Boston … and despite the inaccurate signs there is no suggest of whether it will be introduced or not.

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Smile of the week comes courtesy of Lincolnshire County Council.

In the same breath as Clownty Hall announced spending £4.7m to ease rush-hour bottlenecks on two roundabouts on the A46 in Lincoln came news that  Woodville Road in Boston is to be “reconstructed …”

But it was the picture that made us laugh.

We know that Lincoln is stingy where Boston is concerned, but if that’s all the tarmac they’re using, don’t expect much of a result.

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

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