The Tory administration has squeaked back into control of Boston Borough Council – and hopefully will learn a few lessons from the outcome.

There were 74 candidates contesting the 30 seats in the 15 wards up for grabs – 26 Conservative, 22 Labour, 14 Independent, 4 UKIP, 4 Blue Revolution 3 ‘others’ and 1 Liberal Democrat.

At the last election in 2015. The Conservatives stood in all wards though not for every vacancy with a total of 26 candidates; Labour fielded 19 candidates in 12 wards, and 15 Independents stood.

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The outcome after last Thursday’s load of ballots saw the Conservatives with a slender majority – having 16 of the 30 seats, the Independents on 11, followed by Labour, the Labour and Co-operative Party and UKIP on one apiece.

The average turnout was a pathetic 27.34%, but a number of wards were under 25%.

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Tory group leader Michael Cooper decided to ignore a disastrous night nationally which saw the Conservatives lose 1,334 councillors from the 248 English councils, and chose to interpret the Boston result as snatching some kind of victory from the jaws of defeat.

He told the BBC that he didn't think they’d perform so well.

“People were pretty disillusioned around Brexit and they felt let down by the government.

“We thought that would translate into a bit of a backlash, a hit of anti-Conservative vote over Brexit, but as it turned out it didn't come that way.”

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Despite this laughable optimism, the result wasn’t what could be described as a clear-cut endorsement of the way that Worst Street has been run these past four years, which is why we say that we hope the new-look council – albeit with ten of the old administration’s faces back in business – will think before they cut, and look to expand or at least retain services rather than reduce them.

Certainly, their six-point future plan lacked lustre if ever we saw one – but more on that in a future issue.

Their legacy after four years in power is a town that’s dirtier than ever, a place where the shopping centre is in decline – and despite paying lip service to the idea of ending an unpopular and unnecessary Into Town bus service rat-run – a once pleasant pedestrian precinct is now fouled by the noise and fumes of buses grinding through every few minutes.

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Hopefully, the arrival of a decent supply of Independents to the council chamber, rather than councillors claiming to fly that flag whilst buttressing up the administration, may act as not only a calming hand on the Worst Street tiller but also a useful influence on the ruling group next time it decides slavishly to follow orders from Head Office at the expense of the local taxpayers.

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What does need saying at this stage though is that independents should be exactly that.

Before the 2015 election they operated as a group because it was beneficial for the purpose of committee representation – but it was always made crystal clear that they did not have a leader because they were independent. Simples!

Our concern at this stage is that there will be a move by some to take charge and “lead” a group of people who are quite capable of making up their own minds without any third-party help.

And let us point out from the outset for anyone who is so inclined that standing as a councillor and being lucky enough to be elected is about serving – not leading.

There also needs to be clarification of which independents are members of the Bostonian Independent Group – which de-registered as a political party ahead of the elections – and which appears to subscribe to the idea of having a leader to tell them what to do.

Deregistration meant that their logo did not appear on ballot papers; so at the moment, we don’t have an inkling of who’s a BiGger and who is truly standing on their own two feet.

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Let’s take a look at the results ward by ward now.

Two Independents now man the helm of Coastal Ward – one of them former Tory incumbent Peter Bedford who ditched the party this time around. He’s joined by fellow Independent Judith Welbourn.

This represents a loss for the Tories, as Councillor Bedford was their candidate last time around until he was ousted in a leadership coup – and the ward also saw the highest turnout on 33.0%

Whilst standing as an Independent at the county council elections saw him defeated, we understand that he remained determined to beat the Conservatives – especially after they fielded candidates from Wyberton and Gypsey Bridge, whilst he and his new colleague live in the ward.

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In Fenside Ward – which was shared for a while between a Labour and a Conservative councillor back in 2015 – the result remained honours even, with Alan Bell winning for the Labour and Co-operative Party and Anton Dani for the Tories.

The result is especially good news for Councillor Dani who was due to be Mayor in the coming year … so long as he was elected.

Clearly voters were unconfused by his candidature even though he began his political career as a UKIPper, then became a BiGger until finally defecting to the Tories at the start of the year.

Still, at least he stuck to his ward – unlike a couple of other councillors who abandoned their voters for safer berths.

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There were no surprises in Fishtoft Ward where Paul and Judith Skinner were re-elected for the Tories along with former UKIPper Jonathan Noble, another defector to the Tories.

No surprises either in Five Villages Ward, where the dream ticket of Worst Street’s Roy Rogers – leader Michael Cooper –  and his ‘Trigger,’ deputy Aaron Spencer, were both returned.

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Change all round in Kirton and Frampton – where former Fenside Labour man turned Tory Nigel Welton migrated for safety won a seat along with fellow Tory, Shaun Blackman and Independent Peter Watson. The seats were previously held by two Tories who quit this time and a UKIPper.

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In Old Leake and Wrangle, professional Tory councillor Thomas Ashton was re-elected and the night also saw the return of Tory Frank Pickett who was previously a councillor between 2011 and 2015. Councillor Ashton somehow managed to be in two places at once – being re-elected as a Tory councillor for East Lindsey District Council’s Sibsey and Stickney.

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Skirbeck Ward delivered some surprises as well as being the ward with the lowest turnout at 22.3%. Out went veteran Labour Councillor Paul Gleeson who was first elected in 2011 and was regarded as one of Boston’s better councillors. His two Labour colleagues also suffered defeat – including former mayor Paul Kenny who has also stood as prospective parliamentary candidate for Boston at all four general elections since 2005.

Absent from the ballot paper was Councillor Martin Griggs, the Tory portfolio holder for housing, property and community – who opted to desert Skirbeck and seek a new home in the much safer Trinity Ward.

Local businessman Alistair Arundel – who describes himself on his LinkedIn profile as: “Landlord portfolio holder, letting agent and property developer. & hotels and counting.... Every problem has a solution” won for the Tories. whilst Independent Anne Dorrian emerged from the remaindered pages of Boston’s political history book to secure the third seat.

Ms Dorrian was a political chameleon during her time in Worst Street starting out with the Boston Bypass Independents back in 2007, then forming the splinter Better Boston Group which she chaired after a falling-out over who should chair the BBI. More recently, she stood as an independent at both the local and county elections.

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In St Thomas Ward ‘Independent’ Alison Austin was re-elected as was Boston BiG founder Brian Rush in Staniland Ward sharing the honours with Tory candidate Deborah Evans.

Station Ward saw former BTAC chairman and UKIP veteran Sue Ransome lose to Labour’s Paul Goodale, who previously served on Boston Borough Council between 2011 and 2015.

Two new Tory faces have joined the council in Swineshead and Holland Fen. They are local businessman Georges Cornah and Chelcei Sharman.

Two more Tories were returned in Trinity Ward. Yvonne Stevens won another term, whilst Martin Griggs, previously ... as we said earlier ... a Skirbeck councillor and housing portfolio holder, found the safe seat previously occupied by another Tory, Doctor Gordon Gregory, who had not sought re-election.

The result in West Ward will have come as another surprise for the Tories, where their candidate was defeated by former Conservative and mayor three years ago Stephen Woodliffe standing as an Independent. Do we detect another falling out between the people in blue à la Coastal Ward?

West Ward saw the return of the UKIP’s Viven Edge – the only Kipper to survive – and the arrival of Neil Hastie … one of the few Independents to ally himself with BiG.

And finally, to Wyberton Ward – where Independent Tracey Abbott ousted Kipper turned Tory Environment Portfolio Holder David Brown by just four votes to join veteran ‘Independent’ Richard Austin – founder of the Boston Bypass Independents all those years ago.

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So … despite the leader’s optimism the Tories haven’t done as well as all that.

Before the election the state of the parties was Conservative – 17, UKIP – 6, Independent – 4, and Bostonian Independents – 3.

Now, it’s Conservative – 16, Independents – 11, Independents – 1, Labour and Co-operative Party – 1, and UKIP – 1.

Despite the leader’s optimism, the Tories have lost a seat and their overall majority of two is not as comfortable as it sounds.

They also need to find two new members of the cabinet having already struggled to cobble together the seven people needed to hold the various portfolios in the previous administration.

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One potential problem concerns the mayoralty – to be occupied by Conservative Anton Dani with a fellow Tory as deputy – and which could put the Tories' slim majority in danger at times.

If as may well happen the council finds itself split, we wonder how often a mayoral vote in favour of the ruling party can be cast before allegations of political partiality begin to surface.

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Already, we suspect that behind the scenes the Tories are casting about to find Independents to vote with them as was the case with the last administration, where deals made a nonsense of political declarations of party loyalty and political independence.
Those deals were done primarily to spite UKIP – though with willing complicity in some quarters – and we wonder just how desperate the new administration is for power that it will try to undermine the basic fundamental of democracy in the form of the independent representative.

That said, doubtless the leadership is coming up with its own set of home-grown political honours in exchange for favours received – and we are equally sure that wannabees among the Independents are trying much the same tactic – even though it means that they will be seeking to make councillors break their basic election promises by asking the deny the individuality that they offered.

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The Chinese are said to have created the curse “May you live in interesting times” – and that certainly looks like being the case in the coming four years. In particular, we can see a repetition – this time involving independents – of the farce that followed the election of so many UKIPpers in 2015

No sooner were they elected than they began to fall out, forming splinter groups and changing party allegiances – a trend that continued almost until be moment last week’s ballot boxes opened for business.

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A couple of asides now…

You would think that Worst Street would have learned enough about elections by now to know that some council seats are held, some gained, and some lost – but that doesn’t appear to be the case here …

It would be an interesting election where every party gained every seat which is what this message appears to be saying. Better luck next time, Worst Street.

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Still more confusion was created by the way that the results were presented on Twitter.

The complaint of bias in this case appeared to be contradicted by the fact that the candidates were listed alphabetically by surname.

But that was also contradicted by the fact that not every result tweet appeared the same way.

Looking through the messages we saw Au followed by AB, W followed by B followed by W, S followed by G and so on and so forth …

Surely, the most straightforward way to list the winners would be in descending order of votes cast as suggested in example above.

Stick with that all the way through and you are both fair and consistent.

But the powers that be only had four years to plan the job …

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One thing we do hope is that the Tory plan for dealing with empty shops in the town centre doesn’t run to any more examples such as this one … snapped at the now vacant Clintons shop in Bargate.

Clintons clearly put some effort into leaving their empty shop neat and tidy – only for some yahoo of a local Tory to tape badly-made adverts for a craft fair to the windows – inset in greater detail .

This is the thin end of a wedge that can leave empty shop windows a mass of tatty posters and an unnecessary eyesore in a town that already has more than its fair share.

We hope that the litter will have been removed by now – and also that someone in the local party will speak to the person who put it there in the first place and ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

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Finally …

A clip from Worst Street’s dire video nasty on how to become a councillor brought a smile to our face when we considered how its message might be interpreted if you had a mischievous mind.

We thought of something on the lines of … “This is where you cross your fingers when you take the oath of office so that you can claim you didn’t really mean it later on.” 

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We think we’ll have a break next week. Join us again on Monday 20^th May.

And don’t forget, there are just 1,457 days to the next Boston Borough Council elections!

You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.comE– mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.Our former blog is archived at: http://bostoneyelincolnshire.blogspot.com

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