As the word hero has now been so widely redefined in our once varied and extensive language, we feel that the sobriquet can now fairly be applied to anyone who watched the webcast of Wednesday night’s Boston Borough Council cabinet meeting.

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Certainly, the experience demanded nerves of steel, the patience of a saint and the digestive resilience of a  buzzard to wade through the dishes on our plate.

To be fair – even if it means breaking the habit of a lifetime – this was Worst Street’s first public sortie into the world of online communication of this type, so one might expect it to be a little clunky … even though video conferences have been used within the council  for some little time, which should have given an air of familiarity to the proceedings.

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The agenda item that made the meeting really worth watching for most people was the proposed merger between Boston Borough and East Lindsey district councils to create a single staff covering  two councils – each of which is to retain its own identity.

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The item had received quite a lot of exposure on Lincolnshire news websites and our local ‘newspapers’.

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And in a ‘first’ for Boston Eye, we recorded a 30-minue interview with council leader Paul Skinner and his deputy Nigel Welton

Such was the interest, that almost 1,000 people listened ahead of the meeting – putting so much pressure on the blog site that we had to provide a second link to access the audio.

It’s still there if you thought you’d missed it – just scroll down the page a bit …

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But on Wednesday, when projectionist Paul Skinner threaded the reels for this star-studded premiere, he told us: “The agenda we have before us tonight doesn’t actually fit best practice for video meetings.

“Presently, there are eight items on the agenda.

“Best practice for video meetings would be shorter and sharper. Questions should be submitted before …

There followed some broken sentences and strange noises …

“…I make note at this point that we’ll be adjourning after Item 7 this evening because Item 8 requires a lot more in-depth discussion and the sheer size of the agenda will not actually promote that sort of discussion.

“We will be adjourning this item and then we will be re-con … recontravaning  … recontravening the meeting at the earliest possible time, so you’ll have to watch out for the notices for that.”

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The screen was dominated throughout by the face of leader Paul Skinner – with what might have been his dry-cleaning hanging on the edge of what appeared to be a wardrobe in the background.

Many cabinet members were less keen to be seen – something which with hindsight turned out to be a good call.

The meeting oozed self-congratulation – but also an unnerving undercurrent of ignorance in some quarters.

The worrying question has to be asked: Are these people really running the show?

If, like us, you feel the same, then the even more worrying question is – who on earth do you replace the dead wood with?

And there a forest of kindling that needs clearing.

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The question now is – when will we see this discussion? Time is getting short, and cabinet members should not need to be raising any questions at the meeting. They’ve seen all the paperwork and meet for briefings so there should be no encumbrance to getting on with business.

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Compare and contrast last night’s Boston cabinet with East Lindsey’s executive board meeting – held at the same time, and completed in just over 45 minutes, despite having exactly the same number of agenda items.

It was also East Lindsey’s first virtual meeting.

All nine board members were on screen along with six officers. The meeting was attentive and articulate and managed to cover and approve the merger in around 20 minutes.

You might describe it as “shorter and sharper” to coin a phrase!. 

Insofar as it can ever be said about such things, the meeting was a pleasure to watch – and you can see it by clicking here

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The one smile that was raised as we sat through Boston’s video nasty was when cabinet members were asked to vote.

Every time came the response … “4 …4 …4 …4 …etc, etc …”

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We thought that they were allocating marks out of ten – just like they do in Eurovision – until we realised that ‘4’ meant ‘for’ … and that they were voting in favour.

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Our vote, for what it’s worth …

NUL Points …

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