Exactly six months before Christmas Day, the leaders of Boston Borough council last night got an early present when their plan to form an “alliance" with East Lindsey District Council squeaked through by a single vote.

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It provided another excruciating webcast for those of us with time on our hands and showed just how far Worst Street has to go before it can present itself as a half-way decent council.

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To the listener, the audio was a blend of that old children’s’ favourite Sparky’s Magic Piano, with councillors taking turns to sound like the enchanted instrument, and an audition for soundalikes to reprise the catchphrase of the well-known thirties’ comedian Sandy Powell – can you hear me, mother?

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For the viewer, it seemed as if a cleaner at that great comedy film company Ealing Studios had swept up the out-takes from the editing room floor and randomly spliced them together to produce a spoof of pictures in the style of the Blair Witch Project.

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To spare you a lot of pain, we’ll keep this short and sweet – though the event itself was long and sour … as have been other previous meetings.

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It was never going to end in anything but tears for the opposing councillors, who – despite repeatedly pulling myxomatotic rabbits from their battered top hat – again failed to deliver the magic that they needed on the night.

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Of the more vocal members, Councillor Anne Dorrian  as usual tried her best to pour sand into the  fuel tank of the leadership limousine with an imaginative final amendment which suggested that the present Boston Chief Executive stayed on pro tem to work alongside the man named to take over his job from 1^st July – something that we are sure would have led to many happy hours of chat at the water cooler.

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The Austins were in there too – reprising their triple act first seen at the last meeting when the addition of Councillor Viven Edge caused so much consternation.

This time there were no masks – instead what Councillor Alison Austin referred to as a game of “musical chairs” as the trio swapped seats to appear in front of the camera as their turn was called. It helped that Councillor Edge’s trademark – wearing a hat at all times – made recognition that much easier.

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Interestingly, just one councillor was absent – and what a difference that made. Former leader Aaron Spencer – the man who went from being In Our Face to In Disgrace completed the hattrick by being Lost In Space last night.

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At the last meeting (the one that saved his bacon as he was on the brink of being ‘sacked’ for not attending council for six months) he supported an amendment to delay the alliance for even longer than that so councillors could do what they do best – talk about it a lot.

That – coupled with an unhelpful abstention – saw the motion succeed … after which the proposed alliance plan was withdrawn, to be tweaked and re-presented to last night’s “extraordinary” meeting in what narrowly proved to be an acceptable form.

This creates a scrutiny “framework” to let Worst Street “shadow” the evolution of the joint officer corps, and gives the council .an option to end the alliance after 12 months by giving three months’ notice on 1st April next year if they don’t like it.

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There was also the addition of a “bribe” of free parking until Christmas if the deal went through – which attracted surprisingly little comment last night.

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At the end of the night – made longer by a comfort break for some of the more delicate bladders among the older members of the council, no doubt – the voting nudged itself just far enough for the leadership to claim victory … by the sliver of one vote.

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Had Councillor Spencer been there and voted as he did last time the result would have been a draw – and there is no doubt that a casting mayoral vote would have sent things the way the leaders wanted, although probably not what they would have liked, as that would have been an even more hollow victory.

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When push came to shove, the Tory drones who make up the majority toad the party line – and yes, we do know that that is not the correct spelling.

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So – a win in extra time – but definitely no Man of the Match award ... though Councillor Dorrian came pretty close.

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The opposition made many of the right noises and had some good arguments. But by and large they struggled to communicate the passion needed to fire the emotions of those who might have been persuaded to waver and defy their Tory masters.

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The architect of this project would appear to be deputy leader Nigel Welton who – despite being handicapped in his efforts by his boss – stuck to his guns throughout … although we would have rather heard fewer threats.

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Whilst we are broadly in favour of an alliance between Worst Street and another council – or perhaps even two – this has not been a great night at Worst Street.

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The ruling group has limped away with a paper victory; a lame duck vote – one that must leave East Lindsey deeply concerned at how things will go forward, and make any other councils that might be asked to consider an alliance in the future think long and hard about whether it would be worth it.

We sense a rocky road ahead, as we believe that given the myriad concerns expressed by the opposition, they will be looking for ways to torpedo the alliance rather than see it sail proudly into port.

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And whilst it has been interesting to watch the debates on our home computers, we wonder whether this will continue now that lockdown is drawing to a close.

It should do.

Meetings are not easy to attend for a lot of interested observers of local democracy – and the minutes that emerge weeks later reflect nothing of what has really happened.

Especially, they do not indicate what our councillors are really like – something that may well come back to bite them at the ballot box at the next local election.

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For that reason alone, we suspect that our representatives will be more than happy to disappear back down their respective rabbit holes where scarcely anything that they say is seen and heard by the people who elected them.

It’s a move that should not be allowed.

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