Even though the job is now, as they say, a good ‘un, we can’t help but feel that Boston Borough Council’s leadership is by no means out of the woods.

***

The reluctance of many Worst Street councillors to throw in their lot with East Lindsey District Council was reflected last Tuesday when that council was asked re-endorse the tweaked alliance between the two authorities and did so with far less than their previous enthusiasm.

***

First time around in early June, Manby’s 55 councillors backed the plan with 46 in favour, two against, four abstentions and with three absentees – a handsome vote in favour of 46 to nine others.

***

But earlier this week, whilst the plan was still passed, the voting was: 33 for, 11 against, with five abstentions and six absentees – quite a different tally of 33 in favour to 22 others.

***

And whilst the Worst Street rulers may think that this is something they can live with; another spanner has been thrown into the works – this time a lot nearer home.

***

At the beginning of the week a former Tory leader, Michael Cooper, quit the Conservative group and now sits with another former leader and fellow Five Villages Ward councillor, Aaron Spencer, in a political category that Worst Street likes to call “not specified”

***

Councillor Cooper was his customary forthright self when we spoke to him after this resignation from the group.

“I’ve gone and I’m never, ever going back,” he told Boston Eye.

“All this dicking about that Skinner’s been doing with East Lindsey and everything else, it leaves me at an absolute loss. I looked at all this years ago; I couldn’t get it to stack up three years ago and it still doesn’t now

“At the end of the day, a man on a galloping horse can see that if you’re going to make 37 posts redundant it’s going to cost more than £750,000, and according to Skinner that’s all it’s going to cost … and he’s got the figures to back it up.”

So, we asked Councillor Cooper whether he intended to remain a councillor.

He told us: “I’m going to stay on at the moment, because I do all the ward work. I enjoy it and I go to all the parish meetings and to me that’s what a lot of it is about.

He concluded: “But as for what’s been going on in West Street … I don’t really like it.

“And the other thing is the interference from the MP.

“I think it is bloody appalling, communicating with everybody on the council nearly, including most of the opposition, and it’s not down to him to interfere in local politics.”

***

Councillor’s Cooper’s departure from the Tory line-up leaves the political balance on a knife-edge.

***

Of course, Worst Street doesn’t like us to know these things – but at least the council website has been amended to display the latest …

***

Ooh err, missus.

Just over four years to go to the next elections, and life looks as though it might get a little difficult for those in the wheelhouse next time they try to tell the engine room what to do.

***

Worst Street has always tottered from pillar to post – being a council under no overall control from local government reorganisation way back in 1973 until the Boston Bypass Independents grabbed surprise control in 2007.

Since then the Tories have held the reins – but now the horse is in danger of bolting.

***

The Montgolfiers in the so-called opposition groups now have their best window of opportunity for ages – but given their performance to date are more likely to defenestrate their chances than let some much-needed light in.

***

A case in point is the news from the Lincolnshire Local Democracy reporter’s coverage of Tuesday’s East Lindsey meeting.

We read: “Boston Borough councillors have issued a barrister’s letter to the authority’s leader setting out their “grave concerns” and threatening a judicial review if they are not addressed.

“They said they were not opposed to an alliance in principle, however, ‘we simply cannot support this alliance in its current form.

“‘Despite asking for answers to our many legal, financial and procedural questions, we have received absolutely no response from the ruling group at this council,’ said the councillors. 

“They said the barrister, Simon Bell, was recommended by the Local Government Association and had already offered advice.

“‘There is no doubt that the proposed Strategic Alliance has been rushed through our council in a matter of weeks’ said the statement.

“‘Our questions about staffing, finances, processes and procedures have fallen on deaf ears, and this left us with no choice but to seek a remedy elsewhere’”.

***

It’s difficult what to make of this.

The issue has been discussed at two full meetings of Boston Borough Council, and despite the alliance being approved – albeit by just one vote – it seems that some opposition members still want to keep the fight going.

We wonder whether not getting answers – and perhaps more importantly for some opposition members, not getting their own way – is actually sufficient to justify going to law.

***

According to the experts, “A judicial review is a way of challenging the decisions, acts (and sometimes the failure to act) of a public body, because it has not acted lawfully.”

***

And on the issue of costs, the warning is clear: “Before you bring a claim for judicial review, you must budget for 2 separate items of expenditure:

“1. your own lawyers’ fees and expenses (which have to be paid in any

event); and

“2. the other side’s legal fees and expenses (which you are likely to have to

pay if you lose the case).

“You may be able to agree a fixed fee with your own lawyer, but you will have

no way of quantifying your opponent’s costs in advance. Those will usually

be the costs of their solicitor and barrister, and any expert or court fees. The

total could amount to £30,000 or more, although this is a very rough general

estimate – the true figure could be much more or less.

“Unless you are very wealthy, or you have a legal expenses insurance policy

that covers judicial review (most of them don’t), you will need to take steps

to cover both your legal costs and those of your opponent.”

***

We have no idea how wealthy our councillors are – but we sincerely hope that they are not of the mind that because they consider this issue so important, they would expect the taxpayers to foot the bill.

***

The deal with East Lindsey is set to cost the thick end of £1million in the coming year, and as far as we are concerned, that’s more than enough.

***

Finally, a lot has been said over the years about the problems of homelessness and rough sleeping here in Boston – but it’s taken the Coronavirus pandemic to really bring things home.

***

Boston Borough Council’s most recent expenditure list shows the amounts paid out for hotel and bed and breakfast accommodation.

For the month of April alone – which will be the first of several – the payments top £50,000.

Good news for the homeless ... but even better for local property businesses. And we can’t help but wonder who would have been occupying all these rooms had they not been needed by Worst Street.

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