It is really two years ago this week that saw the first
meeting of the self-appointed Prosperous Boston Task and Finish Committee?
It certainly is.
And is that the same self-appointed committee that Worst
Street promised would take eighteen months and three phases to
provide “one of the most in-depth studies into what makes Boston tick” to produce
a comprehensive report “with far-reaching recommendations aimed at making the
town better for residents, shoppers and for those who work and visit here?”
Yup.
Many thought back
then that the amount of time the Preposterous Boston Committee had allocated
before issuing its findings was more than a little over the top.
Yet here we are – six months after things were supposed to have been done and dusted – and we are
still waiting.
The committee was created on the whim of Tory Councillor
Judith Skinner, wife of Councillor Paul Skinner – portfolio holder for Boston
town centre – with a cross-party membership comprising Independent Conservative
Councillor Alison Austin, Ukipper Yvonne Stevens, Labour’s Nigel Welton and
Independent Barrie Pierpoint.
Councillor Mrs Skinner is, of course the Chairman.
At the time the group began deliberating, Mrs Skinner said
she had been prompted by the closure of the Edinburgh Woollen Mill shop.
“It made me look up and see several more 'to rent' signs. I
wanted to investigate to see if the council could facilitate conditions to
encourage more businesses to come to Boston.”
The former Edinburgh Woollen Mill shop – despite being
tarted up under a heritage grant scheme – remains unoccupied to this day.
Despite her insistence that Task and Finish meetings are not
open to the public, history shows the
reverse to have been the case – with the 2012 meetings about the Social Impact
of Population Change in Boston, and the investigation into the activities of
the former Boston Business ‘Improvement’ District both actively courting public
access and involvement.
***
Apparently, Preposterous Boston has not been forgotten about
– although you might be forgiven for thinking so.
In fact it looks like dragging on into 2018 at the present
rate.
The committee is name-checked in Worst Street’s “forward
plan of key decisions” (it has one, apparently) for the three months ending 30th
November.
During this period, key decisions will be made on issues
likely to result significant spending or savings or those which might be
significant in terms of its effect on communities living or working in an area
comprising two or more wards of the Borough.
The latter is the one that we imagine encompasses the
Preposterous Boston report.
Phase III of its meanderings – which will focus on tourism
and events – will include a full review of any promotion of the town, all
events and accommodation – and is scheduled to go to the cabinet meeting on 11th
October, with the public report being available during the week commencing the 2nd.
***
Quite what happens after that is anyone’s guess.
Summaries of Phases I and II have dribbled out at meetings of Boston Town
Council – formerly BTAC-ky.
Phase I incorporated retail experience and facilities
provided, including a full review of the shops, the markets and toilet
provision, whilst Phase II looked at car parking, environment and transport,
and a full review of signage throughout the town, cleanliness and anti-social
behaviour, provision of “flora and statement art in and around the town” and
transport links to and from the town.
Once Phase III is unleashed, we imagine that Preposterous
Boston will then have to produce a collation of all three along with its final
recommendations.
We just hope that the wait will have been worth it – but are
not holding our breath … after all, with one exception, the members of the group
have not exactly been run off their feet and there is no apparent reason why
they should have dragged things out for so long.
***
By an unhappy coincidence, Worst Street chose to illustrate
a piece on its website with the headline “Read
all about it! Boston makes the headlines!” followed by the supplementary
line “Nothing shouts the news like a
tabloid newspaper headline – even in the digital age.”
All this fuss was to illustrate yet another campaign by Independent
Conservative Councillor Richard Austin to get Boston seen in a better light …
and to prove that Boston has more history and heritage than any other town in
England!
Hors d’oeuvres for
this dubious banquet included such items as: “A religious crusade was launched
from Boston – whatever that was; the Roundhead cavalry was stabled in The
Stump; Zeppelin bombs Boston; and Fogarty leads on pillows and duvets.”
Quite how such unconvincing goodies will prove the intended
point is anyone’s guess but, Councillor Austin has been tilting at this particular windmill for years..
***
Meanwhile two tangible and far more sombre headlines were
making the real news.
The first was a study commissioned by the BBC’s Woman’s Hour (are they really still
allowed to call it that?) which sought the best and worst places in the country
in which to be a woman.
Topping the list of best places was East Dunbartonshire –
whilst fourth from the bottom of the five worst was … Boston.
The usual Boston Borough Council tactic is to brand this as
an anti-Boston campaign run by a spiteful media.
But in this case, the injury is to an extent self-inflicted,
as the statistics were drawn from measurements across eight categories –
income, housing, well-being, safety, education, life expectancy, environment
and culture – many which are influenced by local council performance … to give a
“holistic analysis of women’s quality of life.”
***
Meanwhile, the most up to date statistics from a government
survey showed that 27.8% of adults in Boston engaged in less than half an hour
of physical activity each week in 2015/2016.
The figures are from a new survey by Ipsos MORI among a total
sample size of 192,158 people for Public Health England.
Boston’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2017-20 says that almost
three-quarters of adults (73.8%) are overweight or obese along with more than one in
three Boston children (35.3%) aged 10-11.
Worst Street says it hopes to get more people active through
partnership projects such as the Boston Park Run, Boston Marathon and Get
Cycling Roadshow.
Events such as these may tick the right boxes – but they are
not reaching the grass roots, which is where the real problem lies.
A stroll through Boston at almost any time of day shows why
– just take note of the number of people on the move whilst filling their faces with
junk food.
Forget the old concept of elevenses – Boston residents enjoy
round-the-clockses, and this is the core problem to tackle.
***
Last week we quoted Councillor Claire Rylott on her mission
to boost tourism locally saying: "Next year our town will have
celebrations for the Royal Air Force centenary, again bringing visitors to the
town. We are already working towards Mayflower 2020. Working closely with
others is so important to make things happen and develop our tourism economy in
the years to come."
Spot on.
But as we have pointed out several times, there are also
anniversaries far more relevant to Boston that could be turned into interesting
exhibitions and dramatisations of some kind.
For instance, even the out-of-touch Worst Street website
reminds us that: “In 1218 a Patent was granted for Boston's Fair.
“The earliest maps of Boston date from that time and the
‘Market Place’ is indicated on them in its current location.
“Once a year the London courts would close so that everyone
would have the opportunity to visit Boston during the May Fair when at that
time goods which were rare such as spices and wines, could be bought fresh.”
Surely this is an opportunity not to be missed – the 800th
anniversary of the establishment of a major piece of Boston’s history.
Another anniversary – a measly 500 years this time – that we
have previously mentioned bridges this year and next.
In 1517 Thomas Cromwell (think Wolf Hall) was approached by Geoffrey Chambers of Boston for help
in seeking an audience with Pope Leo X to secure funding for the Guild of Our
Lady in St Botolph's church.
Pope Leo was threatening to end the indulgences from which
the guilds and the church received large sums of money from people who wished
to pay for the safety of their souls in heaven.
Cromwell deployed an audacious plan …
He travelled to Rome and "ambushed" the Pope
during a stag hunt – and knowing of Leo’s sweet tooth – persuaded him to change
his mind by plying him with sweets and delicacies … and the guild’s finances
were saved.
This was an important event for Boston, which revived the
town’s fortunes when they were drying up along with the silting of the river –
and the man who achieved it was one of the giants of Tudor England and British
history who not only set the wheels in motion to bring parliamentary democracy
to the country but also made possible the Reformation which saw Henry VIII take
control of the church.
An excellent BBC Four TV programme by historian Diarmaid
MacCulloch’s made in 2013 and called: “Henry VIII's Enforcer: The Rise and Fall of Thomas Cromwell” featured
generous segments filmed in Boston Stump and the Guildhall together with an
animated reconstruction of Cromwell’s meeting with the Pope.
If nothing else, this programme – or selected highlights – should be running
on video in both buildings next year.
Elsewhere in the county, towns are quick off the mark when it
comes finding relevant things to celebrate.
Stamford’s Georgian Festival, which runs for four days from
this Thursday and which is a visitor magnet, includes street theatre, colourful
markets, celebrity speakers, Georgian science … and even tumbling horseback
acrobats.
Earlier this year, Gainsborough Old Hall mounted an
exhibition of costumes from the BBC drama Wolf
Hall …
Why does Boston lack the drive and energy to do similar
things – rather than copying what others have done before?
***
One problem may be that we don’t quite seem to know how to
manage the heritage we have got.
Some years ago 116, High Street, Boston – an important Grade
2* listed Georgian town house which once housed Lincolnshire’s first private
bank – was repaired and restored by Heritage Lincolnshire, and is now home to
Age UK Boston and South Holland.
Not only is the organisation far less accessible than it
once was – but so is the building for history enthusiasts.
The same is true of the former Boston Union Workhouse on
Skirbeck Road, which was designed by George Gilbert Scott and built in 1837.
Scott is famous as the architect of many iconic buildings,
including the Albert Memorial, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the
Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras Station, all in London.
Heritage Lincolnshire
restored and repaired the structure in 2001. The building, renamed Scott House,
is now owned by Lincolnshire County Council and operates as a resource centre
for adults with physical disabilities – and so again is inaccessible to the
general public.
***
Heritage Lincolnshire also had a finger in the pie behind
last week’s two-day opening of the former Boston Sessions House to discuss
potential new uses for the building.
Lincolnshire County Council Executive Member for Commercial
and Environmental Management, Councillor Eddy Poll said: “Boston Sessions house
has great cultural and historical significance to the town; it’s vitally
important that we find an appropriate use for the building that benefits the
community and is befitting of the high regard in which it is held.
“The open days give local people a great opportunity to have
their say on the future use of Boston Sessions House whilst getting involved in
interactive workshops and taking in wonderful entertainment from the artists,
dancers, musicians and theatre companies the town has to offer.”
Why does our blood run cold at this?
The emphasis for the open days was on entertainment, arts
and all that – and it is impossible not to imagine that somehow this magnificent
building will be dumbed down into some kind of low grade Music Hall status if
the powers that be have their way.
During our time in Boston back in the 1960s, we spent many
hours on the press bench of this court, and the atmosphere of a big trial has
to be experienced to be appreciated.
Its condition would allow it to become an unusual educational attraction – certainly
unique in Lincolnshire and extremely rare in the country as a whole.
Just outside Boston we have a newly-opened World War II
museum and enactment centre which is proving very successful.
Why not create a Justice
Museum in Boston – reenacting trials, allowing role playing and informing
the younger generation of the history of our laws which make this country such a special place in which to live.
It could draw thousands of visitors a year if properly and
thoughtfully managed.
Just don’t allow it to become another luvvies’ haven or
isolate it from the mainstream community.
***
Despite the claim on the Worst Street website, what it says
is not exactly true.
Local taxpayers who have seen street drinking partially
nudged out of the town centre now fall
victim to the problem outside the
area where it can be managed by the town’s public spaces protection order.
Boston’s local police chief admitted as much when he
reported to councillors: “We’re moving in the right direction, and I would
still suggest we’ve got it out the town centre.
“It exists in the park and on the river banks and we’ve got
that to focus on, but hopefully we’ll go from strength to strength.”
The so-called “extension” is in fact a retention of the
existing area for another three years that will do nothing to ease the replacement problem
of out-of-town drinking.
Whilst it was accompanied by the usual back slapping and
self-congratulation when the cabinet approved it, the reality is that the
“prohibition that is not a ban” is simply the mixture as before.
The main reason for this is cost.
When the first PSPO was created it cost around £10,000 of
taxpayers’ cash to implement … which included the erection of 211 multi-lingual signs throughout the Spozone.
To truly extend the area would incur spending of a similar
magnitude – so even though it would be beneficial and make life better for many
residents, Worst Street is too mean to do it.
And local reports say that councillors spent a long time
contradicting themselves over whether there is really a ban on drinking in the
area at all.
Despite the wording on the signs which says that “drinking
alcohol or carrying it in any open container area is prohibited” the council
line is that consumption is only prohibited when someone consuming alcohol in
the PSPO area is seen by a police officer and told to desist or surrender it.
Perhaps they’re trying to find a way to justify the
Oktoberfest booze up in Central Park next month – despite withdrawing the
licenced bar for the recent open air cinema event and telling taxpayers in no
uncertain terms: “This is a family-focused event and there will not now be a
licensed bar and patrons are reminded that consumption
of alcohol in Central Park is not permitted.”
The dictionary defined prohibited as something “that has
been forbidden; banned.”
We’re reminded of the other definition we used to describe
the cabinet some while ago – one they seem keen to live up to.
***
Finally …
What a difference a day makes.
On Wednesday afternoon the great and the good were
gung-ho-ho-ho-ing over Boston’s third consecutive gold badge in the Britain in Bloom competition.
On Thursday morning, a reader spotted this eyesore opposite Savers
and not far from the Five Lamps.
Award in the bag … pack the plants away now for next
year.
Surely not!
You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com
E-mails will
be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.
Our former
blog is archived at: http://bostoneyelincolnshire.blogspot.com
We are on Twitter – visit @eye_boston
