Our Friday miscellany
of the week's
news and events
We felt a frisson of impending disappointment as we read the Leader’s Message on Boston Borough Council’s website, when he mentioned the garden waste pilot scheme, and added: “It would be nice to add a third bin to the service, but I do not want to make promises that we may not be able to keep.” We take this piece of polspeak to mean that it’s unlikely that any extra bins will be forthcoming. Whilst no-one doubts that the pilot is a great success - in that the volume of waste not going to landfill is exceeding expectations - it's clear that many people aren't happy to use their blue bin for garden waste and put recyclables into plastic bags. At our house in Boston Eye Street, we fill a blue bin with stuff to recycle – but it would need so many bags to cart it away that storage between collections would be a problem ... as would the likelihood of bags splitting and the contents getting wet or blown about. What we will do, and we suspect that many others will do likewise, is to bag light, waterproof items, and put the rest in our green bin. It may sound less than environmentally friendly - and we would do it reluctantly - but with no third bin, we see little alternative.
Talking of leader’s messages, we mentioned on Monday someone’s sly sense of humour in connection with a link from the council website to the short-lived blog published by the previous leader, Councillor Richard Austin. We published the link and warned at the time that you’d need to move fast if you wanted to see it, and we were right. A quick acting member of the borough’s IT staff replaced it with one to the current leader’s message. But for those of you who missed it – this is where it led.
 |
| click picture to enlarge |
And speaking of the former leader, students of irony will have noted with wry amusement the reversal of roles which now sees Councillor Richard Austin spearheading the calling-in of the current cabinet’s behind-closed-doors deal to re-open the Moulder training pool. Councillor Austin and his Boston District Independent (née BBI) councillors insist that the call is non-political, but has been made “to protect the council tax payers of the borough from another disastrous PRSA-type situation arising.” The subject is serious and needs properly addressing, but what we found amusing was the fact that when in power, the former BBI cabinet did whatever it chose, disregarded criticism and even objected to the number of its decisions that were called in. Talk about the biter bit!
And mention of the PRSA reminds us … a reader tells us that there is a meeting between stadium officials and the council on 12th September. Whilst it may be that the borough hopes to use the occasion to wash its hands of our biggest white elephant - so far - the PRSA people hope to continue to receive the subsidy they have enjoyed to date ... without which they will say the PRSA will cease to exist. We have also been told that they want to clarify concerns over the £1.9 million they owe the council - and whether it has legally been written off. If the meeting is indeed on the cards, it will prove a crucial test of the ruling group’s resolve, and a chance to see how tough they might be. In his recent message, Leader Peter Bedford told electors: “We also have the thorny issue of the Princess Royal Sports Arena to sort out, but it will take longer to resolve than some of the other issues.” Surely, not -if you just dig your heels in and say no! Or does “ aking longer simply imply continuing funding pro tem?
We are none too keen on the burgeoning idea of depicting councillors as celebrities – a sort of local soft soap, which might be called Worstenders. Since the Tories took control, we reckon that more pictures of their great and good have appeared in the borough bulletin and local newspapers than during the entire four years of the previous administration. Recently, group pictures have appeared crammed with councillors – many with no apparent reason to be in the shot at all. The reopening of Creations Gym was a good example, peopled as it was by some councillors who clearly wouldn’t know one end of a barbell from another - and one of whom looked almost ill because of the proximity of exercise machinery. Out of interest, we did a quick head count of the runners and riders in the Boston Photographic Handicap so far – which exclude standard mug shots for illustrative purposes. Leading the pack by several lengths was Councillor Yvonne Gunter, well ahead of the Mayor - Councillor Mary Wright - who was herself comfortably leading the leader, Peter Bedford. After that the field declined into a shambles of other runners and riders - and, of course, a host of non starters. The Creations photoshoot included no fewer than eight councillors – but the biggest so far was taken at the re-opening of the Moulder training pool (below) where we counted almost a dozen.
Just a cautionary word to Boston’s publicity department, though. Bear in mind the existence of publications like Boston Eye - and don't pose your terribly important councillors under a sign that declares shallow end! ( above.) But, thinking about it, picturing them at the deep end might have been even worse.
Far more important to our rulers than self-aggrandisement ought to be the issues facing Boston that remain overlooked. The latest to be highlighted is the claim that that people in Boston are experiencing some of the worst-ever conditions regarding housing in the town. The warning comes from Labour councillors, who say the cause is the lack of affordable properties, high rents in the private sector, and ongoing issues relating to overcrowding in houses of multiple occupation. Labour says more building is essential, as “without it we will see more and more people living in overcrowded and unsuitable accommodation, and even more unpalatable – more people sleeping rough on our streets.” And we know where all those things often lead.
Is it really three years since Boston borough council spent £7,000 on a machine to remove chewing gum from the town's pavements? Yes it is - but we assume that it ran out of petrol soon after, as it hasn’t been seen in service for almost as long. With the Market Place being re-laid – and therefore likely to be free of unsightly gum for a few hours after it re-opens – it would seem timely to start tackling the rest of the town centre area and clean the gum away to get the town off to a fresh start. One thing that’s always intrigued us is why – given that you hardly ever see anyone chewing gum as they stroll the town - there is so much of the stuff littering our streets. When the machine was acquired, Councillor Richard Dungworth, then cabinet member for street cleansing, said: "This machine can be used in the daytime, and my hope is that when people see the effort that goes into removing it people will think twice before throwing their gum on the streets." Had it been used on more than a handful of occasions, we imagine that might have happened.
The old joke in answer to the question “How many people work at … X ... ?” is usually not a lot. But could this be truer than we think in the case of Boston Borough Council? Councillor Elliott Fountain recently sent an e-mail to all staff, and received more than thirty out of office replies. “Many of them had the days and dates wrong, many had spelling mistakes in the replies, and many replied to get in touch with another individual - but that individual’s email also came back with an auto reply,” he told us. The council employs more than 270 staff, so the absentees accounted for well over ten per-cent - and probably more if you allow that not everyone has a staff e-mail address. Perhaps they were merely playing follow my leader - as another reader tells us that a few weeks ago, chief executive Richard Harbord, his deputy Phil Drury, and Steve Lumb, the head of planning, were all on leave at the same time. Incidentally, Councillor Fountain got a rap over the knuckles from the chief executive for e-mailing all staff. But a point that appears to have been missed is that the sender could equally have been a member of the public - who might have come away with a poor impression of the council.
We hate to say we told you so – but … we told you so! Time and again we have published photographs of blocked drains beside John Adams Way, and warned that heavy rain would bring problems. Now we hear that traffic through the town was seriously delayed because of flooding near the South Square junction a few days ago. According to the forecasters, more bad weather is on the way – so could somkeone please press for a return of those strange machines that resembled mechanical elephants which used to be a regular sight on our main roads, and whose trunks were used to suck out debris and then flush the drains clear. That’s unless the county council has sold them off – or, more likely doesn’t think it’s worth the expense of using them in Boston.
Which brings us to the next big idea to ensure that Boston remains inaccessible to residents and visitors alike - the replacement of St Botolph’s footbridge, which links the bus station to the town centre. Lincolnshire County Council - which is mysteryminding the project – has taken a half-page advertisement in our local “newspapers” to tell us of its plans for a public consultation. The phrase public consultation these days is normally shorthand for “you tell us what you’d like, and we’ll do as we please.” Encouragingly, the county council invites us to follow the scheme on its website – which we would like to do. The only problem is that the link doesn’t exist - or didn’t when we published our blog first thing this morning. Whoever said that County Hall cares little for Boston definitely wasn’t kidding!
Because they are issued at slightly different times, it wasn’t possible last Friday to compare the circulation figures of the Boston Standard with those of the
Finally, a reader writes to say that whilst the concept of an elected mayor has its merits, Boston’s problem is finding a candidate with the necessary qualities. He’s worried that we might decide to “do a Hartlepool” and elect our version of H’Angus the Monkey – the town’s local football club mascot.
In fact the man who wore the H’Angus suit was elected once and did such a good job that he’s been re-appointed. But the writer correctly points out that "Percy the Pilgrim Penguin” (pictured left) hardly rolls off the tongue!You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.
No comments:
Post a Comment