A"whirlwind" of change

 ... or just a puff

of hot air ...?

Hello again ...
We hope that you enjoyed a delightful Christmas and New Year - and are now looking forward to a better Boston in 2012 ...
The New Year got off to a wordy political start with a mountain of messages.
Boston Borough Council Leader Peter Bedford  had one in both local papers, as well as the borough website.
There were also messages in the newspapers  from the local Labour group and another from County Councillor Ramonde Newell (remember him?)
Sadly neither offered much by way of hope.
Councillor Bedford apparently had a dry run with his message – following as it did an earlier and unannounced effort tucked away on the borough’s website.
We stumbled on it as we were trawling the site in the vain hope of finding something resembling a Christmas greeting to the taxpayers.
It was undated, but appeared to cover a period between early November and a point somewhere before the Christmas lights switch-on ceremony on the 24th.
In fact it appeared to be something of a “first 200 days” message.
It celebrated the cancellation of the immigration protest march with some serious ‘I’ trouble …
“A planned march … was called off by the organiser, after I met with him …
“… I agreed to seek a meeting …
“I also offered …
“… with whom I also had a meeting …
“I know it will be a relief to many ….
“I am pleased that the town will now be allowed to go about its normal business …”
Hitherto, we had always imagined that leadership was something of an egalitarian affair which might involve others - rather than being a political one man band.
But still …
Having listed these achievements and ensuring no doubt as to the achiever, our leader moved on to look back on “a whirlwind of activity” with “some satisfaction.”
Whilst monopoly is clearly one of his skills, we would not recommend that the leader turns his hand to meteorology, since his “whirlwind is rather more of a light breeze, with an occasional puff …
Councillor Bedford cited the reopening of the training pool at the Geoff Moulder Leisure Centre, and the unsurprising surge in membership that it generated.
Littering – which the council regularly recognises as a concern whilst doing nothing much about it – is still being tackled by getting anyone other than those paid to do the job to deal with it.
Improvements to the Market Place “are beginning to show” and the council had received some positive comments about the look and the quality of materials and work.
So what else comprised this whirlwind?
Despite difficult trading conditions, the economy, and the Market Place works, “the council” had been determined to make this Christmas special.
How? By spending its £25,000 Christmas lights budget – unchanged for years - on new lights for the festive season and getting Boston BID to throw in another £10,000 – whilst largely leaving the “organisation” to the BID – and individual citizens who contributed from their own pockets.
The garden waste kerbside collection trial saw a third more waste diverted from landfill; admissions to the Guildhall Museum increased four-fold; two new healthy walks were introduced, and the “Victorian” garden is being developed in Central Park – a construction which to us looks more like the courtyard at Vlad “the Impaler” Tepes’ castle than anything else.

Pictured (left) the Victorian Garden  (right) Vlad Tepes's courtyard

The leader’s self congratulatory prose concluded with a mention that the council had been praised for developing a Babies’ Memorial Garden at the crematorium, and that “our advances” have been officially recognised by the Audit Commission whose most recent report gave the council a clean bill of health.
For those who might have missed this message, Councillor Bedford covered most of the ground again in the local papers, telling us that Boston will be “a better place to live, work, shop and visit.”
Splendid stuff, and if we appear in the next few lines to be knocking the achievements to date – that isn’t the case.
What we are critical of is the popular political tendency to claim great strides forward when small steps have been made.
It is also the case that at least two of the major claimed achievements in the undated piece have nothing to do with the current council or its leader – namely the Audit Commission’s” clean bill,” which was announced so soon after last May’s election that credit for it must be given to the former Boston Bypass Independents leadership – and the Market Place refurbishment, which … if you’ll excuse the bad pun … was set in stone well before the elections.
So what does that leave?
The Moulder pool deal raised some eyebrows when it was steamrollered through, and there are many who are nervous that it might simply fall apart at some time …
Littering remains a problem that needs addressing aggressively.
The Christmas celebrations were badly flawed, and if nothing else should be used as a starter for ten from which to try to make improvements this year.
The garden waste experiment was an undoubted success – but whilst it is good news for the council, we are not sure that the average ratepayer is especially excited by the improved recycling rate. But what is exercising many is the likelihood that in future, they will have to put recyclable materials in plastic bags rather than their blue bin – which the experiment used for green waste.
As admission charges for the Guildhall Museum were abolished last year, who can be surprised that more people are going there?
And the Babies' Memorial Garden might well have been less essential had efforts been made to reduce the high rate of Boston’s infant mortalities - which only recently have begun to decline.
Sensibly, the Leader does not mention plans to increase allotment rental charges by more than 400%.
Nor does he mention the plans to hike car parking fees and charge blue badge holders to park.
He tells us that the Market Place will be put to “best use” in 2012.
We would expect it to be – and not just in 2012, either.
Councillor Bedford’s “whirlwind” year has left us fairly unruffled.
And whilst he tells us to “watch this space” – we can only comment that there is plenty of space to watch.

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