click on image to enlarge

So that's

where the

money went!

There is a slow, stately court dance of the 16th and 17th centuries known as the pavane - which in its simplest form involves moving two steps forward, and one back – you reach your destination eventually, but in a leisurely and civilised manner.
We were reminded of it the other day, when we read an item on the local Labour Party website celebrating a victory in the battle for transparency.
Our Labour councillors expressed delight that we will soon be able to see councillors’ registers of interest on the Boston Borough Council website - and we have to say that we were pretty pleased, as well - because at present, these records can only be viewed on weekdays by going to the Municipal Buildings in Worst Street in person and asking to see them.
“We have been asking for this to be done since we got re-elected in May 2011," wrote Councillor Paul Gleeson. "We have repeatedly asked at all the leaders’ meetings for this to happen - but we were told in no uncertain terms that it was illegal to put them on our website, so we decided to ask a question at the full council meeting on 1st March.
Labour group leader Councillor Paul Kenny, asked his Tory opposite number Peter Bedford to agree “that we should condemn the Conservative government (sic) and leaders of large Conservative authorities across the country who allow their MPs and councillors’ declarations of interest to be put on their websites when your authority tell me it is illegal to put Boston borough councillors’ declarations of interest on the Boston Borough Council website”
Councillor Bedford answered: “The current legislation requires the Register of Interests to be available for public inspection, which is the procedure followed by this council and many others.
“However, with the impending changes to the Standards regime, all interests will have to be published on the council’s website, including parish councillors, from 1st July.”
In summary: We are going to publish this information on our website  - rather than make it as hard as possible for people to view it -  because the rules say that we now have to.
Boston Labour councillors say that it is sad that the “leadership” knew the Localism Act included this legislation, but couldn’t admit it.
And they conclude: “So we have now got attendance at meetings; recorded declaration of interest at meetings; and soon members’ registers of interest all available on the Boston Borough Council website – not bad progress from the Labour Group in ten months -  but there are still many authorities that have got more information about their members on their websites than we currently have at West Street.”
That is accurate as far as it goes.
The borough’s new-look all blue website includes a section called “transparency” – but you need to have attended a code breaking course at Bletchley Park to interpret it.
It used to be possible to learn how much the council spent on items costing more than £500 – but the borough website screenshot at the top of the page is what you now see when you click on the link.
There are similar results if you try to access the ward map  - or the members’ code of conduct.
And whilst -  once upon a time - it was possible to view the attendance records of our councillors, that information now seems to have disappeared – as our screenshot on the left demonstrates.
This was a relatively new arrival on the borough website – and although it was infrequently and haphazardly updated, it at least gave a broad idea of which councillors were doing their job properly and which were not.
All together now – let’s dance the Boston Pavane … one step forward and two steps back!


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