Welcome to BTAC - the bank that never says no

Nationally we have a choice of banks such as HBOS, RBS and HSBC. But it seems that the bank of choice in Boston for people who want money for nothing is BTAC – the Boston Town Area Committee … rapidly becoming better known as the Bank That’s A Council.
Since money for projects became scarce, there has been a non-stop rattling of begging bowls at the committee’s monthly meetings, and the committee itself has also given away a small fortune in one-off donations.
Notably, two of these have attracted recent criticism as they apparently go beyond BTAC’s remit to spend only for the benefit of the townspeople. The items in question are £10,000 for the Victorian Garden project in Central Park and £5,000 for a bash to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
There have been charges that BTAC has been “taken over” by the Cabinet and the Conservative group “who just seem to run it as an extension to their budget … for what are, effectively, borough council responsibilities.”
Today BTAC – which has an annual budget of around £80,000 – is being tapped up once again by one of the borough council’s most regular, and richest customers … the South Lincolnshire Community and Voluntary Service.
Only recently SLCVS was awarded £5,000 towards funding this year’s Boston Community Showcase which “celebrates the fantastic work of the Voluntary and Community Sector in and around Boston.”
Apparently, though, £5,000 is not enough.
Now they want another £1,000 – for a combined three day event to “celebrate Volunteers Week” and the Diamond Jubilee by “bringing the community together to create large scale street art.”
This involves chalking on the pavement outside the  Len Medlock voluntary centre in St George's Road.
We are told that the project “will leave a visual legacy of community spirit” - until the rain washes it away, that is.
Not only that, but “In light of recent negative media coverage concerning Boston, this will be a fantastic ‘good news’ story for the town which will show what the community can achieve by working together, doing something very positive and innovative.”
To make it hard for the committee to turn the project down, the SLCVS has already approached local schools and community groups and the Boston Multicultural Association who are all excited by the prospect of getting down on their hands and knees and scribbling on the footpath.
The message to BTAC from this news is that the committee turns is down at its peril.
In fact tonight’s meeting will be quite an arty affair altogether for the boys and girls of BTAC - with a second, long-running, application to shell out around £20,000 to improve and extend the skate park in the St John’s recreation area.
Interestingly, given the denials from BTAC’s Chairman that it is not being used as a kitty for the Cabinet and Portfolio Holders, the report produced by Matt Fisher, principal officer (street scene) on behalf of Councillor Yvonne Gunter, portfolio holder for leisure services, parks, open spaces and cemeteries, “outlines how BTAC can make significant improvements to St John's Recreation Area and Skate Park, to provide a safer and better quality public space meeting closer the needs of local children, young people and other users.
We don’t know about you, but this seems to be precisely what it’s claimed is not happening – with a portfolio holder suggesting how BTAC can spend money to improve leisure services.
And as if to underline the point, the Financial Services Comments in the report make it clear that “This is an investment in a Council asset to be funded from BTAC funds.”
We’ve touched on this application a couple of times before, so we won’t drag things out yet again.
But what about the “arty affair” that we mentioned earlier?
Well, whilst £500 has already been obtained to buy graffiti removal kits to tidy up the existing skate ramps, BTAC is being recommended to spend £900 to fund a professional graffitist to put it all back again during a two day “graffiti artwork” as part of the £20,000 upgrade.
What can you say?
It’s not that long ago that the council was bemoaning the amount of graffiti around the town – and now it seems actively to be encouraging it.
To an extent, we can understand that graffiti at a skate park is de rigueur – so we hope that the council won't place any blame if  copycats follow by example.
But the SLCVS application for £1,000 for chalking on the pavement is simply a waste of our money. They have already had £5,000 to celebrate volunteering, and another £1,000 on a sorry stunt like this is both greedy and wasteful.
But will BTAC approve it?
We bet they will!

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Our former blog is archived at: http://bostoneyelincolnshire.blogspot.com