As we flipped through the papers of up and coming council meetings the other day, we thought that we heard a sound like the bottom of a barrel being scraped.
On closer examination, we found that it came from the agendas ofthe next couple of meetings of the Task and Finish Group on the Social Impact of Population Change on Boston, the 7th evidence-gathering session which is being held today, with another next Wednesday.
We were reminded of the Walter Gabriel-style character Joshua Merriweather who, in an episode called “The Bowmans” starring the late, great Tony Hancock refuses to be written out of the script.
Although many people thought that the committee had now run its course, and would be retiring to devise the silver bullet needed to cure the town’s woes, today’s session will hear from a number of council officers including those for community safety, housing including HMOs, environmental and public health and licensing. A representative from the UK Border Agency will also be there.
So will Councillor Peter Robinson, Lincolnshire County Council’s Executive Member Community Safety, Cohesion and Diversity, and Boston North West County Councillor Andrea Jenkyns, in her capacity of “support councillor for community safety and social cohesion.”
We can’t find this title against her name at County Hall level, and the nearest we have got is as the person responsible for community cohesion with the now defunct Boston North West Action Group which has become part of the useless but expensive Placecheck scheme.
Quite what will emerge from today’s meeting is anyone’s guess – but it might be easier to second guess the script at next week’s meeting when Professor Gary Craig, B.Sc., Dip. Ed., Dip C.W., PhD, AcSS, FRSA (pictured above) takes the floor.
Professor Craig is Professor Emeritus* of Social Justice at the University of Hull, Joint Head of the Centre for Social Inclusion and Social Justice and Associate Fellow, WISE (the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation,) where he has led the team working on issues of modern slavery - and whose recent research projects have included the social and economic impacts on communities of refugees and migrants.
Professsor Craig’s current research interests include modern slavery, community development, poverty and race and ethnicity. His 200-plus publications include seven edited books dealing with local poverty, community care and development, social security, race, food poverty in the
He was recently made a Trustee of the Desmond Tutu Foundation
Boston Borough Council regards this as a great coup.
But Phil Drury, Boston Borough Council's deputy chief executive, has ruffled feathers by saying: "We are fortunate to have an expert of Professor Craig's standing attending. It is an opportunity for anyone to hear what he has to say and ask questions of him. He will be able to answer with authority, backed by research and fact."
A regular contributor to the Boston Protest March Facebook page found this a little provocative.
He wrote: “By stating that the local people will have an ‘opportunity’ to listen and ask questions, and that his answers are backed by research and fact, is stating a pre-supposition that Professor Craig is correct, and all the local people are wrong. I am willing to bet that the facts that he presents will not represent the experiences of the local people. It's a waste of time submitting questions … this is yet another tactic to waste time”
By all accounts there is now little enthusiasm for a protest march, but yet again the council is demonstrating that it has misread the feelings of local people and how to address them, and we wonder whether at the end of the day the Task and Finish Group’s efforts will have been worth it.
Interestingly, membership of the Task and Finish Group comprises five councillors from non ruling parties and four Conservatives from the controlling group.
Did the Tories decide to distance themselves from the word go by creating a minority position on the committee from its inception, we wonder?
* Emeritus = retired
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