My son asked for a cowboy outfit for his birthday - so I bought him Boston BID ...

Back in Boston after our return from a world where market towns are still proud of the fact and valued because of it, a Saturday stroll reminded us that the delightful day had been scheduled to host Boston Beat free concert in the town’s Central Park.
Then we remembered that as we departed, the breaking news was that the event had been cancelled.
Boston BID - with its customary flair - had declared on Friday 13^th July that the Boston Beat event scheduled for Saturday 21^st would not go ahead.
The BID chairman told visitors to the company’s website: “The recent inclement weather has had a devastating effect on public events culminating in cancellations all over the country and we must emphasise that public safety is paramount and the event has been cancelled for this reason and this reason only.”
Needless to say, the announcement preceded a week of pretty decent weather, leaving ideal conditions for Saturday’s event  - had it not been cancelled.
The emphasis on the “sole reason” for calling it off is especially interesting, given that the BID is embroiled in a row concerning arrangements.
Boston Borough Council has been accused of misconduct after claims that BID failed to give the required 28 day notice of the event to the council. 
Boston Town FC Chairman Mick Vines claimed that the council had “bent the rules” for the concert to go ahead.
A concert that he had planned was forcibly cancelled when permission was refused - with the lateness of notice among the reasons cited -  which led Mr Vines  to threaten legal action if the BID event went ahead.
How fortuitous, then, that the weather should be the sole culprit.
Everyone also appears to have overlooked the fact that two days after the “pitch inspection” led to the cancellation of BID’s concert, another event, with bands and stalls, went ahead in the park apparently without a hitch.
Among other criticisms surrounding Boston Beat was the lack of publicity – but this was a cleverly countered by the BID manager Niall Armstrong – who claimed that his strategy had been to market the event outside of the town to draw people in.
Once cancelled, the concert was always going to be a winner - as the manager announced that it had been planned to attract between 5,000 and 15,000 visitors.
Phew!  We haven't seen such an influx of so many people since ...
All of this was designed to bring business to the town.  But - as we have said before-  a self contained event in Central Park with its own bar and food tents seemed unlikely to bring much benefit to the rest of the town.
It would take an awful lot of  visitor spending to recoup the £10,000 that the concert has been reported as costing.
Then there is the issue of information.
Many BID members – including the directors – claimed they were completely unaware of it.
Before the planned concert, an emotional and acrimonious and lachrymose meeting had seen the manager resign after a call to review of his role because of issues with the Boston Beat event – although he was subsequently persuaded to change his mind.
Looking back now that the dust has settled, we feel that all that was being done at that meeting was to reprise the efforts of the failed Task and Finish group set up by Boston Borough Council to examine many of the BID’s failings.
It held six meetings between October 2010 and February 2011, and reported in March – seventeen months ago.
It made five key recommendations – most of which were to be implemented within six months -  and followed by a progress report to  the committee in spring 2012, to let members monitor the recommendations.
Whether or not we missed something, but nothing appears to have changed – as a visit to the BID website demonstrates.
"Extracts” - i.e. a sanitised version of BID board meetings were promised, but the most recent to be published took place in January - whilst the last newsletter was issued three months ago.
It would appear that there is still a huge communications gulf between the BID manager and the members – and apparently the board members as well.
One point to emerge from the recent debate is what seems to be a series of unilateral spending decisions – in the case of the Boston Beat concert involving around 10 per-cent of BID’s annual income from levies.
We wonder in how many other organisations does the manager have such spending latitude.
Finally, has this concert been postponed or cancelled?
Both words have been used, but as the event has already fallen by the wayside twice now, it might be a good time for the members to be allowed to say whether they really want so much of their levy payments spent on a concert.
A year ago, we published the picture at the top of the page.
And whilst we racked our brains for something new for today’s post, at the end of the day we concluded that the story was the same.
A year on, the patient remains on the critical list – and not responding to treatment.
There are fears that  it is brain dead - but no-one has noticed!

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