Friday saw Lincolnshire County Council emerge from hibernation after a four-month summer “recess” – although for some of our local Conservatives, the holiday was by no means over.
Boston has seven county councillors – six Tories and one Independent – but apologies were sent from three of the Conservatives; that’s half of our representatives in blue who couldn’t make it.
The next meeting is in December, which means that our absent Tories – assuming that  they turn up then – will have passed eight months without attending a full county council meeting – and let’s not forget that there are only four a year.
Two of our local councillors who were there asked questions – Conservative Raymond Singleton-McGuire, and Independent Ray Newell.
We’ll have more on Councillor Newell’s question, which concerned parking, tomorrow.
Unluckily for Councillor Singleton-McGuire, who represents Boston Fishtoft at County Hall, the gremlins which always attack the county's  audio system were at work as usual, and  so his question was lost on  the county council webcast.
This happens at almost every meeting, and it never ceases to amaze us - that particularly in this case, with four months to prepare for a meeting, somehow, no-one could get around to ensuring that the equipment worked properly ahead of time.
The answer to the question came from Councillor Eddy Poll – Lincolnshire's  deputy leader, portfolio holder for economic development, and official jester.
Judging from Councillor Poll’s reply, the question concerned the recent government reshuffle - which saw the appointment of Owen Paterson as Environment Secretary - and asked about  any likely impact on the £50 million Boston Barrage project.
Councillor Poll told Councillor Singleton-McGuire that as soon as the re-shuffle was announced, both County Council and the Environment Agency  officers took steps to  ensure that they remained  top of the list.
Mr Patterson, we were told, struck Councillor Poll as “a breath of fresh air down there. He seems very forthright, the sort of chap you can do business with so I’m looking forward to working with him.”
But he also had a none-too-veiled warning to Boston about  the barrage project.
“ This is probably the single largest flood defence scheme that Lincolnshire has seen in the best part of a hundred years, and it’s a really worthwhile investment for protecting Boston, and I know that our members are fully aware of the implications of that and are pleased to see it.”
And after that mildly patronising introduction, he continued:
“But I would urge members of Boston Council to ensure that their officers take the same view, and don’t jeopardise future investment by thinking the protection they are going to receive will enable them to put development wherever they like.
“It still needs to be controlled; the risk is still inherent, and we need to be aware of that  - otherwise the people who are aware will get that investment rather than us.”
Is it really possible that Boston might lose the barrier at the eleventh hour?
We certainly hope not.
However, we are a little concerned at the suggestion that councillors should “ensure” actions by officers, as the commonly held view is that - given one word from the councillors - the officers do exactly as they please!
Incidentally, we did e-mail Councillor Singleton-McGuire to tell him of the problem hearing his question, and asking if he would send us a copy – but sadly, we did not receive a response.
As we said earlier, tomorrow we’ll be reporting Councillor Newell’s question – and why we think the answer suggests that that our parking problems will get worse before they get better.

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