Tonight sees an extraordinary general meeting of Boston Borough Council – in which a band of feisty opposition councillors take on the might of the Secret Seven - comprising the council’s cabinet and the other Tory lackeys who do their bidding.
It’s all about the decision to sell Boston’s Assembly Rooms - and the secrecy surrounding it.
The issue got a last minute airing on  BBC Radio Lincolnshire’s Sue Taylor show on Saturday, when – in the white corner, Independent Councillor Carol Taylor had her say, followed … in the blue corner, by council leader Peter Bedford.
Whilst Councillor Taylor agreed that the Assembly Rooms needed to be sold because there wasn’t enough money in the council’s kitty to rejuvenate them … “the main issue that we are concerned about is that we were never consulted and we wanted more of a debate  – and we wanted to include the public on the sale of these rooms. We weren’t allowed to do that, which I think is fundamentally wrong.
“The cabinet of seven members decided for 63,000 people.
“We feel that we should have been able to debate the issue more, and ask the public what they think before it goes ahead.
“It’s going to be sold along with, unfortunately, the public toilet block.
Cue: Councillor Bedford.
Clearly he has been on a training course some long time in the past, when it was considered clever to smarm the programme presenter.
But Councillor Bedford took things a step further.
“Good morning Sue, how are you? I like the choice of music to begin with …”
The tune in question was Simply the Best, by Tina Turner.
Now, we never had Councillor Bedford pegged as a Tina Turner fan, and wonder if he had perhaps mistaken the title as a preface to his appearance and chosen to be flattered by it.
Not for the first time, Councillor Bedford’s responses begged more questions than they answered.
Firstly, when asked if he could reassure those who complained about not knowing what would happen to the building, he replied: “Obviously, we cannot predetermine what the planning application will be on the building; that would be against every planning law in this land. You cannot predetermine what people are going to actually want to do with the building.”
Say again?
Do you really mean to say that once a buyer came forward with an offer for the building, not one single person asked the obvious next question – what are you planning to do with it?
That’s not predetermination – it’s a logical question, and in no way illegal.
Then -  in the tedious political game of passing the buck - Councillor Bedford told the BBC:  “… the actual decision  (to sell the Assembly Rooms) was taken in 2006 at a cabinet meeting then, and it has never ever been rescinded, so the original decision in 2006 is the one that we are actually working on.”
This is another interesting point, as it has the effect of suggesting that responsibility for taking what has become an exceptionally unpopular decision is out of  the hands of the current Tory regime, but down to a previous administration which left the current commanders powerless to act.
Disappointingly no doubt for Councillor Bedford, this cannot be laid at the door of the Boston Bypass Independents - but it does  neatly smudge whose idea it was to sell.
In fact, in 2006, Boston Borough Council was under no overall control – although the Tories had the whip hand.
Not only that, but a condition attached to any sale then was that the premises could not be used for a nightclub.
Perhaps Councillor Bedford could remind us when that clause was rescinded.
However, he ploughed on: “What the ratepayers of Boston need to understand is that between 2006 and 2012 with the difference in the cost of the building to what it’s worth now to what it was then with property prices, the loss of revenue, work on the building, repairs and everything else, it’s cost the ratepayers of Boston over one million pound (sic) in six years, and it’s quite simply not sustainable anymore.”
Phew!
So what Councillor Bedford is saying is that for each of the past six years, the Assembly Rooms have cost – or lost - us £166,000 a year - even though just a few days ago he was quoted as saying: “I can’t say the figure, but it’s a substantial amount of money lost every week.”
It’s £3,205.
Now, he has owned up to an humongous loss, and we would be very interested to see a breakdown of the figures – as the cost of external redecoration of the building is less than one year’s deficit.
When asked about local concerns over future use of the Assembly Rooms and whether there could be restrictions on their use, he said: “Of course we can’t put restrictions like that on it. If we did the building would be totally worthless.
“When all’s said and done, if you think back to when the building was built (you’ll need a long memory, since it was built in 1822) there was (sic) always dances, dinners and everything else.
“It’s always been a place of entertainment from the day it was built, and whatever comes into it now, whatever form of planning restrictions or planning conditions and everything else will be affected to it.
“But it’s a Grade II listed building, and so there are a lot of things that cannot be done with it, and I understand that the present owner (which we thought was still Boston Borough Council until the deal was done) obviously wants to keep all the shops and everything else underneath, so that he has an income stream for the building”
In short: it’s going to become a nightclub.
And finally, in response to the charge that councillors had not been consulted … well, the silly so-and-so’s were clearly mistaken.
“Every councillor on Boston Borough Council could have got the papers if they’d so chosen. They could have also come to the cabinet meeting. Two councillors did come to the cabinet meeting. I invited either of them if they wanted to come to the table to take part in the debate, and they both refused.
“So every councillor on Boston Borough Council could have come to that cabinet meeting and had input but they chose not to do.”
And why bar the public and the press from tonight’s meeting?
“Quite simply, because everything is sensitive.
“If you was (sic) buying a building like that would you like it all addressed in public? Of course you wouldn’t if you were a businessperson - and it is obviously confidential, and that is the way it has to stay.”

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