Last week we mentioned that an e-mail to
all councillors raised fears over insurance cover after news that Assembly
Rooms were being sold to a company with limited liability set up specially to
run the establishment. The author sought
assurance that in the event of a major fire either during the refurbishment
period or during its subsequent use, that the insurance would completely cover
the full restoration of the building. Boston District Councillor Alison Austin
tells us that is was she who raised the issue and has received the following
reply from Chief Executive Richard Harbord: “Cllr Alison Austin. Thank you for
your e mail. As ewe (sic) are selling the freehold we will have no way of insisting on any
particular level of insurance cover. However the bank lending the
money to them will insist on full insurance as part of the loan
conditions.” Somehow, we feel that something more concrete by way of reassurance than that ought to be obtained,
don’t you?
Talking of Chief Executives – it’s now more
than a year since Mr Harbord’s contract was extended for one final time – until May
next year. It was said at the time that the search for a successor would begin
within six months – although fourteen have now passed without any sign of
action. Perhaps a reason for this could have something to do with a rumour that
reached our ears to the effect that the Tory leadership is considering a further
“final” contract extension – to May 2015 … when the next local
elections are due. We’ve no idea why this should be necessary – but, if true,
the cost of it concern us. Mr Harbord’s company is paid around £600 a day
for fifteen days of his services each month which totals £108,000 a year –
making the job worth almost £220,000 a year pro rata. That ranks
Boston among the highest paying local authorities in the country for
this role – despite the fact that it is one of the smallest and poorest
councils. Surely, a council trying to make economies should not even be
thinking about such extravagance for a further three and a half years.Once or twice, we’ve joked that the next assets likely to be sold off by our cash hungry council leaders will be the civic insignia - which is worth a cool million at least. But has comedy become reality? The other day we visited Boston Borough Council’s website link to learn more about the borough civic history, and this is what we found …
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The question that we raised the other day about declaration of interests by councillors was read with interest by Boston’s Deputy Labour group leader Paul Gleeson – who drew our attention to the minutes of council for 25th July. At that meeting Councillor Gleeson raised concerns relating to the limited information that was required to be given in the Register of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and proposed that, for purposes of transparency and openness, the register of interests that was in operation before the introduction of the new regulations should still be used and such interests declared by members as appropriate during formal meetings. The motion was lost. So much for the Tory pledges of openness and transparency.
Is there some sort of curse on Lincolnshire County Council’s survey which is seeking to find out what people think about the Boston Market Place refurbishment? It was announced by Boston Borough Council at the end of last month, and included in the September issue of the council’s good news bulletin. Then it turned out that there was a glitch in the system, which mean that it couldn’t be accessed, and now, the borough reports “some slight technical difficulties” for some of us trying to complete the survey online from the website. The advice is to copy and paste the entire link directly into the web browser address bar or if that fails, keying the link address into your address bar yourself. We wonder whether the idea to discourage people from bothering to complete the thing at all. Whatever, the borough tells us that because of these difficulties the survey deadline has now been extended – and closes today … so don’t miss your chance to complete it. Given all the problems, we were amused to note that the organisation that produced the software is called Survey Monkey. Perhaps if you pay survey monkeys, you get peanuts!
We note that Boston’s Mayor, Colin Brotherton, is holding a charity fish and chip supper at Kirton Town Hall four weeks from today. We wonder whether this is to avoid problems after the story that went around earlier this year concerning a sausage and mash supper organised at the Conservative Club by the then Mayor, Councillor Mary Wright. The legend has it that as 8pm arrived, the food didn’t – and there was a frantic rush around the corner to make the shortage good with replacement fish and chips from Tate’s. It remains folkloric because – although we asked Boston Borough Council about it – they never replied.
A week or so ago, we had six candidates for the post of Police and Crime Commissioner for Lincolnshire – including two Boston Borough Councillors. Now we have just four. One pulled out earlier this week following allegations about his campaign in a national Sunday newspaper, and one of our two local councillors – English Democrat Elliott Fountain – also seems to have withdrawn, but although we asked him about this at the start of the week, we have not received a reply. However, he has not been seen at recent public meetings where the other candidates for next month’s elections have faced public questions. So we now have two Independent candidates, David Bowles and Alan Hardwick, Conservative Richard Davies, and Labour’s Paul Gleeson, our local councillor. Given the lack of enthusiasm for the PCC elections – with the prediction that the turnout may be the lowest in English voting history – we’re beginning to wonder whether the whole ideas would be better off being kicked into touch.
Talking of Lincolnshire Police, we were surprised to read a report saying that the force had the third highest number of allegations of misconduct across all forces in England and Wales last year – with an average of 316 allegations were made for every 1,000 workers. The national average was 213. A spokesman said: "We accept that there has been a 14% increase in overall complaints during the year against the national picture of a reduction of 9%, but this must be read in the context that 87% of the complaints investigated were found to be to unproven following investigation. “This is the third highest percentage of 'not upheld' complaints in England and Wales. Maths is not our strong suit – but something doesn’t seem to add up here.
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A point that we recently raised about the involvement of Boston College in business rather than educational matters was echoed by a reader in an e-mail this week: “As a parent and governor of a local secondary school I was somewhat surprised when a friend showed me a letter she received from Boston College. My friend is a single parent who has bought up her children on her own very successfully like many out there do. The letter in question concerned food vouchers. It's states ‘the 16-18 Bursary Fund has been oversubscribed and this has unfortunately meant that food vouchers for applicants will be reduced to £3 per day for a maximum of 3 days per week ( a reduction for £20 a week to £9) from Monday 29th October.’ They do say they will review it monthly. I find this somewhat hard to swallow considering the amount of money the college seems to have to purchase and invest in various buildings around Boston and Spalding. As a school governor I know many families have struggled to send their children to college this year with the bus fare costing over £300 a year and having a reduction in free school meal is a real kick up the backside. The government does give extra money for any students on free school meals. So I can't see why it's being reduced when they receive extra money. I've always wondered if the college has gone from its core values of learning to now a business as its snaps up real estate across Boston and South Holland.” A good question. We wonder whether there is a good answer?
A reader e-mails to ask, tantalisingly: “Why has Boston Council decided to hold a meeting in private on 7th November to discuss CCTV options?” The meeting on that day is a Cabinet session, and because we are not yet within five days of it, no agenda has to be published – so it will be interesting to see what eventually appears. The speed cameras on John Adams Way have recently been removed for the official reason that drivers are now behaving so well, that they are no longer needed. Ho, Ho. We think that the real answer has more to do with money than anything else, which is usually the case these days. So, is the Cabinet thinking of cutting back on the cameras? Normally, we would say wait until the agenda appears. But when it does, the item will doubtless be flagged for discussion in secret.
We mentioned last week the trend to
sub-edit newspapers from distant “hubs” to cut costs – although often at the
cost of accuracy because local knowledge can be lacking. We wonder whether this
could explain the catalogue of disasters in a local obituary
notice in the week’s Boston Standard - pictured on the left. Would
it be possible, we wonder, to cram any more mistakes into so few lines, after misspelling
the surname, getting the name of her village wrong, and then as
a final insult, changing her sex. In our days on newspapers, the births,
marriages and deaths section was one of the most carefully checked sections of
the paper, as an error could inflict hurt and disappointment on readers – often during one
of the most important periods of their lives. Not any more, it seems
“Why has Boston Council decided to hold a meeting in private on 7th November to discuss CCTV options?”
ReplyDeleteI do hope that these fools we have attempting to run this Town are not entertaining any thought of cutting back on CCTV coverage. It is about the only thing that works well in Boston -it is an invaluable asset to those out 'policing' the streets at night .... whilst the Councillors are safely tucked up in their beds.