Earlier this week, we reported how a number of BID members had received summonses to Boston Magistrates’ Court for non-payment of their compulsory levy  and the problems that reportedly  ensued. Since then, the council’s Independent group spokesman Councillor Richard Leggott has sent an e-mail to Chief Executive Richard Harbord and Leader Pete Bedford copied to all 31 other council members. In it, he says:  “I am aware that there are usually two sides to every (council) story. Has anyone got the 'other side story' on this occasion? The Boston Eye version leaves Boston Borough Council, its systems and/or its employees in very bad light. Has any investigation into events – as described – been instigated?  I, and no doubt many other councillors, await enlightenment; hopefully!” Well, enlightment has been forthcoming, and we will be reporting in more detail next week.

But, given the BID's progress to date, we are wondering whether at long last the powers that be are starting to consider some action. A little bird tells us that the BID Chairman and Manager have both been summoned themselves – to attend a meeting with senior figures at Worst Street this morning. Oh to be a fly on the wall … rather than merely one in the ointment.
An interesting sidebar to the way BID bills the businesses unlucky enough to dwell in its area has also emerged. The levy charge is 1% of the business rate payable. However, the rateable value threshold for small business rate relief is £6,000 – and businesses paying less than that qualify for 100% relief.  This covers a large number of small firms in the BID area. Yet whilst they are paying nothing by way of business rates, they are billed as if they were.
Boston Borough Council’s website is cheerfully announcing the success of a 25-year campaign to stop unauthorised traffic using the town’s historic Wormgate as a rat run – with the installation of bollards to stop vehicles getting through. One of the campaigners, Jo Christmas, offered “a big thank you from all in Wormgate to Councillor Carol Taylor – we are all of the opinion that we wouldn't have got here without her." Independent Councillor Taylor was only elected  last May, yet seems able to have helped solve a problem that started 23½ years earlier. Therefore, the real question is why all those previous councillors for the ward sat and twiddled  their thumbs for so long?
As we predicted, everyone is jumping up and down to celebrate last week’s Boston Christmas Market. As far as it went, it wasn’t a bad first effort. But we hear that local businesses are saying that it did nothing to boost their sales – which we thought was part of the idea. We also hear that the mini fairground promised for the bus station car park got no further than its overnight parking space at the Princess Royal Sports Arena. Apparently, the diesel in the vehicles froze in the wee small hours, and so the event had to be abandoned.  But its good to see the PRSA earning its keep, isn’t it?
A couple of other Christmassy items …  It is true that an after switch-on knees up was staged for councillors to meet the Emmerdale “stars?” We’ve heard suggestions of a £500 bash, and if so, wonder who will foot the bill. And we also noted that hot chestnuts were being sold on the night by a gentleman named Doug Harbord, who we imagine is no relation to our revered and rewarded Chief Executive.
Meanwhile, we’re still at a bit of a loss as to  whether we’re getting full value for the Christmas lights around the town. Certainly, the Market Place display (one of which is shown on the right) was pretty feeble – when we would have expected it to be the focal point of any showcase. Given that the lights this year have again cost £35,000,  we wonder whether the rest of them are still in the box in the Worst Street cupboard under the stairs.
A reader echoes some of our recent concerns about how much time local MP Mark Simmonds has for Boston since he won his fancy Foreign Office job that seems to take him here, there and everywhere.  After highlighting a written Commons answer in which Mr Simmonds mentions visiting Rwanda, the democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda between 21st and 23^rd November to discuss the crisis in Goma, our correspondent comments: “This must explain why I did not see him on Remembrance Sunday, Boston Protest Sunday or the switching on of Boston Christmas lights! Affairs of state and we are just forgotten!”
No doubt Boston will feature increasingly in Mr Simmonds’s awareness as the 2015 elections approach. But someone for whom the deadline is a little closer is one of our five MEPs – Bill Newton-Dunn, who has taken the unusual step of snail-mailing thousands of local households to offer regular e-mail reports as “sending millions of paper letters with stamps is impossibly expensive and wasteful.” We wonder  – with an election looming next year – whether Mr BND is worried. After initially being elected as a Conservative, he decided that the Tories were doomed, and switched allegiance to the Lib-Dems. Talk about jumping out of the frying pan into the fire …
It seems that the 20% boost in special responsibility allowances is as good as money in the bank –  at least  for one senior councillor, who has just taken delivery of a shiny new car.  If the other nineteen who are entitled to this ludicrous pay rise follow suit, the Worst Street car park will soon resemble an outdoor version of the Motor Show!
The divide between Lincoln and Boston seems to grow ever wider. The latest issue of the county council’s “Culture Talk” mentions “a heart-warming performance of the nativity story” at Lincoln Castle, followed by a Victorian Christmas at  the Museum of Lincolnshire Life in Lincoln, then Lincoln Christmas Market, the Heritage Skills Centre in the grounds of Lincoln Castle and OPEM 2, The Collection’s second open exhibition in … guess where? …Lincoln. According to the county council, Culture Talk is “your guide to cultural events and exhibitions happening across Lincolnshire.”  Perhaps someone from Boston could define the word Lincolnshire for the benefit of County Hall.
Finally, we note the heart-warming tale on Boston Borough Council’s website of the humble groundsman who wrote to Her Majesty the Queen to tell her of Boston’s Jubilee Gardens and fountain in Central Park – and to credit Councillor Yvonne Gunter with the initiative. Never one to shun the credit  –  whether or not it is due – Councillor Gunter duly donned her mink coat and matching headwear to pose with the reply that he received. She is quoted thus: “We are ecstatic to have had such a response back from her. What better acknowledgement of effort and duty could you receive than that from Her Majesty herself?"  The first thing that we should point out is that whenever one writes to the sovereign, a reply is always received. The detail of the response depends on the amount of information supplied. Buckingham Palace is just doing what it does, and the letter in no way reflects an “acknowledgement of effort and duty.” The second thing that crossed our minds is how nice it would have been if Councillor Gunter had opted to include the writer who won her so much credit in the picture. The third thing is to say that for once we were left lost for words. Our reaction is best summed up below … click the arrow to play the video ..  

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