For once, Boston’s representatives were all present and correct at Friday’s meeting
of  Lincolnshire County Council and – as our picture shows – many were in uniform too … well at least Tories Skinner, Brookes and Singleton-McGuire appeared to be.
But it was for Independent Councillor Ray Newell to open the batting.
Councillor Newell, who represents Boston West, speaks at almost every opportunity, and last week wanted information about what is being seen as the next big concern lurking on the horizon.
He asked Council Leader Martin Hill: “Given the enormous concerns over increased migration into Lincolnshire and Boston in particular of Romanian and Bulgarian nationals, what action is this council taking to solve the anticipated impact and problems raised.”
If he wasn’t expecting much by way of an answer, then he was surely not disappointed.
Councillor Hill, donning his cloak of political correctness – the one lined with a hint of menace – replied: “The issue is we don’t know how many people will come from Bulgaria and Romania, and could I also add there is tension and I think it’s not good for anybody to start stoking up issues before we know they are there. We do spend a lot of time on our education and in other ways trying to support integration and help with these issues; we are looking at it but we don’t know …  it’s something we will have to deal with, but we are working on it.”
We don’t think that Councillor Newell was stoking anything up, if he was the intended target of Councillor Hill’s little barb.
We thought that his question was perfectly legitimate given the wider concerns that have been raised nationally, and as the government seems to know nothing about the number of potential new arrivals it seems reasonable to enquire whether Lincolnshire County Council is trying to find out more on behalf of its residents.
Interestingly, Councillor Newell’s question came in the same week that Boston Borough Council announced that issues of concern surrounding Polish people living in Boston have been discussed at a meeting between Boston Borough Council and the Polish Consulate following publication of the council's task and finish report on the impact of population change in Boston almost a year ago.
We’re not quite sure what these concerns might be, as the Poles were among the earliest arrivals to Boston – and the town was dubbed “Little Poland” by the Daily Telegraph more than three years ago.
The area needing addressing now is that of immigration from eastern rather than central Europe, but we suppose that there isn’t an ambassador willing to given the council the time of day from that neck of the woods.
In a sense, we stayed with immigration when the issue of horse meat in the food chain came under discussion at County Hall.
In answer to a questioner, Councillor Peter Robinson, the executive member for community safety, mentioned a number of Eastern European shops in Boston which might dally with horsemeat and said that visits to these premises had been arranged in the near future.
Nearer home, he reported that the Food Standards Agency had told the council  that Pilgrim Foods in Boston  had been identified as having cottage pies linked to a horse meat positive batch of meat. The company had withdrawn its stock and contacted customers who had been supplied with the pies previously. But none of those businesses were in Lincolnshire.
Then it was down the food chain to a bread and butter question of a more local nature from Boston Rural County Councillor Mike Brookes, who raised the question of the safety of the zebra crossing on the High Street in Kirton.
Whilst it was assessed some time as requiring a traffic light controlled puffin crossing,
the work has not been done because of budget constraints.
And improvements made some 18 months ago  have also proved inadequate.
Recently a ten year old girl was knocked down by a car on the  crossing, after which her parents arranged a petition which is receiving massive local support.
The county’s transport supremo Councillor William Webb assured Councillor Brookes that the crossing would be upgraded in the 2013-2014 programme and that it would cost a “big chunk” out of the integrated transport budget for  South Holland and Boston - £80,000 from a total for the South Division of £384,000.
Whilst it’s good to hear County Hall listening, shouldn’t they also be trying to get the costs of improvements such as this considerably reduced?

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