We note that Boston Town Centre Portfolio panjandrum Councillor Derek Richmond is once again coming to the aid of people whom he feels are unable to comprehend as well as they might. Regular readers will recall Councillor Richmond’s attack on motorists using Boston Market Place, accusing them of naivety for not knowing where to park to avoid a fine – even though the situation is unclear. Now for some reason, he has entered the debate on the future of the town’s Post Office. Last week the Boston Standard reported: “the Post Office said it is committed to providing a service in Boston, and will soon be consulting with retailers to try to find an alternative location. A spokesman said services would remain in the current building if a new site was not found.” Enter Councillor Richmond, with a “reassurance” that the Post Office has given him “a guarantee” concerning the future. In a letter to both local “newspapers” he says: “The Post Office has told me it is now seeking a retail partner in Boston and, if it finds one which is suitable will begin a six week consultation process. If a retail partner fails to come forwards who meets their specifications, things will remain as they are.” Is there an echo in here, or is Councillor Richmond trying to appear as the saviour of the day? What a shame he doesn’t read Boston Eye, or he might let us know.
Why are we not surprised to learn that the re-opening of Boston’s Assembly Rooms has been delayed for another month or so? In fact, the Easter date that was announced was perhaps more a case of wishful thinking than anything else in the first place. So far we can find no trace of a planning application – which we assume is de rigeur where a listed building is concerned. There is not even any sign of repainting getting underway, which is not only urgently needed but which we thought was subject to some sort of deadline after the sale last November. Meanwhile the owner, local entrepreneur Matthew Clark, seems to relish what has been called “the air of mystery” surrounding the building by repeatedly refusing to say what use it will be put to other than that of “an entertainment venue.” He is rapidly transmuting from the hero (of sorts) of the hour to the man who promises jam tomorrow every time today’s delivery approaches.  He says he will be “very disappointed” if the building is not “sorted” by the May bank holiday. Meanwhile, Boston Borough Council, which at the time celebrated the sale as a triumph of localness is starting to seem a little silly.
Yet another nail in the coffin for the Boston Town Area Committee, which is fast becoming little more than a piggy bank for other council committees to dip into. Every year for as long as we can recall, the committee has set aside a decent sum – around the £10,000 mark – for grants to local organisations who can’t afford certain jobs without help which was distributed by the councillors.  Now this cash is being “ring-fenced” in an “initiative” that will operate in similar fashion to the Placecheck project, which has seen some areas of Boston form new neighbourhood action groups to tackle issues such as litter, graffiti and making improvements to the areas in which they live. Not only that, but instead of the applicants filling in a simple form to submit to BTAC, “expertise” will now be forthcoming from Boston Borough Council's local communities officer, and, Lincolnshire Community and Voluntary Service’s community development officer, “to bring residents together to work with key service providers to effect change.” We have long had a problem with Placecheck – which saw half of the monies allocated to a chosen area spent on administration. Not only that, but there was a sameness to the bids that suggested the initiative was not coming so much from the groups as the advisers. Another point is that the money was often being spent on dealing with issues which are already the responsibility of Boston Borough Council – such as the aforementioned litter and graffiti. This new “initiative” may result in worthwhile applications which might have previously attracted support being rejected because they don’t involve litter pickers and black bin bags. It’s all becoming a little too twee for our liking.  Interestingly, Daisy Dale area of Boston was lauded as the Placecheck paean. It was the pilot area in 2009 – but what many people have forgotten was that this was at least the third major attempt to make the area worth living in. The first was in 2005, and two years later a patch of land at the end of Daisy Dale nicknamed "the wasteland” which had become a home to vermin because of the amount of dumped rubbish saw 14 tonnes of litter carted away in just two hours.  No-one has told us whether Placecheck’s Operation Third Time Lucky worked the magic or not – but somehow we doubt that a visit would yield any surprises. 
After our recent comments about the latest survey by Boston Borough Council to see what the voters thinks of its services, a reader reports on a visit to the council tent in the Market Place a couple of weeks ago, where he met a councillor he had not previously encountered.   The dialogue went something like this: Councillor: “Would you like to take one of the survey sheets – I won’t ask you to fill it in now as it's raining.”  Voter: “Is it the same as the one which the council put out last year?” Councillor: "Oh I don't know, I've only just come on to the stand. I wasn't aware there was one last year."  Our voter told Boston Eye: “This, from a councillor who was present last year, so surely should have known about it? I then asked if there was a county council survey attached, as there was last year. Again, she didn't know, and when I asked why no mention had been made of this result from last year, after promising an announcement within six months, again she answered that she didn't know! I presume the answer the county got wasn't the one they wanted. Perhaps I should have asked her if she had permission from 'the leader’ to speak about anything. Absolutely amazing - just who have we elected as councillors? No one seems to know what's going on!”
Given that so many individuals and organisations are involved in the Boston in Bloom project, we wondered why one of the two people photographed receiving a cheque for £250 from ASDA is Boston Borough Council’s portfolio holder for leisure services, parks and open spaces, Councillor Yvonne Gunter – and why the photo should be posed in the council’s Worst Street offices. Surely the scene would have been better set outside, and involved one of the several groups who actually get their hands dirty during projects such as these.  We know that the borough is keen to shine by association given its own lack of luminosity but this has an air of hijack about it.
Talking of Councillor Gunter, the controversial plaque erected in Boston’s Central Park  (pictured below) which was unveiled when  the mayor opened the Diamond Jubilee Gardens (aka the Victorian Garden, aka the Elizabethan Garden) has returned after an absence that coincided with the vandalism which put the park’s new fountain out of business. It was certainly missing for several weeks, but when we visited the park last weekend, we noticed that it had returned – but what a mess it is in.

Three of the four screws that hold the plaque in place are headless, the lettering is already fading, the plate is dull and lacklustre (no more comments please – Ed)  and the stain on the board on which it is mounted is patchy, and in some places missing altogether.  If we have to have a plaque, then fine – but at least let’s make sure that the thing looks halfway decent and something of which we are proud, rather than some dowdy memorial that has been there for years rather than just eight months. And one other thing. The fountain wasn’t working when we visited, either.
The only surprising thing about the news that a bench in Boston’s Market Place opposite the new entrance to the Herbert Ingram Memorial has been damaged by a “hit-and-run” vehicle is that it hasn’t happened before. The incident also damaged an area of paving which had to be removed.  It most probably happened on Thursday or Friday of last week, and it is more than likely that the damage was done “out of hours” when the Market Place fortunately has fewer people in it. But vary the circumstances slightly, and we could have seen an incident that possibly involved injury to pedestrians using the area. We are sure that this will do nothing to unstop the ears of those people who feel that the Market Place should be a free for all for cars and Into Town buses to drive around as they please. We warned a long time ago that the present situation is an accident waiting to happen, and the only question now is when that day will come.
Our mention of the Garfit’s Lane playing fields being taken on by the Boston Town Area Committee – which will be paid for by an extra council tax levy on town based ratepayers – repeated a calculation that the operational cost works out at £700 for every football match played there. One councillor and BTAC member who applauds the takeover tells us: “The trouble with those published costs for the grass cutting etc. is that they include a proportion of everyone’s admin time and pay – including a small slice of the Chief Executive’s for good measure.  It’s not the actual cost of doing the job at all.  All this ‘recharge’ business drives me up the wall. The point of getting it under BTAC control is that it is an amenity for BTAC residents. Now we/the residents might be able to influence what goes on there. There is a lot of potential as it’s a rare and peaceful oasis in this town with beautiful trees.”  We have previous experience of a “recharge” system – which is a calculation of staff time, and proportional costs of office space, rates, heating, lighting, electricity, phone charges et al needed to service a department. In the BBC it was called “producer choice” – and its main impact was to drive up costs and eventually bring about a privatisation of department that led to job losses, and ultimately even higher costs.
As the debate rumbles on about whether or not to create an underground cable and substation at Bicker Fen to connect the Triton Knoll wind farm to the national grid, the issue of what’s in it for us is increasingly coming to the fore, In a letter to the local press Boston Independent Councillor Richard Austin talks of the “big financial benefit” that the borough could reap for the council’s bank account. He suggests that the Tory leadership should hold out for at least £1 million and be a “wonderful legacy” for the Conservative administration. That’s exactly half of what we hear was forthcoming to another authority when a power station was being planned at Sutton Bridge. We think that the issue is not one of “what’s it worth?” if the result is a development that is detrimental to the area. One thing that we can be fairly certain of is that the Tories will sell us short if a deal is done, and the fact that even though any payment constitutes little more than a bribe, will take any money that’s on offer.
Co-incidentally, £1 million is not unadjacent to the cost of the new dustbin fleet that’s going into service with Boston Borough Council – seven times £137,000 comes to £959,000. The borough website trumpets the new lorries as being slimmer, cheaper to run and with a host of other exciting bells and buzzers – although we would question whether white is the best choice of colour. The borough tells us all there is to know about the new fleet except where the money has come from to pay for them. At the time of the sale of the Assembly Rooms, it was suggested that the £465,000 proceeds from the deal might go into the refuse fleet kitty, but we were told that the whole council would have to be consulted should that be the case. A cool million is a lot of money in these cash strapped times, and it would be nice to know where is has come from.

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