Whenever the subject of a by-pass for Boston is mentioned to our masters at County Hall, the reply is always “jam tomorrow.”

But when it comes to jam today, then Lincolnshire County Council is always more than happy to oblige.

For the third time this year, Boston residents and businesses have endured the misery of traffic jams caused directly as a result of the ham-fisted actions of an inept highways authority which proves on an almost daily basis how little it knows about the fragility of the system which keeps the traffic flowing through and around our town.

The traffic chaos which began on Monday took motorists by complete surprise, as the announcement of the work was sneaked out on the previous Friday – and even Boston borough councillors were wrong footed by it as they were told nothing in advance either, and so had no response when angry voters gave them a call.

The latest debacle was caused as work began to create – of all things – a cycle path to link South Square, via a new shared footpath across the A16 Haven Bridge to the toucan crossing at the A16 and High Street.

Just a matter of yards and barely involving the road at all, you might think.

But when Lincolnshire County Council is pulling the strings the puppets inevitably end up with their wires crossed – and again this proved to be the case.

Presumably, because it saves Lincoln some of our money, works are always carried out during the day.

And as we have seen before, the county often decides to kill more than one bird with the same stone and chuck a few more road works into the cement mixer at the same time.

We saw it happen with the recent “improvements” on Fydell Street, and also on Main Ridge – both of which created considerable long term problems for motorists.

And the same thing happened again this week.

In the case of all three of these schemes we were told that such a policy means “less overall disruption for the public.”

But as has been proved time and again, this is a completely false assumption.

It may sound a little romantic, but Boston’s road system is comparable to the mechanism in a fine old watch – if you get even the smallest piece of grit in it, the whole thing stops working.

And that is what happens each and every time the county council sets up a road works sign in town.

One of our readers managed to make it through to Satish Shah, Lincolnshire’s Head of Highways, and the creator of the laughable “less overall disruption” line, and had a not terribly  rewarding conversation – but one which included the interesting admission when asked for his views on this week’s traffic chaos that he had been arriving at his Worst Street penthouse by 6am – to avoid the traffic.

It’s a great solution, as it sets you free by 2pm, and we are sure that most if not all of the other workers in town would do it if they could.

But they don’t have those sorts of privileges.

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Eventually, Mr Shah sent off a grudging reply by way of e-mail which offered the usual: “I am sorry for all the inconvenience you experienced on Monday. I wish to assure you that we do care and any learning from this incident will be taken up for the future improvement.”

All together now, HO, Ho, ho.

Consider the reaction if the delays of this week and of previous long term road works  this year – which between them have totalled around six months – had occurred in Lincoln, annoying the great and the good of the county, or Grantham, where the highways panjandrum Councillor Richard “Bob the Builder”  Davies holds sway …

In the unlikely event that something similar had happened, you can bet your steel toed safety boots than there wouldn’t have been a second day of delay.

Perhaps someone in County Hall would also like to tell us why it is that whenever a pothole is filled in Boston, the event is dignified by the noun “improvement” as though something special is being done for the town, rather than a long neglected task being carried out, at the cost of major inconvenience and usually over many weeks.

Amusingly, the first day of the “improvements” went unremarked by Boston Borough Council – but on Tuesday – the day after the traffic chaos took hold – an item in the Boston Daily Bore slavishly toad** (see footnote) the party line by  reproducing the county council good news press release issued the previous Friday – with no mention of any problems. 

***

  Meanwhile, with what now seems  impeccably bad timing, Boston Borough Council’s “Leader” Pete Bedford leapt into the debate about the increasing unlikelihood that Boston will obtain a bypass before “a’ the seas gang dry, and the rocks melt wi’ the sun” as the Scottish bard once famously said about something else entirely.

In response to gloomy but prescient forecasts by Boston’s Labour group leader Paul Gleeson and the former leader of the Boston Bypass Independents, Richard Austin, that Boston has become the Cinderella of road building with little chance of ever going to the ball, Councillor Bedford conceded that “some of Boston’s traffic issues need addressing.”

But he surprised local observers by continuing: “That’s why this issue has been one of the main thrusts of the efforts of this administration since it took control from the former Boston Bypass group. And we have certainly had more success.”

Twice nothing is still nothing in our maths primer – and the main improvements to our roads in the past few years were the widening of the A16 inbound and the A52 from Liquorpond Street to the junction with Lister Way … for which both the Passing Through Party and the previously largely Tory run council took credit, and which were all but completed before Bedford’s Tories took control.

As a so-called politician, Mr Bedford plays the blame card – claiming that the root of the problem is that the Bypass Independents stopped work on the Local Development Framework during the four years that they ran the council.

This was even though the not-quite-Conservative-controlled-council that preceded the BBI had made a start on this “crucial” document, which would have included routes for a distributor road.

“We have resumed that important work, but we are four years behind others. That’s why Grantham and Lincoln have received funding for major new roads and Boston hasn’t.

Having read that, we also recall that after the Tories took over there were further delays as it was felt that the impending creation of the South East Lincolnshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee made a Boston specific plan redundant.

Faced with little by way of choice, Mr Bedford agrees that he has gone on record as saying that the reality “especially in these times of austerity” is that Boston will not get a bypass anytime soon.

“That doesn’t mean we do nothing and sit and wait for such time as a bypass might become a reality.

“We do as we have done and move forward in the best possible way we can. For now, that is the relief road, the first part of which will be provided by the Quadrant development.”

Fortunately for him the government has just decided not to call in the Quadrant application – but the only piece to go ahead for the foreseeable future is the building of a new stadium for Boston United.

All the houses and the road link are for the further future.

And the section of the distributor road that has been mentioned runs from the A16 across to London Road – which is not very far.

But more pie in the sky will be on the way – eventually – when, we are told, “the second phase of the distributor road could subsequently extend north along London Road and then north-west across to the A52/Boardsides in association with a potential future phase of the Quadrant development known as Q2.”

No one seems to realise that all this will do is conveniently create a rat-run linking some of our worst existing traffic black spots.

And how efficient will a road be that is built in sections – possibly by different contractors, possibly to varying standards and plans?

Ironically, recent government funding saw £4.75 million allocated to the Boston Quadrant  housing development – assuming that it goes ahead – whilst in the same tranche of generosity, £16 million was forked over for the Grantham Southern Relief Road.

Even so, Mr Bedford clings stubbornly to his faith in the Lincoln Shrine, saying: “our county council colleagues have said they also have a solution to Boston’s traffic difficulties at the top of their agendas, and we are working hard together on this.”

It would be nice to hear a little more about what form all this hard work is taking.

The Conservative leadership on Boston Borough Council now holds no sway at County Hall, after all their councillors but one were routed in last year’s elections – and we haven’t noticed anything by way of pressure from any of our replacement county councillors.

We also think that Councillor Bedford is being a little naïve in his faith in the County Council, which has pooh-poohed Boston’s calls for a bypass for years, and which most recently claimed that the town would never get one until our economy improved – which is looking increasingly unlikely.

This week’s road works alone have cost local businesses thousands of pounds  in lost income and an incalculable amount in terms of damage to our reputation as a place to come to or to set up shop.

click on photo to enlarge it

And councillor Bedford’s timing with his remarks was certainly unfortunate coming as they did just days ahead of the county council Highways and Transport Scrutiny Committee meeting which dedicated most of its agenda to progress reports on the Grantham Southern Relief Road, Lincoln East-West Relief Road Phase 1, the Lincoln Eastern Bypass and the Spalding Western Relief Road.

It seems to us that towns such as Grantham and Spalding are prospering and continuing to prosper because they have decent roads, and that the roads are needed to boost the local economies … and not the other way around.

For pity’s sake – Burgh-le-Marsh and Wainfleet were bypassed around seven years ago, the idea being to improve the journey for holidaymakers heading for the Lincolnshire coast.

Yet somehow, the county council conveniently ignores the fact that Skegness is the most popular destination for holidaymakers from Nottingham and Derby, who travel through Boston to join a road that was unfit for purpose even before the car was invented.

The trouble is that we wouldn’t trust the clowns at Lincolnshire County Council to organise the laying of a crazy paving patio – let alone a quality road.

Remember the mess they made “improving” Boston Market Place?

***

It’s been a quiet week on the wider election front.

But it is interesting to see that our local Conservatives are to grasp the nettle and hold an open primary to select a replacement for outgoing MP Mark Simmonds – which means that anyone can have a vote in the process … Tory members or not.

It will be fascinating to see how many people turn out to vote.

When a replacement candidate was selected in Clacton for the by-election that will follow the defection of the Conservative MP to UKIP, just 240 of the 67,000 eligible voters took the trouble to attend.

This last week also saw the arrival of another Conservative contender for the post. Matthew Glanville, who is 38 and lives in Welton le Marsh is an ex-soldier and former civilian security adviser in Iraq. His wife, freelance journalist Annunziata, is the sister of Tory MP Jacob Rees Mogg, and daughter of the late William Rees-Mogg, a former editor of The Times and life peer, who refused to change her Christian name to Nancy before the 2010 election to please the party leadership and – as they saw it – improve her electoral chances.

***

In the wake of a report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary which says that criminal damage and car crime are “on the verge of being decriminalised” because some police forces had “almost given up,” Lincolnshire Police accept that they send an officer out to fewer than half the calls for help that they receive.

The Association of Chief Police Officers has said austerity measures mean forces have had to set priorities

And although Assistant Chief Constable Heather Roach, who is responsible for crime and operations in Lincolnshire, claims that “we certainly haven’t given up” she says that in some cases, “there is no investigation which can be done.”

Of more than 400,000 calls a year, just 181,000 of them “need attention.” – but there are some strange reasons given for why the police often don’t bother – the most unusual being that “sometimes people report a crime and don’t want police attendance at all because it’s just for insurance purposes.”

We find this latter explanation very worrying.

Is it really the case that someone can call the police, report a "crime," and then ask for no further action because they’ll leave the insurance company to foot the bill?

It sounds to us like an open invitation to fraud. 

***

Whilst we understand the financial pressures on the police locally, it does seem these days that they will do anything to avoid stepping out of the warmth and comfort of the nick.

Many years ago we read an interesting history of our local policing in which one Victorian constable noted that it took him more than four hours each way to walk from Horncastle to Lincoln to give evidence in court – the travelling time not being counted as part of his hours on duty. Only inspectors and above had the perk of a horse to go with the job!

Now, we learn that Lincolnshire is among a number of East Midlands forces to share £800,000 of government funding for “virtual courts” at police stations.

These will provide create a live link between stations and a court “to make it easier for police officers and victims to give evidence,” which “will save travel costs and inconvenience to the service.

Call us old fashioned if you like, but we think that some things are better done face-to-face.

And the administration of justice should be one of these, unless the circumstances are exceptional. 

***

It seems, though, that our police are not so hard pressed financially that they can’t afford to throw what must be huge sums at what was termed a “PR opportunity” in Boston Market Place.

This involved 15 staff, who brought with them one  large exhibition van, one Transit van, one plain white dog van, two patrol cars, one PCSO vehicle, and one black labrador.

Clearly a good time was had by all, with the publication of hilarious photos such as the police rolling a speed stinger across the path of an elderly person on a mobility scooter.

Oh how we laughed – and what better way could the police have found to spend well at least £1,500 on something which will probably achieve nothing at all.

Worse still we note that the Boston performance is one of ten similar events around the county – so make that between £15,000 and £20,000 … for what?

***

There is a story doing the rounds which we report for its amusement value, which is something of a side effect of the police “public relations” presence in the Market Place.

We are told that a window cleaner who needed to work in Dolphin Lane was stuck for somewhere to park, and asked one of the army of police idly mooching around where he might leave his vehicle for a few minutes.

Park alongside those wooden planters, he was told.

So he did.

And guess what – he got a parking ticket.

It is being said that after a brief conversation with the ticktim, the traffic warden received a clip around the ear for his pains – at which point he burst into tears, flung his uniform jacket to the ground and stalked off.

A delicious tale if true – but one which is receiving a lot of telling around the town regardless.

***

Ticketing motorists is still a big earner in Boston as far as Lincolnshire County Council is concerned.

A report to last week's highways committee meeting placed overall income from the county's car users at just over £1 million, with profits of £156,000 – a sizeable chunk of it coming from our local pockets.

According to County Hall, any surplus is ring-fenced and can only be spent on the enforcement service, supplying or making good parking facilities, and transport projects.

Excess income is currently helping to fund changes to parking restrictions, such as Westgate and the Marketplace in Grantham and ensuring that other schemes around the county are correctly lined and signed.

***

The Boston Big Local organisation continues to make its lacklustre progress as it looks for ways to spend £1 million of lottery money for the good of the town centre.

Most recently, it seems to have got stuck in a rut involving the Hansa, a league of merchants who worked together to protect themselves and their livelihoods, of which Boston was a member in the 12th century.

The group has already had a talk about the Hanseatic League and is now planning a trip to Kings Lynn to learn more about the Hansa and its link with the towns.

Quite how this will benefit anyone has not yet been made clear, but a free day out to Kings Lynn is always a delight.

And it gets better.

At last week’s meeting the group excitedly announced that it is organising a street food and craft fare (sic) in November, working in partnership with Boston Stump.

This will be in partnership with something called Sagemuseevents –  a “creative business making happy places for positive experiences – elders and youngers, artists and makers, you and me.”

What a brilliant idea.

After the refurbishment of Boston Market Place, Boston Borough Council promised that there would be a wide range of different market events for residents and visitors to enjoy.

Unsurprisingly, it struggled to come up with even one – and the one it did deliver was … you’ve guessed it … a craft market.

Quite what the regulars who have stayed loyal though thin and thinner will make of a bunch of newcomers setting up shop in the lucrative run-up to Christmas is anyone’s guess.

***

Lincoln’s on-going indifference towards Boston continues to be demonstrated in the latest “Leader’s brief” produced by county council leader Martin Hill.

In it he mentions that neighbourhood health and care teams have been introduced in Skegness, Stamford, Sleaford and the south of Lincoln, with the rest of the county set to follow.

Also worth a line is the news that four new schools are opening this year, – in Spalding, Bourne, Crowland and Skegness, with two more planned for Gainsborough in 2015 and North Hykeham in 2016.

Councillor Hill says: “It's all part of careful planning and monitoring to provide new classrooms, extensions and schools wherever they are needed, ensuring the vast majority of children can attend schools close to their homes.

And does any of the good news in this report extend to Boston?

Don’t be silly!

***

As always, we have to look at other district councils around Lincolnshire to find good ideas.

In East Lindsey, the council is considering free parking periods in its coastal resorts to ensure that people have access to a car park with a free two hour tariff in line with those in the district’s inland towns.

Contrast this with the Boston approach, which seeks to squeeze every last penny from people who park, and ramp up the charges on an almost annual basis – and then shed tears of regret when people go somewhere else where the welcome is cheaper – or even free.

Another idea – so simple, logical and straightforward, that we can immediately see why it escaped the attention of our so-called “leaders” – is to increase sharing of responsibilities between districts.

Boston has dabbled with this by sharing one senior post with East Lindsey.

But at the same time, it demonstrated that if someone can do the same job for the same money in half the time, then the post was grossly overpaid to begin with.

And let’s not forget either, that in Boston, we pay our Chief Executive a full time salary for just six months' work. 

However, turn your gaze southwards where South Holland District Council has just closed applications for shared posts in a project which merges some services with Breckland – not even a neighbouring authority – and is talking about the possibility of a third authority joining the concept.

The shared management structure has operated since April 2011, providing full year savings for the two authorities of more than £1m.

Boston’s sharing with East Lindsey saves around £43,000.

As South Holland rightly and proudly boasts, its ideas are at the forefront of local government transformation.

That must put Boston at the hindpart, we suppose.

***

It may well be that part of the answer to the turgid leadership in Boston lies in a recent observation by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee which said that too much reliance was placed on councillors who "may not have sufficient capacity" to do the job thoroughly.

And the committee was also concerned that the hopes that an army of "armchair auditors" would step in to use data published under a new openness regime had been thwarted by the failure to present the information in a useful way.

The committee chairman Margaret Hodge said: "The Government believes that the best way to ensure that councils spend our money wisely is to rely on local residents and councillors to provide scrutiny.

"However, there is no convincing evidence that 'armchair auditor' members of the public are being empowered to hold local authorities to account for how they spend the £36.1 billion in funding they receive every year.

"Councillors do not always have the skills or time to fulfil this role, which involves scrutinising the delivery of complex services such as adult social care provision.

 "If this system of local accountability is to work effectively, residents and councillors must have access to relevant and comprehensible information.

"Yet while local authorities are required to publish data such as expenditure over £500, senior salaries and land holdings and building assets, this data is presented in a way which does not make for easy and effective scrutiny by the public."

Having struggled to decode financial reports and spending returns issued by Boston Borough Council, we have to agree.

Whilst a lot of information is certainly available, absolutely no attempt is made to translate it into terms that are easily understood.

We feel sorry for those councillors who are trying their best to keep track of things, but are unable to do so because of lack of transparency – although on the leadership side, we suspect that many of the back benchers seldom if ever bother to check what their masters are doing and just do as they’re told.

And often, the only time that reports are offered in a more easy-to-understand way is when the “leadership” feels that that there is something to advance its political image.

And we agree with the PAC’s view that some councillors "may not have sufficient capacity" to do the job.

Some of the remarks made at the recent meeting which approved a new football stadium for Boston United demonstrated such woeful stupidity and ignorance that we can only assume that their advocates  regarded these shortcomings as a badge of honour rather than one of disgrace.

And for further proof, one only has to look down the cabinet membership list to see what Margaret Hodge is talking about.

***

One of the few areas in which Boston Borough Council claims success is in the disposal of green garden waste – but it may be a case that is has bitten off more than it can chew.

Whilst many people have bought the bins and use them regularly, larger gardens need the occasional visit by someone who can cut taller hedges and the like into shape and cart the clippings away.

In Boston, a veritable self-employed army of people advertise such services – but possibly not for much longer.

We were talking to one the other day who has been a jobbing gardener for years, and who has a trade licence to dispose of the waste he collects.

Now, though, he says he has been turned away by Boston Borough Council – because he calls on them too often, and says he knows of others similarly blacklisted.

Superficially, the idea is a good one that makes money for the council.

But as always it got off to the usual iron first in the iron glove approach adopted by Worst Street which was to say: If you want your green waste collected you must pay us for a bin. If you don’t buy a bin, we will no longer collect your green waste. And now it appears they are saying: enough is enough, we have more business than we can cope with so the shop is now shut.
And they call it public service!

***

 

Finally – they say that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions … well, here’s some more proof.

Of all the ways you might promote Lincolnshire as a destination, our eye alighted on this one, which appears on the front of a nationally distributed tourism guide.

 “Lincolnshire: Head off to somewhere different”

Whilst it’s clearly meant to sound inviting, it reads more like a piece of advice, don’t you think?

*** 

There will no blog next week, and our next offering will be – all being well – on Friday 4^th October.

We hope to keep tweeting in our absence, and that you don’t mind waiting too long for the best and most detailed political coverage in Boston.

** Footnote:  Toad. The spelling is deliberate rather than the customary toed – as in toadying.

You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.

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

This time, it’s not the oysters from the Walrus and the Carpenter – although a number of people are coming out of their shells – but candidates to represent Boston at next year’s general election.

Last week our attention focussed on the campaign by Neil and Christine Hamilton for the “writer, actor, broadcaster and entertainer” to be UKIP’s man at Westminster on Boston’s behalf.

The idea chilled us to the bone, echoing as it did of the sound of a window of opportunity being thrown open by someone anxious to represent wherever presented the best chance of getting elected.

But as Boston Eye went to bed last week, more and more names were emerging.

A second candidate emerged for UKIP, along with two for Labour, and the first Tory interest in the seat.

The defection of Douglas Carswell from the Tories to UKIP and his decision to fight a by-election in his Clacton constituency on 9^th October rather than sit tight until 7^th May next year prompted local UKIP activists to postpone their proposed candidate selection date from 11^th September to a date to be fixed.

It was a sound move politically and for another reason – anyone selected on 9/11 would start out with more than their fair share of “disaster” jibes before any other comments came their way!

So, who are the names in the frame so far?

  

***

We’ll stay with UKIP for the moment – and the party’s second candidate is Paul Wooding – aka djsharkyp on his Twitter page..

Mr Wooding hails from the Maidstone area, but told Boston Eye: “I have family who live in the area and I visit quite a few times a year and understand the people, their problems and their angst.

“I chose to put myself forward many months ago for selection as I am not motivated by fame or money.....just to bring attention and help to the region.

“I have been working since February on schemes, but cannot say much more than that as I would not like the other parties to steal the credit.”

Earlier this year Mr Wooding stood for the party in elections for Maidstone Borough Council’s South Ward and came a close third  behind the Tory candidate.

Last weekend he was out campaigning in Clacton, after a 12 hour night shift, two hours sleep, and a two hour journey to his destination.

We call that keen!

As DJ SharkyP – not to be confused with DJ Sharkey (Jonathan Kneath) who co-created a style of hard-core techno known as freeform or freeform hard-core  – Mr Wooding boasts 25 years’ experience, and says he can “cater for most genres and can supply a bespoke entertainment set for any occasion.”

Fortunately, he has had the perspicacity to change his social media profile picture in recent days, so that he now appears on Twitter looking more like a political candidate and less like an all in-wrestler about to launch an attack on his opponent. 

***

Next we turn to Labour – whose prescription for election victory is to keep taking the mixture as before.

Our local “newspapers” report that Paul Kenny and Ben Cook have been shortlisted for the party in Boston and Skegness.


Mr Kenny is, of course, a familiar political figure locally. He’s a Boston borough councillor and former mayor, and also served as a Lincolnshire County Councillor.

Not only that but he has played before – having stood for Labour at the last two general elections.

Mr Cook, meanwhile, was Labour’s unsuccessful candidate in the Boston borough council by-election for Fenside a year ago – losing to UKIP changeling Patrisha Ann Keywood-Wainwright who after a series of political metamorphoses is now a member of Lincolnshire Independents … the “independent” party with a leader. Hopefully, she’s not as confused as we are!

The choice between Messrs Kenny and Cook will be made on September 21^st.

Councillor Paul Gleeson, leader of the Labour group on Boston borough council, has said that in the mid1990s this was a close seat for Labour and that he expects that the strong UKIP challenge could split the Conservative vote.

Of the two candidates, we know Mr Kenny quite well and greatly admired his term as Mayor when he did much to restore the credibility that the role had lacked for many years.

However, local success is not a guarantee of anything more, and as we have already reported, Labour has not enjoyed a good run at general elections under Mr Kenny’s stewardship.

The closest the party came to capturing Boston was in 2001, when Mark Simmonds’s victory coincided with the second Labour landslide and he squeaked home with a majority of just 515 over Labour rival Elaine Bird.

In 2005, when Paul Kenny entered the fray for Labour, Simmonds won with a Tory majority of 5,907.

In 2010 things got even worse for Labour with Mark Simmonds’ majority rising  12,426 or 49.4% and Paul Kenny winning 8,899 votes – 20.6% of the total, and a fall of 11.1% on the previous election.

But despite public opinion polls, elections are unpredictable, and Labour nationally is currently on target to form the next government.

But if nothing else, we would urge Mr Kenny to attend a couple of broadcast training courses to practice the art of the sound bite – we once heard him filibuster himself on a radio interview, which is no mean feat!

Ben Cook, meanwhile, is in his late 20s, and has lived in Boston all his life. He went to St Thomas Primary School, Kirton Middlecott secondary School and Boston College.

In his election leaflet last year he told voters: “Over the last few years, seeing how my friends and neighbours have been struggling to make a living in the town, I became an active trade unionist to try and make a difference.”

***

Now to the Conservatives.

Not surprisingly, we are witnessing the customary lethargic, mañana-will-do complacency that we have come to associate with our local Tories.

Initially, a spokesman for the Boston and Skegness branch told the Boston Standard that applications opened a couple of weeks ago – with members expected to make their choice from the contenders “in about three weeks.”
Now, though, the Tories are saying that adverts inviting applications will be appearing from Monday and that final decisions will be made "towards the end of October."
Is this over-confidence or just the usual complacency?

Whether we will see an open primary – which would give more members a voice in the final decision – has not been mentioned at this stage.

However, the name of one candidate is in the frame.

He is Kelly Smith, a 42 year-old “entrepreneur,”  who runs his own company and who is married with two  young sons and lives in Tealby – probably one of Lincolnshire nicest villages,

He is  the Deputy Chairman of Lincolnshire Conservatives, a former county councillor for Lincoln Moorland, who was executive member for finance until he was ousted by UKIP, and is the Gainsborough Conservative association deputy chairman for membership and fundraising.

All the political credentials are there.

But from our viewpoint in the crow’s-nest we do have some observations.

Only a couple of months ago, Mr Smith was declaring how delighted he was to have been shortlisted as a candidate for the Louth and Horncastle seat at Westminster being vacated by Sir Peter Tapsell in 2015.

At the time, he stressed that he was “a Lincoln boy born and bred who has limited himself to only standing locally because he believes we should have good local representation.

“I have wanted to try to become an MP for a long time …” he declared, and goes on to say: “Having lived in Lincolnshire all my life, I have a real and instinctive passion for the area, which is why I won’t stand elsewhere …”

“I couldn’t go to the other side of the country and pretend to be passionate about an area I know nothing about. I want to represent Louth and Horncastle at Westminster, not the other way round. The issues for me in the constituency are improving flood defences and transport and creating real opportunities for our children.”

Presumably this will now read something like: I couldn’t go to the other side of the country and pretend to be passionate an area I know nothing about. I want to represent Boston and Skegness at Westminster, not the other way round. The issues for me in the constituency are the effects of immigration, the lack of a bypass for Boston and whatever else comes to mind that makes me sound electable …

A couple of years before all this Mr Smith was also pretty keen to be the first Police and Crime Commissioner for Lincolnshire, when his name was among three shortlisted by the county’s Conservatives.

One of the other candidates was County Councillor Richard (Bob the Builder) Davies,  Lincolnshire’s Executive Member for Highways and Transportation and thus a key person to blame for Boston’s appalling road network.

According to the Market Rasen Mail, Councillor Davies is backing his former county cabinet colleague Mr Smith as a candidate for Boston – although why he thinks he has any say in the matter as a councillor for Grantham North West is anyone’s guess.

It must be that Tory Old Boy’s network that we’ve heard so much about coming into play.

At least Councillor Davies has told BBC Radio Lincolnshire that he will not be seeking the Boston candidacy.

When the time comes to choose who we want as MP for Boston, the question should be “ask not what Boston can do for you, ask what you can do for Boston” (sorry JFK.)

Is Mr Smith’s chameleonic enthusiasm for Boston that of a man who wants to be an MP first and foremost?

It seems to us to be a somewhat dog in the manger attitude from someone with such an overwhelming ambition to be a MP that he is unwilling to undergo the smallest inconvenience to get where he wants to be.

An interest in Lincolnshire as an area is not the same as having an interest in Boston, is it?

Perhaps the Vicar of Bray might be persuaded to stand?

We have even encountered suggestions that a couple of Boston borough councillors could be suitable for the job – although we firmly believe that if William Tell were alive today and living in Boston, he would salute Gessler’s hat before supporting such a suggestion.

***

Back to our present MP Mark Simmonds – and we wonder what his reaction was to the news of a proposed 10 per-cent increase from £67,000 to £74,000 for our parliamentary representatives after the election.

As an 11 per-cent rise was suggested last December by the outgoing head of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, and has scarcely been watered down by his successor –  the interestingly named Marcial Boo – we are guessing that it still wouldn’t have been enough.

Mr Boo claimed that MPs’ salaries have “fallen behind,” thus risking excluding good candidates from parliament who are accustomed to higher pay.

“It is not an easy thing to do,” he is quoted as saying. “We want to have good people doing the job and they need to be paid fairly.

“Now, that's not paid in excess but it's not being paid a miserly amount either ...

 “There are lots and lots of professionals in public life and in the private sector who earn a lot more than that – so it is not an excessive amount of money at all.”

Whilst we hate to say goose to a Boo, and we accept that MPs deserve a fair salary, we have to ask how such a figure is reached.

Whilst a lot of professionals in public life are paid more than MPs, it is because they have some sort of skills or qualifications.

MPs have none, and the lure of politics is supposedly to serve, not to profit from society.

And we wouldn’t mind paying MPs such a huge sum if they regarded the job as full time.

But a lot of them – Mr Simmonds included at one point – are able to parlay their parliamentary skills after time into highly lucrative “work” outside the Commons.

Usually it is defended by saying that it helps them understand life in the “real world” – and only a cynic would consider it a case of being greedy, plain and simple.

***

It really came as no surprise to hear that the Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has told Boston Borough Council to hold fire on the Quadrant development plan to concrete over Wyberton, which a special meeting of the planning committee predictably approved on August 5^th.

After all the hullabaloo when the scheme was approved by the Worst Street puppet show – which included a three page “special” edition of the Boston Daily Bore in which leader Pete Bedford made “no apologies” for his previously unannounced support for the project  –  the council tepidly proclaimed: “The Department for Communities and Local Government has issued a holding direction to give it longer than the initial 21 days from receipt within which to consider the Quadrant consultation from Boston Borough Council.

“The Secretary of State is still considering whether to call the application in or not and has an undefined and unlimited time within which to consider it.

“The council can do nothing until it receives express permission from the minister to determine the application in line with the planning committee resolution to approve with conditions.”

The final authority rests with Pickles because of the size and scale of the project, and he can overrule the application if he wishes.

At present it is solely for a new stadium for Boston United.  The additional bait is a plan for 500 houses, a retail park and the start of a new bypass – but no details on that have been drawn up – merely a delightful set of watercolours that could represent almost anywhere.

Much of the argument over this plan has caused us concern, and it is interesting to learn that it might be shared in Whitehall as well.

However – in the way that the left hand of the government often doesn’t know what it’s right hand is doing, a few days later Mr Pickles announced a shortlist of more than 160 smaller housing developments across the country that could benefit from a share of the £525 million Builders Finance Fund, “which will get workers back on sites and new homes built.”

Among the developments listed is a grant to Chestnut Homes for 40 houses on the Quadrant site – presumably these will be of the affordable kind.

***

Meanwhile, planning more homes is definitely not proving the flavour of the month elsewhere in Boston and environs.

In Fishtoft, the parish council has raised several issues with Boston Borough Council over two separate applications which could see 420 houses built on estates facing each other on either side of Toot Lane

And parish councillors in Sibsey are opposing plans in East Lindsey District Council’s 15-year development plan which could see at least 235 new homes built in the village.

East Lindsey rates Sibsey as a “large village” – which appears to mean that this makes it all right to enlarge it even more.

Villagers say that the council lacks local knowledge, and that Sibsey has no wish to become an extension of Boston, or a small town in its own right.

East Lindsey District Council haughtily responded that the local wishes for no further expansion weren’t an option “in reality.”

According to the powers that be, the 2011 Localism Act was intended to devolve more decision making powers from central government back into the hands of individuals, communities and councils. The act contains a particular focus on community rights, neighbourhood planning and housing.

And a quoted key measure is reform of the planning system to make it more democratic and more effective, and to ensure that decisions about housing are taken locally.

We have already seen in the case of the Quadrant development that the wishes of truly local individuals are dismissed by puppets on a planning committee which does the bidding of the council’s “leadership” – which in turn is doing what it believes the government expects it to do.

The people of Wyberton went so far as to organise a village referendum which, insofar as these things go, made local wishes quite clear.

But the result was scorned at the committee stage and even deliberately distorted so as to be able to shrug it off.

First Wyberton, next Fishtoft, and then …

***

Mention of housing brings us back to the financially useless Boston Borough Council which flogged of around 5,000 council houses to Boston Mayflower in 1999, after tenants supported the move because they wanted to see their homes improved.

The tale is one of the many sorry sagas of this council, which always needs more money that it has, and which in this case sold off the family silver to get their mitts on some.

Which is why it was ironic to read the success story from South Kesteven, where hundreds of affordable new homes are set to be built from a £60 million fund that will also be used to refurbish existing homes.

The district council said that changes at national government level let the council keep its rental income in full which had enabled the scheme.

Council leader Linda Neal, said: “Embarking on a large building programme like this will go some way to reducing the shortfall and it will also provide the added bonus of delivering economic benefits including creating local jobs, developing skills and training, stimulating local business and enhancing the appeal of the whole district as a great place to live.”

We wonder into which black hole the proceeds from Boston’s retrospectively bad decision to sell its housing found their way.

Sadly, whenever it gets any money it seems to pour it down the nearest drain – the Princess Royal Sports Arena, the Haven Art Gallery, the Boston Enterprise Park, the government grants to smarten up out run-down town centre – the examples go on and on.

Then of course there is another matter which we are sure our leaders would like us to forget – the mystery million pound loan, which was taken out in 1991 for fifty years at a rate of 10% - which means it has cost the council taxpayers £100,000 a year ever since.

A report by Chief Executive Richard Harbord early in 2010 said “I can only surmise that there was some crisis which required immediate borrowing but on the face of it perhaps unfairly with the benefit of hindsight it does look like a very major case of very poor judgement.  The residents of Boston will have paid over £6m in interest by the time this loan is repaid.”

Were there no minutes or other records made at the time?

If there were, where are they now?

Boston Borough Council – the council that keeps on giving (away our hard-earned money.)

***

Life in Lincolnshire seems to get bleaker by the minute these days.

A recent briefing by Eurosat, the data agency of the European Union, looks at the richest and poorest areas in Northern Europe – and places Lincolnshire fourth out of the poorest ten.

The report says: “In the UK we think of ourselves as having similar standard of living to other countries in Northern Europe.

“However, the poorest UK regions are by far the poorest in Northern Europe. This is because the UK is much more unequal than other countries, where there is nowhere as rich as London, but nowhere as poor as our poorest regions.”

Even worse – if that’s possible – we know that Boston is among the most deprived areas not only in Lincolnshire but in the country as a whole, which pushes us still further down the slippery slope.

It’s a sad fact, but we never seem to hear any suggestions about how we might improve Boston’s lot.

Both our MP and our council leader have famously espoused the packhouse as the be all and end all of employment expectations in Boston – and until they grow out of that pathetic mind-set we frankly despair of what the future holds for Boston.

As we heard last week, attempts to open up the town to new business fell flat on their face with the Boston Enterprise Park, and if anything much by way of new ideas to boost the town exist, then they remain very well hidden.

***

But they are urgently needed.

Inevitably, poverty goes hand in hand with benefits, and this week we learned that 30% of referrals to food banks in Boston are due to delays in processing benefit payments.

Few will argue that the so-called bedroom tax plays a role in all of this, and last week, MPs backed the Affordable Homes Bill which exempts people who could not be found a smaller home from the benefit cuts.

Despite the fact that he is calling time on his association with Boston, our MP Mark Simmonds played it safe and toed the party line – and although the vote came as a shock to the coalition, our man Mark stayed onside and voted against.

This from an MP representing one of the poorest areas of the country, who himself has been moaning about making ends meet on a “miserly” £100,000 a year, and who regards his young constituents as nothing more  than packhouse fodder.

Perhaps his decision to look for a new job has turned out to be a wise one – so long as we don’t replace like with like when May 2015 comes.

***

Boston’s Big Local – the group charged with spending a £1 million lottery fund gift for the benefit of the town centre area of Boston, which is home to around 12,000 people – seems to be emerging from the shadows after some unpleasant infighting.

However, if does not appear to have been spurred on to do anything with particular enthusiasm or energy.

Although the scheme was approved at the end of 2012 it has settled into the comfortable rut that becomes the natural habitat of people who form themselves into a committee and start to feel important.

The money has to be spent within ten years, and we will soon reach the two year mark with nothing to show, apart from a load of meetings.

Once upon a time the minutes appeared on the group’s website, but nothing has been posted since February, and the site itself was last updated in July, which included a report on a group seminar called “leadership matters.”

It certainly does, and it would be nice to see some leadership being demonstrated.

As it is, one had to turn to Twitter to follow the most recent meeting – and this is the report from start to finish.

-         Tonight’s meeting is now underway!

-         The agenda for this evening’s meeting

-          If you think you would like to bring something up, please let us know!

-         The group are currently discussing proposals to have a newsletter to be distributed to local residents and businesses

-         In attendance at this morning’s evening, we have Rachel Lauberts, Rob Lauberts, Paul Gleeson, Nathan Bryant and more who aren’t tweeting!

-         The group are now discussing distribution of the newsletter.

-         The group will be holding a consultation event in the Age UK Community Room in Wide Bargate on Thursday 16^th  October, between 12pm and 7pm

-         We asked our Big Local Rep to write an article for our website. Take a read by visiting ….

-          Boston's been selected as one of 150 areas around England to be granted £1m to make a lasting positive difference 2 the community

-         The group are currently discussing our proposed Guided Principles.

-         Our next meeting will take place on Thursday 18^th September at the Black Sluice Lock Cottages

-         Tonight’s meeting has now closed!

Perhaps it might be worth a visit to next week’s “consultation” event, to ask what the hell is going on?

***

Meanwhile, yet another of those quangos that are all around us is telling us some good news – even though it appears to contradict what seems to be happening in the real world.

A survey of 1,515 employers in the area – including 130 in Boston  – conducted for the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership said that 65% of employers reported an increase in profitability, turnover, sales and market share in the last year, and 72% expected performance to improve in the year ahead.

And 70% of employers in the LEP’s priority sectors (whatever they are) gave Greater Lincolnshire a positive or very positive rating as a place where their business can grow, with “more than four in five” private sector employers expecting to invest in their business in the next two years.

However the survey did highlight some of the challenges Greater Lincolnshire faces in terms of infrastructure.

“When asked to rate the area’s positive aspects, only 21% of rated the transport infrastructure as good. Poor transport infrastructure was cited by 30% of private sector employers as an obstacle to business growth.”

The report added that  over the next “few” years Lincolnshire County Council will spend several hundred million pounds on major road projects in Lincoln and Grantham, and Network Rail is making significant investments in Lincolnshire too.”

The survey was carried out by phone – and we wonder how many businessmen would tell a total stranger that their company wasn’t in fine fettle and planning big things for the future.

We also don’t consider the news very encouraging for Boston. As usual, County Hall is pouring money in the direction of Lincolnshire and Grantham for road schemes, while the Lincolnshire Conservatives have announced “good progress” with lobbying central government, resulting in the Department for Transport confirming more trains between Nottinghamshire and Lincoln.

We sure that this will be welcome to the powers that be in Boston, who have never been able to drum up customers for a £3.6 million business park.

***

All this comes as a couple of our local politicians at last appear to have woken up to the fact that  Boston has as much chance of getting a by-pass as it does of seeing the Cape Canaveral space centre relocating to the banks of the Witham.

A local “newspaper” report says that fears are being voiced that Boston could miss out on vital business if a by-pass for the town is put on hold for much longer.

Could miss out?

We have missed out!

Shrewdly, they have noted that Grantham and Lincoln have each recently received funding for major new roads but that Boston “appears” to have been forgotten.

Borough Borough Council Labour group leader Paul Gleeson is quoted as claiming that it was unfair that Boston was being left out while other towns were thriving.

And Councillor Richard Austin – whom staff at the Guinness Book of Broken Electoral Promises fondly recall as the man who won control of Boston for four years on a bypass for Boston ticket said that the issue was an on-going concern.

Yes, on-going since the 1930s

“It seems that everywhere but Boston is getting a by-pass,” he cleverly observed. “The county council don’t seem to take the development of Boston seriously enough.”

And even before our laughter had time to subside, we were shaken by new convulsions when Councillor Richard (Bob the Builder) Davies, the county’s executive member for highways, said that if the council had the money it would build the by-pass tomorrow.

“Building the Boston by-pass is one of my, and the county council’s, key long-term objectives. Our ambitions are set down within the Boston Transport Strategy, alongside a number of other desired improvements for the town's road network.

“But the fact is we need to attract external funding to be able to start construction, either from the private sector or central Government …

… “It’s a complex, challenging project but I assure local people that we’re totally committed and are working to deliver it as soon as possible.”

***

The level of Lincolnshire County Council’s enthusiasm for the parts of the county which are not Lincoln and Grantham was reflected during the week at the annual rural conference and exhibition organised by the Local Government Association and the Rural Services Network.

It describes itself as “the key event for rural policy and decision-makers in local government to explore and understand rural perspectives on some of the most significant issues being debated across local government.”

The agenda included a look at key challenges for rural authorities on planning, supporting local business, health and wellbeing and housing amongst other issues.

Suggested attendees included lead members representing and serving rural communities, chief executives and officers of rural authorities, and  organisations responsible for, or involved with, rural affairs and communities.

It certainly sounded worth a visit, so it came as something of a surprise to learn that just one member of Lincolnshire County Council attended – Robin Hunter-Clarke, Deputy UKIP group leader at Lincolnshire County Council, and a national NEC member of the party.

Good for him – but bad for Lincolnshire as a whole.

We asked the LGA if there were other delegates there from Lincolnshire – but it seems that this is classified information.

“We are unable to share delegate information other than with event attendees,” said a spokesman.

***

We note that members of the Boston in Bloom group held a “catch up” this week, which will include plans for next year, and target “grot spots.”

Targeting grot spots in Boston is a task akin to that meted out to the mythological Greek King Sisyphus who as a punishment  was compelled to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this action forever.

What we don’t understand about the Boston in Bloom palaver is why everyone goes flat out to tart the town up for a few short hours each year to coincide with a visit from the judges.

A more measured approach would be to work year-round, improving all the time, so that come judgment day all that was required was some fine tuning to finish the job.

That way the people who live in Boston would enjoy a permanent benefit and Boston Borough Council would improve its chances of winning one of the medals that it craves so desperately.

You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.

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

It never rains but what it pours in Boston, does it?

First we lose our MP for reasons that have divided opinion among local people (more on that later) and now –  at the moment when it seems that his move might give UKIP a remote chance to wrest the seat from the Tories, up springs Neil Hamilton like Zebedee  from the Magic Roundabout to announce his intention to seek the nomination.

Our erstwhile MP Sir Richard Body never quite recovered from a jibe delivered by the normally mild-mannered former Prime Minister John Major, of whom he once said: “Whenever I see him approaching, I hear the flapping of white coats."

Quite what Major would have heard as Neil Hamilton approached would most likely have produced even more entertaining analogies.

It concerns us that the party might be lured by the purely illusory notion that Neil Hamilton is a well-known personality – or worse still, someone “famous” who will “put Boston on the map.”

Neil Hamilton is famous for being infamous.

According to the sanitised account of this plan to stand for Boston on the Boston Standard’s website, “Hamilton served as MP for Tatton – now Chancellor George Osborne’s seat – between 1983 and 1997, when he lost to campaigner Martin Bell. He had been Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry between 1992 and 1994.”

The background was covered in slightly more detail when the paper hit the shops, but was still not one of the great moments in local journalism.

As many readers will remember, there was more to it than merely “losing to Martin Bell” – the former BBC war correspondent defeated Hamilton on an “anti-sleaze” ticket after the “cash for questions” affair.

And if that doesn’t mean a lot, then hopefully this timeline from BBC news will tell the tale far more succinctly than we ever could.

click to enlarge photo

A sorry footnote to the whole affair was that Hamilton was eventually bankrupted after a petition was brought by Mohamed Al Fayed, who was owed £1.5m in court costs after Hamilton's unsuccessful libel action against him over the cash for questions affair – and whose failed subsequent appeal left him with estimated debts of about £3 million.

***

When we made reference to bobbing up like Zebedee, there was a reason, as theHamiltons – and don’t forget, wherever Neil goes, he is joined at the hip to his wife Christine, a former face of British Sausage Week in 2005  –   bob up here, there and everywhere, and to their credit, whilst they may be amiable clowns, they are certainly not quitters.

Over the years, the couple have appeared in countless TV programmes, written books, performed in pantomime and at the Edinburgh fringe. They even opened the adult roadshow Erotica Manchester, billed as “the world’s largest erotic festival” and recorded an unofficial England World Cup song, “England are Jolly Dee” in 2006.

With a CV like that, if UKIP didn't exist, the next choice would have to have been the Monster Raving Loony Party.

Publicity is definitely their opiate of choice.

But do you hear the sound of white coats flapping?

We surely do.

***

Neil Hamilton has gone from being a former Tory minister to the Vice Chairman of UKIP, although he was quietly axed from his role as UKIP campaigns director amid reported insider claims that the demotion stemmed from fears over his political disgrace.

In an interview with BBC Radio Lincolnshire, Mr Hamilton said of his decision to apply to stand in Boston: “I came, I saw, I liked what I saw and that is what has made my mind up."

He said he decided to stand in the constituency because it was in the region with the highest number of votes for UKIP in the country at the European elections in May.

"The whole of my political life has been fought to achieve [getting out of Europe] and so I obviously want to be in at the kill," he said.

"If Boston and Skegness can be the means of achieving that then that's the seat for me."

Humbly, he added: “I would be the most effective representative for Boston and Skegness in Westminster, which is really what matters.”

He said he wants to highlight the effect of immigration on the area.

“I want to put Boston and Skegness on the front pages and because I'm a nationally known figure I think I can really put the national searchlight on the terrible problems which have been foisted on the constituency."

In another BBC interview, he took things further by saying that UKIP was a party for “decent” supporters of the BNP who worried about being "swamped" by immigrants,

On BBC Radio 5 Live's Pienaar's Politics he said “a lot of decent people” who had previously voted for the BNP were now turning to UKIP instead.

“They feel their communities are being swamped by immigrants from outside, whether they are from Eastern Europe or from other parts of the world.

“Now those people, the decent supporters of the BNP, from the last election, who weren't true BNP supporters at all, I am sure that quite a few of them are voting for a respectable alternative, which is UKIP," he added.

Interesting how times are changing.

Not so long ago, such comments would have drawn cries of “racist” from several of our Boston borough councillors – and may well do again, if they think that there is political advantage in it.

***

Neil Hamilton also claims a vague political kinship with Sir Richard Body – who also flirted with UKIP – telling the Boston Standard:  “Dick Body was a great friend of mine. We were very close when I was an MP –   I want to follow in the tradition that he set.”

A review of Body’s political career in Total Politics says: “Even Body's subsequent defection to the UK Independence party, triumphantly announced on the homepage of the party's website, was less straightforward than at first it seemed.

“Nine days later, the by then former MP told Boston Target readers that he would be voting Conservative  at the 2005 election and advised them to do the same.

“There was dark talk among some Boston UKIP members of referring the party's new star signing to its disciplinary committee for ‘bringing the party into disrepute.'

“The party evidently forgave him, however, and its website now lists him as a "UKIP grandee" (although his UKIP membership lapsed in 2008 and he later joined the English Democrats.)”

***

Just to lighten up for a moment.

If he were to be elected, we wondered whether Neil Hamilton’s name holds any clues to what sort of MP he might be.

So we checked out some anagrams of his name – with some interesting results.

A move to Boston-by-the-sea could well be one Into Main Hell if things didn’t go well.

Bearing in mind the cash for questions affair, the thought of Ah, Ten Million might have some allure and, of course, whoever gets the job, we will always want an MP who doesn’t turn out to be a Thin Lame Lion.

***

Following the circular route that this blog often takes, we now come back to the present day and the departure of our sitting MP Mark Simmonds.

After all the criticism, a writer to a local “newspaper” had some sympathy for the “plight” which led to his decision to quit.

“He’s standing down because he wants his family with him but he can’t rent a four-bedroom flat in central London for £28,000 a year. People don’t believe him, but have they bothered to check?

“I did an online search and found nothing in Westminster under £30,000 a year, so I don’t struggle to take him at his word.

“He hates staying in a hotel and doesn’t want to commute from the suburbs. Those are personal choices and we’re all entitled to make them. If our jobs won’t accommodate them, we quit.

“If those complaining about his decision had a friend saying the same things, they’d reward them with ‘I don’t blame you mate’. But sadly, because Mr Simmonds is a politician, people seem to think they have the right to control not only his Parliamentary duties but his personal decisions too.”

We have to say that we think this to be a bit over-simplistic given the huge sums of money and property values involved.

Mr Simmonds ought to have been able to rearrange the Monopoly board and acquire a top quality London home where, no doubt, his family would have been much happier, and bought or rented somewhere decent in Boston for his weekend visits.

***

But as is always the case with politicians, not everyone accepts what they say at face value.

A Boston Eye reader e-mails to say: “I don't think anyone with any sense is buying his excuse for resigning. The man had a clear majority in the area with no near contenders – especially since UKIP’s main man has decided to run in South Thanet and not Boston, which at one stage could have been a possibility.

“The possible proposed UKIP candidate, as we know at present is, Neil Hamilton, a nincompoop of immense proportions with an especially odious wife thrown in.

“Who in their right mind would be pleased to have him representing an area he knows absolutely nothing about?

“And the Tory candidate?

“No suggestions so far. However, with the recent shock defection of Douglas Carswell to UKIP and possibly others from the Conservatives and Labour, the last thing they will be thinking about is Boston and Skegness.

“Back to Mark Simmonds. He resigned only a few weeks after the appointment of Philip Hammond as Foreign Secretary. Apparently Baroness Warsi mentioned her "great unease" at Philip Hammond's appointment.

“Did Mark Simmonds also have a great unease?

“Just having a quick look at his tweets at the end of May, he was taking a Mozambique delegation around this area for possible trade partnerships. Don't recall this being reported in the local press, but I could have missed the article. His involvement in Africa was also quite strong but of course he could still be doing his job whilst harbouring decisions to leave.

“Also, it was only last year he (and in fairness) others, missed a crucial vote regarding Syria, on which the government were narrowly defeated.
"Was he put on the political naughty step due to this? However, could it also be that his boss, William Hague, was replaced due to the amount of people going from the UK to fight in Syria and who are now possibly returning to the UK to cause further problems here?

“It makes your head spin - or mine at least.

“The bottom line is, I think the guy was out of his depth. At the end of the day he was a surveyor who ended up embroiled in issues far beyond his scope who initially was probably quite chuffed to be chosen for the role but finds out how difficult and awful a place the world is outside of dealing with his constituents in Boston and Skegness.”

***

The satirical magazine Private Eye had its own take on the Warsi/Simmonds departures which appeared in its New Coalition Academy feature – a spoof on the government run as a private school with the politicians as teachers.

***

Still looking ahead to May 2015, and we have received a few more nuggets from an insider about how the selection process operates – and what happened last time, when Mark Simmonds was chosen.

We are told that the usual procedure is for Conservative Central Office Candidates’ Department to “clear” Tory hopefuls, who would have the information on all constituencies and apply to the ones they “prefer.”

Locally, the Constituency Secretary prepares a list of all CVs with any information available on each.

There is then a meeting of the selection committee (drawn up from officers and senior members) followed by a sift of candidates to bring the numbers to a sensible level – followed by selections held at Skegness and Boston.

The outgoing MP will only vote on the final of three candidates

Most would then proceed to the bar in the Con Club.

Our man in the know says he doesn’t think that Mark Simmonds will be there, though, as he has been persona non grata at the constituency office for some time.

Interestingly, back in the day of the final selection between Mark Simmonds and two others, we are told that Sir Richard Body approached the ballot box holding a voting slip indicating his support for Mark Simmonds and whispered “Am I doing the right thing?”

When it was time to lodge the nomination papers for the election, we are told that when Simmonds was asked for his deposit he gave “a surprised look” and a cheque  – which is only cashed  if the candidate loses – had to be issued in his name.

Apparently, Sir Richard had in the past paid his deposit in gold sovereigns! 

***

We mentioned house prices earlier – and whilst everyone else appears to be sitting on a fortune if they own their own home, we don’t seem to be so lucky here in Boston.

The Sunday Times has come up with a clever little calculator that shows by how much local house prices have risen since 1995.

The answer is a wallet busting 130%, which sounds very exciting until you see that it means the average price for the area is now £140,351 – up from £61,044 twenty years ago … an increase of £79,306.

But that pales into insignificance when compared with the news earlier this year that the average UK house price has now hit £250,000.

The strange thing is that when you browse the windows of local estate agents, house prices seem much the same as they were a year or 18 months ago – and that’s despite claims that prices have risen by more than 15% in that time.

But bet your boots that if the current housing bubble bursts, local prices will fall in line with everywhere else – despite apparently never having risen.

Certainly, there’s not much chance of people in Boston “downsizing” to somewhere smaller and pocketing some handy cash – there’s nowhere lower to go!

It called the Boston Blight.

***

Mention of the Boston Blight moves us neatly on to those buffoons who claim to lead Boston Borough Council.

If further examples were still needed to demonstrate just how hopeless they are, then two have emerged in the last few days.

The first is the issue of car parking – and despite constantly being reminded that charges in Boston are too expensive, councillors continue to view it as the goose that lays the golden egg.

Short of a few bob?

Then stick another ten pence on the price of parking – the projections predict a vast boost for the coffers if you do.

But it all ends in tears when motorists vote with their wheels – and steer towards  places where parking is cheaper – or often free.

Then there are long faces all around the cabinet table accompanied by Tarzan style breast beating and laments about lost income.

The latest figures show that 4.35% fewer car parking tickets were sold in the first quarter of this council year than in the corresponding period last year.

And we’re talking big numbers according to the figures – something like 26,000 fewer tickets this year compared to last year and 50,000 fewer than in 2011/12.

As so often happenes our leaders went for the pie in the sky based on what turned out to be a series of wrong assumptions.

The estimate for car parking income in the 2013/14 budget was just over  £1 million – which was retained for  the 2014/15 budget as, “at the time, it wasn’t clear what the net effect of the price increase on 1^st  October 2013, the effect of disabled parking charges, and the introduction of civil parking enforcement (CPE) would be.

“It was projected that CPE would encourage more people into the council’s car parks, and that the new charges would also add or maintain income, which has proved not to be the case.”

And – in don’t blame us, guv mode – the council also notes “a downturn in car park income across the town’s private sector managed car parks has also been noted.”

Now the whole sorry affair is on the agenda for October with a report on “car parking/review of CPE/options taking car parks forward.”

Expect nothing exciting – the cabinet codgers are too set in their ways to consider anything radical that might get more people to park in Boston.

The key mistake is to factor the expected income into the budget – which then creates problems if the projected profits fail to materialise.

A better idea would be to wait and see how much money came in from parking charges, and then to allocate it.

It’s known as living within your means.

We hope that when the council reviews civil parking enforcement it remembers the falsity from Lincolnshire County Council, which emphatically denied that ticketing was a fundraising exercise.

The figure it quoted when the plan was mooted was that it would cost about £1.1 million a year to operate, and that the 20 parking wardens employed were expected to rake in £940,000 in parking fines.

However, recent figures showed that in 2013 revenue from parking tickets in Lincolnshire was the second highest outside of London – with Lincolnshire County Council  pocketing £2,196,590 in fines from 35,275 parking tickets

As a large chunk of this is “earned” in Boston – despite the fact that there has been no noticeable impact on the town’s parking problems – it seems only fair to hand some of it back to be spent on a useful purpose.

The whole Boston parking charge fiasco reminds us of  the ancient trick used by hunters to trap monkeys.

Food is put into a bottle that is firmly tethered to a tree or a post.

The neck of the bottle is just large enough for the monkey to reach in and grab a handful of the goodies – but once its fist is full of food it is too big to pull back out of the bottle.

The monkey (Boston’s so-called leaders) is both too stupid and too greedy to let go of the food (the income from car parking) and make a run for it – and thus becomes easy prey.

Sound familiar?

***

The other example of the Boston Blight concerns the Boston Enterprise Centre – another multi-million pound white elephant at which Boston Borough Council threw millions of pounds. Think PRSA.

We denounced the idea when it opened five years or so ago, and sadly, time has proved us right.

The lease expires in November, and the place is making barely any money for the council

The idea  was to develop modern office accommodation within Boston and strengthen business support services to meet the needs of business start-ups and small business growth – and Boston Borough Council secured funding from various sources totalling £3,670,000 to develop it.

However – as always with Boston Borough Council – the road to hell was paved with good intentions, and nothing came of the idea.

Take up of space was poor, and despite all the exciting plans, in desperation it was agreed to sub-lease part of the centre to the NHS/Primary Care Trust for five years.

This meant extending the head-lease for another two years period to coincide with the end date of the NHS/PCT sub-leases.

All very well, except that no formal sub-leases were ever completed and the actual sub-tenants have “evolved” over time because of NHS restructuring.

In fact, for the past four years, NHS occupancy at 55% has been 10% more than for the intended occupants that that the place was built for.

Now, it could be that the NHS needs will start pulling out from as early as November with a potential loss in income of £19,000 a year and uncertainty surrounding the balance of the NHS income of £52,000 per annum.

A report warns that if the NHS vacates part or all of its space in the short term this could see the centre running at a loss.

And it’s on the brink of that already … with a profit last year of only £30,000 on a turnover of £226,000 – a fall from £70,411 the year before.

Now the council has been forced to scrabble around trying to snatch the least ignominious defeat from the jaws of what was once intended as economic victory.

Politically, it seems fair to point out that this particular calamity was a product of the Boston Bypass Independent administration, but it seems that the Tory heirs to this on-going debacle have done little if anything to address it before the crunch has come.

***

The Boston  Blight has also been noticed by reader Robin, who wrote after our explanation in last week’s blog of how the council worked to say: “I must admit that I also have long been worried by the way most councils are being run these days, in particular our own Boston Borough Council.

“The small cabinet group of actual governing councillors seem to have total and complete control over everything – all other councillors are in fact totally surplus to requirement, as they seem to have no useful or meaningful function to perform as far as I can see, other than to make up the numbers.

“This is not how a real democracy is supposed to be. No wonder the voters have to all intents boycotted local elections with fewer and fewer turning out year by year.

“I always thought that councillors of all persuasions should have meaningful input and discussion on all subjects and actually represent and express the views of their constituents, not just turn up at meetings to make up the numbers.

“Obviously some like Councillor Carol Taylor do put in enormous efforts trying to represent their constituents to the best of their ability, but under this undemocratic system they are not able to have a fair crack of the whip for their area’s views.

“As it appears that a mere handful are taking and making all the decisions seemingly regardless of the others’ views, then it seems to me that if this continues we only need a mere handful of councillors, of course this means that democracy is a dead duck –  but it more or less is already in this town.”

***

We followed up on last week’s Sunday Times report on senior council officer pay, with a quick word with the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The story concerned Peter Lewis, Britain's highest-paid council official, who channels his income through his private company in a scheme that reduces tax bills.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles told the newspaper: “We've changed the law to reduce secrecy on town hall pay deals and given elected councillors the power to veto excessive senior pay.

“Councillors now need to use these powers — and they should be held to account if they turn a blind eye," he said.

So we asked what his view might be on the similar arrangement under which Boston’s Chief Executive is paid.

The department was slow in answering – it operates an interesting system under which once the press office e-mail post-box is full, queries are returned as undeliverable and must be sent over and over again until there is room in the mailbox.

Bizarre!

However, we found a way around that, and received the following “go boil your head” response.

“Your blog includes the Secretary of State’s comment that was given to the Sunday Times. The same rules would apply to Boston Borough Council. It would be for the council to explain why they are paying him in this way.”

So, Pickles trumpets the rules that he has made; councils do nothing to observe them and the minister is the one who turns the blind eye.

If anyone other than Eric Pickles was involved, we would use the descriptor “gutless!”

***

Last week we questioned the value of Boston Borough Council’s daily propaganda sheet – given that it can take a two week break without anyone at Worst Street apparently being bothered.

And it seems that readers who wonder why are deemed unworthy of a response.

One told us: “I never got courtesy of a reply when I asked the council where it had gone.”

So much for our caring council.

***

It was with a sigh of relief that we noted the conclusion of the “public” appeal to unveil a £4,200 lump of stone on the 96^th anniversary of the ending of the First World War on November 11^th.

Whilst it would be impossible to say without a look at the list of contributors, it seems likely that the majority of the money came from ratepayers in one form or another, via parish councils and the great and the good who hold office

Certainly, the public were reluctant participants in this sorry affair which, let us not forget, needed to be underwritten from council tax by the incompetent B-TACky committee in Worst Street when it looked as though the appeal might fall flat on its face.

This placed any possible charge unfairly on citizens who paid an extra precept for the honour to be represented by B-TACky rather than the council’s main budget making up any difference.

Hopefully, Worst Street will have taken away a few lessons  on the right way to organise and promote such an appeal – largely because they got most of it wrong.

***

Finally, after last week’s piece on the scheme to encourage young people to take an interest in their local council, we received an interesting e-mail from an insider, who told us that the funding  for a Youth Council that we mentioned came from Conservative Councillor Gurdip Samra  – “whose two sons started it off!”

“The first donation from him of £1,000 was declared at a meeting where there was a discussion about housing and difficulties faced by those who can't afford them,” we were told.

The e-mail continued: “When this came up on the agenda, Samra piped up with his £1,000 donation and pompously said ‘may as well, it would only go to the taxman anyway’ … this in a meeting where people were discussing how times were so hard.”

As we said earlier, so much for our caring council.

You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.

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