Responsibility for making New Year resolutions seldom rests with the person who has to carry them out.

When we are young, the list is usually drawn up by our parents – and when we are grown up, by partners or friends.

And occasionally, we encounter people who never grow up.

Peter Pan is the most famous of them all.

He spends an eternal childhood in Never Never Land as the leader of his gang, the Lost Boys – but others who never grow up often wind up as local politicians.

One such as these is also named Peter, who leads a cabinet of lost boys (and a girl!) who remain permanently isolated in Never Never Land – which the dictionary defines as a utopian dreamland, unreal, imaginary, remote, isolated, barren.

New Year resolutions for the inhabitants of the Never Never Land known as Boston Borough Council are made for them – by the Government.

And because they mistakenly believe that they are “real” and “party” politicians, they mindlessly do as they are told – irrespective of the continuing harm that may befall the community which they laughingly claim to “serve.”

***

Consequently, when Whitehall told Boston Borough Council to slash a further £600,000 in the coming financial year, there were no howls of protest such as when Lincolnshire Chief Constable Neil Rhodes bravely stuck his head above the parapet to tell Home Secretary Theresa “Daisy” May that more cuts would see the death of the service in Lincolnshire.

However, the bottom line is that the borough’s spending has been reduced from £9.5m to £8.9m.

Our so-called leader was quick to doff his flat cap and bend a deferential knee in submission.

"It is what we expected to within a few thousand pounds,” he grovelled. “It could have been a lot worse if it hadn't been for the increase in new homes being built within the borough. It's going to be hard, but we will work with what we've been given and produce a balanced budget.

"There will be no increase in council tax. We gain the equivalent of a one per cent council tax increase from the Government by freezing council tax. If we increased council tax we would lose the one per cent, so this is the best way forward for the borough's council tax payers and the council.

"There will be no cuts in frontline services.

“We continue to do our bit to address the acute financial situation the country finds itself in."

What a hero – but given our druthers we would have liked, if nothing else, to have heard a growl of protest rather than just a whine of complaisance.

***

Perhaps the most telling line in the leader’s letter of surrender was the claim that there will be no cuts to frontline services.

Like Schrödinger's Cat, Boston Borough Council is both dead and alive (what’s known as quantum indeterminacy or the observer's paradox, which we all encounter at some time or another) until someone lifts the lid on the Worst Street toy box to see what’s what.

However, it can now be said with some certainly that there is no longer a readily identifiable “front line” among the council’s services.

Long ago in civic history, borough councils were relatively powerful organisations – even humble little Boston had its share of Aldermen alongside the run of the mill councillors once upon a time.

But over the years the tasks of local authorities were reduced – in some cases voluntarily, such as when our cash-strapped council (is there an echo in here?) decided to sell its housing stock to Boston Mayflower.

A look at the government’s website says of district councils: “They’re usually responsible for services like: rubbish collection, recycling, council tax collections, housing, and planning applications.”

Remove housing, and the list is depressingly small for the amount we pay in Boston.

As far as planning applications are concerned, these are mainly handled by a small and capable team of officers – except for major applications such as the one for the Quadrant scheme in Wyberton, which are referred to the planning committee.

And it is at times like this when we see our elected members in their true colours.

The Quadrant application – issued as a video nasty by Worst Street – showed how mind-bogglingly dense most of the members of the committee were.

We say most, because one or two remained silent, although it might well be possible to guess that had they uttered a word or two they would have joined their peers in piteousness. 

*** 

So what does that leave?

Of the  few remaining duties carried out by Boston Borough Council that impinge in any way on the life of the people it “serves” the only one with any credibility is the emptying of our wheelie bins.

As we have said many times before, the bulk of the money taken from us by the powers that be in Worst Street mostly goes on staff costs – and the lion’s share of those duties are collecting the taxes for Lincolnshire County Council and Lincolnshire Police.

One of the few sources of income these days is the formerly mentioned New Homes Bonus – a “housing incentive scheme” for local authorities – which is a government bribe similar to the reward for freezing council tax.

It could also go a long way towards explaining the enthusiasm for recent new house-building projects that are set to swamp the borough with the next few years.  

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We also anticipate that some more unpleasant surprises are on the way on the financial front.

The Environment and Performance Committee schedule up to the end of the financial year included a confidential item on the future arrangements for the management and operation of the Princess Royal Sports Arena – a white elephant which we thought we were supposed to have washed our hands of by now having poured millions and millions of pounds down its capacious drains.

The most recent financial report from the PRSA charity Boston Sports Initiative  showed an income of £616,166 – including £141,001 grant funding – against expenditure of £825,386.

Whether the hope is that the borough council will give the PRSA even more money, we don’t know.

The same annual report reminds us that “an exceptional amount of £2,059,820 was generated by the write off by Boston Borough Council of outstanding loan balances which had been previously retained in the financial statements, as Boston Borough Council did not formally implement the resolutions until May 2013.”

We recall that soon after the May 2011 elections, the council’s newly appointed leader Pete Bedford promised that arrangements for the PRSA would be settled "once and for all."

Yet here we are in the dog days of his administration and nothing appears to have changed.

The only thing that we did note was that the confidential report on the PRSA, which was scheduled to have been presented to the cabinet early last month, did not appear on the agenda.

Then there is the sorry affair of Boston Crematorium, which again is on the agenda for discussion on the Environment and Performance Committee schedule later this month.

Recent figures show that the crem is losing business … most likely to the more attractive – and cheaper – facilities in Alford and Surfleet.

The issue was well summarised by Independent Councillor Carol Taylor in her refreshingly honest blog who warned that the service is now in “big trouble.”

She went on: “We are in danger of losing it or seeing a huge reduction in service availability.

“Nearly half a million was spent on two new cremators which had to be replaced by law, and this was known about for several years before the work was actually done …

"It is another Assembly Rooms scenario.

“No money spent on it for internal structural changes and decoration but now it is so bad, it will cost a fortune to put it right.”

What a pity that our so-called leaders seem perpetually unable to learn from their mistakes!  

*** 

Our illustration at the top of the page just about sums it all up.

Our self-styled leaders, a prickly slow-moving lot at the best of times, have just a few months to clean up their mess and persuade people that they deserve a second term at the local elections – although we suspect that in their heart of hearts, many would prefer to be voted into political oblivion as a way off the hook.

However, they have made a rod for their own backs over the past 3½ years by their pathetic performance.

The Boston Bypass Independents were elected more on a hope than a promise.

And when they failed to deliver the undeliverable, they paid a heavy price at the ballot box.

Enter the Conservatives – with their first overall majority since 1973. They had no real manifesto and since they took office have stumbled from crisis to crisis – many of which have been made by their slavish adherence to government diktats.

There is no opposition to speak of – what  exists is too fragmentary, comprising as it does three different “Independent” groups,  plus Labour, a sole (and usually absent) English Democrat, and two councillors described as “unaligned” … which includes the only real independent in terms of definition.

This makes any realistic form of opposition impossible, even though the council is now equally divided between Tories and the rest of the horde.

How many of this motley crew will think that they are good enough for another term is anyone’s guess.

And will we see a major push by UKIP for seats on the council?  And if so, will the usual debacle ensue that will see them disappear  within weeks?

*** 

Meanwhile, as the council as a hole (this is not a spelling error!) girds its loins for another round of cuts, at least one committee is apparently looking forward to burgeoning profits in the foreseeable future.

Last month’s report by the multi-talented Aaron, Councillor Spencer (but written by the head of Financial Services) must have delighted taxpayers in Boston’s town wards who are allegedly represented by the Boston Town Area Committee (BTAC) when they read that rather than being charged a special tax to benefit them specifically there are plans instead to stuff it under the Worst Street mattress.

The calculations assume that by the end of this financial year, B-Tacky will have £85,000 in the kitty, and that this will grow over the years until by the 2019/20 financial year, it will stand at a stonking £124,000 – a massive increase in percentage terms.

The implication is that B-Tacky will spend little if any money in the next five years – and to rub salt in the wound, its running costs are set to be in the order of £100,000 next financial year.

The borough’s costing system bills the committee £73,000 for “premises” £21,000 for “supplies and services” – that’s a lot of tea and biscuits – and more than £10,000 for “support services.”

So unless we have misunderstood the report, the committee will cost taxpayers half a million pounds between now and 2020 in administration costs for doing nothing, whilst saving all its income.

Explanations on the back of a fag packet would be most welcome.

***

It also looks as if Boston taxpayers will be handing over even more to our leaders’ chums at County Hall.

A meeting of the LCC executive this week favoured increasing council tax by 1.9% – although unlike Boston ... and indeed some other districts which are increasing the charge –  head office feels that there are benefits to be had from forfeiting the government’s 1% bribe to freeze it.

But where an additional impact on Boston must surely be felt is the in County Council’s decision to pool business rates with six of the Lincolnshire District Councils – South Holland is not among them.

Initial calculations show the County Council could benefit by some £1.116m by entering into such an arrangement – which can only mean that the district councils involved will lose out.

***

Meanwhile, the battleground for the general election seat of Boston and Skegness remains entrenched.

Despite the big Conservative majority at the last election, Sky News considers the constituency as a possible gain for UKIP by including us in its “In the Margins” list of key battlegrounds

The candidates for the two major contending parties have kept fairly quiet over the festive period.

Conservative Matt Warman pictured himself supporting local business with the purchase of a turkey from one of the town’s butchers.

His UKIP opponent – boy wonder Robin Hunter-Clarke – charmed us by retweeting an item from  BBC weather telling us “it’s very clear for Father Christmas ahead of his journey start time.”

Whilst we applaud the arrival of younger candidates for parliament, we have to say that one who still apparently believes in Santa Claus is perhaps a little much.

Having said that, given the state of parliament these days, it may be that such an individual would feel entirely at home.

***

In his New Year message to the hoi-polloi, council “leader” Pete Bedford tells us beneath a grim-faced photo that “The town has rallied, with shop vacancy rates better than most and footfall in the town centre at a four-year high.”

We’ve raised an Eye-brow at such claims before, and think it only right to point out that in one key area of the town’s shopping “offer” there are now four empty shops within feet of each other.

The Age Concern and Community rooms in Bargate we mentioned in our last blog, but they have now been joined by the Ryman’s stationery shop and the one-time fish tank beauty parlour,

A worse location for so many empty premises would be hard to imagine.

***

An interesting contrariness appears to have afflicted Boston Borough Council in recent weeks.

It began in the run up to Christmas, when Worst Street produced what it laughingly referred to as a list of its opening hours.

Sharp eyed observers may wonder how anything purporting to be a list of “opening” times can comtain the word “closed” more than thirty times.

We suspect that the thought behind all this – if indeed there was one – is that it would be bad to give the impression that the council had shut down for Christmas … even though that appeared to be the case.

Our second piece of perversity concerned a local man aged 91 who wanted the council to take away an old armchair, which it agreed to do for £16.

But as is so often the case with the powers that be in Worst Street,  petty rules declared that the discarded chair had to be left on the pavement.

The point was made that aside from the difficulties  for the owner of  the chair manhandling bulky furniture at such an advanced age, the pavement was very narrow and would become blocked.

In the circumstances, the not unreasonable question was asked: “If I dragged it to the front door could not the council employee drag it out on to the pavement himself?

“No, that was impossible under health and safety regulations … however; there were private firms which could do it.

“Why the organisation to which I paid council tax could not do it but could advise me that a private firm could, I have no idea.

“The council representative was consistently unhelpful and made no attempt to try to meet me halfway.

“If this is the public sector at work, no wonder she suggested a private firm could do it.”

Health and safety is a convenient escape hatch which is often used by local councils to avoid tasks that they would rather not do – and as far as we are aware, the laws do not differ where private contractors are concerned.”

What a shame that just for once, the council could not literally have gone that extra yard to help an elderly taxpayer.

It should therefore come as no surprise that this self-same complainant made the national news back in 2007 when Boston Borough Council fined him £75 for putting a small carrier bag of food scraps in a litter bin, rather than letting it rot in his dustbin between collections.

He was reportedly told that litter was “what you carry around with you” and that what he put in the bin did not meet this definition.

Again, there was not a morsel of understanding from the powers that be. He forked out the £75 after being told that if he did not pay within 14 days the penalty would double and he could face a fine of up to £2,500 if the council took the case to court.

And as a petty sidebar to the affair, we note that the bin that was used was subsequently removed – presumably to avoid re-offending!

***

We had hoped against hope that Boston Borough Council might have lightened up in the run-up to Christmas, but it was without much surprise that when the Christmas Eve issue of its daily drivel arrived our dreams were dashed.

With scarcely a word of greeting a headline shrieked: “Grinch’s Christmas tree pee shame” followed by a story beginning “CCTV doesn’t stop, even at Christmas. And it’s just as well – one of the latest images captured by camera for Name and Shame has evidence of a man peeing up the town’s Christmas tree.”

As we’ve frequently observed, the “name and shame” campaign does neither of these things –nor do we ever hear of any fixed penalty fines or court appearances involving any culprits … which suggests that the whole idea is something of a dud.

However, it did cause us to put pen to paper and devise a verse to mark the occasion.

‘Twas Christmas Eve in the Worst House

And the leaders were wracking their brain.

"We have to rain on their festive parade," declared one,

"And flush it down the drain."

"But what can we do?" asked another.

"Our flood threats are older than Noah."

Said a third, "We return to tradition, and feed them the mix as before."

"Spot on” said the first, “and with that we can't miss.

"Let's tell them their Christmas tree's dripping with p*ss."

So they summoned the person who writes all this stuff

And said “lay it on with a trowel.”

There's wee on the tree and spitting galore

And perhaps something vile from a bowel.

We're sorry to say that it's what Christmas means

At the Worst Street fun factory.

There's nary a greeting apart from a banner

And the word for the season was "pee." 

*** 

It seems that Boston missed out yet again with an historic visit to the county by Bittern – the sister locomotive to the record breaking Mallard,  which notched up the world speed record for steam locomotives at 125.88 mph in 1938 on the slight downward grade of Stoke Bank south of Grantham on the East Coast Main Line.

On its final tour before going in for a lengthy overhaul, it  travelled back up the East Coast main line to Werrington, near Peterborough to join a restored line which took it to Spalding, then via a Sleaford avoiding line for a three hour stay in Lincoln  and a return via Newark. 

Crowds thronged the route and the stations that the engine visited, in what must have been a tourism triumph.

So near to Boston, and yet so far – which sadly almost always seems to be the case.

Never mind, we still have joining Die Hanse and playing eighth fiddle to Plymouth in the 2020 celebrations to mark the year in which the Pilgrim Fathers boarded the Mayflower in Plymouth to look forward to.

***

Finally, those with long memories who recall one-time Boston Chief Executive Mark James – the man credited with bringing the PRSA to Boston – will be pleased to know that he starts the New Year with Great Expectations.

A report on Wales Online says that Carmarthen Chief Executive Mr James – who was deemed to have received unlawful payments – may be in line for a severance package which could cost £446,000.

The ruling decided that payments made to him directly instead of to a local authority pension fund were unlawful, whilst another ruling said that the council had acted unlawfully by funding a libel claim Mr James won against a local blogger which together totalled more than £50,000.

After the debacle, Mr James applied for a package to leave Carmarthenshire County Council on April 1^st (ha, ha) – the first day of a new tax year … although the council’s severance scheme ends on March 31^st.

Wales Online understands there are ten possible options the council has been presented with in relation to its employment of Mr James – the cheapest of which will cost £230,000.

Apparently a negotiated settlement agreement on different terms is another possibility – whilst another option is for Mr James to remain in post or resigning without a payoff.

We wouldn’t hold our breath for that one!

The full details can be found here

  

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