By the end of the first
first hundred days – way back in 2011, which saw the Tories wrench control from the lamentable
Boston Bypass Independent Party – we had at least sniffed a scent of action in
the air ... even though the Tories were as startled as everyone else when they
won control of Boston and had no real ideas in mind about what they would do.
A cabinet was cobbled together which looked good on paper
but proved to have a few lame ducks in the badling – since when the story is history.
Worst Street’s leadership lumbered along, spending a fortune
on the Geoff Moulder Leisure Centre and little else and even had the nerve to
claim credit for some of the few achievements that the BBI had accomplished.
Fast forward four years, and we are now nearing the end of
the second first hundred days of Tory leadership – and
what a difference between this quadrennial anniversary and the previous one...
The popular vote this time around was by no means
unambiguous.
Before the farting around which passes for politics in
Boston there were 13 Conservative councillors, 13 UKIP councillors, two Tory
wolves in Independent clothing, and two Labour members who have emerged as much
the same.
Bring on the wooden spoon to stir the mixture up, and
we ended up with 13 Tories, 12 UKIP, one “unaligned” Kipper who fell out with
his chums and took his ball away, two avowed “Independents” who suddenly became
Soft Tories, and Labour – which seems
similarly to have sold its heritage for a mess of pottage.
A lacklustre cabinet has replaced ... a lacklustre
cabinet – with four of the previous team that performed so lamentably still at
the helm, joined by three newcomers who seem determined to remain as anonymous
as the day that they were appointed.
The only thing that hasn’t changed much seems to be the
determination to hurl hundreds of thousands of pounds at the Moulder and the
PRSA – purportedly to save us throwing more money at the Moulder and the PRSA.
You’re forgiven if you are feeling confused.
***
Instead of seeking to maintain momentum, the first thing
that happened was that the Conservative group decided that a fifty-fifty voting
split between themselves and UKIP meant that the electorate wanted nothing of
the sort.
Not at all – whilst voters apparently opted for significant
change, the Tories decided unilaterally that what they really wanted was the same turgid, sour mixture as before in the
shape of the status quo.
After a week of conniving, they concocted a grubby deal with
the rump of the BBI in the polymorphic shape of Clan Austin – reviled for years
by the Tories, but suddenly welcome at the Worst Street banqueting table – and
also have Labour chasing in their wake like seagulls behind a trawler.
Sadly, it seems that UKIP merely laid back and thought of
England during this debacle without raising any protest whatever.
The result is that a party supported by almost half the
voters has allowed itself to be humiliated and side-lined without a whimper of
protest.
***
However, one ray of light and the end of the tunnel has
arrived in the shape of an e-mail from UKIP’s deputy group leader Councillor
Paul Noble.
He tells us: “At the last full council meeting on 20th
July, the UKIP group attempted to limit the new Chief Executive's salary to
£90,000 with no automatic annual, incremental increase, in an attempt to save
Boston council taxpayers some money, but this motion was defeated by the 'soft
coalition' votes of Conservative, Labour and 'Independent' members.
“The UKIP group intends to put several motions on the agenda
of the next full council meeting in attempts to influence policy and to allow
Boston voters to see that UKIP councillors are
taking a pro-active approach to their new responsibilities.
“We aim to hold the present executive to account through our
work on the various committees and to scrutinise its actions with greater
effect than heretofore.”
Good news – but not, apparently, for our local “newspapers”
which barely mentioned the UKIP challenge over the Chief Executive’s pay.
***
So, what has happened since that Hundred Day War of
so-called politicians, we hear you cry?
There is really no other word to use than... hi-ber-nation.
Boston has since prepared for a big winter sleep – one which
will certainly last until the next election in 2019 and probably beyond.
The so-called leader Bedford has been voted into office for
the period – and a Chief Officer with already almost three decades of service
at Worst Street is clearly not now planning to move on, and could be here for another
twenty.
***
As Boston enters the political cave for a long winter of
discontent, how might the powers that be see their surrender?
Doubtless the inept but optimistic among them will liken
their hibernating selves to a bear – popular,
cuddly, brave, huge, powerful, intelligent, industrious and admirable.
But let’s not forget that tortoises hibernate as well – and their resemblance to our leaders
is far closer to the mark.
Slow, dull-witted, cold blooded, thick skinned, clumsy,
uncharismatic, pretty well spineless – and reluctant to come out of their
shell.
The bottom line is that the council’s inactivity most
probably has a purpose.
It’s short of money, short on ideas, and in denial at the
growing move to merge district councils with county authorities which
themselves will then amalgamate into regional super councils.
A good hint that such a proposal will come to pass can be
found in the dismissal of such ideas by the so-called leader.
***
Ironically, our earlier comments about UKIP have been echoed by one of
their own councillors – although he dedicates his fiercest criticism to the
so-called council leader.
Brian Rush, a long-time sparring partner of leader Bedford
tells us: “UKIP supporters will have quite rightly been massively disappointed
with the election outcome, and may feel there is little to celebrate,
considering that it seems they, and they alone, were the cause of
successfully sacking a load of (far too) long sitting local councillors of all
persuasions.
“However, they are now being forced to pay a heavy price for
their early, but now unproductive, electoral success. Being so unfairly treated
and denied even one single chairmanship, is ill-conceived, and portrays a
distinct lack of political good judgement by the ruling group.
"Such schoolyard tactics smack of bitterly sour grapes.
“A switched-on leader, who, despite suffering the
indignation of an occurrence such as the one referred to, would cannily have
kept his future, or more importantly future colleagues’ options open, with an eye on the party’s future political prosperity.
“For such an experienced senior councillor to decide to
stoop so undemocratically low so early in his term smacks of gross inadequacy.
“Would a more switched-on leader not have recognised the
value that might have been gleaned by offering at least one insignificant, lead
committee seat and one or two equally minor positions to such a numerous
opposition group as UKIP. This is an opportunity wasted, and future
co-operation denied.
“Now, instead, this council will suffer a backlash driven by
disappointment, as a result of a rather childish tantrum from what can rightly
be described, as a cobbled together, and largely inadequate and inexperienced
ruling group.
“Although some kind of knee-jerk reaction was to be
expected, such a display of un-Tory political vandalism was unexpected coming
from such a long serving and experienced councillor.
“What little credibility he once had will now have
dissipated, and the reactions of a disenfranchised opposition might create a
most unsatisfactory situation, the origins of which will definitely and
directly be laid at the feet of the present Conservative Leader – whose
political value following the loss of his own long held county seat, appears to
now be in free fall.
“New young Boston borough
Tories have had to gulp down their first, but not, last. few drops of
political respect – all entirely the fault of that awful UKIP.
“The party has been forced to bid a
final fond farewell to what once was a glorious and successful past.
“Imagine the shame felt of watching once proud Conservatives
forced into having to go cap in hand to a once
highly-criticised leader of what was once considered by proper Tories to be
nothing more than a bunch of jumped up crass political upstarts!
“Yet here, in 2015, we ironically see Councillor P. Bedford having to grovel and beg
for support from the last two vestiges of the original founders of the once
highly criticised Boston Bypass Independents.
“Could any pill have taken so much swallowing, and tasted
quite as bitter as the one administered gleefully, no doubt, by one Councillor and Mayor Richard Austin,
whose support is now regarded as a vital lifeline for the desperate
Conservatives!
“The ghosts of past Conservatives must be spinning violently in their graves – and it is singularly, the fault of one
man ... Councillor P. Bedford.
“Once fiercely proud Conservatives will
forever remember but choose to forget as quickly as possible ‘The Bedford
effect!’
“The thought of being forced to grovel to the last two
former Bypassers – whose own swansong
cannot be very far away – and the
shame of having to hold open this unearned door of opportunity once more for
them to prance through, must really have rankled.
“As for UKIP, no wobblies have been thrown, no dissenting
comments have been flung around, no complaints in the press – even though they
polled about equal with the Conservatives and are now marginalised, if not
totally ignored, and dismissed by the people.
“They have to continue to believe that their day will come,
though in reality, are so dependent on a referendum outcome that their time of
greatness may be short-lived.
“Political strength is born of unity of purpose, harmonised
by a voluntary political agreement.
“I think the people of Boston may be in for a four year
rocky ride and UKIP might yet prove to be the borough's salvation ....
politically speaking. “
***
Reference in the above piece to the Bedford Effect reminds us that just a few weeks ago he was telling
us: “One of my responsibilities as leader of Boston Borough Council is to
encourage and assist in any way we can, economic regeneration.
“That might sound a bit fancy. In essence it means that I do
all I can to make Boston a better place
to do business in ...“
As surely as night follows day came reports that Norprint – one of Boston’s oldest and biggest
employers – had called in the receivers and had sacked 100 people, whilst its
parent company on the same site in Horncastle Road ... Magnadata ... had been sold to a Hull-based specialist printer,
BemroseBooth Paragon.
Immediate word on the street was that the entrance to the
site has been monitored for some time, possibly to support a claim that
building houses – and perhaps even a care home on it – would not increase the
traffic flow.
Once the news broke, leader Bedford was quick to state the
obvious: "The announcement of the redundancies will have been devastating
news for all of the company's employees.
"Although only a small offer to those affected, we will
be very happy to help anyone who needs to apply for housing benefit, council
tax support or universal credit and can offer appointments Monday to Thursday
every half hour starting from 9am until 4.30pm."
As he said, this was only a small offer – but how much
bigger it could have been had the borough abandoned its Poet’s Day mind-set.
The help was announced on Friday – the day after that staff
were sacked – and many would surely have welcomed an appointment then … rather
than suffer throughout Friday and the weekend.
Not only that, but a
week after the redundancies there was still no information about help and advice
on either the borough’s website or in its lamentable bulletin.
And – although the announcement was indeed devastating – it
did not come as news to Councillor Bedford.
He told the husband of a Norprint worker who lost her job
after twenty years: “It is very sad but not unexpected news.
“I have a few friends who work there and they have been
telling me for a while now that this
would happen.
“Let's hope the receivers can sell this on to a company to
operate from a smaller site in Boston area which then may make it a viable
company again. (Boston’s MP) Matt Warman is already involved and we as a
council will do all we can to retain this in Boston.”
Unfortunately, the arrival of the receivers is usually a
court of last result ... and if the experts can’t make a go of the business, it
seems doubtful that someone else will want to try.
In view of his reply, Councillor Bedford was asked: “As the
council were expecting this, how have the officers and councillors been working
with the management of Norprint to find a solution?
“As it was the receivers that have made the staff redundant,
I can only assume that they had tried to find a buyer for the business but have
failed, hence the closure and redundancies.”
Back came the reply: “I had been told personally not the council please do not try to put your own
thoughts on this. Until these things surface the council cannot be involved in
rumours. As stated before we will do all we can as council (sic) and have
already been in touch with Jobcentre Plus and others.”
So, it appears that – like Oscar Wilde’s Ernest Worthing – our leader is the Boston equivalent of “Ernest
in town, and Jack in the country” ... able to act upon events such as the
Norprint catastrophe “officially” only once they become public whilst knowing
that the axe was due to fall some time ago “privately.”
If we were he, our conscience would be troubled – but
fortunately, we are not.
Perhaps Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde might be a more appropriate metaphor.
***
Clearly, as a new kid in town our MP Matt Warman avoided any
such conflicts.
But we are told that he was left wrong-footed after only
hearing the news of the closures from a staffer who saw some speculation on a
local “newspaper” website.
Similarly, we understand that he upset a few of the newly
sacked Norprint staff by posting on his Facebook page: "Jobcentre Plus
have assured me they are already working closely with all those affected who
need their help.
"I will do everything I can to support people in
claiming redundancy or benefits and of course in finding new positions."
The reason that the jobless staff were upset was because
they claimed to have heard nothing of this – and felt that Mr Warman should have made contact with them first.
***
News of the death of former Councillor Margaret Haworth was
accompanied by a tribute from Boston’s Chief Executive Phil Drury, who said:
“She was possibly one of the most formidable,
challenging and enthusiastic people I have ever met.
“She had Boston at heart always and even when no longer a
councillor she still regularly visited the offices unannounced and attended
planning committee meetings.
“She was totally
committed to the town and its people.”
We remember Mrs Haworth well, and agree with Mr Drury… whom
we suspect will find no need to dust down his tribute when the bell tolls for
some of our more recent councillors...
***
Leisure and Open spaces portfolio holder Claire Rylott has
started to find a voice after doubtless being dumbstruck by her appointment to
the cabinet in May.
She was recently banging the drum for the Boston in Bloom event and after that waxed
lyrical about the Boston Gateway project.
This is another uninspiring piece of nonsense from the Transported project, which is thankfully
moving into the final phase of its three year, £2½ million spending splurge.
The idea is to display posters along the route from Boston
railway station and bus station to the cut-price St Botolph’s footbridge.
Enter Councillor Rylott: “Improving the appearance of the
busy pedestrian corridor between Boston railway station, the bus station,
B&M open space and the Stump is a priority,” she warbled.
Is it really?
We can’t recall ever hearing it mentioned until now, and it
certainly wasn't on the Tories’ manifesto at election time.
And what’s all this nonsense about the B&M open space?
We think that Councillor Rylott must mean the chaotic car park
outside the shop – but apparently thinks that calling it an “open space” will
give it a more pastoral ambience.
***
Mention of Boston in
Bloom reminds us of our accusation that the effort that goes into winning a
badge from the Royal Horticultural Society (even though everyone who enters
gets some sort of recognition regardless) is strictly limited to making the
route that the borough maps out for the judges look attractive – while the rest
of us can go and stick our heads up a bear’s bum.
Pictured above right is an example that we posted on our Twitter page a couple of weeks ago.
Frankly, the only person we can imagine getting any
satisfaction from such a display would be the likes of Miss Haversham – the
spurned bride in Dickens’s Great
Expectations.
***
The choice of phrase that makes a crowded and badly laid-out
car park sound like an oasis typifies
Boston borough council’s patronising mentality which yet again treats us
taxpayers as if we are a little soft in the head.
A similar tack was adopted by the head of Clan Austin during his
comments on the news that Boston has the lowest reported incidents of racially
motivated hate crimes in Lincolnshire.
Out of 57 incidents reported countywide only eight were in
Boston.
Councillor Richard Austin – who is struggling manfully but unsuccessfully
to try to tart up the world view of Boston – reportedly declared: “I think it's great
news ... I think it helps enhance the image of Boston.”
Really?
In what way?
“Crikey, that Boston sounds like a nice place to live.
There’s only a 0.012% chance of falling victim of a racially motivated hate
crime, compared with a 0.00779% chance in Lincolnshire as a whole.
“What?
“That’s a greater risk
than the county overall.”
“Oh, I didn't realise ... “
The reality is that such figures – were they even known to
intending visitors or residents – would doubtless have no effect on them at all
... and certainly not “enhance the image of Boston.”
***
It’s perhaps a sign of how badly Councillor Austin is
struggling to “promote Boston to the wider world.”
It’s now some weeks since he appealed for favourable
comments about what made the town “a special place” which could be posted on
the internet to alert the wider world to what a wonderful place the town is.
Immediately there was a rush of enthusiastic comments – though
unfortunately, most of them appeared to have been cooked-up “in-house” and
therefore had little, if any, credibility.
In the month since then the list has remained virtually untouched.
But an interesting addition to the webpage featuring the
mayor’s campaign comes from the town’s police “chief.” who has attempted to
soothe us with statistics to show how safe
Boston is.
He does this by comparing crime figures for Boston with
those of Lincoln, Nottingham and Peterborough – because “in recent years Boston
has been compared to London, Nottingham and even New York (the one in the
United States and not the one near Coningsby!)”.
Whilst we can’t recall such comparisons, he then goes on
“for the sake of clarity” to compare crime levels per 1,000 population.
This may be so – but so what?
Nottingham, with a population of 310,000 has 30,300 crimes annually
in the categories listed – whilst Boston, with a population of around 65,000
has 4,680 ... which is more than enough for a place like this.
Boston is a medium sized market town, whilst Nottingham is a
large industrialised city.
Chalk and cheese.
Unfortunately, the
figures that we are not told are far more significant.
The most recent figures for overall crime in Lincolnshire – which is where we’re really interested
in – show that he is right when he
says that Boston is safer than that Hell’s
Kitchen they call Lincoln.
But what he doesn’t tell us is that, not only is Boston
second only to Lincoln for crime, but that it is mean streets ahead of the
other Lincolnshire districts.
Boston is almost 20 crimes per thousand ahead of
neighbouring East Lindsey – and 40.1 crimes per thousand head of population
than North Kesteven.
These figures paint a different picture entirely – one which
it seems that our local sheriff didn’t want us to know.
Fear of crime is the main engine which drives the feelings
of local people, and until those fears are dispelled people will continue to
feel unsafe.
The fact is that parts of Boston do not feel safe – regardless
of what the statistics may say.
A more visible police presence would be of great help.
Perhaps we could coax the PCSO’s out of the cars that they
so rapidly acquired within months of being formed as “extra bobbies on the beat.”
And far be it from us to suggest that a word or two was put
into the writer’s mouth in his contribution to Boston Borough Council – it must
merely be coincidence that he chose to say: “Boston is a town on the up with a
proud history and a great future ahead.”
Of course it must.
***
Things are just not going well for Councillor Austin’s
“isn’t Boston grand” campaign.
Not only have the police got their sums wrong on the crime
figures, but our local chief also chortles that anti-social behaviour is down
by “a staggering 28 per cent over the same period.”
Whilst that may well be true ... the claim had some of the
shine taken off it by Monday’s Boston Borough Council Bulletin (circulation 784) which again chose to
lead on an shameful story about the town.
“Hatter Lane is locked
down!” trumpeted the headline. “The trouble-hit
Boston alley now has keypad control gates at either end to prevent problems of drinking, drug taking and
associated anti-social behaviour.”
Good work, Worst Street!
All this fuss over a highly localised issue – just like the brouhaha over the pink
dog poo mountain in Kirton and the hidden drinking den in the park built
by young people for the purposes of
holding orgies and perhaps even human sacrifice and cannibalism.
We think that it might be a good time for Councillor Austin
to quit his campaign.
Not matter how hard he tries, Worst Street is forever coming
at him from out of the sun to shoot his campaign down in flames – using the
very organ that is supposed to publicise the borough!
***
Further signs that Boston lacks drive and initiative
continue to pour in.
Recently, we saw the Woodhall
Spa’s 40s weekend prove such a crowd magnet that visitors to the village
had to park on the outskirts and walk in.
It’s reckoned that at least 10,000 people attended the
event, with similar, record, numbers at Revesby
Country Fair.
The Heckington
Show drew more than 30,000 visitors and more than 85,000 attended events in the
recent East Lindsey SO Festival.
At the end of this month, there will be a bank holiday
weekend festival of food and drink in Spalding.
All around us district councils and enthusiastic groups are organising
events both large and small that pull in massive crowds of both locals and
visitors alike.
But what does Boston have to offer?
The most recent event was a Vintage A Fayre – a small
cluster of stalls mostly selling what looked ... and on occasion smelled like
... second hand clothes – which came and
went with little if any publicity and which was purportedly “organised” by
Boston Borough Council.
Is that it for this year, then?
We’re now in August – and there is still no word about
events for Christmas.
The millions spent on “refurbishing” the Market Place have
produced nothing more than a stone wilderness where pedestrians take their
lives in their hands if they try to cross it.
This was supposed to be an area of opportunity – a showcase
which would see a wide variety of activities taking place on a regular basis.
But clearly, this is not a “priority” like the Boston Gateway project – which can only lead to
disappointment once visitors reach the wasteland at the end of the yellow brick
road.
***
Finally, not merely content with taking a month to replace a
set of traffic lights, with all the ensuing traffic chaos that this entails,
Lincolnshire County Council has decided to make motorists drive through hoops
as well.
Tawney Street is closed for the duration of the road works,
and diversion signs have been set up to “help” drivers.
Take a look at this example.
If you are driving along Norfolk Street towards Tawney
Street, you will see the following sign which reads: “Tawney Street Closed. For
Tawney Street and crematorium follow diversion."
So far so good.
This takes you to the traffic light junction with Tawney
Street to the right (which is accessible and open to vehicles at this end) and Marian Road, to the left, which leads to the crematorium.
But the diversion is clear – go
straight on.
This takes you to the junction of Norfolk Street and Horncastle Road, where you turn right.
You are now approaching the Wide Bargate roundabout junction with Spilsby Road and John Adams Way – and there the diversion ends.
If you don’t know the area, you might wrongly turn into
Spilsby Road ... and get lost at this point,.
Or you might wrongly turn on to John Adams Way ... and get
lost.
If you head towards Wide Bargate you will reach the end of
Tawney Street that is closed to traffic.
But en route you will encounter another diversion sign,
which takes you back towards Horncastle Road.
You then turn back into Norfolk Street and shortly return the junction with the open end of Tawney Street on the left, and Marian Road and the crematorium to the right.
SO ... all of this unnecessary manoeuvring returns you to the point where the diversion began.
Many thanks, Lincolnshire County 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
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