Make market bigger –

not shoehorn stalls into a

smaller site and let optical

illusion do the trick

Last week, we reported plans by Worst Street’s secret society Prosperous Boston to combine the Wednesday markets in Wide Bargate – and free up the great stone desert as an “events space” with one or two events a week during the summer to attract visitors.

At first sight, this sounds not unreasonable – but given a closer look, it may well have the reverse effect, and perhaps even see the demise of the markets over time.

Many traders want to move to a single site because

• The number of  Market Place stallholders is shrinking and trade is decreasing
• The stalls on Bargate Green are struggling
• Crowding the stalls together in Wide Bargate – as happened during the Market Place “refurbishment” makes things seem busier and more vibrant.
• It might lure back the Farmers’ Market – which has quit the town.

The problem with this is that it encourages further decline in the numbers of stallholders, when it should be trying to attract more to replace those who are leaving.

Also, we suspect that once the traders get their feet under the table in Wide Bargate, they will resist the idea of using the main Market Place at weekends.

According to Boston Borough Council’s website: “The market is a recognised tourist attraction in its' (sic) own right, with over 120 stalls …”

How many?

We think that this must have been written a long, long time ago.

Two years from now will see the 800^th anniversary of the granting of a licence for Boston's Fair – and the earliest maps of Boston dating from that time show the "Market Place" indicated on them in its present location.

Common-sense suggests that we should be working toward marking the anniversary as a magnet for townsfolk and visitors alike – and forget about diluting the market even further.

Some years ago a report by the National Association of British Market Authorities suggested that 25% of the UK's local markets would close down by 2020.

But by 2013, however,  markets were more than holding  their own, with 65% of Nabma members reporting stallholder numbers up, 57%  reporting higher footfall and 58% saying that profits either up or stable, year-on-year.

Nabma's chief executive, Graham Wilson said at the time: "What we are seeing is little short of a revolution in local markets with the local authorities – operators of most of the country's local marketplaces – either upgrading facilities or opening up their running to local community groups and private businesses to revamp the market offer"

But not in Boston, it seems.

What we need are better ideas.

Not that long ago a teenage market was started in Kettering with support from the borough council and was so successful that it is now being copied in other areas – Sleaford will be hosting its second such market in May with 16 traders and the same number of performers.

An organisation called “Love your local market” celebrates our market culture, during a fortnight in May each year.

More than 1,200 markets took place in 2015 celebrating over 7,000 events and market days

It’s now in its fifth year – but we don’t think that Boston has ever taken part – and are we members of Namba?

Worst Street’s Daily Beano recently ran the headline “Calling all  antiques traders,” – with the story: “Boston Borough Council is looking to see if there is any interest from traders to hold an antiques fair in Boston Market Place.”

This is not how it is done.

Companies which organise fairs of all kinds can easily be found – and if Worst Street tries to organise its own, it will assuredly end in tears.

Shortly after Christmas, we paid a visit to Buxton in Derbyshire whose population is just one third that of Boston.

Across the year, the town’s Pavilion Gardens will host afternoon dances. farmers' markets, Saturday bazaars, craft and jewellery shows, an artist and designer fair, garden plants and craft shows – plus seasonal events including an Easter extravaganza, spring spectacular, evening food and drink festival, summer fete, family festival, special summer outdoor market, the Great Peak District Fair and Buxton beer festival, a grand bazaar and Buxton Christmas lights switch on.

Phew!

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 

We are on Twitter – visit @eye_boston

Look out! Worst Street’s

getting tough again

Clap your hands; Boston has notched up another first.

The fattest, most murderous town in the universe is now going to war on a solitary drinker who won’t take no for any answer when told to stop imbibing under the town’s Public Space Protection Order – pronounced Spo for short.

The Spo has barely been in force for five minutes – well, since January last year … when council leader ‘Nipper Bedford’ and his fellow prohibitionist Stephen Woodliffe poured a ceremonial can of lager down a drain to show just how tough the council was going to get.

Spos replaced DPPOs – Designated Public Protection Orders – which were introduced in 2007 to stop drinking in the street.

When the DPPOs were defined, Boston Borough Council secured almost £7,000 in grants from regional and national funds to spend £4,000 on extra police officers and Police Community Support Officers to “clamp down” in the  first few weeks of the ban; £1,500 on education prior to the  and £1,400 for signs and publicity.

The outcome?

People carried on drinking.

The Spo which replaced the DPPO was underpinned by Community Protection Orders which threatened a maximum fine of £1,000 – and again came at a cost. Nine years later the bill to promote Worst Street’s even tougher new stance was £10,000 for publicity, signage   and “appropriate information and literature.”

The outcome?

People carried on drinking.

Now, Worst Street is throwing good money after bad by asking the prosecution service to pursue the case of the single drinker – who stops drinking when asked but then apparently continues as if nothing had happened.

Aside from the usual Sledgehammer v Nut approach that Worst Street favours so much, is the glaringly obvious fact that no use whatever appears to have been made of the powers possessed by the council and the police at present.

Try as we might, we cannot recall anyone being taken to court for repeat offending – even though this ought to have been an early next step.

Severe fines that were boasted about do not seem to have been imposed – and we fail to see how raising the maximum penalty from £1,000 to £2,500 will help, given that the lower penalty has not been brought into play.

We would have thought that a fine of £1,000 – if repeatedly levied for persistent breaches of the law – would soon have stopped the offender.

Or if they went unpaid the use of imprisonment would have done the trick. Instead, the all mouth and no trousers brigade at Worst Street merely makes itself look increasingly foolish by crying wolf over a serious issue that requires dealing with.

Lastly, we were stuck by a quote from a council officer in one of our local “newspapers” who reportedly said: “Whilst many people would like us to place a sniper on top of the Stump to stop people drinking that way, we’re not allowed.”

Anywhere else but Boston and you would think he was joking!

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 

We are on Twitter – visit @eye_boston

The excuse most regularly trooped out by the railway companies is to blame the wrong sort of leaves for their problems. Well now it has emerged that Boston has the wrong sort of shops.

This interesting fact appeared in the minutes of February’s BTAC-ky meeting (see yesterday’s Boston Eye.) It has emerged that some letting agents have admitted that the type of premises available are not big enough for large retailers and probably too large for independent shops that are starting up. One big idea to solve this is for landlords to let the first and second floors as residential accommodation and the ground floor as commercial – though quite how this helps escapes us. It’s also emerged that these so-called “experts” have admitted that the information they had for prospective firms wanting to do business in Boston was “flawed” and is now being changed to make it up to date.

***

Whilst we have always criticised moves by councillors to persuade our local “newspapers” not to publish anything detrimental to Boston, we are equally disapproving when our local hacks overegg the ‘orrible Boston pudding and make things appear worse than they are.

The following appeared on Twitter a few days ago “credited” to the Boston off-Target.

 The taster for the full story (top) shows a terrible scene – a littering of needles to make the blood run cold. But continue to the full repor and a different picture emerges, if you’ll excuse the pun. The picture is captioned “stock image of syringes” – in other words it is totally unrelated to the report.  The Target has previous for this – remember the Amazonian wilderness used to depict the town’s waterfront, and the plan to address a whelk shortage with laws apparently involving fishing by rod. Another favourite with the Target is the word “horror” – most recently used to describe vandalism of a tombstone … something that is bad but not really horrific. Similarly all accidents are “horror crashes” even when no-one is hurt.

*** 

We wonder whether we are seeing the first steps to emulate our companions in Die Hansa – that pointless “club” of medieval ports and trading centres that is being revived for no apparent reason – are taking place after we saw this planning application. 

 

A “sexual entertainment venue,” eh?  What an excellent addition to part of the town which regularly seethes with people who have overindulged in alcohol.

But great oaks from little acorns grow. Many members of the modern Hanse are famed for their red light districts – and if Boston starts small, who can say what we might have to offer in a few years’ time.

***

Another planning application that we have mentioned before concerns Boston’s KFC restaurant – which is cashing in on a Heritage England/local taxpayer funded shop front enhancement scheme … despite making millions in profits, a small fraction of which could be put to the same purpose.

According to the planning blurb: “The development will be limited to the installation of a suitably appropriate shop front in place of the existing inappropriate one. The proposed shop front is more in keeping with the character and nature of the property than the existing.”

We don’t know about you, but the differences seem little different, and don’t indicate any signage of upper window displays which might make it look still more the mixture as before.

But at least it’s an improvement – for KHC’s bottom line!

***

News that the Farmers’ Market has taken Boston off its itinerary came as no real surprise in many ways. Most peoples’ expectation of an event with a name such as this is for fruit and vegetables, cuts of meat and the like.

Instead, there have never been more than a handful of stalls, with wares including such agricultural delights as potpourri, ostrich and venison.

By contrast, the farmers’ market in Gainsborough boasts 25 stalls, and Caistor, 20. But as we said yesterday, what is worse is the way that Boston Borough Council has apparently stood by knowingly but indifferently as the town’s Market Place and Bargate Green markets have fallen into decline.

***

Better late than never, UKIP leader Councillor Brian Rush tells us that the Vote Leave event in Boston on 12^th March was greeted enthusiastically by Bostonians.

But in an interesting sub-text  he appear to have some harsh words for the great and the good of the town – among them, possibly his colleagues in the Worst Street council chamber.

He told Boston Eye: “Boston’s few, but vociferous, self-elected critics, of  ‘face to face opinion collectors’ seized their moment of glory by offering mumbled but belligerent comments as they passed by, so I will refrain from naming them, because I am quite sure they will want to remain anonymous!!

“It could be people such as these, who have selfishly influenced and resisted past attempts to develop our town, who may have, I think, been instrumental in our commercial demise.”

***

Talk about taking people for granted … Tuesday’s Boston Beano gives a name check to a tireless worker who’s doing his best to promote Boston – something that is Worst Street’s job, of course.

“Former borough councillor Ernie Napier … now 74, and a borough councillor for 28 years until 2007, gives his time as a volunteer every Wednesday, rain or shine, to leaflet visitors arriving in town by bus and coach,”  we are told.

“Over the years he has thrust thousands of Visit Boston leaflets into the hands of those leaving buses and coaches and aiming for the market.”

He tells the Beano: “I have always wanted visitors to know that there is much more to Boston than the market, and to encourage them to stay longer, spend more and come back with family and friends.”

And the grateful reaction from Worst Street?

“An updated Visit Boston leaflet is being prepared by the borough council for Mr Napier to hand out to this summer season’s visitors from the coast.”

We sincerely hope that the borough is doing more than relying on one elderly volunteer to get its message across – but recent disclosures suggest that this is none too likely.

***

And speaking of the Boston Beano – there are only four issues to mark this week, as we are closed tomorrow – for  which it scores 0.2 for relevance.

***

Finally, and still on the subject of taking things for granted, we hear the tale of a local business which decided to switch horses and do something different. An application for a change of use of the premises was approved – but it seems that the change of use people didn’t bother to tell the business rate people … who kept billing as before. The outcome was that a year on the business has been overcharged by £6,000.

But never mind, Worst Street plans to refund the money “in due course.”

Interest? Don’t even think about it.

That’s it for this week; we’ll be back after our Easter holiday …

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 

We are on Twitter – visit @eye_boston

Worst Street kept

hands in pockets

as markets declined

Our friends at the Boston Town Area Committee – affectionately known as BTAC-ky – meet tonight with the usual lacklustre agenda.

But as we have seen before this often hides a wealth of activity on the night – which recently has included unauthorised activity by the committee in doubling its council tax levy to fund items that are the responsibility of the full council.

Tonight’s agenda also includes the minutes of the February meeting – in which there is a report by the self-appointed top secret Prosperous Boston task and finish group.

And it turns out to be quite an eye-opener insofar as it highlights just how much Worst Street has taken its eye off the ball where some of the town’s important services and attractions are concerned.

A number of concerns about of the lack of toilet provision have arisen since the council sold the Assembly Rooms jakes.

Our suggestion is in the picture on the left – a French style pissoir ... they don't get much cheaper than that!

Despite the fact that Worst Street tirelessly repeats the manta that toilet provision is “not a statutory requirement” BTAC-ky has been asked by the group to look at provision for this part of the town, either by converting council owned premises or through an arrangement with retailers such as a community toilet scheme. 

This comes as the self-same group has hinted that its recommendations a year or so from now might include doing away with council provided loos entirely.

Then there’s a possible radical overhaul of the town’s markets – including combining the Market Place and Bargate Green on a single site in Wide Bargate on Saturdays – similar to its relocation from the Market Place while Clownty Hall converted the area into a replica of the courtyard at Colditz Castle.

Apparently the main market traders have reported a decrease in trade; on Bargate Green they are said to be “struggling,” and the Farmer’s Market has “decided they would no longer be coming to Boston.”

At the same meeting BTAC was asked to consider setting up a regular litter-picking group “in the same way as parish councils” – even though this is a facility that is theoretically already provided and paid for through our general council taxation. 

One suggestion is to pay two Placecheck teams to collect litter – which could seriously undermine the concept of voluntary working.

A whole raft of costs are to be investigated – but the most serious thing to have emerged from the meeting is how Boston Borough Council has apparently not been unduly bothered about a steady decline in the markets – which are a huge point of sale for visitors to the town – until we are nearing a crisis point.

The idea of combining the markets in Wide Bargate would apparently vacate Grey Square so it could become “a successful venue from the events space with 1-2 events per week throughout the summer to draw in visitors.”

Somehow, we can’t see this happening.

Meanwhile – and without any apparent sense of irony, the meeting decided to fund a report – preferably involving consultants – on schemes to enable members to make “a proper judgement from the full information.”  The report could include the potential for tourist events. 

Presumably any report could draw from sources such as Place making in Boston – produced by Locum Consulting and sponsored by Lincolnshire County Council in 2010, and the earlier Boston Town Centre Study report by Tribal Consulting in 2007.

We always enjoy a good consultants’ report – they’re such fun to ignore

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 

We are on Twitter – visit @eye_boston

It’s hard to see

Boston thriving 

under devolution

Tricorns the length and breadth of historic Lincolnshire are gleefully being hurled aloft at the news that a new north/south divide is on the way – one that will see Lincolnshire split in the same way that the country as a whole has been since time immemorial.

The news in last week’s budget will mean that the ten councils in this area – Lincolnshire County Council, the seven districts and North and North East Lincolnshire – will combine with the Local Enterprise Partnership to form Greater Lincolnshire.

This in turn will see significant powers and funding transferred from government to local level – which optimists claim will bring in £15 million a year for infrastructure and other growth projects, and responsibility for a combined transport budget for at least four years.

It’s being claimed that this could boost the local economy by as much as £8bn, and create 29,000 new jobs and 100,000 extra homes

As you might expect, the great and the good are beside themselves with ecstasy.

Local MP Matt Warman – whom we sometimes think would welcome Charon if he opened a ferry service across the Witham – said that devolving power to Lincolnshire would “see more decisions taken locally and recognise the county’s fine independent-minded traditions.”

Think Henry VIII’s “most brute and beastly shire.”

Lincolnshire County Council leader Martin Hill declared that the combined authority would carry out the functions transferred from Whitehall “in a new spirit of partnership.”

That’s something we somehow doubt, and consider it most unlikely that after all these years, the respective leaders will suddenly disregard their specific interests in favour of singing from the all-Lincolnshire song sheet.

Meanwhile, Boston’s so-called leader ‘Nipper’ Bedford declares: “All of the themes in the deal give us huge opportunities but perhaps none more so than housing and transport.”

However, there are several slips ‘twixt cup and lip before this fairyland of fortune becomes a reality.

First, there will be a “public consultation” with all one million residents of  the new, improved Jumboshire.

Cost? Who knows, but a million pounds must be a bare minimum.

Then, as with other devolved areas such as Manchester and Sheffield, the combined authority will have a directly elected mayor, elected in May next year.

Cost?  Who knows, but again, a million pounds is the bare minimum again for a referendum, plus an undeclared salary. The closest idea so far would be based on the Police and Crime Commissioner role, which pays £65,000 in Lincolnshire alone.

Think at least £100,000 plus the cost of staff, offices etc, etc.

At least one local MP is unconvinced by all of this. Sir Edward Leigh, who represents Gainsborough, has warned that money could be sucked in to Grimsby, Scunthorpe and Lincoln from rural areas.

And who cannot imagine that this would be the case, as historic Lincolnshire is dominated by these three places.

And it takes little imagination to see Boston cast yet again in the diminutive role in this new set-up.

We are the smallest local authority by far in the new set-up, and our already disadvantaged status would demand much higher investment to achieve results that it would in other areas – which simply would not represent value for money.

Boston borough’s population is a meagre 6.5% of the proposed new devolved Lincolnshire – which means that its pro rata “share” of the new government money would be less than £1 million.

Somehow, it would not surprise us to seem Boston subsumed into either South Holland or East Lindsey as an early move that would save millions at the outset.

Whatever happens, Greater Lincolnshire will require new thinking by the constituent authorities that will make it up.

The combined authority cabinet is expected to be formed by the existing leaders of the ten constituent local authorities and chaired by the directly elected mayor – which raises another problem.

The Worst Street leadership – with ‘Nipper’ Bedford at the helm – has redefined the word ineptitude in the past five years.

A new-style of government requires a new style of leadership, and we think it a good idea if ‘Nipper’ thinks twice about leading Boston in a devolved Lincolnshire, and puts himself out to pasture.

If he won’t, then his party henchpeople should do his thinking for him.

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 

We are on Twitter – visit @eye_boston

It seems that our local members of the great and the good have become so used to Boston taking last place that they don’t even notice when they’re being patronised by the greater and the gooder.  A junior transport minister has declared that the town’s planned distributor road will “make a magnificent difference”.

The ever faithful Boston borough Beano quoted leader ‘Nipper’ Bedford saying: “It is always an encouraging sign when a Government minister deems a project worthy enough to come and take a look for himself.

“We discussed the distributor road project in some detail as the most viable solution to traffic congestion and the bigger picture of the ways in which it will bring other economic benefits.”

***

It may well be that we are getting a little jaundiced in our views, but this much vaunted “opportunity” to link the A16 to London Road, which the developer says represents the first part of a “distributor” road network around “this part of the town” appears to be nothing more than a  purpose-built rat run through a housing estate to link two roads.

Not only that, but it is duplicated no more than a few hundred yards north by Tytton Lane East – which will always be the less busy of the roads because of the lower housing density.

Give the complexities of ever trying to create a faux-bypass for the town in piecemeal fashion, we somehow doubt that Boston will ever obtain something that can remotely be called a “distributor” road of any kind.

***

It really does show how more and more people are willing to accept less and less.

Leader ‘Nipper’ has always been an exemplar of this – and his most recent contribution is in a letter in this week’s Boston off-Target. Hooting with glee at the “great news” that Benson’s for Beds is replacing the former Carpet Right store on Queen Street he says “any new business coming to town – and a national retailer at that – is certainly good news in my book.” Doubtless he will also salute the news that Poundworld is taking on the former Brantano shoe store on the so-called Boston Shopping Park.

***

Lost from among the pages of the leader’s book is the announcement that Morrisons supermarket is to close on 3^rd April leaving shoppers in the north of the town without a decent-sized similar store.

But never mind. Whereas Marie Antoinette famously said “let them eat cake” we are sure that ‘Nipper’ is quite content with the aphorism “let them buy beds” as far as the people of Boston are concerned.

***

It is strange how any shop described as “national” seems to turn the knees of normally rational people to jelly.

MP Matt Warman was another to roll over – this time at the news that bookmaker William Hill wants to open up in the former Serenity Hair Designs unit … next door to a Coral bookmakers.

 “Any new shop opening in Boston is to be welcomed and the fact that a major brand such as William Hill is keen to expand in this area demonstrates yet more evidence of how the effects of Britain’s growing economy are being felt in Lincolnshire.” What tosh. We can’t think why Mr Hill wants yet another shop just across the road from one he already has in the Market Place. If approved – and it surely will be – the new shop will bring the total number of bookies in a very small area of the town to seven. As is this wasn’t sufficient indictment of Boston’s dismal shopping offer, the betting shops will join five e-cigarette shops, nine charity shops, and heaven known how many mobile phone sale and repair shops around the place.

And don’t forget the cheapo “pound” type shops – we can’t get enough of these, as the latest news proves, it seems. By our rough count, there will soon be around ten.

***

Talking of dismal shopping offers … When Pescod Square opened, it offered many opportunities, few of which have been fulfilled. One was the chance to stage small events or exhibitions in the open area outside Pescod Hall. Nothing much has even been made of this, but still less was achieved this week on market day, when the space displayed two used cars for sale – although they did have a few balloons attached.

***

As we all know, Worst Street endlessly bleats on about flooding in Boston – almost as though we need it on a regular basis to prodice a topic of conversation. One way that the risk could be minimised and road safety enhanced would be if councillors rattled the cages of Clownty Hall over keeping roadside drains free-flowing. Last week’s downpours brought scenes like the one here to many areas of the town

 

The sender of these photos counted four consecutive examples along the roadside – whilst we noticed several more as we wandered the town.

It’s a simple phone call to the appropriate department in Lincoln to get the problems dealt with, and prevent them from getting bigger.

But many of our councils appear to be too important – they’re surely not too busy.

***

It seems it’s not enough that Worst Street’s off-the-leash Boston Town Area Committee – BTAC-ky – is planning to build a kitty of hundreds of thousands to fund projects for which it is not authorised … the raid on its funds from other areas continues. A letter to next week’s meeting from the silver tongued Councillor Claire Rylott, the portfolio holder for parks and cemeteries, “invites” BTAC to fund the purchase and installation costs for a CCTV camera in the park. As any fule kno CCTV provision is a central council responsibility and not a “parish” responsibility. But given its malleability in the past, there is no doubt that BTAC-ky will fork over the cash  Buying £9,000 worth of cameras for Burgess Pit and Emery Lane will be cited as precedence if needed – which it won’t be.

***

This week Boston  Borough Beano scores a lowly 1.35 out of five for relevance to Worst Street.  A  mere name check doesn’t count as “packed” with council news.

***

Our thanks go to Police and Crime Commissioner wannabee Marc Jones for his “fact of the day” – the news that there will be 595 polling stations available across Lincolnshire for PCC elections on 5^th May. Aside from the ridiculous costs involved, it’s comforting to know that there will be such a lot of places to sit in the warm and read a book in peace now that so many of our libraries have closed.

***

Finally, here’s proof that those libraries are really needed. It comes in this comic website clipping from the Boston sub-Standard.

“A” English for work course is just wot we knead, aren’t it?! 

We’re back again on Tuesday

 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 

We are on Twitter – visit @eye_boston

Locals always lose when firms

go bust

It’s now six months since the administrator was called in to wind up Norprint in Boston – but at least some of the staff have received a bit of good news.

They have won an employment tribunal judgment for the “complete lack of consultation” after being ignored when the company went under because they were on holiday – and have been awarded a 90-day payment, which means that they will share an estimated £70,000.

Even so, it is likely that   it will be the government’s Redundancy Payments Office that foots the bill – which of course means the taxpayer.

It never surprises us that the victims of a company collapse such as this are always the people who can least afford it – and could do well without the extra stress of having to chase their rights following the blow of being made redundant.

As far as we can tell none of the banks have lost a penny of the hundreds of thousands that were owed by the company – whilst the staff have had to go cap in hand and be paid with taxpayer cash – some of which is doubtless theirs in any case.

An updated report says that since an administrator was appointed at the end of July last year, debts totalling £1,823,033 have been collected. It's estimated that there will be further collections of £40,000 but write-offs of £988,237 are anticipated – two thirds of which – £679,463 – are intercompany debts.

But unless you got your name at the top of the preferred list, it's not good news for the company's unsecured creditors – who it's reckoned are owed about £5,150,000.

So far claims of £705,154 had been received but have not been agreed and it’s unlikely that there will be enough money to pay anything at all.

This will  hit a number of Boston companies  owed what for them are most likely big sums – £10,000 for just two local businesses alone – and Boston Borough Council (which means us taxpayers yet again)  is owed more than £13,500 ... presumably in business rates.

When Norprint when bust it, and its sister company Magnadata were due to vacate their shared site by the end of December last year. However, the administrator obtained a three-month extension and by remarkable coincidence as the new expiry date neared, Magnadata announced that it was making most of its remaining staff redundant.

But as we said the last time that we reported on the Norprint disaster there are always winners – and between 30^th July last year and 29^th January this year the administrators pocketed the handsome sum of more than £80,000 for 590 hours work.

The administrator reckons that future fees will total of £30,000 before the job ends a year after it began.

However, he says that he may need to extend the period for another year if the position with the remaining book debts and sale of “intellectual property” are not finalised before this automatic end date.

Sounds like there might be jam tomorrow – for some!

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 

We are on Twitter – visit @eye_boston

A helpful guide to how to commit environmental crime has been issued by Boston Borough Council.

If receiving your council tax demand through the letterbox isn’t bad enough, the envelope includes a double-sided graphically illustrated leaflet – apparently funded by Boston Big Local, which on this occasion is slowly frittering away the £1 million grant meant to improve Boston by increasing the amount of paper waste.

We can tell you now that scarcely anyone will sit down and read this missive from one side to the other.

It’s not the sort of thing that people take time out to peruse.

Even the writer at Boston Borough Council appeared to lose interest, as the introductory piece ends …

“Boston Borough Council has a dedicated team committed to education, enforcement and endlessly cleaning up when ….”

When what …?

Perhaps a second leaflet is presently with the printer. We can only hope.

Whilst this public information is important in its way, once again – as is so often the case – Worst Street uses a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Charmless illustrations depict a slyly smiling beady eye self-satisfied looking man – possibly a Russian by the name of Yuri Naitur – having a pee in the street – even down to a yellow line to depict the direction of travel of the offending stream. Ill-advisedly, he is looking away whilst he takes his leak – a risky business that might result in this year’s annual environmental criminal pantomime being retitled Piss on Boots, rather than Puss in Boots.
Not so with the item concerning dog fouling, in which a clearly delighted pooch looks back at the product it has just expelled from its bowel.  Sadly, even though the illustration is well drawn, it is impossible to say whether the wavy lines above the dropping depict steam or stench.

Perhaps the dog’s name in this picture is Peter the POO-dle!

Over the page is an ever popular Wordsearch grid.

We’re sure that the kids will enjoy endless hours of fun as they scan the letters looking for “graffiti, urinating, defecating, spitting, abandoned vehicles, scruffy land, man in the van, littering fly tipping and dog fouling.”

The words “bug, gut, bat and yeti” also appear in the grid – but  are not part of the quiz, so perhaps we have nothing to fear as yet from mosquitos, helicobacter pylori, vampirism and large hairy monsters.

Rest assured that when we do, Worst Street will be the first to let us know.

A line in the leaflet tells us “Boston is no different from all other parts of the country for having to suffer these types of poor behaviour.”

Whilst that may be true, the problem is that a worthless pamphlet such as this gives the impression that we must be up there among the worst districts in the country.

And if truth be told, we probably are.

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Whilst it’s unlikely that Worst Street’s Boston Town Area Committee – B-TACky – will ever emulate any of the great empire builders of old, members don’t plan to let that stand in their way.

And their weapon of choice is not the broadsword, cannon or blunderbuss – though the latter would be most appropriate – but the council tax demand for the coming year.

Whilst Lincolnshire Council Council would like an extra 1.9% of your hard earned cash, and Boston Borough Council wants 2.9% – BTACky wants to get its sticky paws on a humongous 94.6%.

WHAT? We hear you cry – and rightly so.

It’s true.

The BTAC January meeting which approved all this was a providential session that we are sure the committee took to mean that the God of Underhandedness was on their side.  Although the local press was there for the earlier part of the meeting, the scribblers’ bedtime had arrived by the time the increase was discussed and not a hack was in sight.

The good luck continued, as a February meeting was an ‘extra’ – a session with the Worst Street Secret Society known as the Prosperous Boston Task and Finish Group – and so the January minutes detailing the scandalous increase were not presented.

This meant that the news broke as a fait accompli when the tax bill arrived.

Whilst we call the increase scandalous – which in percentage terms is certainly is – the argument will be that it represents just 66p a month for its 13,000 households.

But a more important issue is – what is it for?

The new BTAC precept will increase its income from £108,000 to £214,000 – and the committee will end the year with reserves of around £50,000.

The constitutional rules governing the  use to which BTAC-ky’s income is spent were set out some years ago in an easy-to-follow guide written by former Chief Executive Richard Harbord – which members should find easy to understand, but apparently don’t.

There are two key paragraphs worth noting.

The first reads: “The purpose of a Special Area Expense Account of course is to allow the Borough Council to provide services in part of its area which elsewhere in the Borough would be the responsibility of a Parish or Town Council.”

And the second says: “Obviously the only items which can legally be charged are items provided exclusively or mainly for its residents. If the wider population use facilities they are properly subject to the council wide Council Tax.”

But January’s meeting decided to ignore this. Apparently the idea was put forward to try to improve the availability of toilets in the town centre, and to accumulate some slack cash in the system so that BTAC can pay for some of the recommendations of the (whisper) Prosperous Boston Committee – 60% of whose members serve on BTAC – on the prosperity of the town, and to help deliver some non-statutory services that might otherwise be lost due to government cuts in local government finding.

It would be hard to find something that it so blatantly wrong and counter to the rules as this – the creation of a piggy bank for the benefit of the council as a hole (i.e. the cabinet) funded by a secondary council tax increase penalising a particular group in the poorest part of the town..

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This time last week we mentioned that our inflexible and indifferent council just couldn’t be bothered when it came to joining the rest of the country in the Clean for the Queen event to tidy the place up for HM’s birthday. Instead Worst Street is treading the well-worn and now rather dull path of the Big Boston Clean-up – prefixed this year with the words Right Royal and completely wrongly styled as being by royal appointment as a nod to the Truly Big Event.

Indifference remains the order of the day for this weekend – Discover Lincolnshire Weekend 2016 – when attractions around the county open their doors for free, and stage a host of events. If you’re out and about there are lots of things to do in places such as Lincoln, Gainsborough, Seaford, Louth and Skegness – and many smaller towns and villages.

But sadly, that poor old wallflower named Boston is sitting the dance out yet again.

***

Having said that – if you see lots of activity in the town tomorrow it will be supporters of the Brexit from Europe making their presence felt. Councillor Brian Rush. UKIP Leader, on Boston Borough Council, said the town was joining “hundreds” of others across the country  in the anti-EU demonstration.

“We are meeting in the rear car park of the Municipal Buildings and going out to the nearby neighbourhoods of the town wards, handing out leaflets as we go, and culminating at the Ingram Memorial in Town,” he said

“All other ‘out’ groups and helpers are welcome to join us in what is intended to be a peaceful demonstration, to get our politicians to take our country out of the European Union, for our own governance!

“’Vote Leave’ are the organisers of this protest, but any group with peace-loving intentions will be welcome to attend.”

***

New research by the Taxpayers’ Alliance has revealed the full cost of payments to local councillors – two thirds of a billion pounds over three years. The TPA says that many councillors receive modest allowances appropriate to the work they do but the variation in what is paid to those in similar roles is significant.

Looking at the figures, it would seem that Boston Borough Council falls into the ‘cheap’ (thought they would say ‘value for money’) category with the following figures published.

It’s interesting to note from these that although our rank and file councillors’ expenses have stayed the same for two consecutive years; the so-called leader ‘Nipper’ Bedford has received an annual rise – the most recent being almost 10%.

The TPA says: “In an era of increasing pressure on local authority resources, it is essential that every penny is spent wisely and above inflation rises in payments to councillors are difficult to justify.”

Enough said.

***

Hard on the heels of last week’s planned announcement to turn the former County Hall annexe into shops and flats, we hear of another big idea – this time for the  Grade II* listed 172 year-old Sessions House. Reports say that as local businessman is hoping to turn the old court into an entertainment or wedding venue.

If this happens, we hope that the utmost care is taken. The listing accompanying the Tudor Gothic style building remarks on its finely detailed interiors, and calls it an accomplished example of a mid-19^th century law court, “demonstrating the typically complex circulation routes, courtroom layout, and suite of Magistrate’s rooms.”  I is also remarkably intact. “The plan form, and interior fixtures and fittings, notably in the courtroom and Magistrate’s rooms, have survived virtually unaltered.”

To us, this sounds like a building better suited to life as an historic attraction perhaps incorporating “living” educational facilities rather than yet another wedding venue or night club – something which might help draw the much needed visitors who can help revitalise the town.

***

As Boston appears on the verge of acquiring yet another entertainment venue, we read that in Bourne (population 11,933) approval is expected for a new Lidl supermarket. Permission was originally granted last year since when the company has reapplied for an even bigger store.

Meanwhile, in Boston (population 58,124) there is still no word on whether we are to get a Lidl in Tawney Street or not.  For some time now, the company is said to have been “reviewing” its plans – a year after being grudgingly granted permission after the usual meddling by Worst Street and sneering from local councillors.

Planners wanted the roofline tweaking by a few inches to improve the view of the Stump in a conservation area that has become a total eyesore in recent years.

And one councillor in particular – Conservative Independent Alison Austin – was quoted as saying: “I feel like everyone is sitting, grinning and bearing it but we do not have to do this.

“We should say what we would like done to our town as Boston deserves better.”

In Bourne by contrast, about 1,000 people attended a public consultation on the plan and Bourne Town Council went on record to say it considered the new supermarket would be an asset to the town

***

Congratulations to our local MP, Matt Warman, who chose a parliamentary debate on International Women's Day to tell his colleagues: “On around 22^nd June this year, I am due to become a father for the first time.  Worryingly, he added  … “ it is not yet clear whether this baby girl's middle name would best be Europa or Brexit ...”

ANY other suggestions welcome Please!

***

Boston’s bad luck with good publicity continues.

Last week’s Sunday Times travel section published a guide to “60 cool cottages, hotels and campsites to book now.”

Imagine our delight when we saw a local landmark that all Bostonians will instantly recognise.

But then we read the following lines …

“The small market town of Boston is just down the canal towpath.”

This says a lot about how poorly Boston is promoted by the people whose job it is purported to be – and we’ll have more on that next week.

***

Apparently, our patience in repeatedly asking about the appointment of a newly created £65,000 a year “Head of Service Economic Development and Growth” will soon be rewarded. The post holder will have the task of providing “strategic, visionary and organisational leadership in all aspects of inward investment, growth and wider regeneration and economic development for the borough.”

We would have expected that such a prestigious role (not to mention such a large salary) would have been a magnet for loads of wannabees.

In fact, we hear that there were only three applications – one which was not taken any further, and that the appointment will be announced soon of a candidate with Hanseatic connections from not a million miles away.

***

Finally, this week’s look at the Boston Beano’s claims to be “packed” with news about Worst Street scores 2.5 out of 5. The overgenerous halfway house rating is because two issues have nothing to do with the council, whilst a couple of others are borderline – including the flood registration “lottery” (which isn’t a lottery, and bars anyone prudent enough to have signed with the Environment Agency before this nonsense started.) Most interestingly – or least interestingly depending on how you look at it – the award for the star irrelevance of the week was an account of an “Ofsted style” inspection of a local nursery school. Whilst we wouldn’t suggest that if you report one such irrelevance you should report them all, it was noteworthy that the borough bulletin chose to  publish a glowing report but ignore another that appeared at the same time (a real Ofsted report as well) which rated Boston Grammar School as “requiring improvement.” So, apart from not being “packed” with council news as promised, the council is not offering “warts and all coverage” – also as promised.

We’re back again on Tuesday

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In the unlikely event that waste disposal is ever admitted to the Olympic programme, Lincolnshire County Council and Boston Borough Council will have a head start on other would-be contenders – as they are already in training for the Synchronised Dumping on Taxpayers’ Marathon.

A report to Clownty Hall’s environmental scrutiny committee on 18^th March seeks approval to build a £1.5 million council-owned “exemplar” Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) on Nursery Road, in the Boston Riverside industrial estate, rather than pay for a service from a third party as at present.

If agreed the new tip will open on 1^st April next year.

Given the date, we assume that someone is having a laugh at the taxpayers’ expense – as the plan is a one-sided affair whose benefits are all in favour of Clownty Hall and Worst Street and against the interests of the people that they purport to “serve.”

The alleged window of opportunity to open a new rubbish tip centres on the arrival of a paid-for garden waste collection services in Boston – according to Lincoln’s account.

The present tip on Slippery Gowt is purpose built and privately owned and costs the county council £670,000 per year – which makes it the most expensive dump in the county.

Clownty Hall says that spending on an invest to save basis will save at least £300,000 a year, so the pay-back period is expected to be five years and four months.

Somewhat cryptically, Lincoln says: “As there is now a Boston Borough Council-wide green waste service provision, there is the potential for additional savings by aligning the present seven day opening to four day opening for a LCC owned site.

This is the point at which we start to smell a rat – and it’s not on a rubbish tip either.

Will someone tell us why County Hall is linking what to them seems to be a newly arrived Worst Street-wide green waste collection service with the building of a new facility?

The county council says that “the present site is open seven days a week due to the previous recognition that there was no provided green waste service by Boston Borough Council – which is untrue.

Boston’s brown bin collections began in 2013 – and if their arrival was contingent on a decision to relocate a tip and bring it under the county umbrella, why has it been left until now?

The only difference for some obscure reason appears to be that we now pay for the service, whereas before it was free – and accompanied by the false promise that this would forever be the case.

Given the current financial problems faced by Lincolnshire County Council we think it strange that the not-insignificant sum of £1½ million can be conjured out of thin air at a time when the county is looking at cutting such things as street lighting, and was also once contemplating doing away with local bus services.

The spending of such a sum must surely have been planned some time ago in budgetary terms – and as it is entailed with the advent of not just a green waste collection service, but a paid-for green waste collection service, the conclusion that there must have been some sort of connivance involving Boston Borough Council is inescapable.

Did Clownty Hall demand the imposition of a charge to remove green waste to fit in with its plans to save money and slash availability to the waste tip by a stonking 47% from seven days a week to four?

It seems that we are looking at another case of Lincoln telling Worst Street to jump, and Worst Street merely asking how high?” – yet again to the disadvantage of Boston taxpayers.

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