A former Boston Borough Council deputy leader has attacked the authority for wasting thousands of pounds after a two-year battle in which the council pursued a £25 parking fine that should never have been issued.

Local businessman Raymond Singleton-McGuire was given the ticket when he left his car in a council car park in 2014.

The car park was for use by councillors and staff only on weekdays – and although the ticket was issued for leaving his car outside the parking bay, Mr Singleton-McGuire argued that it should not have been dispensed in the first place.

The council’s Chief Executive at the time agreed to quash the ticket after it emerged that although the car park had been reclassified as public almost two years before, councillors and staff had not been told.

The council eventually let Mr Singleton-McGuire know a month after the ticket was issued.

Despite an apparent promise to quash the ticket, nothing was done

Repeated calls for action were ignored, and in desperation, Mr Singleton-McGuire went to the then council leader Peter Bedford for help.

“He told me that the reputation of Boston Borough Council and his party was at stake, and said that he had told officers not to communicate and spend any more time on the issue of the correct and proper procedure not being followed.

“This extended to freedom of information requests, without which my case in proving the council failed to follow the correct procedure was hampered. 

“This was clearly what appeared to be an unorthodox interference and inappropriate use of political power denying me my statutory rights.”

A traffic penalty tribunal adjudicator report said that although Mr Singleton-McGuire was told four months after the ticket was issued that it would be reviewed by the Central Ticket Office, this did not happen as the council did not provide the required information, and that he was deliberately not informed of the initial court date … which prevented him from appealing, and with the matter eventually ending up in the hands of bailiffs.
After constant persistence by Mr Singleton-McGuire through the judicial system, a case was eventually brought against Boston Borough Council for wasting time and inappropriate procedure, which was upheld.

Mr Singleton-McGuire asked for costs of almost £2,000, but these were rejected as this was not usual practice, and the adjudicator felt that the case could have been dealt with more quickly by both sides.

“Perhaps that might have been the case,” said Mr Singleton-McGuire. “But Boston Borough Council went out of its way to be difficult”.

“My claim for costs included 100 hours of my own time at just £5 an hour, which was a token charge rather than a realistic one”.

“But I know as a former portfolio holder for finance that the costs to the council taxpayer would have been much, much more – especially after dragging things out for more than two years, which makes me especially angry at the time when demands for even more council tax have been going out.”

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Followers of Worst Street politics may have a sense of déjà vu after reading the above in the light of recent events.

Raymond Singleton-McGuire was the man behind the resounding Conservative victory of 2011 – which saw the party gain overall control of the borough for the first time since local government reorganisation in 1973.

In the circumstances, it might be expected that he would become the council leader … but that was not to be the case.

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Soon after election he announced that he was standing down in favour of Councillor Peter Bedford.

Mr Singleton-McGuire told us at the tiime: "I did not fall nor was I pushed. I can understand that is what would appear to be the obvious conclusion everyone would perhaps make but they are most definitely wrong.

“Believe what you may, but having canvassed the group, I had the group’s support as leader, but under the circumstances asked that my vote should be given to Peter Bedford so I could devote more time to sorting out the mess that the BBI left the finances in!”
In a subsequent e-mail to all elected Tory members, he said: “I understand that there has been some concern within the group regarding my decision to stand down as Leader …

“I reflected on the situation at Boston Borough Council and its issues, especially the finances. In light of this, I set aside my personal gratification and tried to think what would be best for Boston.

“My intentions were to engage Peter Bedford as a second deputy similar to that at Lincolnshire County Council and South Holland District Council and to use his vast experience and ambassador qualities.
“Peter agreed to take over the leadership in the interim period, therefore releasing my time to concentrate on the Finance Portfolio.
“I hope this explains the significance of my decision as a positive and genuine reason for the future benefit of Boston Borough Council.”

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However, Councillor Bedford’s “interim” leadership remained limpet-like – and clearly, relations between the leader and the many who gave him the job appear to have seriously soured because – in November 2014, Mr Singleton-McGuire was removed from his post.

In a statement, Worst Street said: “In the interests of transparency and good governance Councillor Peter Bedford, the leader of Boston Borough Council, has removed Councillor Raymond Singleton-McGuire from all cabinet and committee duties pending completion of proceedings relating to his personal business interests.”

Mr Singleton-McGuire told a local “newspaper” that his removal from post was a decision made by the leader of Boston Borough Council “fuelled by various internal issues between the council and my own personal property business.”

He went on to say that his efforts to turn the council finances from a deficit left by the previous administration to a positive often encountered difficulties.

“The past three and a half years have been challenging, demanding and, at times, very obstructive when dealing with council members and staff …

And he continued: “My challenging approach about fundamentally incorrect systems, lack of transparency and scrutiny over financial and other matters has recently led to the leader blocking communication between myself and Boston Borough Council, forcing me to enlist the help of outside authorities such as the Information Commissioner’s Office, Local Government Association, Department for Communities and Local Government and Government Ombudsman.

“… to remove me as deputy leader and finance portfolio holder, in light of openness and transparency, does not reflect well in light of the above experiences.

“I am therefore unable to continue my allegiance with Councillor Peter Bedford as Conservative group leader and leader of the council.

“It is with that in mind and it should not come as a surprise that I have decided to continue the remainder of my term in office as an independent.”

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And now, the wheel turns full circle, with the recent announcement by Peter Bedford that he was standing down, and severing his ties with the Tories whilst seeking a seat on Lincolnshire County Council for the Coastal Division that he has represented for 25 years – but as an independent candidate … taking the official Tory head-on.

Life in Worst Street is nothing if not interesting.

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Whilst Boston Borough Council is long on “consultation” it nevertheless appears to be short on action.

We have until Thursday to send in our thoughts on a buy-one-get-two-free offer packaging Boston’s Heritage Strategy, Town Centre Conservation Area Management Plan and Shop Front Guide.

These have been doing the rounds for a while now …

The Heritage Strategy “vision” is based on three key findings

• That the importance of Boston’s heritage is not fully understood or acknowledged despite the significance of its historic environment being recognised nationally.
• The conservation and proactive management of the historic environment of Boston presents challenges for all key stakeholders but, once these are overcome, this resource can offer many rewarding opportunities
• Appropriately managed and sensitively led heritage-regeneration has the potential to revitalise Boston.

We wonder how such glaringly obvious statements can be made after incessant waffle, empty promises and inaction has seen Boston conservation area listed on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk for more than six years.

And this is despite a Partnership Schemes in Conservation Areas arrangement with Historic England which began in 2012, offering funding to historic property owners within Boston’s market place, sensitively to refurbish their external frontage. Since the scheme started twelve properties have been completed with another four underway which is said has provided a “significant improvement to the townscape.”

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Similarly portentous words and phrases litter the town centre plan – but again, the underlying message is that there is much that could have been done to date that hasn’t!

The other bee in the borough bonnet is the issue of shutters on shop fronts. Recently, a newspaper reported that one shop in Wide Bargate had an application to install shutters refused for a second time, after councillors decided that the designs detracted from the “visual amenity” and were “uncharacteristic” for a conservation area.

A nearby part of the visual amenity includes small trees growing in gutters, and rotting sills that threaten to fall on passers-by at any time now.

Most of the planning decisions on such matters are recommended by officers and rubberstamped by councillors – but a much larger number of decisions are entirely delegated to staff.

We don’t know how Boston compares to other authorities, but we have noticed what appears to be an exceptionally high proportion of these decisions approved “with conditions.”

Is it a case that Boston planners are perhaps fussier than they need to be in this respect and that a little give and take might encourage more businesses to set up shop in the town?

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What a shame then – that when enterprising businesspeople do invest in Boston that Worst Street can’t be bothered to help them out.

Last October, the borough website told us that demand for shop units showed “Business in Boston is alive, kicking and booming.”

The subject of the report was the opening of the Waterfall Centre – a self-contained retail and business complex that created 23 expanding and new businesses.

The initiative centred on the redevelopment of the library, council offices and sessions house complex.

And it prompted ‘Nipper’ Bedford the council “leader” in those days to burble: "This spirit of endeavour is exactly what Boston needs.

“It is exceptionally good news that so many businesses have been given the opportunity to set up or expand.

“It shows that Boston is open for business, and open to new businesses.

“Anything which increases Boston's town centre shopping offer, making it an attractive place to visit, is good news."

How sad then that on a couple of  recent Saturday visits into town to see someone standing outside the former Clarks shop with a sign on a long pole pointing down the former New Street to the Waterfall Centre.

In recent months, Worst Street has made a big deal about the importance of signage – going so far as to spend a fortune on it.

But – presumably because this is a private enterprise – the powers that bain,t simply look the other way when an enterprise could clearly use a bit of promotional  help.

What a shame.

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The camera’s uncanny eye for the truth in the recent edition of BBC’s Look North TV spectacular included an arty shot along Strait Bargate which highlighted the long-standing problems caused by allowing the Into Town buses to use the pedestrianised street as a rat run – in this case puddles sitting in the dents and tracks that the buses have made.

How long before someone slips and falls on this uneven surface?

And who will take the blame and pay the damages when they do?

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Worst Street has been battling so long to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat that it now appears to be able to do it in its sleep.

Commenting last week’s tenth annual Boston  big clean-up – the borough website chortled that the result had shown that the town is getting cleaner.

“Hundreds of volunteers turned out again for the four-day litter pick, removing 4.8 tonnes of rubbish from the streets, verges and public open spaces.

“In its first year, clean-up volunteers removed an astonishing ten tonnes of rubbish. Last year that was down to six tonnes, and this year's is the best ever result.”

The weight of rubbish collected is about the eleven times as heavy as a Grand Piano – assuming it to be a Steinway Model D Concert Grand … or about twelve times as heavy as a horse, and one-fifteenth the weight of the Space Shuttle.

It still sounds to be rather a lot to us – and as we wrote this, Mrs Eye made the observation that perhaps the reason is that  litter is lighter these days than it was ten years ago.

Compare two containers of  0.6 pints of beer – just over half a pint …

An empty can weighs 15g whilst a bottle weighs 170g – more than 11 times heavier.

As we suspect that empty drinks cans comprise the largest proportion of Boston’s litter, the improvement may not be as great as claimed!

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