Time and again, we have asked questions about the amount of
money being poured into the Geoff Moulder Leisure Centre and the Princess Royal
Sports Area – and in the case of the PRSA have been told that it is now no
longer a burden on the council taxpayer.
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In fact, as long ago as September 2015, the Worst Street
website informed us: “A new chapter in the life of Boston's Princess Royal
Sports Arena has begun as 1Life takes
on full responsibility for the centre.
“Following a contract signing with Boston Borough Council, 1Life now has the go-ahead to arrange
repairs and improvements to bring the centre up to an improved handover
condition – the final bill to be paid by the borough council. But these costs
will be covered by savings made by energy efficiency improvements, some of
which are already complete and providing a return.”
Given the number of tales we have been told about the PRSA,
it therefore came as little surprise to see from the council’s own spending
figures for January that whilst thousands were being spent on the biomass fuel,
the December electricity bill was more than £6,000.
In February more big bills for biomass were paid and the
electricity bill was more than £4,000.
We recall the promise that using biomass at the Moulder and
PRSA would not only save money but earn it over time through selling
electricity back to the national grid.
***
But this appears to be just the tip of the iceberg.
The council’s spending figures for January and February show
that a fortune is being paid out – much
of it in capital – for top of the range
equipment charged against the
Gmlc/Prsa Biomass
Installation expense line.
Quite what this has to do with biomass is anyone’s guess –
as is who authorised such a huge spending binge.
In January and February we have seen entries for sports
equipment costing £125,000, a payment to contractors Bentley and Rowe for the
“Boston Sports Initiative loan” of almost £35,000 and “additional works” at the
PRSA costing nearly £20,000.
The grand total for all this is almost £180.000 – paid by a
council that claims to be short of money!
The Boston Sports Initiative is listed by Companies House as
a “private limited company by guarantee without share capital use of ‘limited’
by exemption” – whatever all that means.
It says that the next accounts made up to 31st August 2016 are due by 31st May this year and that the last accounts were
made up to 31st August 2015.
But those accounts told us:
On 19th May 2015
BSI's solicitors received a letter from Boston Borough Council (BBC) stating
the Council's belief that BSI did not hold tenure of the PRSA other than as a
tenant at will under the Building Agreement and giving BSI notice to quit the
PRSA and that as from 1st April 2015 BBC was not in a position to
continue to financially support BSI.
Boston Borough Council advised that they intended to enter into a new
lease of the PRSA with 1Life Management Solutions Limited on 16th September 2015.
It took Boston Borough Council until 23rd March 2016 to formally grant a lease to iLife
Management Solutions Limited. In the view of the above the trustees have
concluded that as at the period end date BSI is no longer a going concern and
consequently these financial statements have been prepared on a 'break up
basis'.
As well as company status, the BSI is also registered as a charity which appears to have overlooked its responsibilities and in which millions of pounds of our taxpayer money is invested in the PRSA.
So would someone please tell us what on earth is going on?
***
Some spin-off now from our last blog’s on Worst Street’s wrongful
issuing of a parking ticket to former deputy leader Raymond Singleton-McGuire –
which was rescinded only after a traffic penalty tribunal upheld a case against
Boston Borough Council for inappropriate procedure and for wasting time and directed
the council to cancel the penalty charge notice.
We touched on the shenanigans which followed the 2011
elections that saw Mr Singleton-McGuire disclaim the leadership in favour of
Councillor Peter Bedford – himself now a Conservative out in the cold.
***
Former Councillor Mike Gilbert – who has now created a new
political party called a Blue Revolution
– e-mailed to say: “I was interested the piece about Raymond Singleton-McGuire
in your last post.
“It was a strange period in which – a bit like the recent
decapitating of Peter Bedford – Raymond was ganged up on by many of
Lincolnshire's Tory great and good. “However what he failed to tell you was
that having been ‘whipped in’ brought to heel, as well as promised the title ‘deputy
leader’ along with ‘new Tory recruit’ Mike Brookes and to avoid a Coronation
for Pete, I stood against Pete for leader.
“Carol Taylor, Mark Baker and a number of others said they
voted for me.
“We had to make 5-minute speeches which we didn't hear each
other make. The feedback as that Pete was ......well Pete. But still he won.
Carol would have heard both speeches
“However, I lost and Yvonne Gunter who counted the votes
(with someone else who I don't remember) didn't disclose the result, perhaps
understandably.
“My sense at the time was that it was close ... but I don't
know how close.
In respect of Pete and Raymond what goes around comes
around.
***
Former Councillor Carol Taylor also sent a comment.
“It was my first time in local politics when elected in
2011. Raymond Singleton-McGuire was an inspiration in the run up to the
successful result. I will never forget the jubilation I felt to be part of
something so privileged and special, it didn't last very long.
“On the Monday following our election, a post result meeting
was held in the council chamber. When I walked in I saw Peter Bedford, Mike
Brookes and Raymond but I couldn't understand why.
“I was expecting and hoping to see Raymond as leader with
the wonderful Mike Gilbert as his deputy but this wasn't meant to be – and no-one
knew anything about the change until that meeting.
With regard to 'Ticketgate'
Raymond had suddenly become the victim of a campaign to oust him even by his
own political party.
“He was a great financial portfolio holder and was dedicated
to saving money to ensure better services for the public.
“I would like to thank Raymond as he taught me so much about
local politics and gave me the confidence when I needed it most.
“Good luck Raymond, you are so much better than this.”
***
And another comment from a reader left us hungry to know
more.
It read: “If you really want to get the Boston Tories’ ire
up, just mention the ‘Coffee Cup Coup’
that took place at the 'Club', the Saturday morning after the unexpected result
... a coup that started within their own weasel-like ranks on the very night of
the result.
***
Sadly, our report last week failed to make any impact on our
local media. Although both our local “newspapers” – the Boston sub-Standard and the Boston
off-Target – BBC Radio Lincolnshire and
Lincs FM were sent advance copies of the blog, none of them felt able to give
the story a mention.
Hmmm, let’s see …. Local council wrongly issues parking
ticket to own deputy leader …. refuses to rescind it despite promises … blocks
victim’s democratic rights to fight the decision to the point where bailiffs
are sent in … loses battle only after a long and costly fight in an
adjudicator’s court. Are we missing something here, or is our local media in
thrall of Worst Street to such an extent that it turns a blind to such
disgraceful practices?
***
By a strange co-incidence, another quote that we saw from Raymond
Singleton-McGuire during our researches last week concerned greater openness.
He said: “I have arranged and instigated and hopefully it
will be approved, to have cameras in the chamber therefore preventing any
future personal bravado or outbursts and to retain the respect and diplomacy
expected in a council chamber …
… “I will not tolerate any of the antics that have been
associated with Boston Borough Council in the past.”
Cameras in the council chamber – and the live broadcasting
of meetings such as other councils do – would have been a splendid idea had it
been introduced.
It might have rendered unnecessary the need for minutes such
as the following from a recent BTAC-ky meeting
“The Chairman advised that the meeting was being sound
recorded.
“The Monitoring Officer asked everyone to be mindful of how
their speech would be viewed.”
Despite that: “During the meeting the Monitoring Officer warned
Members about use of language and urged caution with respect to the factual
basis of statements made.”
Is this really the sort of behaviour we should expect from
our councillors?
***
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News of a General Election on 8th June – barely a
month after the Lincolnshire County Council elections on 4th May – have probably left most of us stunned with
political ennui, rather than
slavering with anticipation.
It’s early days yet, so we don’t know who will be coming at
us from out of the sun to promise us heaven and earth for our vote – although
Tory MP Matt Warman has already announced his reselection, and the UKIP
candidate last time around, Robin Hunter-Clarke has announced his intention to
stand – but won’t say where.
He’d better make his mind up soon – as a likely challenge for Boston and Skegness
is on the way from Victoria Ayling.
Ms Ayling stood as a Tory against Labour’s Austin Mitchell
in the 2010 election campaign and came within 714 votes of victory.
But by the 2015 election, she was standing for UKIP – ending
up in third place behind Tory Marc Jones, who obviously fancied Parliament as a
better job than being Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner at the time.
Ms Ayling – who is UKIP’s spokesperson for heritage and
tourism and a Lincolnshire County Councillor – then declared herself a virtual
shoe-in for last year’s Sleaford and North Hykeham election – but instead opted
to come third.
No news yet from Labour’s Paul Kenny as to whether he will
stand for a fourth time.
Last time around, after flirting with and then falling out
with Lincolnshire Independents and forming her own Pilgrim Party Lyn Luxton polled
a meagre 143 votes. She told us that her id on Twitter of @lynluxton4MP does not mean what you might reasonably think
– but actually stands 4making peace …
and that she is now chairman of Sleaford Conservatives.
At least that’s one deposit saved.
We think we’ll let things settle down for a while before we
attempt a detailed look at who’s likely to be whom at election time.
***
One interesting item of news to emerge though was in a Tweet by Joseph D’Urso – a political
researcher for the BBC – whose lists of marginal seats were heavily re-tweeted
by Auntie’s Daily and Sunday Politics
programme presented by the politically ubiquitous Andrew Neil.
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| click on photo above to enlarge |
So, we asked Matt Warman whether he considered his
constituency marginal, and were told: “I
don't know if there's an official definition of marginal, but any MP is daft to
take their seat for granted.”
It shows that – if nothing else in these past two years – Mr
Warman has mastered the political art of ignoring questions and delivering the
answers that he prefers.
***
At a local level, we note the appearance of one or two
candidates in our so-called newspapers and online.
Independent Boston Borough Councillor Barrie Pierpoint has
set up his own Twitter feed and website
in his campaign to win Boston Coastal Division on Lincolnshire County Council.
This will be an interesting battle, as it is also being
fought by the incumbent Peter Bedford – who has represented Coastal as a Tory
for the past 25 years, and who is standing as an Independent against Tory Paul Skinner
– plus the current holder, UKIP’s Felicity
Ransome, Labour’s Susan Walsh, and
political veteran Ossy Snell – another Independent.
Whilst it’s not our place to advise, we did think that Mr Snell’s
initial canter out for votes in last week’s papers bearing the headline “My
name is Mr Oswald Redvers (Ossy) Snell” lacked something by way of pizzazz.
You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com
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
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