Boston Borough Council’s relationships with the people who
fund it are often uneasy – but now they seem to be approaching rock bottom.
We say “approaching” as we feel certain that Worst Street will
always go that extra mile to kick taxpayers in the teeth if it is at all
possible.
***
At the end of last week, Worst Street announced new
sanctions against residents in two streets where their car parking makes life
difficult for the borough’s binmen.
We mentioned this last week, you remember – when we
commented on the council policy of publishing the number plates of “offending” vehicles
on their website.
And we also warned of the possible risks of something like
that as well.
Now, Boston Borough Council plans to make it a crime for
some people to park outside their own houses – with a fine of £2,500 if they
continue to do so.
This will be done using powers available to Worst Street
under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act.
Registration numbers of “repeat offenders” who leave their
vehicles “inconsiderately parked” so that the lorries cannot pass are being
recorded.
Drivers will then receive a Community Protection Notice warning and then a Community Protection Notice requiring them to desist.
And if they don’t they will have committed a criminal offence punishable
by a fine of up to £2,500.
The two problem roads mentioned are Horace Street off
Carlton Road, and Rose Place off Skirbeck Road.
So far.
Both probably predate the days of cars and bin lorries – which are so big the council calls them "freighters" – and
Horace Street in particular is typical of many residential roads in the town.
It is already heavily managed by double yellow lines – yet Worst
Street now wants to bring its sledgehammer down on those who use the few
permitted parking places.
Whatever these bureaucrats declare, the
residents of these roads are not guilty of ASB – Anti-Social Behaviour.
All they are guilty of is IBBC – Inconveniencing Boston
Borough Council.
And if that can be made a crime, who knows where Worst
Street will stop in the future?
***
Our second sledgehammer story of the week involves one of our
“regulars” – local businessman Darron Abbott.
He has long been a thorn in the side of Boston Borough
Council because of his refusal to go away if he feels that his concerns have
not been properly addressed.
Just over a year ago, Worst Street created a “Persistent and
Vexatious Customer policy” and promptly made Mr Abbott a founder member – and perhaps
the only member.
This allowed the council to restrict Mr Abbott’s dealings
with it – but it has not deterred him in any way.
After a visit to the council offices last week which ended
with the police being called, but no wrongdoing being found, Mr Abbott has now
been sent to the Worst Street equivalent of Siberia.
“You will not be allowed entry into the Municipal Buildings
for any reason at any time. Should you enter the buildings the police will be
called immediately.
“The ban from the Municipal Buildings will apply with
immediate effect and will be reviewed in six months.”
The background to this is long and complicated – and an
ironic twist comes in the fact that Mr Abbott is also a member of the borough’s
“civilian” Christmas committee and has singlehandedly come up with many of the
plans which will shame Worst Street's Xmas efforts of previous years.
But something which worries us greatly is the assumption by Boston Borough Council that Lincolnshire Police are at their beck and call to throw anyone they dislike out of the municipal buildings – simply on their say-so, and with no legal validation.
Along with the attack on Horace Street and Rose Place residents this is yet another sign
of an already dictatorial council descending into uncontrolled tyranny – merely
to get its own way.
Shameful.
***
Occasionally, we encounter reports prepared for Boston
Borough Council committee members that make us wonder if we are actually
being told everything that’s going on.
Tonight sees a meeting of the scrutiny committee that deals
with Environment and Performance, which – rather than scruting – simply reports a shedload of statistics with a few
comments attached and hopes that any problems go unnoticed.
Two items stand out head and shoulders above the rest.
They concern CCTV and its effectiveness and the ever present
problem of fly tipping.
***
CCTV first … and according to the latest figures the number
of arrests from the monitoring of the borough’s streets has almost halved –
from 566 to 303 between 2015/16 and 2016/17.
That’s a fall of 46%.
Look further and you will see that evidence packages
provided to the police fell by 39% from 320 to 199.
“CCTV outcome – incidents” (whatever that means) fell from
1,483 to 896 – a plunge of 40%.
CCTV has always been a high agenda item at Worst Street – where
love of giving its taxpayers a hard time if possible is second to none.
There is no question that the system is expensive and labour
intensive – as Worst Street bragged on its website earlier this year.
“The Boston control room now monitors cameras for the
neighbouring authorities of South Holland District Council, East Lindsey
District Council and North Kesteven District Council as well as its traditional
role of monitoring Boston and Kirton. Our trained operators now have access to
approximately 200 live cameras.
“The CCTV system is operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a
year.”
***
So what is going wrong?
A report to councillors declares: “CCTV outcome trends are
down this year but the cause is uncertain and may be positive (less crime) or
negative (less crime being detected) so there will be a watching brief this
year to improve our understanding of these figures in partnership with the Police
(sic).
“For example, we have introduced monthly monitoring of the
collection of evidence packages.
“There will also have been an impact due to the
implementation of the transformation project but again this is unclear as it is
early days so we will continue to monitor these figures in 17/18 to provide a
fuller picture.”
***
We always try to be helpful in cases like these, and can
quickly rebut the idea that crime has fallen.
Lincolnshire Police figures for all crime in Boston Borough
in March 2017 – the most recent date available – show a total of 483 crimes.
The same source shows that by a remarkable co-incidence the
figure for the same month last year was … 483 crimes.
Obviously, less crime is being detected then – or is it?
A recent appeal by Worst Street after plants were stolen and damaged at a number of
in town locations asks anyone with information about the thefts and damage,
including when it may have occurred to aid review of CCTV film footage to get in touch.
What this suggests is that – whilst cameras may well be
providing 365-day round-the-clock security as claimed – they may not be being
monitored around the clock … hence the crash in the statistics.
Could this be a saving that we know nothing about?
Quite possibly.
The deceptively named “transformation programme” is just
Worstspeak for cuts – which are mentioned as having had an “impact.”
The only mention we can find of CCTV in the list of budget
slaughter is one under the section relating to partnership asset management
which reads: “Sharing of annual revenue savings post-payback of investment.”
At the time that Boston was falling head over heels to take
over everyone else’s CCTV, questions were raised about how effective the system
could be in stretching its self so widely.
Now, it appears that the original plan for Boston to make
savings by servicing other authority areas has been diluted and that the money
earned will be redistributed
***
The available information seems to suggest that
the human investment in CCTV is being reduced.
This is surely a false economy as there seems little point
in having top of the range security if no one is keeping an eye on it around
the clock.
This is known as closing the stable door after the horse has
bolted and one day we may pay a high price for such a false economy.
And at the very best, Worst Street now plans to waste an
entire year monitoring an easily explained change that sticks out like a sore
thumb.
***
On now to fly tipping – a problem that is going through the
roof …
… and yet again, Worst Street is in mañana mode.
“The volume and type data indicates that there is a
particular issue with unauthorised house clearances and this is being targeted
by enforcement action. Sub-categories will be introduced for ‘other household’
and ‘other unidentified’ so that we can have better reporting of what is being
fly tipped from 17/18.”
To us, the reporting couldn’t be clearer.
Dumping waste equivalent to a Transit van full increased by 78%.
Dumping waste equivalent to a tipper increased by 172%
Dumping waste in significant
amounts – how much more this is than a tipper is anyone’s guess –increased
by 71%.
But never fear … there has been “targeted enforcement
action” …
Will someone please tell us when the last time was that anyone was taken
to court and fined for fly tipping, littering or standing still for more than
five seconds by this slothful, disinterested, lackadaisical local authority?
***
Worst Street is after our views to “inform” a project to “safeguard
the future of Boston's Victorian Cemetery.”
The worrying phrase about “safeguarding” the future of the area
carries with it the deadly connotation that the place is somehow under threat.
We suspect that this is probably the case and that the
murkily named Transformation Policy has a part in this somewhere.
Part of the survey tells us: “Alongside using grant funding
to greatly enhance what the cemetery currently offers for visitors, we will
need to run some chargeable activities in order to make the long term
maintenance of the site sustainable. These might be nature walks, music events
or family activities.”
Music events – in a cemetery?
This got us thinking, and we came up with a list of bands
and music that might fit in …
Danse Macabre - Saint-Saëns
Thriller - Michael Jackson
Burke and Hare – a musical play
The (tomb) Stones
The Zombies
The Grateful Dead
Dead or Alive
Velvet Underground
We hope that this will be of some help as a starter for ten.
***
There was a general election last week – and Matt Warman was
re-elected as our Conservative MP.
***
Finally, with all the news of the past couple of week,s we
omitted to mention an item from Horncastle – where the town council voted
to do away with its mayor after only eight
out of 34 people who responded to a newspaper survey believed that having a
mayor was good for the town.
The same survey on Facebook
received 54 responses, with 10 saying they “weren't bothered either way.”
The town’s last mayor said the main reason for doing away
with the role – which paid an annual £1,000 allowance – was to save money.
"Mayors are expensive in days of austerity, and we need
to save every penny," he said.
We have raised the issue of the cost of a mayor for Boston –
and whilst we don’t think that it should be done away with entirely, we believe
that tens of thousands of pounds could be saved by reducing the number of
events staged by other mayors that our incumbent attends.
Perhaps Horncastle has gone a bit too far, though … as
according to the BBC news report on the decision “The town's mayor will be
replaced by a chair …”
We know that many councillors are a little wooden, but …
You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com
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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 ban from the Municipal Buildings will apply with immediate effect and will be reviewed in six months.”
ReplyDeleteSlightly more decorous than the threat of a 'punch in the f-----g face', I suppose it could be argued.