For all the talk, nothing speaks louder than reality.

The people who live here know that Boston has a problem with street drinking but the powers that be mostly look the other way. 
So it was that on the weekend of the virtually unpublicised 1940’s bash in Central Park we ventured into town to take a peep.

Before that, we needed to visit the post office, which was deserted – aside from one male customer departing the only manned counter in the place.

As we were being served, we were suddenly shoved aside by the previous customer – although the booze fumes he was dispersing would have done the job without resorting to rudeness.

A pointing finger stabbed towards some forms at the back, and one was handed to him – whereupon he left.

We received an apology – and an explanation that the miscreant was unable to speak any English.

Well, that’s all right then.

 ***

Once out of the post office, we skirted the foot of Wide Bargate – past the beggar whom we assume is now no longer “homeless” since he appears to have taken root in the doorway of McColl’s – the former Co-op – day in, day out.

***

Almost there …

But before we arrived, we noticed someone stretched out on a bench near the entrance to the former main post office building.

Two female police people – who between them might have almost equalled his bodyweight – appeared to be trying to engage him in a conversation presumably with the intention of getting him out of bed and on his way.

But, what the hell, it’s a sunny Sunday morning, you have a bench, some bedding including a pillow, and a bottle of vodka to hand on the pavement – and so you don’t apparently plan to go anywhere.

***

Into the park we went for a thirty-minute stroll – but not before the promise of a Hurricane fly-past had been marred by foreign aircraft including a Fökker-Öffe, a dive bombing Drïnkel and a crash landed Drünkel – or it might have been a  Messerschmasht

Out we came again to see the same two police ladies apparently no further forward than they were almost an hour after we first saw them.

***

But just as we started to drive off, we were alerted to siren sounds from the direction of John Adam’s Way.

A clearly marked “emergency” ambulance screeched up – and yet another young lady leapt out to locate the source of the emergency … at which time our rear view mirror lost sight of the action.

It may be that things were worse than they looked, but given the time that elapsed between our arrival and that of the ambulance, it seemed more likely that an inability  to get a drunk moving led to an ambulance being called out – rather than simply summoning a police vehicle for a trip to the cells.

If so, this will have been an expensive exercise – and one which again has street drinking as its root cause.

***

A few days before this, Mrs Eye was returning from the town centre when she was concerned to see a man walking unsteadily towards her having clearly over imbibed.

Needless to say, she was fearful. But just before their paths crossed, the man turned to one side to vomit into someone’s front garden.

Another narrow squeak.

That's just a snapshot of our week – how was yours?

***

Incidents such as these are not uncommon these days, as are sights such as this photo which was taken recently. Although the mess has since been cleared away – history shows that it will return again and again.

In fact a walk the other evening alongside the Maud Foster from Spilsby Road Bridge to the Skirbeck Road Bridge – which ought to be a pleasant waterside stroll on a sunny evening – was marred time and again by litter bins filled to overflowing with empty drinks cans.

At one point, where the towpath runs beside a children’s play area, there were no fewer than three such bins.

Quite obviously the drinkers had tucked in in full view of children playing, their mothers and passers-by.

But no matter – this isn’t in the town centre – so the authorities don’t give a monkey’s.

***

If you Google “street drinking in Boston” you will find a road to hell that’s paved with good intentions.

In September last year, beneath the headline “Street drinking in Lincolnshire town will NOT be tolerated” we were told: “A major clampdown on street drinking and drug taking in public has begun with posters placed around Boston warning it will not be tolerated.

“A mobile police van will be sat on one of the hotspot streets, Red Lion Street, in the town, this week to target anyone drinking or taking drugs.”

Earlier that same year a report promised: “Anti-social behaviour in Boston associated with underage and street drinking is to be tackled in a new scheme which directly targets off-licences.

“Boston could become the first Community Alcohol Partnership if police, council officials, schools and other partners agree to launch the scheme later this year.

“It comes as an additional measure to Boston Borough Council's ban on drinking in public places when it became the first authority in the country to introduce a public spaces protection order.”

Even earlier, in January 2015, we read: “The street drinking ban has been officially launched in Boston – making it an offence to drink alcohol in a designated area of the town centre.”

***

This is known as talking the talk.

But it is useless unless the people speaking intend to walk the walk as well.

Interspersed between all these promises of jam tomorrow are other headlines – such as the recent “Street drinkers are 'running riot' in Boston's Central Park.”

Despite all the clamps-down some genius came up with the idea of not locking the park gates overnight.

Councillor Claire Rylott, whose portfolio includes the park, was quoted as saying: “The six-month trial to not lock the gates started at the end of February to look at controls of anti-social behaviour issues in Central Park.

“At present we have had no increase in littering or any anti-social behaviour. We will continue to monitor this and feel that it is an advantage to the public to have access to the park out of peak times with the summer and lighter nights approaching.

“It is not a money-saving initiative.”

So, the gates are left open “to look at controls of anti-social behaviour issues” whatever that means.

But it should have come as no real surprise to read that vandals trashed a wooden picnic bench in Central Park overnight on May 31^st removing it from its hard standing, and hurling the remains around the area.

And how about the lethal potential behind the headline “Man fined after he was found carrying sword in Boston Market Place.”

The report said that the man concerned was trying to sell the sword to buy alcohol – having “been out drinking and had 'drunk a lot' before he had run out of money.”

***

And still the “initiatives” go on.

The latest comes from Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones – whom we are sure inhabits a world parallel to our own on occasions.

His latest cunning plan is the use of “sobriety tags” to combat alcohol fuelled crime in Lincolnshire – where it’s estimated that 25% of all offences involve alcohol.

Hi-tech ankle bracelets, which detect alcohol levels in the wearer’s sweat, alert the authorities when someone has breached an abstinence order.

We are not told how many of those are doled out by the courts – but they can be issued through an Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement.

If the tag detects the presence of alcohol in the system, probation services are alerted and the individual concerned could be sent back to court.

Somehow, we see this as nothing more than the latest in a long line of failed palliatives.

The fact is that controls on street drinking and the associated problems in Boston are broken – and no-one seems able to mend them.

***

With a little help from Boston Eye, Worst Street’s draconian punishments planned for people who park cars where the council says they shouldn’t found its way into the Sun newspaper.

Whoever spoke to the Sun reporter from the council offices suggested that they had the interests of the emergency services at heart – because they might be called to the "problem" streets and not be able to gain access.

Nice try – but it was the first time we’d heard them mention it; the law relates to waste freighters, and we are sure that the big boys in the police, fire and ambulance services would deal with the problem themselves if ever one was encountered.

Interestingly, when Worst Street acquired its new £1 million, seven-vehicle fleet in 2013, it made the point that the lorries “can carry ten per cent more than the ones they replace –  around 12 tons each – but, being slimmer, are able to access narrow roads that the wider-bodied old fleet could not.”

Think about that …

Slimmer lorries that carry more must be longer lorries … and whilst they can access narrower streets, they may not be able so easily to negotiate the chicanes created by cars legally parked on alternate sides of the road.

Looking back, we see that the problem roads where drivers are now being blackguarded never appeared as trouble spots before the new fleet was acquired.

So it seems that Worst Street created the problem that is now persecuting people over.

***

The hoo-ha over the latest laws came as Worst Street announced a new website to help boost tourism.

Whilst it’s a bit better looking than what has gone before, it is still nothing to write home about – but at least it’s a start.

All of this set us thinking about a new slogan that might tip people the wink about the dystopian borough that they plan to visit or even make their home…

It reads …
Welcome to Boston – where everything’s fine …

Finally …

We understand that issues reported in recent editions of Boston Eye about the roughing up of taxpayers got as far as elected members making overtures to the upper echelons of Worst Street to see for themselves ...

But the message that came down to councillors from the Ivory Tower was that it was not “'the done thing” for them to have access internal CCTV footage.

Hmmmm.

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