Monday 25 September 2017

Chancels and
Knaves
It may be just our suspicious mind, but the above item in the council’s recent accounts made us wonder if Worst Street is looking for ways to weasel out of an historic responsibility.
The legal services department spent £300 with a top national firm of lawyers for advice on something called Chancel Repair Research.
Historically, Worst Street is the Lay Rector of St Botolph’s.
That’s an ancient title, and it makes the holder responsible for the maintenance of the chancel of the church.
The one-time Boston Corporation – now the borough council – acted as Lay Rector from the grant of its charter in 1546.
These responsibilities carried endowments of land – but it would appear that the Corporation disposed of them (like the dock and the housing stock in Worst Street times, we suppose.)
The Chancel Repairs Act of 1932 confirmed the rights of church authorities to require Lay Rectors to provide for maintenance and transferred jurisdiction from ecclesiastical to lay courts, and a number of cases over the years have confirmed that these rights remain in existence and will be enforced.
Roughly every five years, Worst Street allocates around £150,000 for repairs to the chancel.
Its current capital spending programme for 2014/15 to 2018/19 sets aside £28,000 a year for “restoration.”     
Way back in 2009, as the Stump prepared to mark the anniversary of work starting on the building in 1309, the church asked Boston Borough Council for  a grant of £12,000 to enhance its tourism work during that special year.
To try to smooth the way for this application, the church withdrew an on-going appeal for £11,000 towards its insurance cover for that year.
The council accepted this with open arms – and as far as we know has not contributed to the insurance since.
But it then went on to turn down the application for the tourism grant.
The insurance cover would  assist in the event of unforeseen problems in the chancel, but it appears that since then Worst Street has risked a huge bill in the event of some mishap.
History shows us that the council would love to make a major saving by ditching its responsibility to Boston Stump – and we wonder whether this recent innocent-looking entry in its spending accounts indicate that new moves are afoot to make this happen.
Perhaps someone can enlighten us?

***

Our piece last week about the Preposterous Boston Task and Finish Group – which makes a sloth look like an Olympic sprinter – generated an enlightening response from One Who Knows
“You are right about past Task and Finish groups,” we were told. "The one looking at Boston BID relied on outside input as did the review of the Social Impact of Population Change in Boston which also ensured that ‘dissenting views’ were recorded so that nothing was lost.
“It is so important to hear all views and to make people genuinely feel consulted.
“Boston has a great heritage and some passionate local experts who understand that heritage.
“But the problem Boston has – like most of the UK –  is linking itself into the development of wider western culture, capitalism, industry and trade both at home and abroad.
“Boston has an enviable history, from the Romans through to the Hanseatic League to the recorded history of the 16th and 17th century on to the 18th century with Flinders and Bass, and then the second World War. 
“There are local experts in all these areas.
“Britain, Boston and Lincolnshire can rightly claim to have helped the world evolve and create democracy and trade on a truly global scale.
“The secret of success is getting the narrative right and then developing the strategy as a town and borough.
“Looking at retail in an age of the internet is possibly a bit Cnut-like.
“But getting people to come here to visit and move into our town by making us a UK cultural hub is the secret.
“We have to create that narrative and then develop the strategy and our local experts, businesses – and agencies like the Environment Agency and Lincolnshire County Council have a big role here.
“We have to do this whilst retaining the historic and environmental appearance of our borough rather than trying to build out of Boston on farmland simply to stimulate short term economic advantage.
“Councillor Skinner's Task and Finish group is a good idea – but it needs to have a vision beyond car parking, shops and toilets.

***

After every Lincolnshire County Council meeting, Clownty Hall provides a recording of the live webcast so that we can enjoy it in retrospect.
For many, it is doubtless a welcome cure for insomnia – although others may consider it an invitation to self-termination.
Once upon a time, the impression was given that councillors who wanted to question the executive did so by pressing a button to enter some sort of lottery for selection – although this now seems to have been done away with.
But regardless of the system – even though there are scores of councillors in the chamber – one who wins a place meeting after meeting is the Independent Conservative Alison Austin.
At the meeting on 15th September she came up with some tottering ramble about rail services to Lincoln and the inconvenience of their scheduling, but the regularity of her appearances raises the question of whether she receives some inexplicable preference in the queue – or if they indicate a lack of competition and interest within the ranks of our other Boston county councillors who appear to see their role as sitting on their hands and claiming the benefits.
Answers on a postcard, please.

***

Councillor Austin’s question – which included an appeal for  Clownty Hall to support a call for a direct service  between Skegness, Boston and Lincoln during the current franchise consultations – receive the usual dusty response.
But her question was timely coming as the Department for Transport is staging its East Midlands rail franchise public consultation crisply named:  Driving Growth in the East Midlands – Connectivity as a Driver for Social and Economic Prosperity  … but don’t get too excited.
As is so often the case, the writing appears to be on the wall as far as Boston is concerned.
You may need a magnifying glass, but while the cover of the consultation document includes a map of services – among them Sleaford and Skegness – you will be hard-pressed to locate Boston.
That’s because it doesn’t appear.

***

From time to time we have taken a look at the problem of absenteeism among Boston Borough councillors – most notably within the ranks of BTAC-ky, which now behaves as a town council for Boston.
It’s bad enough not to attend meetings – as so many member do on a regular basis.
But the recently released minutes of the August meeting show that although just nine of the fifteen members were present – only one … Alison Austin ... was civil enough to send an apology.
This leaves five members who not only couldn’t be bothered to represent the interests of the electors whose votes they sought so ardently but didn’t have the decency to say sorry for their absence.
The running order on council papers lists those attending, followed by the minutes of the previous meeting and then apologies for absence.
Could we suggest the inclusion of a fourth section?
Ignorant Sods – accompanied by the names of those whose indifference shames the whole of Worst Street.

*** 

Is it now the case that at long last the local holders of the purse strings who give “free” grants (i.e. cash from us taxpayers or national lottery entrants) are beginning to see the Emperor’s New Clothes aspect of some of the arty-farty ideas being bounced around?
At the end of June, our favourite cultural freeloader Transported rattled its begging bowl at BTAC-ky  for £5,000 towards the £24,000 it wanted to celebrate in November  the approaching 400th  anniversary of the Pilgrim Fathers’ arrival in America (in 2020) aboard the Mayflower –  something that has nothing to do with Boston.
 “Our hope is that BTAC will join … as key delivery partners … to build the scale and ambition of the Illuminate event, embed it and its impacts in the cultural calendar of the town and ensure local ownership and pride grows as our spectacular festival grows…”
Figures for the event looked thus:


As well as all that, Transported also put in a second bid for Arts Council funding towards £8,000 for a “digital commission” to be projected on to Boston Stump.

***

Transported sprang into existence in 2012 with a mission to focus specifically “on parts of the country where people’s involvement in the arts is statistically significantly below the national average.”
It began with lottery funding, which has reduced over time and now needs to source a level of outside funding.
As was to be expected, BTAC-ky simply nodded through the £5k contribution – after all, if ever it runs short of cash it can simply turn on the taxpayer tap by upping the council tax of those unlucky enough to live in its catchment area.
As that stage it failed to notice that – as we pointed out at the time – an amount that might have been as high as £32,000 was being planned to fund a single event for a very short time. Not only that, but an event that has little relevance to Boston … as many people know.
In these cash-strapped times, we are certain that a sum such as this can be put to much better use.

***

But at least Boston Big Local showed a little more common-sense and refused the request for £5,000 towards the project – which has seen the entire house of cards come tumbling down.
We hope that it will be the thin end of a much needed wedge to stop money being poured down the drain of frivolous and short-lived pieces of entertainment.

***

After its huge investment in fancy off-road vehicles and a squadron of drones to catch hare coursers, we thought it ironic that recent press and TV reports credited Norfolk rather than Lincolnshire Police with being the pioneers.
But police and crime commissioner Marc Jones is not intending to stand still – and is being quoted as saying that Lincolnshire Police is aiming to be the "greenest" force in the country as it trials electric cars.
The Nissan LEAF is currently on test as a community car rather than a hot-pursuit vehicle.
Mr Jones is quoted as saying: “I’m ambitious for Lincolnshire Police to become the ‘greenest’ most sustainable force in the UK …
“… I want to see the vehicles used by the force keeping pace with operational requirements but also with changing technology to ensure pollution and fuel use is kept to a minimum.”
From small beginnings the hare coursing squad rapidly expanded to include a couple of £8,000 quad buggies and a fleet of fancy cars as well as two drones.
What will follow the non-pursuit Nissan, we wonder?
Are we perhaps just a short step away from a £100k Tesla which covers 0-60 mph in just 4.8 seconds?

***

Certainly, the money seems to be there.
Currently the commissioner’s office is advertising for a Partnerships and Delivery Manager paying up to £58,000, a Regional Collaboration Manager on a pay ceiling of £43,000 and a Regional Performance Analyst on a top whack of £30,000.
Three admin posts paying a total of £130,000.
With the average starting pay for a Lincolnshire policeman at £25,000, this would fund five operational officers, who must surely be worth more than three pen-pushers.
Yet despite all that, Lincolnshire Police managed to squeeze a contribution of £850 towards the cost of establishing a mini police project in twoBoston schools which is nothing more than a PR stunt – and a not very original one at that.
Further details of grants such as this used to be freely available, but can now only be obtained on request to the BTAC-ky Grant Administrator, such is the Worst Street transparency.

***

Not for the first time, Worst Street has not only failed to take advantage of an opportunity offered to it, but kicked the gift horse in the teeth along with the taxpayers as well.
For years, the free local magazine Simply Boston, which reaches 17,000 homes around the area, has given the Boston Borough Council leader a free monthly column.
In the days of Peter Bedford it purportedly discussed “the important topics in and around Boston.”
This was seldom the case – as the magazine was fobbed off most of the time with a repeat of a column provided for the Boston sub-Standard – often published some weeks earlier, without any editing to keep it in-date if required.
In July, the first column under the new leadership saw “Michael’s Notes” promising the same thing on a monthly basis – something that we said at the time we doubted would happen … and which proved to be the case. After Councillor Cooper's first column, which repeated a piece written for the Worst Street website, we have since been offered “updates” from local councillors “sharing” what was to happen over the following few months.
This promise was more or less delivered in the August edition by town centre portfolio holder Paul Skinner but by September, the plot was beginning to unravel.
“Martin’s Notes” saw housing portfolio holder Martin Griggs’ by-line over a piece that was little more than  a mission statement/propaganda puff on the Worst Street housing policy and a summary of the progress of the council’s rogue landlords’ project since 2014.
The October issue is out at any time, and we doubt that Worst Street will clamber out of the idle furrow that it has ploughed for itself.
In a sense, this is a self-inflicted injury by Simply Boston – as it fills a considerable amount of space each month with the dire hand-outs that the council laughingly calls  “news.”
But wouldn’t it be nice if they could put their heads together and devise something informative, entertaining – and above all useful and helpful for the people of Boston to read?
Don't hold your breath.

***


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


Monday 18 September 2017


It is really two years ago this week that saw the first meeting of the self-appointed Prosperous Boston Task and Finish Committee?
It certainly is.
And is that the same self-appointed committee that Worst Street promised would  take eighteen months and three phases to provide “one of the most in-depth studies into what makes Boston tick” to produce a comprehensive report “with far-reaching recommendations aimed at making the town better for residents, shoppers and for those who work and visit here?”
Yup.
Many thought back then that the amount of time the Preposterous Boston Committee had allocated before issuing its findings was more than a little over the top.
Yet here we are – six months after things were supposed to have been done and dusted – and we are still waiting.
The committee was created on the whim of Tory Councillor Judith Skinner, wife of Councillor Paul Skinner – portfolio holder for Boston town centre – with a cross-party membership comprising Independent Conservative Councillor Alison Austin, Ukipper Yvonne Stevens, Labour’s Nigel Welton and Independent Barrie Pierpoint.
Councillor Mrs Skinner is, of course the Chairman.
At the time the group began deliberating, Mrs Skinner said she had been prompted by the closure of the Edinburgh Woollen Mill shop.
“It made me look up and see several more 'to rent' signs. I wanted to investigate to see if the council could facilitate conditions to encourage more businesses to come to Boston.”
The former Edinburgh Woollen Mill shop – despite being tarted up under a heritage grant scheme – remains unoccupied to this day.
Despite her insistence that Task and Finish meetings are not open to the public, history shows the reverse to have been the case – with the 2012 meetings about the Social Impact of Population Change in Boston, and the investigation into the activities of the former Boston Business ‘Improvement’ District both actively courting public access and involvement.

***

Apparently, Preposterous Boston has not been forgotten about – although you might be forgiven for thinking so.
In fact it looks like dragging on into 2018 at the present rate.
The committee is name-checked in Worst Street’s “forward plan of key decisions” (it has one, apparently) for the three months ending 30th November.
During this period, key decisions will be made on issues likely to result significant spending or savings or those which might be significant in terms of its effect on communities living or working in an area comprising two or more wards of the Borough.
The latter is the one that we imagine encompasses the Preposterous Boston report.
Phase III of its meanderings – which will focus on tourism and events – will include a full review of any promotion of the town, all events and accommodation – and is scheduled to go to the cabinet meeting on 11th October, with the public report being available during the week commencing the 2nd.

***

Quite what happens after that is anyone’s guess.
Summaries of Phases I and II  have dribbled out at meetings of Boston Town Council – formerly BTAC-ky.
Phase I incorporated retail experience and facilities provided, including a full review of the shops, the markets and toilet provision, whilst Phase II looked at car parking, environment and transport, and a full review of signage throughout the town, cleanliness and anti-social behaviour, provision of “flora and statement art in and around the town” and transport links to and from the town.
Once Phase III is unleashed, we imagine that Preposterous Boston will then have to produce a collation of all three along with its final recommendations.
We just hope that the wait will have been worth it – but are not holding our breath … after all, with one exception, the members of the group have not exactly been run off their feet and there is no apparent reason why they should have dragged things out for so long.

***

By an unhappy coincidence, Worst Street chose to illustrate a piece on its website with the headline “Read all about it! Boston makes the headlines!” followed by the supplementary line “Nothing shouts the news like a tabloid newspaper headline – even in the digital age.”
All this fuss was to illustrate yet another campaign by Independent Conservative Councillor Richard Austin to get Boston seen in a better light … and to prove that Boston has more history and heritage than any other town in England!
Hors d’oeuvres for this dubious banquet included such items as: “A religious crusade was launched from Boston – whatever that was; the Roundhead cavalry was stabled in The Stump; Zeppelin bombs Boston; and Fogarty leads on pillows and duvets.”
Quite how such unconvincing goodies will prove the intended point is anyone’s guess but, Councillor Austin has been tilting at this particular windmill for years..

***


Meanwhile two tangible and far more sombre headlines were making the real news.
The first was a study commissioned by the BBC’s Woman’s Hour (are they really still allowed to call it that?) which sought the best and worst places in the country in which to be a woman.
Topping the list of best places was East Dunbartonshire – whilst fourth from the bottom of the five worst was … Boston.
The usual Boston Borough Council tactic is to brand this as an anti-Boston campaign run by a spiteful media.
But in this case, the injury is to an extent self-inflicted, as the statistics were drawn from measurements across eight categories – income, housing, well-being, safety, education, life expectancy, environment and culture – many which are influenced by local council performance … to give a “holistic analysis of women’s quality of life.”

***

Meanwhile, the most up to date statistics from a government survey showed that 27.8% of adults in Boston engaged in less than half an hour of physical activity each week in 2015/2016.
The figures are from a new survey by Ipsos MORI among a total sample size of 192,158 people for Public Health England.
Boston’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2017-20 says that almost three-quarters of adults (73.8%) are overweight or obese along with  more than one in three Boston children (35.3%) aged 10-11.
Worst Street says it hopes to get more people active through partnership projects such as the Boston Park Run, Boston Marathon and Get Cycling Roadshow.
Events such as these may tick the right boxes – but they are not reaching the grass roots, which is where the real problem lies.
A stroll through Boston at almost any time of day shows why – just take note of the number of people on the move whilst filling their faces with junk food.
Forget the old concept of elevenses – Boston residents enjoy round-the-clockses, and this is the core problem to tackle.

***

Last week we quoted Councillor Claire Rylott on her mission to boost tourism locally saying: "Next year our town will have celebrations for the Royal Air Force centenary, again bringing visitors to the town. We are already working towards Mayflower 2020. Working closely with others is so important to make things happen and develop our tourism economy in the years to come."
Spot on.
But as we have pointed out several times, there are also anniversaries far more relevant to Boston that could be turned into interesting exhibitions and dramatisations of some kind.
For instance, even the out-of-touch Worst Street website reminds us that: “In 1218 a Patent was granted for Boston's Fair.
“The earliest maps of Boston date from that time and the ‘Market Place’ is indicated on them in its current location. 
“Once a year the London courts would close so that everyone would have the opportunity to visit Boston during the May Fair when at that time goods which were rare such as spices and wines, could be bought fresh.”
Surely this is an opportunity not to be missed – the 800th anniversary of the establishment of a major piece of Boston’s history.
Another anniversary – a measly 500 years this time – that we have previously mentioned bridges this year and next.
In 1517 Thomas Cromwell (think Wolf Hall) was approached by Geoffrey Chambers of Boston for help in seeking an audience with Pope Leo X to secure funding for the Guild of Our Lady in St Botolph's church.
Pope Leo was threatening to end the indulgences from which the guilds and the church received large sums of money from people who wished to pay for the safety of their souls in heaven.
Cromwell deployed an audacious plan …
He travelled to Rome and "ambushed" the Pope during a stag hunt – and knowing of Leo’s sweet tooth – persuaded him to change his mind by plying him with sweets and delicacies … and the guild’s finances were saved.
This was an important event for Boston, which revived the town’s fortunes when they were drying up along with the silting of the river – and the man who achieved it was one of the giants of Tudor England and British history who not only set the wheels in motion to bring parliamentary democracy to the country but also made possible the Reformation which saw Henry VIII take control of the church.
An excellent BBC Four TV programme by historian Diarmaid MacCulloch’s  made in 2013  and called: “Henry VIII's Enforcer: The Rise and Fall of Thomas Cromwell” featured generous segments filmed in Boston Stump and the Guildhall together with an animated reconstruction of Cromwell’s meeting with the Pope.
If nothing else, this programme – or selected highlights – should be running on video in both buildings next year.
Elsewhere in the county, towns are quick off the mark when it comes finding relevant things to celebrate.
Stamford’s Georgian Festival, which runs for four days from this Thursday and which is a visitor magnet, includes street theatre, colourful markets, celebrity speakers, Georgian science … and even tumbling horseback acrobats.
Earlier this year, Gainsborough Old Hall mounted an exhibition of costumes from the BBC drama Wolf Hall
Why does Boston lack the drive and energy to do similar things – rather than copying what others have done before?

***

One problem may be that we don’t quite seem to know how to manage the heritage we have got.
Some years ago 116, High Street, Boston – an important Grade 2* listed Georgian town house which once housed Lincolnshire’s first private bank – was repaired and restored by Heritage Lincolnshire, and is now home to Age UK Boston and South Holland.
Not only is the organisation far less accessible than it once was – but so is the building for history enthusiasts.
The same is true of the former Boston Union Workhouse on Skirbeck Road, which was designed by George Gilbert Scott and built in 1837.
Scott is famous as the architect of many iconic buildings, including the Albert Memorial, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras Station, all in London.
Heritage Lincolnshire restored and repaired the structure in 2001. The building, renamed Scott House, is now owned by Lincolnshire County Council and operates as a resource centre for adults with physical disabilities – and so again is inaccessible to the general public.

***

Heritage Lincolnshire also had a finger in the pie behind last week’s two-day opening of the former Boston Sessions House to discuss potential new uses for the building.
Lincolnshire County Council Executive Member for Commercial and Environmental Management, Councillor Eddy Poll said: “Boston Sessions house has great cultural and historical significance to the town; it’s vitally important that we find an appropriate use for the building that benefits the community and is befitting of the high regard in which it is held.
“The open days give local people a great opportunity to have their say on the future use of Boston Sessions House whilst getting involved in interactive workshops and taking in wonderful entertainment from the artists, dancers, musicians and theatre companies the town has to offer.”
Why does our blood run cold at this?
The emphasis for the open days was on entertainment, arts and all that – and it is impossible not to imagine that somehow this magnificent building will be dumbed down into some kind of low grade Music Hall status if the powers that be have their way.
During our time in Boston back in the 1960s, we spent many hours on the press bench of this court, and the atmosphere of a big trial has to be experienced to be appreciated.
Its condition would allow it to become an unusual educational attraction – certainly unique in Lincolnshire and extremely rare in the country as a whole.
Just outside Boston we have a newly-opened World War II museum and enactment centre which is proving very successful.
Why not create a Justice Museum in Boston – reenacting trials, allowing role playing and informing the younger generation of the history of our laws which make this country such a special place in which to live.
It could draw thousands of visitors a year if properly and thoughtfully managed.
Just don’t allow it to become another luvvies’ haven or isolate it from the mainstream community.

*** 

Despite the claim on the Worst Street website, what it says is not exactly true.
Local taxpayers who have seen street drinking partially nudged out of  the town centre now fall victim to the problem outside the area where it can be managed by the town’s public spaces protection order.
Boston’s local police chief admitted as much when he reported to councillors: “We’re moving in the right direction, and I would still suggest we’ve got it out the town centre.
“It exists in the park and on the river banks and we’ve got that to focus on, but hopefully we’ll go from strength to strength.”
The so-called “extension” is in fact a retention of the existing area for another three years that will do nothing to ease the replacement problem of out-of-town drinking.
Whilst it was accompanied by the usual back slapping and self-congratulation when the cabinet approved it, the reality is that the “prohibition that is not a ban” is simply the mixture as before.
The main reason for this is cost.
When the first PSPO was created it cost around £10,000 of taxpayers’ cash to implement … which included the erection of 211 multi-lingual signs throughout the Spozone.
To truly extend the area would incur spending of a similar magnitude – so even though it would be beneficial and make life better for many residents, Worst Street is too mean to do it.
And local reports say that councillors spent a long time contradicting themselves over whether there is really a ban on drinking in the area at all.
Despite the wording on the signs which says that “drinking alcohol or carrying it in any open container area is prohibited” the council line is that consumption is only prohibited when someone consuming alcohol in the PSPO area is seen by a police officer and told to desist or surrender it.
Perhaps they’re trying to find a way to justify the Oktoberfest booze up in Central Park next month – despite withdrawing the licenced bar for the recent open air cinema event and telling taxpayers in no uncertain terms: “This is a family-focused event and there will not now be a licensed bar and patrons are reminded that consumption of alcohol in Central Park is not permitted.”
The dictionary defined prohibited as something “that has been forbidden; banned.”
We’re reminded of the other definition we used to describe the cabinet some while ago – one they seem keen to live up to.

***

Finally …
What a difference a day makes.
On Wednesday afternoon the great and the good were gung-ho-ho-ho-ing over Boston’s third consecutive gold badge in the Britain in Bloom competition.
On Thursday morning, a reader spotted this eyesore opposite Savers and not far from the Five Lamps.
Award in the bag … pack the plants away now for next year.
Surely not!



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



Monday 11 September 2017

Bin … and gone –
councils slapped
down over new laws

Three months ago, Boston Borough council's website exulted  that it had become a mentor to other local authorities wanting to copy its aggressive stance and criminalisation of taxpayers who disobeyed the council’s bidding.
Regular readers will recall that  a Worst Street local law required anyone out walking their dog to produce a poo bag on demand  ... or face a heavy fine.
They were also especially proud of another law to  fine motorists up to £2,500 if they impeded the path of one of the bin collection lorries – even if they were  parked quite legally.
“Councils in other parts of the country besieged by some of the same problems being tackled here have asked for advice from Boston Borough Council,” WorstWeb trilled
“A number have asked about the borough council's use of new legislation to encourage more to clean up after their dogs … (and) … “inconsiderately parked vehicles which block the route needed to be taken by bin lorries seems to be another problem shared.
“A district council in Wales and three others, including one of the London councils and a large metropolitan council, have asked the borough council for information on how it is tackling persistent offenders using anti-social behaviour legislation. It has asked to follow the borough council's progress on this one with a possible view to copying ...”
But these municipal mimics reckoned without  the Daily Mail – which in the past week highlighted extreme cases of  legal abuses, and claims to have prompted Local Government Minister Marcus Jones to order them to wind their necks in.


In one case, Worst Street’s demand for dog walkers to carry a poo bag was further embellished – with a requirement for not just one bag … but two.
We wonder how pleased the councils who asked Boston for its secret of “success” feel now that these heavy-handed antics have been exposed as the bully-boy tactics they really are.
It is a fitting payback for a council that puts oppression and posturing before punters to get its own way. 

***

Our on-going debate about the poor attendance record of some Boston borough councillors has been joined by Mike Gilbert – a former Tory councillor and cabinet member who has now formed his own political party A Blue Revolution
In an e-mail he says: “This has got worse since the party system has had to promote people with limited scope to participate in local democracy.
“UKIP clearly scraped the bottom of the barrel in all too many cases. 
“The other main party on Boston Borough Council – the Tories – have some young talent but all too often there are competing demands, and unfortunately the borough loses out.
“Less politically significant but still shameful is the number of councillors to miss civic events, including Mayoral events. 
“It seems to have got worse since the last borough election as stalwarts of such events have left the scene … councillors like Mary Wright, Yvonne Gunter, Richard Leggott, Carol Taylor, Paul Kenny, Paul Goodale, and James Knowles.
“The people of the borough who turn out for events like Remembrance Sunday, the Coningsby freedom parade and the Mayor's Sunday and Civic Carol service expect to see the people they have voted for representing their ward at these  town events.
“I think it diminishes democracy when councillors take the money and well, just take the money.”

***

The more common expression is “take the money and run” – and this really is the bottom line in many cases.
Once upon a time, the argument was made that councillors’ allowances were too low to attract candidates of quality or to encourage more young people to consider involvement in local politics – but this is no longer really the case.
Whilst better benefits have attracted a handful of younger members it is undeniable that the lion’s share of Worst Street membership comprises upper middle aged and retired people with time on their hands that can be turned into hard cash.

***

Basic allowances at Worst Street are £4,400 a year – yet the most recent figures for 2016-2017 show that just half of those listed  received  this lowest payment.
Cabinet members receive an extra £3,361 and the remainder of the non-basic squad received “special responsibility” allowances in varying amounts – plus travel expenses where incurred.
This saw an average across the members of the last council of £5,600 – whilst only seven received the bare minimum.
Where councillors held cabinet jobs they received £7,750 a year – around £650 a month.

***

Then of course, there is the matter of Lincolnshire County Council – where four of our five representatives wear two hats and represent Worst Street as well.
The basic allowance for all five is £10,425, and three of the remainder hold committee roles that attract special responsibility payments of £9,830, £4,170 and £3,130 respectively.
At the top end of these rates, we see one councillor “earning” almost £20,000 a year from Clownty Hall, plus £7,750 a year from Worst Street … all of which is paid before expenses.

***

It seems hard to imagine that these monies are “earned” in what most of us would consider to be the definition of the word.
And we are sorry so see so little evidence of what councillors do at the sharp end to represent the people they claim to be so anxious to serve … but  at election time only.
We believe that one or two of them keep their electors informed via a newsletter.
But ss far as we can discover, none of them communicates via social media – Twitter, Facebook or Blogger – nor do they hold “surgeries” where their constituents can drop in to raise local concerns.
The most common reason given is that voters “know where to find me…”
But some members do not make themselves as accessible as they ought –  using the council switchboard as a point of contact rather than a landline or mobile number – and we doubt that those who seldom attend meetings are greatly troubled if they never hear from their punters between elections.

***

Former councillor Mike Gilbert was not the only one with a view on absenteeism – we have heard again from Carol Taylor, who these days sends her welcome thoughts about Boston Borough Council  from Cornwall …
“I would like to add my comments about councillor absenteeism,” she e-mails. “There's nothing you can do about it. It is up to the individual to remember their commitment at election time.
“During my time as councillor, there were two who only attended the obligatory one meeting every six months. They didn't do anything for their community but still claimed their £300 plus per month.
“There is also the issue of councillors not living in their wards – and there is nothing you can do about this either.
“Councillors who have moved out of their elected wards can't possibly know what is happening in their ward and can't attend local meetings.
“These councillors have no morals – but until the constitution is changed will continue to take money from the public purse without batting an eyelid!
“As for working in their community – how can they if they don't live there?”

***

An occasional browse of the Worst Street spending figures never fails to be of interest.
In the most recent batch – with always emerges with what seems to be extreme reluctance – we noticed one particular big spend that caught our eye …


We wonder why this £46,000 bill is being paid from our hard-earned council tax.
One suggestion is that it might be due a whoops! where one of the borough’s great white elephants is involved, and that we are meeting the bill for another organisation.
Answers on a postcard, please.

***

The spending list also includes gas and power bills for the PRSA and the Moulder Leisure Centre for June of £4,700 and £3,500 respectively.
These seem little changed from the days before hundreds of thousands were spent on biomass boilers and the woodchip to fuel them.
This seems to us the sort of thing that should be subject to a bit of scruting by the appropriate committee, as on the face of it a fortune appears to have been spent to no real purpose.

***

It may only be peanuts in spending terms, but another figure for July was £400 to a company that we assume provided “beach-related arts and craft materials” for the Central Park cat lavvy.
This is despite Worst Street’s “Big thanks again to Boston Big Local for funding the event with support from Mayflower Housing, Boston Children's Centre, Transported Arts and Boston United in the Community.”
Last year, when the council again had no similar spending commitment, it splashed out £5,150 for the “construction of beach in park” plus £700 to hire four donkeys for two days and £500 for a bouncy castle.
As with the recent open-air cinema event, if Boston Borough Council is not involved in the spending process it should stay out of it – especially in the case of the open air cat litter tray, which we are told may well delight us for a further seven years.
What we want to know is who broke the mirror to inflict this particular gem on us?

***

Waffle of last week award went – not surprisingly – to Boston Borough Council’s attempts to entice us along to the county heritage open days…
“It is … a timely reminder that Boston boasts as rich a history and heritage as any town in the UK.”
Say again …
Translated, this seems to mean that Boston is pretty well just the same and no different to anywhere else.
“It has been helping to shape the world we know today right from the time a few locals were making salt to keep the Roman legions happy.
“Today visitors from far and wide are attracted to The Wash bird reserves on our doorstep whilst our town boasts cutting-edge food packing and processing businesses that daily fill supermarket shelves around the country.”
We must pay them a visit.
“The history of Boston is on record but it is like a huge iceberg; very little of it is easily available to the public gaze, apart from the Stump of course.”
Polar bears please note – Boston might be worth a visit if you can hack through the Worst Street verbiage …

***

Recently, we tweeted Clownty Hall about a use of English which claimed that road works had been “extended” for the installation of utilities and surfacing – when we felt that they were ignoring the reality that the job had simply been delayed.
Who plans a highway project without installing utilities and laying tarmac?
Now, a slightly different question has arisen – this time with the Wyberton Chain Bridge repairs … which saw it closed to traffic for six week from July.
It should now have been re-opened but the County Council says that “recent repair work has revealed the bridge is in worse condition than expected, with sections of concrete needing to be replaced to ensure it remains safe to use.
“Additionally, the water mains underneath the bridge need upgrading.
“As a result, the bridge is now expected to be closed until the end of September.”
The ensuing chaos can easily be imagined now that the schools are back.
This latest development is described as “unforeseen” because the recent works have “brought to light” sections of concrete that need to be replaced to ensure safety issues don't develop in future. 
So now a route that was promised to reopen as the school holidays ended will now cause problems until the end of the month.
If we had problems with our house, and asked for an “expert” assessment, we would expect it to involve a thorough investigation that would have uncovered all the difficulties.
In this case, it seems that the surface only was scratched – and once it began more problems emerged.
Yet again, we are indebted to Lincolnshire County council for the creation of problems that could have been avoided more easily.

***

It seems that the number of Worst Street panjandrums “passionate” about Boston has doubled in the past week.
Our last blog mentioned the leader’s obsession and now Councillor Claire Rylott has joined the list, according to the Worst Street website.
She has been awarded a seat on the visitor economy board of the Greater Lincolnshire Enterprise Partnership and said: "Now we have a voice and I am determined to make it heard. Boston has such a lot to offer visitors from home and abroad. It will be my mission to sell the area and encourage visitors to linger longer to help boost the visitor economy.”
Aside from the question of why we have not been represented on this board for so long there is the matter of what you do with voices once you have them.
Councillor Rylott was reportedly the brains behind the Visit BostonUK website – and it was stressed that the council would host the site and update useful maps and additional information, it would be "community owned.”


Over the last ten days a fun fair has been held in Central Park – something that we have not seen the likes of for years.
Did it appear in the events list on Visit BostonUK?
No – which is a shame, as fairs at this time of year are infrequent, and some publicity might have pulled a few hundred extra visitors to the town.
Adages that Worst Street might do well to adopt in future should include ... 
If A Job's Worth Doing, It'sWorth Doing Well ...
Start As You Mean To Go On ... and most importantly ...
Don't Take Your Eye Off The Ball.

***

As expected, members of the newly-formed Boston Town Council – formerly known as BTAC-ky – voted to spend an extra £81,000 on two new maintenance officers and a variety of future events.
They are also exploring the idea of increasing their share of the council tax by 10% to fund an even bigger spending splurge – but are looking to set up a workshop to investigate that idea  “before the Autumn” … which began ten days ago if you are a meteorologist or in ten days’ time if you are an astronomer.
The committee looked at a number of other areas currently funded by the Worst Street core and totalling almost £250,000.
In a timely outbreak of common-sense, head Tacky, Councillor Nigel Welton worried that if his free-spending henchpeople took on some of that, then Worst Street might simply reduce the money it already pays.
He is quoted as saying: “We as a committee should only consider taking over on spending where we feel that spending is going to stop, and we feel that particular project is something we might want to deal with.
“The reason we took the decision to raise the precept … was so that we can improve the benefit and lives of those in the BTAC area.
"If we are to spend £248,000 on existing support we are not making one jot of difference to the people of the BTAC area.”
It sounds very plausible – but in reality is little more than a heads-up to Worst Street to get its act together and plead poverty so that the Tackies will foot the bill instead.
The suggested council tax rise would bring in another £50,000 to spend on the town.
The committee agreed to the £81k spend by a vote of four in favour and four against with Chairman Welton breaking the deadlock by casting his vote in favour.
***
Just a moment.
Four-all plus one equals nine – which means that five of the committee members were not in attendance – absenteeism being an endemic part of the role of a BTAC-ky councillor.
It works out that the decision was taken by just 64% of the members– which ought not to be allowed to happen.
Serious spending like this should demand nothing less than a 90% attendance – but many Tackies simply can’t be bothered to take their responsibilities seriously.
It ought not to be beyond the wit of the powers that be to apply some sort of whip on the members – pointing out to them that attendance is little short of mandatory without a good … and we mean good … reason for staying away.
Certainly any decision on a 10% rise in the council tax burden must not be taken lightly – and we need to know who is for and who is against on an issue of such importance.




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