Sorry about our non– appearance last week – but we fell victim to a double whammy of a health setback and a major computer failure ... neither of which are fully better.
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As always, absence means some catching up.
So here we go …
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“Boston punching above its weight” was the headline on the borough website WorstWeb – above the claim that Worst Street is “one of the nation’s most innovative councils”.
The so-called “accolade” was granted at the Local Government Chronicle Awards in London, where Boston was shortlisted among eight contenders in the environmental services category – one of 20 competed for by councils across the UK.
“Judges shortlisted the council after hearing of the myriad of initiatives taken by the council to keep the town and borough clean and tidy – combatting fly tipping and littering and encouraging recycling and reduced contamination,” WorstWeb burbled.
“The council’s entry ... praised the successful partnerships and volunteers who help with initiatives such as Operation Fly Swat, litter enforcement, litter champions and the Big Boston Clean Up.”
Innovative?
Scarcely.
Worst Street has dragged the Big Clean-up horse to the award pond before – and as a piece of ‘innovation’ it is now in its 12th year.
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It was five years ago that Worst Street last trotted its clean-up out for recognition – along with garden waste collections and the long-forgotten Geoff Moulder Leisure Complex swimming partnership.
Then, the occasion was something called the District Councils Partnership, and it turned out that almost all of the 200-plus district councils taking part sent in details of their pet schemes – as we said at the time ‘all that seems to be needed to qualify for a place in the league is to post your boast.’
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No, the word ‘innovative’ appeared in one of those concocted quotes from the LGC award organisers designed to make the losers feel good and give them something to boast about.
Incidentally, silence reigned a few days later when the results of the East Midlands Local Authority Challenge 2019 appeared without any mention of Boston.
And the 2019 Lincolnshire Tourism Excellence Awards came and went last month with no mention of us either.
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Still, they never stop striving in Worst Street ... and they certainly are very trying!
Yet another fanfare from WorstWeb announced: “Boston shows a whole new face to the world next week with the launch of MYBOSTONUK.COM.”
The piece bragged of a new website which has been under construction for the past few months “and will be streamlined, more responsive and user-friendly and the latest member of the new-look family of council websites which includes visitbostonuk.com and thinkbostonuk.com.”
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Poor old Worst Street. The old front page disappeared on Friday 22nd March – just in time to make it impossible to find the announcement of the notice of next month’s election.
Worse still, repeated attempts to find any pages – anywhere – were greeted with ...
Think about it.
The council tax demands have just gone out, and people will be wanting to find out information which is always supposed to be more easily available online.
And of course in just over a month it's local election time.
The weekend when all the messing about occurred coincided with the receipt of our voting cards – and we decided to apply for a postal vote.
What do you think the chances were?
Correct.
Zero.
And as we went to press, there were still problems with the site and difficulties finding some inportant information that we are sure Worst Street would rather we didn't know.
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Talking of elections, whilst we were away the joining of forces between the Blue Revolution Party and the Bostonian Independents Group was formalised at a local meeting.
Both parties oppose national political policies as a way to run a local authority – feeling that councillors whose hands are not tied can focus more fully on local issues ... and of course, they are right.
A release after the meeting declared that “It was agreed that each independent councillor will remain independent.
“They will be free to act and vote however they feel is in the best interest of their ward with no involvement from any party politics, and by working together, they can effectively mount a strong opposition to push for real change within the borough of Boston.”
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Whilst it sounds good in principle, the history of ‘independence’ in Worst Street has been something of minefield over the years.
Remember the Boston Bypass ‘Independents’ who spent more time falling out with each other than getting anything done?
Or the United Kingdom Independence Party– which might have controlled Boston Borough Council had it not been for members’ inability to get on civilly, civilly?
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But after next month's election, even if every independent candidate were successful there would not be enough to make a deal of an impact on the workings of the council.
Both BiG and Blue Revolution are likely to put up three candidates apiece – 20% of the 30 members required ... and so the maths makes it clear at this stage even a political miracle wouldn’t be enough to do the trick and give them a real say.
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And whilst we wouldn't suggest that BiG had already given up the ghost, it strikes us as odd that the party – formed in May 2018 – would have been deregistered eight months later.
Perhaps this is an example of what’s called quitting while you’re still ahead.
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It’s a shame really, as BiG has been making all the right noises – especially in a recent release which put the problem of imposing national party politics over what needs doing locally into harsh perspective.
It said: “Looking at Boston over the past 10 years, how and where has it progressed? Very little and nowhere, why?
“Because the Borough Council has been predominantly run by the Conservatives who spend all of their time cutting budgets, services and leaving Boston residents to fend for themselves.
“The Conservatives in Boston have ran (sic) out of steam and have nowhere else to go, they lack ideas, vision and direction. The Conservative Councillors on Boston Borough Council who are also County Councillors, will not challenge their Conservative County Council hierarchy because they do not want to rock the boat, so Boston gets left behind again with lack of roads, investment and infrastructure.
“Lincoln, Grantham and other towns within the County are getting better roads, infrastructure and investment, Boston is yet again left behind.
“Why aren't our Boston Borough Conservative County Councillors challenging the Conservative County Council for a better deal for Boston? They are not interested nor bothered and are not strong enough to stand up to their big brother Conservative Council.”
“In Boston Conservatives are a party of the past, with many of their councillors made up from deserters who failed their electorate from Labour and UKIP, Labour is non– existent except for the same one or two old faithfuls, and UKIP has disintegrated due to their lack of direction, drive and ambition. All major political parties in Boston are there for party politics and their self– interest – not the people, who get forgotten and left behind.
“It has never been a better time for Independent Councillors to work together who are not politically minded but share the same vision, aims and objectives to be elected and serve the electorate with fresh ideas, vision, direction and new initiatives. They will tackle the real issues and not just ignore them or push them under the carpet like the current ruling Conservative Councillors do.”
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Don’t run away with the idea that we are anti-Tory by the way, but the facts are the facts.
And the BiG blast is simply a louder version of the one we issued a few weeks ago which in summary asked: "If you are standing for the Tories with the promise to make Boston a better place, are you seriously saying 'Vote for me and I will see that services will be cut but that you will be paying more for them. Not only that, but I will do whatever I am told by my local office in Lincoln and my head office in Westminster regardless of the impact on you”
Vote Tory by all means – but make sure that your candidate has something in the way of guts to put Boston first.
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Meanwhile, Boston Labour Party was first out of the trap with list of candidates ... advertised in the local press last week.
Well ahead of the official announcement, Labour has declared 19 candidates in 13 wards.
They are:
Skirbeck – Jacqueline Barton, Paul Gleeson, Paul Kenny
Fenside – Alan Bell and Joseph
Pearson
Witham – Andy Izzard and Wendy
Gleeson
Coastal – Tracii Edwards
Staniland – Ben Cook and Pam Kenny
Station – Paul Goodall
St Thomas – Mauro Maglione
West – Andy Cook
Fishtoft – Jane Hancock
Five Villages – Ewa Thorley
Kirton & Frampton – Mick Gall and
Patrick Glennon
Swineshead & Holland Fen – Jan
Finch
Wyberton – Malcolm Limbert
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Although it was well down the list, it was interesting to read that Boston Borough Council has spent almost £40,000 on gagging order payments to – we presume five former – staff in the past five years.
The figures appear in a list obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Lincolnshire Reporter website through one of their two Local Democracy reporters.
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This sort of thing is always concerning as it means that silence is being bought – often for the wrong reasons.
But we also know that Worst Street loves keeping secrets – and that relationships within its walls are often sour.
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Against this backdrop – we hear a suggestion that the council’s cabinet of curiosities has moved against a “persistent and vexatious” complainer by refusing to deal with him any more ... instead passing enquiries on to the Local Government Association, whose job it is not to deal with such things.
Whilst this iron fist in the iron glove approach is typical of Worst Street, we understand that on this occasion it has become so because the purported “complainant” is an elected councillor – who would now appear to have been denied the rights of his office to represent constituents.
What a shame that the elections do not include some Worst Street officers that we might be better off without.
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Which brings us back to the issue of recording meetings – something that has been raised in no uncertain terms in recent weeks.
One former councillor believes that the root of the problems lies with the Worst Street officers.
“During my time as a Boston Borough Councillor member more than once I noted that the agreed outcome of committee discussion had not appeared in the minutes.
“In general the unrecorded material tended to be in the areas where officers had, unsuccessfully, tried to guide the members towards a different outcome of discussion of the matter before committee.
“Of course, the new arrangement of not recording meetings will make it easier/safer to operate what would appear to already be the present system of writing up the minutes to suit.”
This is what the authors of “1066 and all that” would call “a very bad thing.”
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Some word splitting now over our observer's reports of a couple of recent BTAC-ky’s meetings where a request to grant money to Boston Stump was debated.
Councillor Paul Gleeson e–mailed to say: “I am afraid your reporter didn't quite get their facts right. On the 27th February BTAC decided not to give the £15,000 grant for the school's festival, and to ask for more information on the £2,000 and £3,000 projects. At their meeting on 20th March they decided not to support the other two projects.
The two sums concerned were for arts and building projects respectively and were supported in principle subject to a breakdown of how they directly benefited the residents of the BTAC area.
At the time, our reporter took this to mean that the committee was on-side – even though the application was subsequently rejected ... an why not?
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No harm done though.
Boston Stump’s “Passion for Pounds” project was back in the news the other day as a beneficiary of £38,850 for “Regenerating a 17th century Church House and adjoining church hall to create a central community venue – reviving the Blenkin Memorial Hall.”
Yet another worthwhile project, we’re sure.
BUT ...
The money in question came a £36 million government grant for “the great British coast.”
The Blenkin Hall grant was part of a round two phase three project of the Coastal Revival Fund.
We may seem a bit thick here, but the building in question is not what you might call coastal – apart from the fact that the River Haven flows by some distance away behind a high concrete wall.
Boston Eye’s offices are in an old building near water as well. Had we known about the grants, we might have applied – only joking, of course.
But we wonder whether our parish is becoming more than a little greedy.
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County Hall’s indifference to Boston – highlighted earlier in our report on BiG – reached the international stage after a visit to Cannes by Lincolnshire County Councillor Colin Davie.
Councillor Davie, Lincolnshire’s Executive Member for Economic Development, was attending MIPIM ... an annual four-day international property dog-hanging as a member of the Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership.
Afterwards he claimed that Lincolnshire could be set to receive at least £750 million in investment on its major developments – and was quoted as saying: “We were promoting a number of specific sites around business and commercial interest and two of those sites, which I’m very confident are going to come forward, they’re going to put £750 million into the Lincolnshire economy.
“We’re excited about delivering the big stuff which will make a difference in different parts of the county, not just Lincoln, but Grantham, Holbeach, Skegness, Louth and Gainsborough will get a benefit from the work that we’re doing.”
Boston?
Where’s that, Councillor Davie?
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Even so, we can’t help but worry at the emphasis being placed by our Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Jones on gadgetry.
His explanation of why he needed an 11% council tax rise this year was made against a background of a pledge of a 2% rise next year ... which by a happy co-incidence happens to be the year that he is up for re-election.
So much money seems to be going on gimmicks like the mini-police scheme and gadgets such as drones and fancy four-wheel drive vehicles to chase hare coursers around the fields.
We have no doubt that this crime is a problem – but is the expense of pursuing it proportional?
Then there are the handful of officers who are ‘on the street’
We sometimes wonder how they are able to move – buried as they are beneath the host of contraptions shown above, which it’s claimed between them can free up an hour and twelve minutes of time per officer per day.
We also note the absence of those big, black, heavy-duty boots that for years were at the heart of a policeman's wardrobe!
More worrying still was the PCC’s knee-jerk reaction to the latest go-everywhere device from the United States.
Perhaps such a machine – whose wheels turn aside and become propellers if it has to enter water – could come in handy when police chases drive felons from the village green and into the duckpond!
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As always we are indebted to the Lincolnshire Live website – which keeps us so well-informed about happenings in Newark and Retford under the banner of the Boston off-Target for a regular chuckle. It came up with this howler from Skegness, which we thought we would like to share.
If no-one else, we are sure that our PCC would approve!
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Finally, a couple of stories that wouldn't have made our blog if today wasn’t so special.
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Rumours abound that Boston Borough Council has done a deal to sell its West Street headquarters to Lithuania’s largest supermarket group Maxima.
The picture above is an artist’s impression of how the building might look once planning permission to convert it has been granted.
Spokesman Olar Lipof told us: “It has long been a goal to turn the West Street into a Little Lithuania and this may soon become a reality.”
At Worst Street we were told: “Not much goes on in these offices nowadays so it seemed daft not to realise a million-pound asset, bank the money and work from home.
“As for councillors ... who needs ‘em these days anyway?”
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Today's other news takes the form of new attraction for the Market Place – one that ties in with the Mayflower 400 celebrations marking the Pilgrim Fathers’ departure to the New World from Plymouth ...
The arrival of a £450,000 giant statue outside the city’s Theatre Royal made national headlines when it became the UK's largest cast bronze sculpture ....
But there was also a closely guarded secret surrounding the event.
Mouldings from the lower half of the project are to be used to mark Boston’s new status as a centre for al fresco defecation ...
It is thought that the image will be sufficiently graphic for people to get the idea without the need for ancillary sculptings – and given the giant scale, it has been given the working title Poofrilla ... a sort of a cross between Godzilla and you-know-what.
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I for one, am hoping that the forthcoming local elections will evidence the real mood of the current electorate. A mood which reflects an acute disdain, if not an outright contempt, for the out of touch politicians and elected officialdom whom we have suffered for far too long now.
ReplyDeleteI have resolved to no longer vote for any representative of the two mainstream parties, whether that be in a Local or General election.
I have a strong feeling that I am not alone in entertaining this sentiment.