What a good job that elections for Boston Borough Council are
only held every four years – otherwise we might be due another before the
fallout from the most recent one appears on the Worst Street website.
We know that the wheels of the Worst Street mill grind slow –
that’s if they grind at all – but our neighbours in South Holland and West Lindsey
had the full details of their new councils online within a week of the results.
Boston on the other hand had nothing – and still didn’t as we bedded the blog down at the
weekend.
***
A visit to WorstWeb
– surely among the poorest and most unhelpful local authority websites in the
country and which still reports: “No Results Found … the page you requested
could not be found” when you try to link to it – offered a series of options to
learn who your representative was … and bear in mind that whilst almost half the councillors are new to the
authority this time around the rest are not and their details remain mostly
unchanged..
***
The Worst Street invitation was to find your councillor –
alphabetically, by party, by ward, or as a list. But whichever option you
selected resulted in a default back to the same menu.
After all this time, WorstWeb blandly states “page being
updated.”
But bearing in mind that we are talking more than two weeks after the election on 2nd May – one of the few
items of ‘information’ on offer was a ‘councillor
attendance’ summary.
***
But this wasn’t just any old summary – it was a list of the
14 councillors who either opted not to seek re-election or who were not
re-elected and their attendance up to and including 17th May … fifteen days after they ceased to hold
office.
Meanwhile, of the councillors who survived the ordeal by
ballot box – and therefore look the same, represent the same parties and in
most cases the same wards and have the same e-mail addresses, there was no sign.
***
This was yet another glittering piece of ineptitude from
Boston Borough Council – and worryingly one that can be laid at the door of the
officer cadre … something that is happening with increasing regularity, and
which raises concerns about the quality and abilities of many of the more
senior folk around the place whom we would expect to justify their excessively
high salaries by demonstrating their worth rather than the reverse.
We are reminded of the response from an officer asked to produce
a long overdue report in time for a committee meeting in a month's time who seriously suggested that this would not be feasible.
***
So in Boston, voters who may have held off contacting a
councillor due to impending elections have been left in the lurch, whilst our
neighbouring authorities are able to brush such difficulties aside and do the
job expected of them in double quick time compared with dawdling Boston – which
increasingly is looking like a pre-retirement home for senior officers.
All our councillors were photographed for WorstWeb on the day after the first May
bank holiday. Creating their e-mail addresses is not exactly rocket science as
it follows the pattern lazy.officer@boston.gov.uk
– so why has nothing been done?
If Boston is ever to be dragged from the rut into which it is
inexorably sinking daily deeper, we need a brighter, more imaginative, more
enthusiastic, less lethargic bunch of managers at the helm.
But somehow, we doubt that this will happen.
***
As we have said, quite what the upshot of the elections has
remained unclear for quite some while – and our first interpretation of the results
was called into question by none other than the council’s top Tory – leader Michael
Cooper.
***
He mailed a week after the elections to say that there seemed
to be “a bit of confusion” over numbers – which we took to mean he was saying
that Boston Eye had got it wrong!
He went on: “After the 2015 elections it stood at: Cons – 13,
UKIP –13, Lab –2, Indi (sic) – 2
“By the end of the term we had 16.
“Now we are Cons –16, Indi (sic) –10, Lab – 2, Un aligned
(sic) –2
“So, we are actually up on numbers from where we were at this
point in the last term and still hold the same number of seats as we did when
we finished the last term.
“Given the national picture we did remarkably well unlike many local councils who were punished for Westminster’s inability to get a meaningful solution to BREXIT, something we have no control over at all.”
“Given the national picture we did remarkably well unlike many local councils who were punished for Westminster’s inability to get a meaningful solution to BREXIT, something we have no control over at all.”
***
There is a word which well describes Councillor Cooper’s stance
on the election results – Potemkin.
No, not the battleship.
In politics and economics, a Potemkin façade is any
construction (literal or figurative) built solely to deceive others into
thinking that a situation is better than it really is. The term comes from
stories of a fake portable village built solely to impress Empress Catherine II
by her former lover Grigory Potemkin. during her journey to Crimea in 1787.
The legend has it that Potemkin erected phony portable
settlements along the banks of the Dnieper River in order to impress the
Russian Empress; the structures would be disassembled after she passed, and
re-assembled farther along her route to be viewed again as if another example.
***
But back to our e-mail correspondence
We told Councillor Cooper: “Certainly there is confusion – much of it down to the
council's appalling website which a week (that’s how long it was then) after
the elections has still not set out even the basics of the result nor which
senior councillors have been allocated to the various executive roles.
“I appreciate that you are trying to snatch victory from the
jaws of defeat and make the local results seem as good as possible, but cherry
picking the comparison periods doesn't change matters.
“You had 16 councillors on election day, and now have 16
councillors once again.
Similarly, I note that the number of Independents is being
listed as one less than on election night and that two councillors are listed
as unaligned.
“This latter description is a perverse interpretation by
someone in West street to refer to councillors that have not joined a political
group – which in my book makes them Independent.
“When the ‘official’ details appear on WorstWeb, I will be pleased to quote them – which is one of the
reasons I am taking next Monday off to allow your overworked officers to get
their act together and put the details online ...”
***
Obviously, it is Councillor Cooper’s job to make the Boston
Tories look good – but as we have said many times before, a scarecrow in a blue
suit would most likely be elected to Worst Street in some council wards … such is
the inborn and hereditary tendency to vote Conservative regardless.
Let’s remember that some obvious Tory candidates in the
election didn’t even dare admit which party they represented – so scared were
they of defeat – yet got returned anyway.
And others switched from their original parties between 2015
and the last election as ‘self-servatives’
for the purposes of gaining influence, or a desire to retain office whilst
in some cases deserting the wards that voted them in to seek new home somewhere safer.
And as far as the promises the party made to get into power
were concerned … they might as well not have bothered.
***
Their Conservative election literature claimed to have “delivered”
a funding bid for a bypass distributor road.
Well, that’s true … up to a point.
At the beginning of the year a “Strategic case summary and
request for funding towards business case” was submitted to the government –
which basically asked for £1 million to spend on writing a bid for the £150
million required to build the sections of the road that cross over rail, other roads
and water … don’t forget that the building of the bulk of the road will be a
condition imposed on developers and that the thing will eventually link like a
giant tarmac sausage and only go around the western side of the town linking
the A16 north and south in any case.
This will add decades to seeing a result.
And whilst money has already been allocated from the Government’s £100
billion National Roads Fund, despite an application ages and ages ago, Boston has not featured among the recipients.
***
Perhaps if we decided what we really, really want things might
go better.
A “bypass distributor road” is a silly expression that is neither a bypass, nor a distributor road – although the political employment of
the word bypass is clearly designed
to make it sound better than it is.
***
Boston Tories next claimed to have “delivered” the Boston
Barrier.
a) It hasn’t been delivered, as it is still under construction,
and b) Worst Street’s involvement has been peripheral to say the least. The big
players have been the Environment Agency and Lincolnshire County Council –
whose most memorable act was to withdraw a promised £10 million contribution that
would have allowed Boston to join the Fens Waterways Network and given business
and tourism a massive boost.
Needless to say, Clownty Hall’s duplicity went unchallenged
and unremarked by our district councillors.
***
Claim Three was the acquisition of a £1.3 “impact” fund to
tackle immigration – which saw a £90,000 facelift for the Moulder Leisure
Centre gymnasium … something vital to ease the pressures.
The rump of the claims comprised new town centre operatives
to keep things clean and tidy. This was funded by BTAC-ky at great cost to those
who live within its territory – and is essentially reinstating a service that
disappeared some years ago due to the popular cuts that everyone votes for. Meanwhile
the non-central and highly populated area
of the BTAC-ky patch remains a weed-strewn and litter logged wilderness.
Two to go – retention of council tax protection schemes,
which do help people with money problems; and keeping council tax among the
lowest in the country. This latter claim is bemusing – as tax has still increased
year on year whilst services have declined or been cut.
A cack-handed kind of achievement.
***
The list of future plans included securing ample power and water supplies
for the future to help business grow and support new jobs – this at a time when
jobs are disappearing, and there are ample supplies of utilities and room for jobs
in the many shops which have closed.
Another aim is to fight for local NHS services – something else
that is largely beyond Worst Street’s abilities … other than to make noise.
Another listed item is to implement the local plan which runs
until 2036, which has taken an eternity to draw up and which is all but
compulsory in any case.
Worst Street also plans to spend £10,000 on Central Park –
which hopefully might include restoring some of the yards of attractive foliage
destroyed over the years … more action on homelessness and that old hoary
chestnut “keeping the council tax low.”
It scarcely leaps off the page at you, does it?
***
Having said that, Labour had even less to offer – with a
noughts and crosses style display on the election literature that we saw. And no
solutions on offer.
***
At least one local representative of a national party admitted
to such disappointment with the results that she has severed links with the
organisation entirely.
Former Station Ward councillor and BTAC chairman Sue Ransome –
a UKIP stalwart for years – told Boston
Eye: “I have taken the decision to leave UKIP, and have submitted my
resignation as a member and also as the East Midlands Regional Treasurer, a
post I have held for ten years. My nineteen years as Boston and Skegness
Constituency Treasurer is also finished.
“As you are well aware, I have always decried councillors etc
who jumped ship to enable them to promote themselves and I would never have
done that myself.
“But the election results meant that I didn’t have to betray
the electorate who had voted UKIP.
“Therefore, when I met with Nigel Farage recently, I was able
with a clear conscience to support him once again. As you know I have been totally in support of
Nigel for the twenty years since we met and have remained close colleagues ever
since.
“I believe Brexit will be the catalyst to allow us to finally
leave the EU!
“As for local elections, if Brexit are in a position to field
local candidates then in future, I will stand for them, if not then I will
stand as an Independent and if elected will work the same as I have always
done.
“I have become disillusioned with UKIP over the last year and
feel that a number of bad judgements have been made, to the detriment of the party
and its members.
“I feel that I must say at this point, I have found over the
last six years that I had the privilege to be a Lincolnshire County and also a
Boston Borough councillor, I have had an enormous amount of support and help
from many officers and employees at Boston Borough Council which made things very much easier for
me.
“I do feel that often some of them receive a lot of stick
which in many cases I haven’t considered was deserved.
“I have also had support and advice from councillors from
other parties, and I would even include yourself in this. If we have ever
disagreed you have explained and given me the chance to put my point forward
and then we have usually agreed at the end.
“So, I do thank you, the officers, the employees of Boston Borough Council and the councillors for all the help and support I have received.”
“So, I do thank you, the officers, the employees of Boston Borough Council and the councillors for all the help and support I have received.”
***
All of which brings us neatly to this week’s election – when we
go to the polls on Thursday for the European Parliament.
We are sure that our local MP Matt Warman is glad to be out
of it – but that hasn’t stopped him picking up a brickbat or two along the way.
Annunziata Rees-Mogg – sister of Brexiteer Tory Jacob – who joined
the Conservative Party aged five, has dumped the Tories for the Brexit Party,
and is standing for the East Midlands, which includes Lincolnshire.
To make things even more locally relevant, her family home is at Welton-le-Marsh
near Spilsby in the neighbouring constituency of Louth and Horncastle.
***
During visits that took in Boston and Skegness, Ms Rees-Mogg questioned
Mr Warman’s ability to carry out what his constituency voted for.
Local media reports said she claimed that by backing Theresa
May's Brexit deal Mr Warman would be “betraying” his constituents.
“Mr Warman said he hoped the debate over a Brexit deal was
nearing an end.
“Of course, Mr Warman has just been appointed assistant
Government whip, which has apparently given him a ‘wider perspective.’
“Unfortunately, his ‘wider perspective’ has not changed his
views on supporting Theresa May’s dead duck deal, which has been voted down by
the House of Commons three times.
“The internationally binding treaty Mrs May is trying to
force upon us proves she has capitulated to the EU and failed to negotiate in
our country’s best interests.
“By backing May's deal, he isn't doing what his constituents
voted for and it's a real betrayal.
“We promised we would leave the EU and he's backing a Prime Minister
that has got into bed with the EU.
“Given the manifesto upon which he was elected said “no deal
is better than a bad deal” perhaps he should be whipping his colleagues on
behalf of his electors?”
***
Mr Warman was quoted as responding: “I think when you
actually look at how I’ve voted in parliament, I’ve voted to leave at every
opportunity and honour my constituents vote.
“I voted to keep the no deal option on the table which was
rejected by the government.
“Surely anyone voting to take the no deal option off the
table is in fact hindering the Brexit process making it anti-democratic.
“I feel like I can honestly say that I’ve voted at every
opportunity for what my constituents have voted for.
“My role in parliament has changed a number of times and none
of this will affect the Brexit process."
***
The MP also takes some stick in aa political blog called “The Commentator” whose editor, Matt
Snape calls Mr Warman “An example of the disconnect between some MPs and their
Conservative Associations.”
He writes: “It beggars belief that Matt Warman MP would
accept a job as assistant government whip; In the SAME WEEK his Conservative
Association publish an open letter calling for Theresa May to resign over her ‘failure of leadership to get on with Brexit.’”
Later, he says “It is clear Warman has placed himself at odds
with his own association members and his actions are frustrating their will.
The overwhelming majority of them do not support the withdrawal agreement and
they are responsible for Warman’s re-selection. By ignoring their wishes and
accepting a position that will enable him to force the deal through Parliament,
his own parliamentary future is at stake.”
You can read the whole piece by clicking here
***
Back now to where we started.
Just 19 days after the elections the council has its annual
meeting tonight – a self-congratulatory affair which sees the election of a new
Mayor and deputy, and lots of back-slapping thanks to the outgoing first
citizen and deputy.
We’re sure that everyone will attend, as not only is it the
first official get-together, but there are usually some taxpayer canapes on
offer.
But what will be the state of the things that matter?
There appear to have been problems with the cabinet casting
couch, and councillors need an awful lot of kit these days and have had very
little time to get to grips with it. And is the leadership issue as cut and dried as some people think?
***
And another problem that we mentioned in a recent blog is the
impact that the appointment of a Conservative Mayor will have on things.
The next Mayor is former Ukipper/BiGger-turned-Tory Anton Dani,
and obviously his deputy will be a Tory too – which further imperils the
stonking Conservative majority of which the leader is so proud.
This suggests that a few deals have been made so that the Tories
can call on some non-Conservative irons to put into the fire in the event that
some of the already anticipated patchy attendances by some new members prove to
materialise.
It happened with the last administration, and we can see no
reason why it won’t occur again.
***
And finally – just to lighten up for a moment …
Our he-he-headline of the week goes to the Lincolnshire
Reporter for this statement of the obvious …
Severed foot not linked eh?
Well it wouldn’t be, would it?
***
There's no blog next week becasuse of the Bank Holiday. We're back next on Monday 3rd June.
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
