In recent months, Worst Street has come up with more bollocks than you’d find in a vet’s dustbin at the end of National Cat Neutering Week – and in many ways, last night’s umpteenth “extraordinary” meeting of the full council continued the trend.

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Regular readers will recall that the idea was to pass a vote of no confidence in the ruling Tory administration and elect a new – unspecified – leader to replace Councillor Paul Skinner.

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But, as we reported last week, the proposer – Councillor Peter Bedford – had planned to withdraw the move, and, again as we predicted, left it too late under the rules.

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He opened by saying how sorry he was on behalf of the five who brought the motion for the people of Boston because of the way that things have gone in the last fortnight or so.
Originally, he said he was going to ask for the motion to be deferred or removed but was told he couldn’t … “but as things have moved on with all the ducking and diving and things that have been going on, with promises here and promises there” he asked to amend to motion to one of no confidence in the lead8er and move that Councillor Stephen Woodliffe became leader until the 2023 elections ... “if we are still a stand-alone council by that time.” 

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But more was to come …
Portfolio holder Councillor Yvonne Stevens proposed Councillor Jonathan Noble to be the leader if the no confidence vote was successful.
Councillor Noble is now a Tory – having been elected in the UKIP  near-landslide at Worst Street, and also standing for UKIP in the Horncastle and Louth general election in 2017

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After Councillor Woodliffe read a less than impassioned speech accepting the nomination, the meeting got into its stride.

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Councillor Alison Austin declared “This sort of thing must stop. This council can’t keep playing ping-pong with leaders any more.” 

She said that councillors had to unite behind whoever becomes leader … “or we become the laughingstock of the county (too late - Ed) and be likely to be taken into special measures.”

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Councillor Neill Hastie told the meeting that: “Leaders are coming and going more like kebabs out of a kebab shop” – and that people should rally round behind whoever was elected and get round to putting Boston first and improving the town.

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Councillor Deborah Evans talked about the e-mails that had come through and the “cruel words” that had been said.
“I feel like I’m back at school and there’s bullying going on”
For her, Paul Skinner has been “amazing”; available seven days a week, with problems usually sorted within the same day.
“I don’t know how he does it.
“I’m just really impressed”.

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Councillor Paul Goodale called for an end to the cabinet system and return to committee structure.

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Councillor Judith Skinner declared: “Some may say I’m biased, but Paul has the best interests of Boston at heart. Sometimes his directness is perceived as brusqueness. He just likes to do things as quickly and openly as possible. 
“I am very distressed at some of the hateful e-mails he has received., and they are bordering on a hate crime, I would say.” 
“So, whatever happens to night Paul has done the best for Boston that he possibly could”. 

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Councillor Tom Ashton continued the theme.
“Paul cares very deeply about the town, about the borough and I stand full-square behind him”
But having said that, he agreed that the way the alliance was handled should have been done better.
But again, he mentioned the sinister undertones that have accompanied the debacles of recent months.
It was “deeply saddening, the depths to which some of the conversations, some of the e-mails, some of the debates have plunged on this council.”
He said that he hoped they could move and draw a line under the personal attacks and criticisms, “whether they be in this chamber, whether it’s hawking a dossier around on me around drainage boards, be it on Facebook. This stuff has to stop.”
Councillor Skinner was a “damn good man at heart”, who should be given the chance to work beyond the evening and bring the council together in the future.

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A fulsome paean of praise for Councillor Skinner which included falling on his own sword to take the blame came from deputy leader Councillor Nigel Welton.
He said that the East Lindsey alliance talks were in place when Councillor Skinner became leader and that he was the man who steered it though.
“If anyone wants to criticise the leader, I think you’re criticising the wrong person. It’s me you should be criticising, not Councillor Skinner”.
He agreed that mistakes had been made and said lessons will be learned.
All the blame was his.
Councillor Skinner was an honourable man who works very hard for the council and did not deserve the kind of “venom” that has been thrown at him over the last couple of months.
And it seems that Councillor Welton was not immune to this either, as he ended by referring to ‘phone calls from another area saying that people in this council had been asking for “dirt on him” to throw at Councillor Skinner.

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Councillor Anne Dorrian – regrettably appearing in audio only due to a technical defect – reminded people that Councillor Skinner stabbed Councillor Aaron Spencer, his predecessor as leader, in the 
back, and the very people who supported Councillor Skinner at the meeting were the people who signed the document to remove Councillor Spencer from the leadership.
At that time Councillor Spacer had reached out across the chamber, with everyone working well together (we must have missed that bit – Ed) and Councillor Skinner took “a wrecking ball” to that for 
his own personal gain supported by Nigel Welton.
After the alliance “fiasco”, Ms Dorrian wrote to all members suggesting that they downed their metaphorical weapons and worked together but received no response from the leader or deputy.

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Summing up at the end of the debate, Councillor Bedford mentioned that one young councillor had resigned her position earlier in the day because her role was being “hawked around” without talking to her aboout it.
“Now that is disgraceful, it really is”.
And he concluded: “Even at 12-30pm today I got a call offering me the deputy leadership if I would vote another way tonight.”

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Councillor Skinner replied that he did not “hawk” cabinet positions – there were now eight, where previously, there had been six.
That’s another £11,000 of taxpayers’ money being put to good use.

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Councillor Hastie intervened before the vote to say:” Councillor Skinner has actually rung me to offer me the Town Centre portfolio if I allied with the Conservatives.

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Councillor Skinner shot back with a slightly inaudible comment that sounded like: “It wasn’t, Mr Mayor. It was actually regulatory.”

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Three councillors were missing from the meeting.
Michael Cooper and Martin Howard sent apologies, whilst Aaron Spencer, for whom we were supposed to feel so bereft, neither turned up nor apologised – and not for the first time.

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Make of it what you will.
We were appalled to hear  about the disgraceful behaviour of some people, whose viciousness apparently bordered on hate crime, which is, of course a matter for the courts.
People such as this have no right to a position of authority that accords them status and respect as decent and honourable members of community, and we hope that they will have learned their lesson. 

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Councillors were not alone when it came to the distribution of malinformation – here at Boston Eye, we received several unsolicited e-mails telling us about the alleged misdemeanours of a number of the key players.
And where they were signed, it was interesting to note the reaction when we declined to pick up their ball and run with it.

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At the end of that particular meeting – an “ordinary” one followed after a wee break – the voting was 13 votes to install Councillor Woodliffe and 14 to keep Councillor Skinner in charge.
So the Tory status quo maintains by the skin of the teeth – but with the announcement of a changed and enlarged cabinet … the details of which will doubtless appear at some future date.

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So, will we now see glasnost – or skrytnost?
Openness and transparency, or reticence?
The meeting talked more about the mistrust and abuse that has been going on than a way forward out of this mire, and somehow, we don’t see that watching councillors winding their bowels out on a stick in public will bring much change.
But we are sure it will be at the top of Councillor Skinner’s to do list.

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And one final point.
We would strongly urge all councillors to watch the recording of  yesterday's meeting – because we are sure that many of them have no idea of how much of what they are doing is caught on camera.

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Runner-up awards from last night go to Councillors Alison and Richard Austin and Councillor Paul Goodale, who briefly appeared underwhelmed by the proceedings.

But the winner on the night has to be from the Zoom picture display captioned as Tim Leader – Deputy Chief Executive (Strategy) in the new allied council.
His screenshots over time went like this … 

It certainly enlivened our viewing!

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