A game of bridge -

with no real trumps!

When we reported that Lincolnshire County Council was planning a public consultation to help determine a suitable replacement for St Botolph’s footbridge, we remarked that these days the phrase was normally shorthand for you tell us what you’d like, and we’ll do as we please.
It seems that we weren’t far off the mark.
The county council has issued architect impressions of three designs for the new £600,000 footbridge.
The consultation – if you can call it that - ends on 14th October, and the plans went on show at the Medlock Centre – why not the far more convenient  and accessible Assembly rooms – for six and a half hours yesterday and five hours today.
Eleven and a half hours of face to face consultation time - and a choice from just three pre-planned options – one of which is a scaled down version of another.
An engineer with the county’s structures team says: "It's an opportunity to replace the existing footbridge with something more suitable to the surroundings and to enhance the area."
The three proposed designs (pictured below) include a bowstring footbridge,  a traditional footbridge and low bowstring footbridge.

click to enlarge picture

And don’t overlook the fact that it is rather difficult to imagine the look of the bridges in situ because the impressions fail to acknowledge the presence of Boston Stump and other riverside buildings.The options have been published on the county council website, here  and we are told that public feedback will be taken into consideration before a final decision is made. Click  here  to say what you think.
It all looks most efficient but - as we pointed out last week, the link to follow the scheme didn’t work then, and only appeared yesterday when it was probably too late for anyone to make the first day at the Medlock Centre
Work on the new bridge is expected to start in mid-2013 and be completed by the end of the year – which gives local business around a year to recover from the Market Place refurbishment debacle – if any survive that is - before a vital access to the area is lost for at least six months.
And speaking of the Market Place works …
We’re told by Boston Borough Council that a two-day survey of opinions on the “improvement” works last week has provided around 80 mixed-bag responses.
We bet it did!
So the 15-question survey has been extended so that we can all add our three penn’orth – for what it’s worth.
We say for what it’s worth because the survey doesn’t actually seek to learn what we think about the refurbishment.
It asks whether we are a visitor or a resident, why we visit, when, how often and for how long, and how much we spend.
It asks if we’d think of going anywhere else, whether we’ve attended any events or festivals in the town centre recently, what influence the Market Place has on our decision to visit the centre, and how we use it.
We’re invited to rate various aspects of the Market Place and the wider town area on a scale of one to five.
Finally – and most stupidly – we are posed the question: Do you think Boston town centre has changed over the last year?
Answer: “Yes. Someone has dug it up!”
We can predict the way this is going to go – any interpretation of the answers will be taken to mean dissatisfaction with the old Market Place – and therefore a huge welcome for the new one.
What might be interesting is the reaction to the grading of services in the Market Place and the rest of the town, including, as they do, such items as traffic management, quality and range of shops and services, location and access to taxis and buses (the buses find you, then make irritating noises until you get out of their way) car parking availability and location, street furniture and public art, pedestrian crossings and environment, access between the market place and St Botolph's, outdoor cafe and restaurant space, market area and stalls, the availability/schedule of events and festivals, safety, crime, lighting, quality of the market square environment and public realm.
But at the end of the day, the survey is pointless and irrelevant – but at least someone in authority can claim that we - the hoi polloi - have been consulted.

You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com    Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.

Road to nowhere - and solution is a dead end too!

One of those dilemmas where commonsense should prevail - but doesn’t - is facing today’s meeting of BTAC – the Boston Town Area Committee.
It concerns residents in Punchbowl Lane who are besieged by anti social behaviour by people using an access route from Ingelow Avenue.
As our screenshot from Google Maps shows, it really seems to be a road to nowhere, and we are baffled as to why anyone would want to use it at all.
But because of the problems – which included a particularly nasty burglary – Boston’s Policy and Projects Committee asked the Cabinet to consider the access.
But formal legal advice decided the access was a public highway which the council couldn’t close – so the buck hawas  passed back to BTAC because it’s on their patch.
To make matters worse, although the access is a public highway, it doesn’t make it a highway maintainable at the public’s expense.
To try to get this changed, a member of the public has applied to include the access on the Definitive Map for Lincolnshire. But the plea is currently ranked 141st out of 143 on the County Council’s waiting list  - which means it could be years before it is dealt with.
Meanwhile, complaints keep coming in, and the council’s Anti-Social Behaviour team become involved from time to time.
This is the same anti-social behaviour team which posed larger than life in a recent poster campaign, with the apparently incorrect pledge that no one need suffer from anti-social behaviour.
There are three main options that BTAC could follow.
• note the situation and do nothing.
• formally ask the County Council to put the access on the Definitive Map, and maintain it as a highway at public expense, which it may not agree to do, and
• use BTAC cash to improve security in the area.
If it wasn’t silly enough already, then this is where it gets sillier.
Putting the access on the Definitive Map would still not make it possible to close the access or to maintain it to a decent standard.
So it seems to be down to whether BTAC wants to throw any money at the problem
A report to the committee says: “Security measures are many and various, range from low to very high cost and have varying degrees of ‘success’. Other than resources being available to relocate a swing gate from the middle of the route, no other budgets currently exist to do anything new to, or with, the access.”
The report also says: “The issues faced by those living immediately adjacent to the access are without doubt significant to those affected. Closing the route however - the optimum solution for those subject to the alleged anti-social behaviour  - is not within the gift of the council nor the county council. "Existing services will continue to work with residents at an appropriate level and within the resources available."
To us this makes a mockery of the so-called concerns that local authorities have for the quality of life of their residents.
This access is not the A1.
It is a pointless path to nowhere used by people who do not know better to make the lives of their neighbours a misery.
The county council as the highways authority must be able to address this problem. If not, then it should ask the Highways Agency to do something.
All that is happening at present is that the system is creating busywork for the boys and girls at district and county level – when what is needed is determination and commonsense.


You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com   Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.



photo:Google Street view



Wormgate could go from shambles ... to Shambles

The sad but not unexpected news that two local businesses have had to close after the the Market Place refurbishment slashed their trade by up to £400 a week coincides with complaints from traders in Wormgate that they feel that the “authorities” have abandoned the area.
Whilst the reports in last week’s local “newspapers” are worrying enough, what is even more concerning is the indifferent reaction from those in “authority” to the problems.
In the case of the shop closures, Councillor Derek Richmond, the borough council’s town centre supremo, promises jam tomorrow. He is quoted as saying:” There is no best time for everyone to do such work, but investing in tough times will equip Boston for better times when we come out of the recession. And if we had delayed the start we would have missed out on the vital European funding which has made it possible.”
And there you have the real reason.
The chance to grab some free cash blinded the council to the implications of starting a major project that would have a devastating effect on local shops in the middle of a recession.
The problem with the council’s attitude to a freebie is “if it’s there – grab it.”
Regular readers will recall how the comparatively petty cash grant of £53,000 from the government to improve the look of the town centre by addressing the problem of unsightly empty shops was almost entirely wasted on the useless community hub project – despite better ideas being available.
Afterwards there was much wailing and buck passing, but the reaction was that it was a useful learning curve – and that as the money hadn’t come out of the council’s budget, it didn’t really matter anyway.
If someone, somewhere, had demonstrated some real commonsense, the Market Place scheme would not have been started.
As it is, we have reservations about how it will look once complete, and we are sure that with a little more thought and a little less avarice, a solution could have been found that would have spared businesses the current pain that they are enduring.
One of the traders forced to close is quoted as saying: “I feel if the councils (Boston and Lincolnshire County Council) don’t do something soon, they are going to lose a lot more businesses from the town.”
Who is going to say that they are wrong?
Meanwhile, an Any Questions session for invited businesses in Boston has been organised by Boston Borough Council, and will include representatives from Lincolnshire County Council and the contractors Ringway. It’s being held at the Assembly Rooms on Thursday. Why invited businesses? We suspect that the council is anxious to exclude anyone who might make waves and spoil its talking shop.
To Wormgate now, and complaints of rotting building fronts, a sunken road, pools of water and dirty street lights. One shop owner is reported as saying: “Wormgate is in desperate need of refurbishment. Some businesses are really struggling. I feel like we have been abandoned down here.”
Enter Boston BID manager Niall Armstrong who has “taken a survey” of the area to see what needs doing and “will look to work with the businesses to improve things.”
We would urge Wormgate traders not to hold their breath.
The BID is famously slow to act on everything.
It’s  more than six weeks since it BID spirited Boston’s seven tourist information display cases away to a secret location to be refurbished – and there is still no news of their imminent return.
But that is fast by BID standards - as it is now more than a year since the company decided to blow £17,000 on ten thousand 3D maps of the town - and we still have yet to see them.
It seems to have been conveniently overlooked, but Wormgate has been part of the BID area since its inception almost three years ago – and completely ignored until its desperate business owners have raised their head above the parapet.
Perhaps if the BID’s board members got out a bit more – quite literally – they would be able to see the problems the town faces.
Ironically, given all the waffle spouted about Boston’s resemblance to York, Wormgate is a street that – if sensitively managed - could well compete with that city’s famous Shambles (pictured below left)

We have also suggested before that at any future Christmas Market could follow a circular route incorporating Wormgate, the area around the Ingram Memorial and the Stump and perhaps even Strait Bargate.
It would add great historic gravitas to the event and make it a true magnet for visitors.

All it takes is a little imagination and a few quid.

You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com   Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.

If our information is correct, today sees a meeting between the Princess Royal Sports Arena and Boston Borough Council, at which the PRSA team will again be rattling its collecting tin – and saying that without continued support it cannot go on.

The PRSA started life as the DABSI – an acronym for Disabled and Able Bodied Sports Initiative – which was another of those pie-in-the-sky dreams that would put Boston "on the sporting map" and make it the UK capital for disabled/able bodied sportsmen and women.
Unfortunately, these things come at a cost – but a couple of council administrations ago, it didn’t seem to matter.
In the 14 years since the scheme was mooted, Boston Borough Council has poured more than £8million of ratepayers’ cash into this Great White Elephant - including paying off third party loans.
The Boston Sports Initiative – the charity responsible for running the PRSA - filed its most recent accounts for the year ended 31st March 2010 in January this year.
They showed an income of £706,597 against spending of £896,695 – a gap of slightly more than £190,000.
Time for a little history lesson.
Early last year, Boston Borough Council trumpeted: “It’s all systems go for a bright new future for leisure services in Boston. National leisure services operator Leisure Connection has won a prestigious contract from Boston Borough Council to run the town’s Geoff Moulder Leisure Complex and the Princess Royal Sports Arena.
"This brings to an end 18 months work and negotiation by the council, secures the future of valuable leisure services and will save the council money.”
Months later, the “deal” that began with a bang ended with a whimper as Leisure Connection vanished from the scene.
A planned £2 million refurbishment at the Moulder Leisure Centre was slashed to a puny £284,000 – with some of that going for car park improvements and energy saving measures.
And the council agreed to subsidise the Boston Sports Initiative to the tune £176,000 in the 2011/12 financial year, £88,000 in 2012/13 and nil subsidy in 2013/14.
But the annual accounts appear to tell another story.
The intricacies of the “deal” required interim  support until Leisure Connection took charge.
According to the accounts: “Until the handover, Boston Borough Council has agreed to continue to support the charity with revenue support as in previous years.”
So it appears that what was intended as a short term measure to pave the way for “a bright new future” may well have become an albatross around the council’s neck – and those of its taxpayers.
There’s lots of waffle in the accounts, as you might expect, but someone who knows tells us that it basically states the project is not financially viable without Boston Borough Council pumping in more money until someone is prepared to take it over.
Fortunately, the District Valuer has deemed the surrender value of the lease to be nil - so at least the council would not have to pay to take the stadium over  if they wished to - or had no alternative.
Another irony was that the management company Bladerunner were paid £540,374 in 2009 and £556,086  last year - which more than swallowed up the respective income of £472,450 and £482,226 - effectively creating losses before they even started.
As we understand it, the only beneficiary in this entire debacle is Boston Rugby Club, which has a sweetheart deal to keep the proceeds from the bar takings and hire of the function rooms – which are reckoned to comprise some of the biggest income streams.
If you’ve the nerve for it, you can read the latest BSI accounts by clicking here 
A week today councillors meet to discuss the calling-in of the secret cabinet decision to strike yet another “deal” for the good of the people of Boston.
This time it is a £200,000 scheme in partnership with the Witham Schools Federation and Boston Amateur Swimming Club.
Councillors who want the scheme reviewed say that it lacks a robust business plan, and that there is no incentive for the non-council participants to continue support if they don’t like it in the future.
Tellingly, the councillors stress that their concerns are not political but “to protect the council tax payers of the borough from another disastrous PRSA-type situation arising.”
It seems that the PRSA disaster may well still be a clear and present danger.
In the new leader’s vision - issued soon after May’s elections, and not to be confused with his more recent message – he promised that arrangements for the PRSA would be settled "once and for all."
But in his message a couple of months later things appear to have drifted slightly.
“We also have the thorny issue of the Princess Royal Sports Arena to sort out, but it will take longer to resolve than some of the other issues.”
Does “taking longer” mean spending more?
We do hope not.

You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com   Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.

Boston gridlocked by "major incident"

Boston has  been gridlocked for much of this morning and into this afternoon because of a police operation which has closed Sleaford Road inbound and outbound.
The outbound road blocks are on Sleaford Road just beyond the ASDA traffic lights and inbound on Sleaford Road from the Brothertoft Road turning.
Lincolnshire Police have issued no information about this on the internet - nor have the BBC Travel Unit.
The Boston Standard website reported ...
"Police have cordoned off Sleaford Road following a ‘major incident’.
"Public access is currently unavailable on the town side of the road.
"A heavy poice presence, including patrol cars and vans, are at the scene, while people in forensic uniforms have been seen at the site, which appears to be a house.
"Sgt Gary Boxall said: “There has been a major incident.
“As you can see there is a police presence right now and we are dealing with the situation.”
"Police would not, at this stage, confirm what the incident was.
"It is not known whether any arrests have been made.
"Traffic is currently being redirected alongside the Asda supermarket, which is opposite the scene..."
Although this news was posted at  12:09 the road was closed some four or more hours earlier.
There has been plenty of time to let local people know about the problems.
But no-one could be bothered.
Four hours later, the Standard website was unchanged, but according to the BBC at 1-30pm :  

"A man has been found dead in a garden in Lincolnshire.

"Officers were called to the garden of a property in Sleaford Road, Boston, at about 07:30 BST.
"A Lincolnshire Police spokesman said the death of the man, who was thought to be in his 30s, was being treated as unexplained.
"A post-mortem examination is expected to be carried out later. No further details about the man's identity have been released."

You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com  Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.

Our Friday miscellany

of the week's

news and events

We felt a frisson of impending disappointment as we read the Leader’s Message on Boston Borough Council’s website, when he mentioned the garden waste pilot scheme, and added: “It would be nice to add a third bin to the service, but I do not want to make promises that we may not be able to keep.” We take this piece of polspeak to mean that it’s unlikely that any extra bins will be forthcoming. Whilst no-one doubts that the pilot is a great success -  in that the volume of waste not going to landfill is exceeding expectations - it's clear that many people aren't happy to use their blue bin for garden waste and put recyclables into plastic bags. At our house in Boston Eye Street, we fill a blue bin with stuff to recycle – but it would need so many bags to cart it away that storage between collections would be a problem ... as would the likelihood of bags splitting and the contents getting wet or blown about. What we will do, and we suspect that many others will do likewise, is to bag light, waterproof items, and put the rest in our green bin. It may sound less than environmentally friendly - and we would do it reluctantly - but with no third bin, we see little alternative.
Talking of leader’s messages, we mentioned on Monday someone’s sly sense of humour in connection with a link from the council website to the short-lived blog published by the previous leader, Councillor Richard Austin. We published the link and warned at the time that you’d need to move fast if you wanted to see it, and we were right. A quick acting member of the borough’s IT staff replaced it with one to the current leader’s message. But for those of you who missed it – this is where it led.

click picture to enlarge

Perhaps when it was archived,someone thought the content was no more than an attempt to massage readers into a state of comfort and take their minds off the troubles of the day back then. Not like now, of course …
And speaking of the former leader, students of irony will have noted with wry amusement the reversal of roles which now sees Councillor Richard Austin spearheading the calling-in of the current cabinet’s behind-closed-doors deal to re-open the Moulder training pool. Councillor Austin and his Boston District Independent (née BBI) councillors insist that the call is non-political, but has been made “to protect the council tax payers of the borough from another disastrous PRSA-type situation arising.”  The subject is serious and needs properly addressing,  but what we found amusing was the fact that when in power, the former BBI cabinet did whatever it chose, disregarded criticism and even objected to the number of its decisions that were called in. Talk about the biter bit!
And mention of the PRSA reminds us … a reader tells us that there is a meeting between stadium officials and the council on 12th September. Whilst it may be that the borough hopes to use the occasion to wash its hands of our biggest white elephant - so far  - the PRSA people hope to continue to receive the subsidy they have enjoyed to date  ... without which they will say the PRSA will cease to exist. We have also been told that they want to clarify concerns over the £1.9 million they owe the council - and whether it has legally been written off. If the meeting is indeed on the cards, it will prove a crucial test of the ruling group’s resolve, and a chance to see how tough they might be. In his recent message, Leader Peter Bedford told electors: “We also have the thorny issue of the Princess Royal Sports Arena to sort out, but it will take longer to resolve than some of the other issues.” Surely, not  -if you just dig your heels in and say no! Or does “ aking longer  simply imply continuing funding pro tem?
We are none too keen on the burgeoning idea of depicting councillors as celebrities – a sort of local soft soap, which might be called Worstenders. Since the Tories took control, we reckon that more pictures of their great and good have appeared in the borough bulletin and local newspapers than during the entire four years of the previous administration. Recently, group pictures have appeared crammed with councillors – many with no apparent reason to be in the shot at all. The reopening of Creations Gym was a good example, peopled as it was by some councillors who clearly wouldn’t know one end of a barbell from another - and one of whom looked almost ill because of the proximity of exercise machinery. Out of interest, we did a quick head count of the runners and riders in the Boston Photographic Handicap so far – which exclude standard mug shots for illustrative purposes. Leading the pack by several lengths was Councillor Yvonne Gunter, well ahead of the Mayor - Councillor Mary Wright - who was herself comfortably leading the leader,  Peter Bedford. After that the field declined into a shambles of other runners and riders - and, of course, a host of non starters. The Creations photoshoot included no fewer than eight councillors – but the biggest so far was taken at the re-opening of the Moulder training pool (below) where we counted almost a dozen.

Just a cautionary word to Boston’s publicity department, though. Bear in mind the existence of publications like Boston Eye - and don't pose your terribly important councillors under a sign that declares shallow end! ( above.) But, thinking about it, picturing them at the deep end might have been even worse.
Far more important to our rulers than self-aggrandisement ought to be the issues facing Boston that remain overlooked. The latest to be highlighted is the claim that that people in Boston are experiencing some of the worst-ever conditions regarding housing in the town. The warning comes from Labour councillors, who say the cause is the lack of affordable properties, high rents in the private sector, and ongoing issues relating to overcrowding in houses of multiple occupation. Labour says more building is essential, as “without it we will see more and more people living in overcrowded and unsuitable accommodation, and even more unpalatable – more people sleeping rough on our streets.” And we know where all those things often lead.
Is it really three years since Boston borough council spent £7,000 on a machine to remove chewing gum from the town's pavements? Yes it is -  but we assume that it ran out of petrol soon after, as it hasn’t been seen in service for almost as long. With the Market Place being re-laid – and therefore likely to be free of unsightly gum for a few hours after it re-opens – it would seem timely to start tackling the rest of the town centre area and clean the gum away to get the town off to a fresh start. One thing that’s always intrigued us is why – given that you hardly ever see anyone chewing gum as they stroll the town - there is so much of the stuff littering our streets. When the machine was acquired, Councillor Richard Dungworth, then cabinet member for street cleansing, said: "This machine can be used in the daytime, and my hope is that when people see the effort that goes into removing it people will think twice before throwing their gum on the streets." Had it been used on more than a handful of occasions, we imagine that might have happened.
The old joke in answer to the question “How many people work at … X ... ?” is usually not a lot. But could this be truer than we think in the case of Boston Borough Council? Councillor Elliott Fountain recently sent an e-mail to all staff, and received more than thirty out of office replies. “Many of them had the days and dates wrong, many had spelling mistakes in the replies, and many replied to get in touch with another individual - but that individual’s email also came back with an auto reply,” he told us. The council employs more than 270 staff, so the absentees accounted for well over ten per-cent - and probably more if you allow that not everyone has a staff e-mail address. Perhaps they were merely playing follow my leader - as another reader tells us that a few weeks ago, chief executive Richard Harbord, his deputy Phil Drury, and Steve Lumb, the head of planning, were all on leave at the same time. Incidentally, Councillor Fountain got a rap over the knuckles from the chief executive for e-mailing all staff. But a point that appears to have been missed is that the sender could equally have been a member of the public - who might have come away with a poor impression of the council.
We hate to say we told you so – but … we told you so! Time and again we have published photographs of blocked drains  beside John Adams Way, and warned that heavy rain would bring problems. Now we hear that traffic through the town was seriously delayed because of flooding near the South Square junction a few days ago. According to the forecasters, more bad weather is on the way – so could somkeone  please press for a return of those strange machines that resembled mechanical elephants which used to be a regular sight on our main roads, and whose trunks were used to suck out debris and then flush the drains clear. That’s unless the county council has sold them off – or, more likely doesn’t think it’s worth the expense of using them in Boston.
Which brings us to the next big idea to ensure that Boston remains inaccessible to residents and visitors alike - the replacement of St Botolph’s footbridge, which links the bus station to the town centre. Lincolnshire County Council - which is mysteryminding the project – has taken a half-page advertisement in our local “newspapers” to tell us of its plans for a public consultation. The phrase public consultation these days is normally shorthand for “you tell us what you’d like, and we’ll do as we please.” Encouragingly, the county council invites us to follow the scheme on its website – which we would like to do. The only problem is that the link  doesn’t exist - or didn’t when we published our blog first thing this morning. Whoever said that County Hall cares little for Boston definitely wasn’t kidding!
Because they are issued at slightly different times, it wasn’t possible last Friday to compare the circulation figures of the Boston Standard with those of the Boston Target– but now it is.  According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the average circulation figures the papers between December 2010 and June 2011 compared to the same period the previous year were: Boston Standard 8,395 – down 10.8%, and the Boston Target 19,163 – down 13.7%. There is a message here.  In the case of the Standard, fewer and fewer stories plus more self serving promotions and free sausages = falling readership. In the case of the Target, a big thick newspaper does not necessarily indicate loads of relevant news = falling readership. We remember the days when local newspapers lived up to their name, and readers literally queued up to buy them as a result.
Finally, a reader writes to say that whilst the concept of an elected mayor has its merits, Boston’s problem is finding a candidate with the necessary qualities. He’s worried that we might decide to “do a Hartlepool” and elect our version of H’Angus the Monkey – the town’s local football club mascot.

In fact the man who wore the H’Angus suit was elected once and did such a good job that he’s been re-appointed.  But the writer correctly points out that "Percy the Pilgrim Penguin” (pictured left) hardly rolls off the tongue!



You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com   Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.

Sulking won't solve the problem of Boston BID

The debate over Boston Business Improvement District has been stifled by the very man who was only recently quoted as saying “I welcome every thing being out in the open …”

Councillor Derek Richmond, portfolio holder for town centre development and management, car parks, the BID, markets and public toilets, has "saddened and alarmed to some degree, and somewhat amused" Councillor Richard Leggott, group spokesman for the Independents – who was a member of a committee specially set up to look at the way the Boston BID was run.

The group, which deliberated and reported during the previous administration, made a number of recommendations which should have led to improved communications between the BID and its members – who are compelled to pay a levy whether they want to be in the group or not and dragged through the courts if they don’t.

But after renewed criticism which showed that the situation had become even worse, Councillor Richmond promised a meeting with Boston BID, which was scheduled to take place on August 21st.

On Monday of this week, Councillor Leggott contacted him to ask about the outcome – without success.

He told Boston Eye:

“Having waited patiently for a promised report from Councillor Richmond on a BID discussion item aimed at improving the apparent communication problem within that organisation, I am now told by that councillor that he is not going to tell me anything at all about the discussions.

“Now, normally I would probably take that statement to indicate that discussions had been futile and/or led to an even worse situation.

“However Councillor Richmond went further in explaining that his reason for the refusal/inability (still not sure which) to update me on the matter was because I had copied some of his e-mails, which he had not specifically marked confidential, along with my own email to your column. **

“So there you have it -- the new communication policy of our administration.

“Find any excuse to tell 'em nowt!

“Do any of your readers have any information on the subject?

“I would be most grateful if any one can help. “

We would have thought that Councillor Richmond was a bit long in the tooth to take his ball away and sulk.

But his hissy fit is entirely in character, given some of the e-mail exchanges we have seen concerning the problems facing local businesses in the context of the Market Place redevelopment, and he has also shown himself to be not terribly well informed where knowledge of Boston BID is concerned either.

A classic quote came in response to the news that businesses in the Market Place were facing bankruptcy because of loss of trade due to the refurbishment project.

The reaction: “Obviously it saddens me to hear this as it is our aim to make our Town vibrant with more businesses opening, I think we all need to pull together and help where we can. Unfortunately the closure of the Market has come at a bad time in view of the current financial climate, with that in mind I do wonder if some businesses would have struggled even with a vibrant Market, don't you?”

Such a casual dismissal of problems is appalling, but to refuse to inform a fellow councillor of the outcome of an important meeting is just pathetic.

All Councillor Richmond had to do was to give Councillor Leggott the information he requested and ask him to treat it as confidential.

It’s as simple as that.

And talking of simple …

You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.

** The earlier piece referred to can be found by clicking here