What can we say? We didn't say it

An e-mail after our piece about the Boston BID use of business funds to pay for yet another tier of pseudo policing takes us to task ....
"Having read the following paragraph from your blog - 'Cop this - business pays for yet another day in the office for Mr Plod' dated 17-02-09. '....while police cadets will bag your groceries for you in twice the time you would take yourself ... thus making the queues even longer,' I pondered just for a short while…. and then, I became angry. "I assume YOU as the author of these words were fully aware of the facts before making them? "If so, YOU should be ashamed, if not then just maybe in the future YOU would be kind enough to be more thorough in your research before YOU make such comments in the first place.
"For your information the cadets YOU so gracefully poke fun at gave up their free time during half term so they could visit ASDA and assist with bag packing in an attempt to raise as much money as possible for The Wednesday Club, a Charity, which they have adopted.
"The Wednesday Club was set up by parents/volunteers in a bid to provide a secure learning/socialising environment for young children and adults with both physical and learning disabilities in the Boston Borough area. There are several fundraising activities throughout the year and the money raised helps towards funding such things as trips and holidays.
"I would like to offer YOU the opportunity to visit us at the club, but people like YOU are very apt at hiding behind pseudonyms, lurking in the shadows and poking fun at people who wish to help others. However, if YOU do ever build up enough courage to step from behind the shadows why don’t YOU pay us a visit at the club and YOU would see at first hand what good is being done, not only aided by the cadets but also many other good hearted citizens of Boston who in times of hardship still managed to pledged over £200 of their hard earned cash that day. The club is based at Focus 1 Youth Centre on Mill Road, Boston and we meet every Wednesday 6 – 8 pm.
"Kind Regards
"John Platts"
Editor's note:
Kind regards? After a rant like that, you can't mean it, John.
We have a policy at Boston Eye. When we're wrong, we're wrong and we admit it. If we make a mistake, we apologise and correct it.
In this case, we said (based on experience of previous years, when police cadets have "helped" to bag our groceries) that such assistance was likely to make the queues even longer.
If anything, this was a snipe at ASDA and the time it takes to clear the store at the end of shopping.
We made no mention of why the police cadets were in the store.
We made no mention of collection for charitable causes.
We made no mention of the Wednesday Club.
Sorry, John, but your e-mail is like a Chinese whisper gone mad.
You have chosen to interpret the tailpiece to a unrelated item into an attack on a worthwhile local charity when no attack was made.


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And the winner is ...

Stand by to be surprised and delighted by Boston's very own Oscar ceremony.
On Monday evening a piece of history will be made when Boston Borough Council selects the lucky person who will be the borough's Mayor from the merry month of May.
Of all the important issues that the Boston Bypass Independents needed to address a year ago, high on the list was the issue of the mayoralty.
Apparently, the concept that the post should be occupied by the councillor with the longest record of service was no longer good enough, and deemed "undemocratic" and something that we, the voters, didn't want, so the ruling group decided to bypass it - so that's why they're so named!
Now, says a report to Monday's meeting, all members of the council can "have the opportunity to put themselves forward to be elected as Mayor for the forthcoming municipal year" ... and with apparently no need to persuade their fellows of their suitability.
So, on Monday, will someone self-nominate - whilst waffling on about the honour of service and a burning desire to represent the town - and the rest of the BBI's sheepish majority endorse that individual? Or will we see a token alternative or two, perhaps even a "spontaneous" nomination ... most likely just be for show?
In normal circumstances, it is hard to imagine anyone bumptious enough to put themselves forward as the new policy allows.
But this is the BBI ... the party of Bloomin' Bumptious Individuals.
We think we can guess Monday's outcome - but we never say never, and can always hope that a surprise might emerge.
To ensure no allegations that the result is a foregone conclusion, a report to the meeting says that councillors can have a secret ballot if at least a third of the members present are in favour.
But a secret ballot implies dissent, and as the BBI doesn't do dissent, expect lots of cheering, back slapping and unconfined joy at the outcome.
All in all the rules will do what they were designed to do when they were created last year - to guarantee a mayor from the BBI.
At a time when the air is fragrant with pancakes and daffodils, we can also smell the scent of the history books being cooked.
As the mayoral selection tradition comes to a close, the new holder of the title may also find that another tradition will disappear this year - the opening of the May Fair marked by a ride on the famous gallopers.
In common with its anti traditional stance, the BBI may well by then have ensured that there is no longer be a fair for the mayor to open.

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Is Merchants Quay silting up before it even opens?

We've already expressed concern about the proposed development known as Merchants Quay.
At the moment, it is just a gleam in the eye of the developer - Modus Properties of Manchester.
The Modus website continues to maintain that it will be open for business in 2012 - three years away - but the news that the department store Debenhams has pulled out of the scheme is possibly more of a blow than is being admitted.
Modus has told the local press only that talks with one of the "key occupiers" of the project have been put "on hold."
Meanwhile, the borough's assistant Chief Executive Steve Lumb is quoted as saying that discussions with retailers are at a "very early stage," and retailers will be considering all the options.
He is also saying that the council is working with Modus to ensure a scheme comes forward "as quickly as possible" .... which seems to hint that this might no longer mean 2012.
But, if completion of the development is a scant three years away, we would not call this an "early stage."
And rather worryingly, Modus seems to be a company that puts its all eggs in the same basket.
It currently lists eleven proposed locations where it plans urban regeneration.
Seven are clearly more advanced than the other five, because rather than hinting at jam tomorrow in the form of big names coming to town, Modus lists some of the shops that will be taking space in their developments.
And all of the seven - Wigan, Blackpool, Newport, Swindon, Crewe, Coventry and Wakefield - specify without exception that the "anchor" store for the project will be Debenhams.
Modus is now in the position have having to find an alternative anchor - and we are sure that most of the other likely names are probably already in bed with other developers.
Congratulations to Councillor Raymond Singleton-McGuire for disclosing the withdrawal of Debenhams.
He is also right when he calls on the council to save rather than spend.

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Another load of old ballots on the way!

It comes as no great surprise to learn that the proposed council tax increases for the coming year are calculated to make us weep with joy at the generosity of our masters.
Lincolnshire County Council is bragging that it is considering the lowest increase since sabre-toothed tigers stalked the wolds, and here in Boston a standstill budget is being proposed.
Only Lincolnshire Police are maintaining their greedy stance by saying that around 5% is the least they would need.
Call us cynical if you will, but we say that there is no surprise in the low level of increase to the county share because there will be elections in June, and the sheep tend to vote for the people who fleece them least.
Given that the County Council is Tory controlled, and that at the moment the world and his wife would disembowel themselves with a blunt putty knife before they would consider voting Labour, the county result would seem to be a done deal.
But there are unknown factors at work.
The current line-up at Lincolnshire County Council is 46 Conservatives, 19 Labour, 8 Lib Dem and 4 Independents (these are now known as Lincolnshire Independents ... yet another new party involving Boston Borough Council Leader Richard "Papa Dick" Austin.)
So .....
Will the new Lincolnshire Independents group campaign for each of the 77 Lincolnshire County Council seats? We would assume so, since their website claims that they "believe that all local councillors should be independent with local voters our only masters and local improvements our aim."
Will the Boston Bypass Independents put up candidates for the seven county seats which cover the borough? At the moment, Boston is broadly represented at county level with three Labour councillors, two Conservative, and one each for the Lib Dems and Lincolnshire Independents.
One would expect that the BBI would logically seek a voice at County Hall to pursue its ambitions for a by-pass for Boston ... but somehow, we doubt that they will have the nerve to field candidates.
As the Better Boston Group barely shows any interest in events at local level, we guess that they won't bother with the county elections either.
And what of the BNP?
When Councillor David Owens won the Fenside ward for the party, Wayne McDermott, the East Midlands BNP Regional Election Officer, told Boston Eye:- "I expect the BNP will win county seats next year. Boston has been waiting for a serious party to get organised in the area. People even voted UKIP before in Boston with some sizable votes. I am sure that David Owens will only be the first of several BNP councillors."
Interesting times ahead, as they say.

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Take 100 lines ... "Eye must look on the bright side of life"

At the weekend we admitted to having Victor Meldrew tendencies, and are well aware that we tend to highlight the half-emptiness of the glass rather than the reverse.
Now an e-mail from Paul has taken us to task, and suggested that our approach is perhaps more redolent of the mad doomsayer Cassandra, or the laconic pessimist Private Fraser from Dad's Army.
He writes:
"Dear Eye,
"You certainly keep going and write good English, but I find the constant cynicism and negativity just a bit - much.
"Partly I feel 'hey - this is my job, being a black-hearted depressive about Boston politics!' and partly it's an unsettingly unaccustomed feeling, ever agreeing with any columnist.
"If I thought for one moment they (it's he really) could ever be that intelligent and subtle, I'd entertain the conspiracy theory that you are trying to drum up sneaking sympathy for the regime by being so relentlessly bilious.
"Still, anyone who reads those great political anti-authoritarian heroes Orwell and Molesworth can't be all bad - and I only looked at you for the first time in a month wondering if, being anti-Party In The Park, you were also anti-May Fair. I'm pleased to see you aren't.
"I did honestly think BEFORE reading you (much like Darwin and Wallace, or was it Gromit?) 'yeah, while we're at it, why not blow up the Stump and anything else that makes Boston distinctive'. Must be fools seldom differing as I'd never be arrogant enough to do the other proverb.
"On balance, more power to your organ (as they say at Private Eye) I think - but try and come up with a few more positive ideas like your one about putting the Tourist Information in the Stump. Just to throw your cynicism into sharp relief occasionally. Otherwise I might start feeling sorry for councillors. And that would never do.
Regards,
Paul - If you're really that awake you'll know what political fish I have to fry. Sadly I'm relentlessly negative most of the time and very often despise my own party. But if I was in another, I'd almost certainly hold it in even more contempt!")
Thanks for that Paul.
You could be right, but we did once remark ahead of a recent rant that whilst we were accused of negativity, there was a lot to be negative about!
Perhaps we misunderstood the famous Japanese philosopher when he said: "Always look on the blight side of life!"
PS Paul - we got your affiliations in one ... and we understand your negativity.
But yes, we will try harder to find reasons to be cheerful.

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Fired and re-hired! Councillor's concern over PCSO "smoke and mirrors"

Our Friday piece highlighting the massive waste of resources on Lincolnshire's Police Community Support Officers which appeared in last week's Daily Mail (see £10 million scandal of do nothing chocolate crimebusters) has caught the eye of Boston councillor David Owens.
Co-incidentally, he has been in correspondence with Bev Smith - Boston's Assistant Director of Community Services - to ask what has been going on after the Cabinet apparently decided to withdraw funding to cover one PCSO post from the borough's budget at a meeting on 26th November last year.
He says that he understood that funding was withdrawn from the revenue, and that Boston Borough Council was not prepared to continue PCSO funding.
But, he continues: "It is clear that in order to appease certain quarters, Cabinet compromised with a proposal that discussions would be entered into regarding creating a service level agreement with Lincolnshire Police for a 12 month period, that would mean that PCSO's would contribute to the Community Cohesion Strategy - and thus
warrant funding from the COMMUNITY COHESION budget.
"1) Has this agreement been made? And has it been published?
"2) What measure will be used to ensure there is a direct and measurable impact on community cohesion to justify this allocation and spend? It seems a bit woolly to me!
"3) If the above spend can be justified, can you explain how the same mythology could be applied to the CCTV operation (and prevent the prospect of OUR staff losing their jobs for the sake of saving £34k)
"How can we justify funding recruitment for Lincolnshire Police (under the umbrella of Community Cohesion), whilst redundancy under the guise of cost saving for our OWN staff.
"I for one, am not at all comfortable with this action, particularly in the light of the stance Lincolnshire Police have taken in recent weeks relating to CCTV partner funding.
"I am becoming increasingly alarmed with the apparent use of smoke and mirrors to manoeuvre monies and funding from one heading to another, to meet pet projects that the Corporate Management Board and cabinet wish to pursue."
We think that an answer to these questions would be particularly interesting, as this seems to be a case of taking away with one hand and giving with the other ... and in this case to the detriment of staff.
Congratulations to Councillor Owens for raising questions that are especially pertinent in the wake of the Mail piece which showed that in three years Lincolnshire PCSOs handed out 15 fines - mostly for minor cycling offences - in exchange for a pay bill of almost £10 million .... a cost of £650,000 a time.
It makes the suggestion of saving one day a week from the borough's management pay bill pale into insignificance in comparison.
We've said it before, and we'll keep on saying it, PCSOs are a complete waste of taxpayers' money, and councils like Boston should stop featherbedding Lincolnshire Police by picking up their bills in any way, shape or form.

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A week of Victor Meldrew moments ....

It's Saturday, so we usually spend the day sharpening our pencils, grinding some fresh ink in our mortar and pestle, and rinsing out the blotting paper ready for the week ahead.
However we had two Victor ("I don't believe it!") Meldrew moments after the local papers arrived, and we simply had to add our two penn'orth to the stories.
First the mystery of the million pound loan.
Apparently it was taken out in 1991 for fifty years at a rate of more than eleven per cent.
Victor Meldrew notwithstanding, we are asked to believe that despite a search of reports from meetings at that time, there is absolutely no trace of what this was for.
The money is owed to a company called State Street - and if it's the one we found in the web, then it's a big business player.
Amusingly, Boston's head of finance apparently plans to try to get a copy of the loan agreement without the company realising the council doesn't have the paperwork.
Why on earth such a subterfuge is necessary, we cannot imagine - particularly now that the details are in the public domain.
Let us hope that - for once - our local papers are clever enough to recognise that approaching State Street may produce another even more interesting story.
One thing that continues to baffle us though is why - even though the paperwork appears to be missing - there is no reference to the loan in the council minutes.
Historians can read accounts of what Boston Borough Council was doing hundreds of years ago - Lincolnshire County Council can produce minute books from 1545 onwards (indexed to 1788) - and there must surely be some legal requirement on local authorities to keep track of their decisions.
Why 1991 should prove so elusive is beyond us. Any how anyone would lose track of a loan of this magnitude (including all the paperwork and records of the decision) beggars belief.
Our second Victor Meldrew moment came in response to a suggestion by Councillor Anne Dorrian at last week's joint committee meeting to discuss the proposed borough budget.
She had the excellent idea of cutting back the council management trio's working week from five days to four - which would apparently save £85,000 a year.
Mr Gallagher was stung into a swift rebuke.
"The management would like to reduce to a five day week because we are currently working six or seven days a week," he replied.
We've never heard a line like that before.
The poor man, we we didn't realise how hard he and his team were working.
Perhaps we might hope to see some positive results to justify this blood, sweat, and tears in the not too distant future, then.
Incidentally - although the maths may be slightly oversimplified - if £85,000 represents one-fifth of the management trio's annual income - then in a full year the bosses bag a monster £425,000 .... more than £140,000 each.
Can that really be the case?

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£10 million scandal of do nothing chocolate crimebusters

We've mentioned Police Community Support Officers many times in these pages, so our views are well known.
Now - courtesy of the Daily Mail - we have been treated to some astonishing figures about the work of the PCSOs in Lincolnshire.
The paper reports that the number of PCSOs in the county has grown from 114 three years ago to 159, increasing the annual wage bill from £2.63million to £3.79million.
And what have they done to earn their money?
The have issued just 15 fines in three years.
It means each fixed penalty notice cost more than £650,000 in public money.
And ten of them were for one of two offences - having a dirty bicycle light or riding a bike on a pavement.
A quick count on the Boston Police website shows that we have 11 PCSOs covering the borough.
If you look at their list of achievements to date, most seem to be related to preventing people parking outside their local shops and schools and other motoring transgressions or else such politically correct and high sounding objective which really have nothing at all to do with what most of us would consider policing.
Don't believe us? They try this for size...
"Multi-agency has been undertaken to improving the area. New lighting has been erected, with new bins in place. Raising funds for new goal post and play equipment is on going. Council have been improving the cleanliness of the area. NPT (neighbourhood policing team to the uninitiated) has increased patrols in the area and held street surgeries in the park with the mobile police station and council. Youth services are interacting with the children every Wednesday at the park."
Lincolnshire Police tell us: "Police Community Support Officers are helping to provide an even better service to the people of the county. PCSO's are additional officers on patrol, providing extra eyes and ears for Lincolnshire Police out on the streets and extra resources able to tackle the kind of nuisance behaviour that adversely affects people's quality of life."
As well as their crime busting clean-up of dirty cycle lights, Lincolnshire's PCSOs seized tobacco 34 times and alcohol 192 times since 2006.
Using simple arithmetic, and dividing the £10 million wasted on PCSOs by 241 (the total number of times they taken some sort of "action") we come up with a unit cost of £41,493 a time.
Forty thousand quid to confiscate a can of lager from an underage drinker!
Forty thousand quid to "seize" a packet of fags.
Forty thousand quid to impose a spot fine of £20 - the going rate for cycling on the pavement.
Just think how much they could rake in if they set their sights on cyclists in Boston, who travel everywhere on the pavement with a total disregard to the safety of pedestrians - a growing problem that is forever ignored.
But of course they don't because they are seldom seen on the streets - which means there is no case to be made for the "invisible" benefits of a visible deterrent.
Either PCSOs are not doing their job properly or the police aren't making proper use of them.
If you sacked the lot, the cops wouldn't need all the extra council tax they keep moaning that they must have.
One member of the Lincolnshire Police authority was quoted by the Mail as saying: 'People aren't daft - the public know that this is just policing on the cheap."
Policing on the cheap?
He's got that one dead wrong!

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Cabinet zeroes who wannabe heroes

Heroes or zeroes?
Boston Borough Council's glee club - aka the cabinet - is recommending a standstill budget for the coming financial year.
Interestingly, the borough council press release calls this : "A 0% rise in Boston Borough Council's Council Tax Charge...."
For something to rise, it has to move. And to rise by 0% means that it does not move, so ergo it is not a rise.
The release goes on: "Cabinet members voted unanimously for the recommendation of the zero per cent rise to send a clear message to residents that the council understands the tough economic situation residents are having to face, and that the council will do all it can to help."
It's good to hear that the cabinet understands something at last .... even if it it not quite able to express it in English.
The problem with a standstill budget is that the council's need for money does not stand still.
We are sure that the staff will not be willing to accept a pay freeze for the coming year - although a council tax freeze may well be used to try to justify such a move.
And whilst inflation is down in some areas, in others .... particularly the crucial weekly food bill ... prices are rising quite sharply.
Additionally, the council also has to find cuts in services to balance its budget.
A council tax rise of say one and a half per cent would have been seen as a good attempt to help people keep a rein on their household bills, as it would have added a paltry £1.50 to the annual bill for a band A property, which is the band that predominates in the borough, which would not have hurt anyone very much.
It would have raised a few thousand - not much - but as they say in these troubled times .... "every little helps."
A tax freeze smacks more of stunt than succour ... and is far more in line with what we expect from our spin dominated rulers than generosity.
It is on a par with the much vaunted government reduction in VAT, which did nothing to spur spending or help people's finances.
We fear that if the BBI sheep follow the recommendation of the cabinet wolves then trouble will not be far away.

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Tories start election ball rolling

The scent of politics rather than daffodils seems to be in the air at the moment.
The County Council is limbering up for elections in June, and we'll have more to say on that in the next few days.
But in the spirit of even longer term planning Boston's Tories are setting their sights 805 days from now - check out our countdown clock.
As many of us will recall, the council chamber in Worst Street was dominated by the Conservatives for years.
In the dog days of their reign, the party members took a somewhat distant view of whatever the local people wanted, and instead forged ahead with iconic schemes such as the Princess Royal Sports Arena , and bought vast swathes of land at taxpayers' expense for projects which often failed to reach fruition.
This "let them eat cake" approach had a predictable result when the Boston Bypass Independents stormed to victory in May 2007
But now the Conservatives, under the new chairmanship of one-time road sweeper, borough councillor Mike Gilbert, are launching a recruitment drive for the 2010 Boston elections.
A new vice-chairman of the Boston Branch of the Boston and Skegness Conservative Association, Andrea Jenkyns, is quoted as saying: "We will be looking for ordinary people with life experience, a big heart, a passion for wanting to help people and to make a positive contribution to the borough."
Her role will be to focus on policy and campaigning, aiming to recruit new members and potential candidates for the borough council elections.
It all sounds a bit like "call me Dave's" Tory party in microcosm.
At least Boston Conservatives have recognised that they have a way to go to overcome the party's past record in power in Boston, and are setting off on the journey in good time.
They must also be heartened by the continuing lacklustre performance of the BBI, which will surely do much (together with the national trend towards the Tories) in making them more electable.
As far as we can see, the only fly in the ointment is that they will have to wait until 2011 before the elections.
That's just over two years - although according to the report on the Boston Standard website the elections are due next year. A mistake made more than once, so it's not just a typing error!
Wishful thinking maybe?

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Cop this - business pays for yet another day in the office for Mr Plod

They're not exactly what we'd call the boys in blue as the Target has ... but then what do you expect for £60,000 a year?
The Boston Standard has dubbed them the Town Rangers - "a trio on a mission to battle crime in Boston town centre."
Appropriately dressed in blue anoraks, these three musketeers are Boston BID's big idea for making the town centre a better place for shoppers and businesses alike.
Whilst we're not knocking the idea of the Business Improvement District concept (it's worked quite well in other places) we just hope that BID has a few other ideas up its sleeve rather than adding yet another layer of pseudo police to the ones already operating in the town.
If there is a crime problem in the centre of Boston, it is the job of the police to tackle it. That's what they're paid a lot of money for.
But the police are conspicuous by their absence.
Hands up the last time you saw a bobby in the town centre, or wherever you live for that matter.
Not to worry, there are already plenty of other ways that crime is monitored and prevented while the police doze safe and sound over their paperwork in the comfort of a warm and cozy office.
Shopkeepers already use a radio link with keeps them in touch with the police and the CCTV operators to save the cops the bruden of patrol.
We also have Police Community Support Officers - that unseen band of mostly overweight but quite well-paid heroes who tirelessly organise football matches in the season and neighbourhood litter collections outside of those hours.
Lincolnshire Police is currently advertising for more Special Constables - that forgotten group of volunteers civilians who dress up as policemen and work for nothing but a boot allowance because they enjoy it.
We also have security staff in most of the town's bigger stores, and in Pescod Square a team of black-clad minders whose role appears to be to slouch against the shopfronts talking to staff who've nipped out for a smoke ... but looking menacing to would-be criminals while they're about it.
Lincolnshire Police meanwhile don't want any new recruits but when they do, remind us that they are currently under represented by female, ethnic minority and lesbian and gay officers. Whether this means that they don't regard a lesbian as female is an interesting debate that we won't go into here. They currently have just one vacancy, for civilian post, which pays up to £30,000 to "play a key role in boosting the profile of our community engagement activities."
And still everyone feels sorry for the police authority because it pleads poverty.
Incidentally, if you do need the services of your PCSOs, for once we know where you can find them.
Tomorrow they're at ASDA for most of the day - holding a "special surgery" and giving free eye tests while police cadets will bag your groceries for you in twice the time you would take yourself ... thus making the queues even longer.
Hands up if you remember the days when the police were on the streets preventing crime.
And we look forward to hearing BID's next cunning plan for the town ... whatever it is, it can only be an improvement.

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Breweries, booze-ups and bus surveys - councils are useless at them all

At last, we thought, as we headed to the library - a chance to take part in the long-delayed Into Town bus service "consultation."
Like last week, we searched high and low without success - and eventually asked for one of the forms.
"Sorry," replied the librarian, "There aren't any. The person who brings them in hasn't brought them in yet."
Enough, we thought, is enough, so on the way out we stopped at the machine that polls your views on the service you receive in this godforsaken council enclave.
When pressed, the buttons meeped enthusiastically, but as we turned to leave, a receptionist smiled sweetly from the public-proof glass box in which she huddles and mouthed the words ....
...guess what ...
"It isn't working."
Somehow a phrase including the words booze-up and brewery come to mind.
Never mind, there will soon be so few days of "consultation" left that the whole thing might as well be called off as pointless - which is probably the idea anyway.

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Hacking is cowardly way to fight criticism

As we do every weekend, we paid a visit to one of Boston's more outspoken websites to find that it had been hacked and trashed.
The site is one that combines an unusual dual role.
One one hand it goes to a lot of trouble to promote the town and its businesses and attractions - far more enthusiastically than most of the people whose job it is supposed to be.
On the other hand, its news section rigorously attacks the borough council, and has produced a number of interesting "exclusives" - particularly about the Princess Royal Sports Arena.
This site cannot be accused of ambiguity in any shape or form, and despite the fact that a number of its stories seem strong enough to pass a lie detector test, as far as we are aware neither of our local "newspapers" has ever taken the trouble to investigate their veracity and follow them up.
Whatever one may think about this website, to attack it this way is cowardly and malicious.
As the policeman could have said in Casablanca, there are probably not many people who would fall into the category known as the "usual suspects."
Presumably, one of the subjects criticised on the site has decided that the best way to answer those criticisms is to behave in an even worse manner and try to destroy the source of criticism.
A number of bad people and evil organisations have gone down that route over the centuries whether the subject of their wrath was books or people, but in the broader test of time they have failed in their mission.
Free speech is free speech - no matter how badly spelled or punctuated.
We hope that the site in question is back in business as soon as possible.
Sadly this is not the first time that a local website has been pressured.

Another stopped publishing some while ago after physical threats were made to the operators.
If by any chance, you know which miserable piece of human detritus was behind this latest intellectual vandalism, then please let us know.

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Council "is innocent" over survey muddle

An e-mail from Worst Street takes us to task over yesterday's piece about the delay in starting and foreshortening of, the so-called "consultation" over the Into Town bus service.
"Having read the latest blog on your website today, I am emailing to let you (and your readers) know that Lincolnshire County Council is undertaking the Into Town Bus Service consultation," it says.
"This includes distribution and collection of questionnaires."
Well, if we're wrong, we're wrong, and are happy to publish e-mails to that effect.
But having said that we must add that somewhere out there we still detect the dead hand of Boston Borough Council in the equation.
Otherwise, why would it suddenly decide to make an announcement on an issue previously publicised by the County Council ... and without pointing out the new and reduced survey period?
Interestingly, this comes in the same week that we learn that probably the most important meeting of the year for members of the Joint Committees - the one at which they discuss the coming year's council budget - has had to be postponed.
The reason? Because members did not receive the mountain of papers they have to read to properly inform themselves in good time ahead of the meeting.
In the early days of the council there was considerable debate about exactly what constituted the five working days that the council requires should be allowed to give councillors and the punters time to digest these complex documents.
So there is really no excuse to deliver reports on a Saturday to someone expected to be able to comment on them the following Monday.
We were particularly amused at the hissy fit reported by the Boston Standard when the debacle was made public.
"The authority's Chief Executive Mick Gallagher warned he would be concerned if any decisions were delayed because it put time scales in 'jeopardy,'" the paper reported.
We bet that headmaster Mick being "concerned" is an awesome sight that would make grown men weep, and we're sure everyone will burn the midnight oil to ensure that they do their homework before next Monday's lesson.
Having said that, isn't it Mick's job to make sure that that these rules are carried out in the first place?
A still tongue in a wise head should be the order of the day, wethinks.

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You've not missed bus survey - it's just running late!

We tottered into the library yesterday to collect a copy of the "consultation" survey which will seek our opinions on the Into Town bus service before ignoring them if they are unfavourable and rubber-stamping the scheme anyway.
However, we couldn't find a survey form for love or money - for the simple reason that none was available.
Cue much wailing and gnashing of gums.
Back home, we logged on to the Boston Borough Council website to find a story added that very day saying that the "consultation" will begin next Monday the 18th of February and run until 16th March.
Worried that we were in the early onset of old timer's disease, we reassured ourselves that the survey had been reported in the local press as a month long affair beginning on 9th February and not one of just three weeks. And it had.
Lest someone had the impudence to suggest that our local papers were anything other than accurate in their reporting, we double checked with the press release issued by Lincolnshire County Council which confirmed the dates.
So what's gone wrong?
Has the County Council missed the bus ... or have our masters in Worst Street failed to distribute the survey on time?
We favour the latter, as it's typical of Boston Borough Council to bodge something up ... then make believe that it was something different all the time.
Otherwise why bother to issue an announcement a fortnight after the county with only a few day's notice which, if intended as a press release came too late for the local papers?
Sounds like Boston, doesn't it?
Talking of the Into Town bus service, it may be timely to remind the drivers that it's quite possible that not everyone knows about the rules of engagement when those nasty meeping, smelly coaches need to wreck the Strait Bargate shopping ambiance.
Yesterday, as we were crossing the Market Place, a bus came along at quite some speed and the driver merely engaged his flashing light/irritating noise button before cruising into and among the pedestrian traffic and slowing as he did so.
This is a classic example of familiarity breeding contempt, breeding a possible accident, as it assumes that everyone is now conditioned -Pavlov style - to fling themselves aside and make way for the buses.
We saw a similar case a couple of weeks ago as an elderly pedestrian tried to cross from Shephard's Bakery in Bargate to the Green.
A bus which was at some distance continued towards her at what we would term an aggressive speed .. so much so that braking in time for the bus stop almost proved elusive.
And these are not the only incidents we have seen. We have the feeling that sometimes drivers are frustrated at pedestrians behaving as though they were still in the good old days when their shopping centre was a vehicle free zone - a quieter, pollution free place which made a visit to shop in Boston centre an enjoyment rather than an endurance test.

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Parking privilege is out of date and unfair

Tucked away at the end of tonight's cabinet agenda is a paper on the contentious issue of staff and councillor car parking.
At the moment, all council staff and members park for free in connection with their work at the council.
But a paper being presented to Boston's glee club meeting points out that it is not a contractual right, and budget proposals are to end free parking and "move to a system which is more reflective of arrangements for non council employees" - by which it pompously means "other town centre workers, residents and visitors."
These lesser mortals either pay for parking by using meters or buy a season ticket.
Season tickets currently cost £280 but are likely to rise to £320 from April.
Withdrawing the right to free parking is being proposed mainly because the council has to make more savings, but it has decided to spin the idea of treating staff and councillors just the same as everyone else by suggesting that the move will encourage staff and members to consider alternative and perhaps more environmentally friendly (and healthier) means of getting to work, and reducing the number of cars coming into town centre through car sharing, walking and cycling.
The report reckons that if staff and councillors buy season tickets the council will profit by just under £50,000 a year.
But as always there is a catch.
The report says that if essential car users are excluded from the new arrangement and continue to benefit from free parking (why?) the income would fall by £12,500 and if councillors were charged at a part time rate, income would drop by £5,852.
Essential users currently get an annual lump sum of between £753 & £1,095 and a mileage rate that varies between 13.3p per mile and "£15.8p" (sic) per mile.
At those rates, the latter is the one for us - it must be for the borough Bentley!
Casual users don't get a lump sum but can claim a mileage rates between 42.9p per mile and 58.7p per mile based on engine size. We've checked out running costs for several popular vehicles and these seem like very generous rates.
No one likes losing money, but we do feel that free parking for a select group is something that can no longer be afforded.
Why should councillors and council workers be exempt from the charges paid by people who have to drive to work in the town and contibute to its prosperity?
However you look at it, it's an unfair and anachronistic privilege which is not egalitarian and has no justification in today's equal society.

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Haven is just a costly creche

As the cabinet gets to grips with the borough's finances this week, one proposal on the agenda is further to curtail the opening hours of that "big glass box of ar*e and artefacts" - the Haven arts centre.
Co-incidentally, another of those dinky little brochures has appeared at the library exhorting us to pay a visit.
So what's in store at this costly monument to culture in Boston?
Over the coming months, there are a variety of activities for the discerning art lover.
Why not go along and make a kazoo, or a shaker, some fairy wands, fairy garlands and crowns, a tambourine, thumb piano, paper pictures, toadstool boxes, fantasy castles, a dragon puppet or a string puppet?
At the moment, there's an exhibition of weights and measures - we'll wait and see how that measures up!
Between June and August an exhibition called "Good Vibrations" tells us how sound is made and how it travels ... and allows you to experiment with "odd" musical instruments - a kazoo, shaker, or thumb piano, perhaps?
Then there's the not to be missed Przekraczanie Granicy - aka Border Crossing - an exhibition of the work of several artists based in and around Bielsko-Biala in Poland - "the second half of a four year practice led research project funded by the Arts Council of Wales, Wrexham Arts Centre and the University of Wales."
It's hard to think of anything less relevant or interesting, although we're sure that someone will manage in the not too distant future.
As far as we can see, the Haven is probably the most expensive playschool in town, and we find it almost impossible to believe that nothing more interesting or relevant could be found than the exhibitions coming up later in the year.
The council not only could - it should close the Haven at once, and save the running costs.
And although it's due to decide whether to curtail opening hours to a pointless three days a week (including Saturdays) , the leaflet confidently tells us that the Haven is open from 10am to 4pm daily.
Not only will the leaflet become redundant if the cut is approved, it makes the creche activities even more pointless - as two days of children's activities a week is as bad as useless.
A bit like the Haven, really.
It's yet another white elephant that we can easily do without.

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Pounding home the idea of local support

The call by our leaders to support our town centre, and our local traders is a statement of the obvious ... but we wonder what difference it will really make.
The subjects were "key topics" at a Boston Area Partnership "workshop" held on Tuesday 20th and published on the borough's steam-powered website a fortnight later.
The workshop heard that Boston was ahead of the game, with trading at Pescod Square higher than the national figures despite being down by 2.1% compared to this time last year.
Andy Pottle from Pescod Square called for a co-ordinated approach from local authorities and town centre businesses (opening at the same time on Sundays would be a good starter for ten) to promote a “support your town centre” campaign in the coming year.
The problem with Boston town centre is not unique.
Like so many others it has seen the disappearance of many of its truly "local" shops and services, which have been driven out by the relentless invasion of chain stores.
Even so, shopping locally failed to save Woolworths and MFI.
Like many other stores that may follow in their footsteps, their closure was the result of the recession.
We pointed out the other day the lack of imagination in naming the planned West Street area development "Merchants Quay."
If Boston's Merchants Quay reaches fruition, it will be the twelfth so named in the UK and Ireland ... although a few more may well have emerged by the proposed completion date.
What the town needs to make it different - and therefore a magnet for customers - is originality.
We said a long time ago that Boston is sadly nothing more than Clonetown PE21.
In Boston, we have one of every mobile phone shop, almost as many card shops - and charity shops too numerous to mention.
If you were to parachute a shopper from almost anywhere else in the country into Boston, they would be unable to tell where they were because town centres these days all look the same, a situation that will only be made worse when Merchants Quay materialises (if it ever does.)
In the meantime, if Boston wants to encourage people to use what local shops there are to boost the local economy, why not take a leaf out of the book of Lewes, in East Sussex
There, they have issued a local currency in the form of the Lewes Pound which is bought and circulated locally.
As the Lewis Pound website promoting the idea (www.thelewespound.org) says: "Money spent locally circulates within, and benefits the local economy. Money spent in national chains doesn't. The Lewes Pound encourages demand for local goods and services. In turn this builds resilience to the rising costs of energy, transport and food."

An example of the Lewis pound is pictured above, along with our own suggestion for a local version.
Meanwhile, we need to be more selective over which shops we allow to set out their stall in Boston, and also not to drive away events such as the Continental Market and (dare we say it) the May Fair.
People will come here and spend their cash if we make the journey worthwhile.
At the moment there is nothing very special to make people choose Boston as a destination.
A little thought and imagination could soon change all that.

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Distributor road "would be madness"

Traffic campaigner Michael Borrill writes to us with the following point:-
"Once again, due to a serious accident on the A17, the people of Boston had to live with traffic chaos on the A52 and A1121 culminating in gridlock on both these roads and a nightmare in the vicinity of Chain Bridge and the Tesco roundabouts.
"This brings to light the sheer madness in even thinking about putting a distributor road to enter the Tesco section from Wyberton (the rejuvenated Southern Link Road.)
"Yes, both Lincolnshire County Council and fully supported by Richard Austin and his team at Boston Borough Council are seriously considering this option with the hope that backed by Section 102 monies from a developer, this will be the first part of a distributor road.
"An outer distributor road it cannot be, local yes, but that is not what is required ... as evidence was amply provided after the accident - and, indeed, most days."

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Just say "neigh" to coach stage through Strait Bargate

This coming Monday sees the start of the public "consultation" on the Into Town bus service, which we are certain will be compared with the miracle of the loaves and fishes when the results are eventually published.
As a lot of money has already been spent creating the potentially dangerous-to-pedestrian cliff edge kerbs all around the town where the buses stop, for that reason alone we doubt that anyone will declare the service anything other than a huge benefit for the town.
Already, usage figures have been trumpeted about the thousands of extra journeys being made since the service began, and unverified claims about the impact it is having in reducing the level of traffic in and around the town.
However, one of our contributors has been doing some interesting research, which suggests that Into Town buses may not be as popular as they are cracked up to be.
The calculations go like this:-
The six services - IT 1/2 , 3/4 and 5/6 each do 24 journeys a day.
The approximate mileage per journey is four for IT 1/2, three and a half for IT 3/4 and 7.3 for IT 5/6, giving respective daily totals of 96, 84 and 175, and weekly totals of 576, 504 and 1050 respectively.

This equals 2,130 miles for all vehicles each week, or about 9,000 miles per month
Obviously, all these figures are approximate as our correspondent couldn't travel through Strait Bargate or go over the Town Bridge and down Bridge Street.
Now we move on to consider seating capacity.
There are 72 journeys per day, so 432 journeys per week.

Each coach has 26 seats which means there are 11,312 seats travelling around Boston each week. We don't think that anyone travels from Wide Bargate back to Wide Bargate in one journey, so that seat is, probably, available twice per journey.

This would make about 22,000 seats available per week, or about 528,000 seats waiting to be filled in the first six months (24 weeks).

We are told that 132,647 passengers used the buses in the first six months.

So if the maths are only approximately correct this means that the buses have been running around on average only 25% full.

Hardly the success it is being claimed.
The word is that at least 70% of the passengers are using bus passes, so the revenue from fares must only come from just under 40,000 journeys.

Even at a fare of £1 each this would hardly pay for the drivers.

So on this basis, the service is not cost effective let alone profit making.

It would be interesting to hear what members of the town's cabinet make of figures like these - especially as they are now so fiscally aware(ie penny pinching) as to threaten the demise of the May Fair for the sake of avoiding the expense of a few hundred quid.

A second correspondent writes on that issue: "We know that the cost of policing the May Fair has raised its ugly head once again but ... is that a smoke screen?

"Why was the Into Town Bus service held back until after the May Fair last year?

"Health and safety comes to mind!"

It is of course an equally good reason for killing the fair off before it is due this year.

Nothing, but nothing must stand in the way of this bus service, it appears.

Not even public opinion.

As we have said so often, we have no objection to an expanded local bus service. But it should not be another loss leader for the town - and nor should it travel through Strait Bargate.

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Stumped - cash plea falls on deaf ears ... and church is thousands more out of pocket

Yesterday, we wrote of Boston Stump and the celebrations to mark its 700th anniversary.

But having read the local papers,we doubt that there will be much to celebrate after the borough cabinet (above) turned down an application for a £12,000 grant to enhance its tourism work and promote the anniversary year.

The decision is a doubled blow in that the church decided this year not to apply for a long running grant of £11,000 towards insurance costs for the building, which our cash-strapped and greedy council accepted with alacrity, leaving the church harder up than ever i n this special year.After that, the cabinet had the bare faced cheek to propose more discussions "to see if there was anything else the council could assist them with" - just as if they had already been somehow helpful in the first place.We feel that the church managers should say "thanks but no thanks to an offer" like this which would equate to inviting Typhoid Mary to cook the family dinner.

Given the council's attitude to anything faintly important by way of heritage, we could foresee their involvement leading to the demolition of the church so as to enhance the view of the "iconic" bridge being proposed to link the council's latest white elephant - Merchants Quay.Speaking of that grand development, we were taken to task yesterday by one or two readers after suggesting the name was pulled out of a hat.

But if you Google the name you'll find one - sans apostrophe because no-one is grammatical enough to know whether it should be placed before or after the letter s - in Newcastle,Dundee, Brighton, Cork, Salford, Leeds, Hull, Gloucester, Newry, Dublin and County Wicklow.

What a shame that the developers could even be bothered to think of a unique name

to proffer some specialness to the place.

Why not name it May Fair, to commemorate the historic event that that cabinet plans to kill off after centuries just for the sake of saving a few hundred quid?

Whilst the BBI's clearly thinks of itself as a "progressive" council, we would substitute the adjective "destructive" instead.

Tomorrow, ahead of the public "consultation" on the Into Town bus service begins, we'll be looking at some interesting statistic compiled by one of our contributors.

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It's God v Mammon in 700th anniversary year!

A landmark building project is planned for the centre of Boston - in the heart of the town, right beside the River Haven.

It will be built at a phenomenal cost and take years to complete.

But once finished, it will be a major beacon that will attract people to Boston from miles around, and not just the local area.

No, it' s not the "pull the name out of a hat" Merchants Quay.

We're winding the clock back seven hundred years, and whilst the headlines remain the same, the building in question is St Botolph's Church, Boston, better known as the Stump.

This year sees a wealth of celebrations to mark the 700th anniversary of the Stump - described by the architectural writer Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as "a giant among parish churches."

Things get underway this weekend with the annual Lincolnshire County Council Children's Service, featuring youth musical groups from around the county.

Happy birthday, St Botolph's.

We hope that the season of celebration will be well supported by the public, and that the church gets the recognition it so rightly deserves on a bigger stage than merely here in Boston.

Let's not forget that the church is undergoing a three million pound restoration, so any contributions you feel able to make this year will be especially significant.

We hear a lot of waffle these days about "landmark" developments, which are usually nothing more than glorified shopping centres built by permission of greedy and gullible councils for the benefit of developers.

This is why we made the analogy with the proposed Merchants Quay, which ... as any fule kno ...will certainly not be around in another 700 years, whilst we are sure that the Stump will.

The other comparisons we could make is that Boston has now followed the time honoured and classic pattern of communities everywhere, and switched from saluting God - to sucking up to Mammon.

A building is a true landmark when it genuinely dominates its landscape and remains a durable community focus down the centuries and is regarded with a blend of awe and affection by its neighbours.

Boston Stump is just such a building, and we should appreciate it more than we do.

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Treat this rubbish with the contempt it deserves!

It seems like only yesterday that we were talking about the borough council's war on litter and people who put their rubbish in the wrong recycle bin.
But that's because it was only yesterday.
It's clearly a "hot" topic, as the borough website might once have said, because during a trip to the library, we found a pack called "A Guide to Council Services" (their capital letters) which was absolutely crammed with information about how best to dispose of waste.
Disregarding the fact that most if not all of it will be chucked away unread and therefore make its own additional contribution to the ever-mounting pile of rubbish being generated by the powers that be, as we read through the contents, we were reminded of the recent debates about accuracy vis a vis borough documents and publications.
A spellcheck should pick up mistakes such as "Spetember" and "outisde. "
And a thorough reading through would avoid slip-ups such as mentioning facilities that are visited on a daily "bases," and telling us that "the Assembly Rooms was built in 1822" or that the council "provides an alternately weekly collection." Oh yes, and "cannot" is a single word. And we're not quite sure what date the 31th of March might be.
As the documents were produced by a local authority, it comes as no surprise that unnecessary capital letters are Everywhere, whilst punctuation is completely random.
As well as a host of inaccuracies, the use of language is quite spooky in places, but you really need to collect you own copy to fully appreciate all the nuances. But we do like the introduction of George Orwell's newspeak from 1984 in the shape of "greenspaces." Doubtless more such words will follow over time, though it would be doubleplusungood if they were allowed to.
Weightwatchers will be pleased to learn that the council operates a public weighbridge, where a member of staff "will show you to the weighbridge, weigh you and complete a ticket for you."
Presumably to save money, up-to-date price lists for trade waste collection have been stuck over the old ones - reminding us of a day long ago when we found staff in the former Tourist Information Centre busily blacking out areas of the latest issue of the town map with marker pens to remove a host of inaccuracies.
Much space is wasted in the publications spelling out the precise letter of the law and level of fine involved for various environmental offences, which will turn off most people and stop them reading further.
And we expect the council will to have to deflect quite a number of requests from people ringing up after being asked: "Are you aware that a lot of materials that can not (sic) be recycled in your blue recycling bin, can actually be taken to the Household Waste Recycling Centre free of charge" (no question mark.)
In this case, "free of charge" means free to Boston Borough council - because you deliver it to the site ... but as you don't pay for admission the word "free" is used - albeit incorrectly.

Try ringing up and requesting this "free" service and see how far you get if you don't believe us.
The triumph of the guide is a recycling "wheel."
Simply look for whatever you want to dispose of, dial the wheel to feature it, and a coloured bar will appear in a window alongside telling you where to dispose of it.
The wheel lists no fewer than 96 individual items - including "Paper Back Books."

The guidance sheets carry the customary grinning bin logo and list a total of 55.
Oh yes, and the wheel is almost impossible to operate because of its poor manufacture and some design problems.
Our problem with this latest attempt at getting council taxpayers to bend the knee to the bin police is that not only has the material been produced in such a slipshod manner, but that it has either gone unchecked, or been checked by someone who doesn't know any better either.
Inside the folder is an exhortation to recycle it ... we think that this is best done before trying to read it.
It is inept, incompetent, poorly produced and an insult to the public.

We'll be keeping our eyes open and let you know if we find any more.

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BBC - not Boston Borough ... but Big Brother Council!

Last week we gained an interesting glimpse of life behind West Street's closed doors.
Aside from the antics of one former councillor as he tottered the corridors of power, Councillor Anne Dorrian disclosed the apparent inability of staff to get things right.
"I have already been to two meetings in the last week where councillors have discovered that they have been given the wrong information by officers - and we're not talking about spelling mistakes or typing errors, we are talking about important information that councillors rely on to help them make the right decisions for the people of Boston," she said.
In the few documents available for public consumption, we have been astonished at the number of factual and typographical errors that we have encountered, and it has made us wonder exactly how professional a council we have and whether the few morsels we have gleaned represent just the tip of the iceberg.
Now, we hear news that makes us question the mindset of the powers that be.Figures show that Lincolnshire councils have used special surveillance powers on 217 occasions in the past three years under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) which permits the use of "covert human intelligence sources" to help prevent crime, including terrorism.

Apparently the most common use of RIPA by local authorities is to track down benefit cheats and fly-tippers.

Of the seven district councils in Lincolnshire, Boston comes third in its use of covert surveillance authorisations having used them on 26 occasions.

Only South Holland with 59, and West Lindsey on 53 were ahead of us.

Neighbouring East Lindsey, on the other hand, only used RIPA powers on ten occasions.
A spokesman for West Lindsey District Council said they used the legislation for things that had a big negative impact on the community like commercial fly-tipping in the middle of nowhere, but East Lindsey took the view that there were other ways to enforce the law.

We know that Boston Borough Council is keen to encourage people to put their rubbish in the proper bins, but we also have to question why the authority uses such an improbable sledgehammer as RIPA to crack a nut as small as littering.
The question is reinforced when we consider that in terms of population, Boston is far and away the smallest of the seven local councils, yet among the biggest users of RIPA.
But then - this being Boston Borough Council after all - we decided to use their thought processes to join up the dots.
RIPA helps prevent terrorism ....
If we use it to spy on fly tippers....
We might capture the world's most wanted terrorist....
Osama BIN Laden!

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