Three months in ... and BID is becoming a stooge

Three months in, and Boston BID's manager declares that the organisation has got off to a flying start.
But even at this early stage, we are worried about the direction that the organisation is taking.
Its key six objectives are to make Boston safe and secure; clean and attractive; improve the perception and image of the town; improve accessibility; to be a voice for business support; and to deliver matched funding.
Looking from back to front - our speciality - we note that match funding to date totals £20,000 .... a sum that we're sorry to say doesn't get you too far these days.
Business support includes a cut in local brochure advertising rates and a seminar (talking shop) or two.
No projects have been completed under accessibility.
Perception and image includes riding piggyback on the Stump's 700th anniversary celebrations, and working with the Boston Area Regeneration Company to produce ... wait for it ... a town centre map.
We note that the net winner here is Boston Borough Council, which refused to help fund the Stump celebrations, whilst trousering many thousands of pounds in insurance funding aid which the church had foregone in the hope that support for the appeal would be coming. Also, until now the borough has produced maps and the like .... but has now been relieved of that cost
The move to make Boston cleaner and more attractive has seen the sponsorship of the Big Boston Clean Up and removing chewing gum.
Again, the net winner here is Boston Borough Council, which organised the clean up last year, and which until now was responsible for removal of chewing gum from our streets. We note that the Borough Council press release on the clean-up somehow omitted any mention of Boston BID ... a reader would assume that it was an entirely council run initiative.
That leaves the safety and security issue.
The Town Rangers have been added to the Pescod Plods, and this in turn has now increased demand to expand the radio facility that washes the town with its waves. If you've not encountered it, look around next time you shop. You will always find a member of staff bellowing descriptions of suspected criminals to their colleagues. They seem to think that it makes them look important.
Most worrying is the news that BID members may soon be given access to an "offender's database" giving them access to a "mug shot gallery" and the ability to complete incident reports.
We are uncertain what right a bunch of shopkeepers has to intrude into people's lives in this way.
We are sure that even if the gallery starts out containg photos of known offenders, that it will expand to include people that are "fancied" as likely suspects.
There is a major breach of the right to privacy here, which our elected representative should stand up and oppose - although of course we know that this will not happen.
The net winners here are Boston Police - who can sit back behind their desks whilst a bunch of amateurs do their jobs for them.
Boston BID needs to recognise that it has rapidly become a stooge for the council and the police and take urgent steps to get its act together.

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