Week ending 16th October

Our Friday miscellany of the week's news and events
Close call ... Conservative Andrea Jenkyns has won yesterday's County Council by-election for the Boston North West ward with 597 votes. Fenside borough councillor David Owens of the British National Party came second with 581, Labour's Pam Kenny third with 204, and Mike Sheridan-Shinn of the Lib Dems last with 161. Turnout was even lower than on 4th June at 21.25%. Of the blogging candidates, Mike Laggy-Last seems to have decided that the election didn't happen! More on Monday's blog.
Losing BID ... After our criticism of Boston BID amongst other letter-waving organisations which all claim to be working for the greater good of Boston business without any visible evidence, we note that Spalding has rejected a similar idea. The Spalding Business Improvement District ballot showed an overwhelming dislike of the proposal, with only 71 votes in favour out of a total of 285 votes cast. It seems that whatever Spalding does Boston doesn't, and vice versa. The trouble is that we have a nagging feeling that the good burghers of South Holland are tending to take all the right decisions, whilst here in Boston we are taking all the wrong ones...
Freedom of speech ... We are delighted to read on Councillor Raymond Singleton-McGuire's blog that the footling complaint against him by Labour's wannabe MP Paul Kenny has been thrown out. We also have to say that we are staggered to read that Mr Kenny then apparently decided to take matters further by raising the issue with the police. Councillor Singleton-McGuire says it in a nutshell, when he writes: "I honestly believe this person must be on another planet to the rest of the human race."
I am what I am ... Our thanks to Borough and County Councillor Michael Brookes for taking the time and trouble to explain his position vis-a-vis being an "independent" Independent, or a "Lincolnshire Independent," after our piece on last week's blog "Who are the REAL independents?" Councillor Brookes tells us: "I am a true Independent and have joined the Independents group at Lincolnshire County Council, I am not a Lincolnshire Independent or any other flavour of Independent. The reason for joining this group is to ensure that I qualify for seats on council committees and for mutual support, seats are allocated to political groups on a proportional basis dependent on the number of seats they hold on the council. A member on his own does not qualify by right for a seat on any committee except Full Council which only meets four times a year. The day to day work of the council is done through the executive and its various committees so it is very important to be involved in this. The Independents do not have a whip and are always free to vote as they think best, unlike the other political groups who can have the whip applied when thought necessary. My aim is to act in the best interests of the people of Boston Rural Division who I represent. I hope this clarifies my position as an Independent on Lincolnshire County Council and thank you for giving me the opportunity to respond." We thank Councillor Brookes for that, but still wish that between them Lincolnshire Independents and Lincolnshire County Council could decide who exactly is where on their lists. Talking of independents ...
Time's up! ... 19 weeks after he lost his former seat to Conservative Paul Skinner, Boston Borough Council's Dear Leader Richard "Papa Dick" Austin has partially abandoned the inaccurate claim on the Lincolnshire Independents' website that he represents Boston South on Lincolnshire County Council. Whilst his front page entry has gone, the launch details of the party still list him as treasurer and as county councillor for the seat he lost on June 4th. As well as that the Lincolnshire Independents' site is still glaringly inaccurate.
Forward planning ... This coming Monday's meeting of Lincolnshire County Council's Highways, Transport and Technology Scrutiny Committee includes a verbal report from the Assistant Director for Highways and Transport on the issues raised by Councillor Major (not retired when at Lincoln) Ramonde Newell about the quality of temporary road works signage. Let's hope he's keeping in mind the need to ease the forthcoming chaos when we're landed with a year's worth of roadworks outside Aldi and around the Sleaford Road level crossing which are apparently being done to show that they won't work to further the case of a bypass.

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