Week ending 9th October

Our Friday miscellany of the week's news and events
Whew! ... We must have got yesterday's assessment of the run-up to the Boston North West county council by election badly wrong. We see in one of our local papers that "election fever" is hitting the ward. Not if some of the candidates' bids for your vote are anything to go by. Labour's Pam Kenny, believes that voters will value her 20 years' experience as a nurse, and Lib Dem Mike Sheridan-Shinn berates stay-at-home voters claiming that "last time only seven per-cent of you chose the councillor that 100 per-cent of you got." In fact the turn out at Boston North West - whilst the lowest of any of the seven county wards - was twenty-seven per-cent. Should Mike S-S get elected, will someone please ensure that he's kept away from any of the finance committee posts. Incidentally, "election fever" is just one of those well worn cliches used by our local hacks. Our other favourite is that our local police are "pounding the beat...."
Talking of elections ... it's been a while since the Boston Standard gave us a chuckle, but we're grateful to them for lightening up the coverage of the Boston North West county council by-election. The paper reports the reason for the contest is because the initially successful Tory candidate Andrea Jenkyns was "illegible" to stand. Shurely shome mishtake, as Private Eye would say....
Adding up ... We note with interest during a visit to Lincolnshire County Council's website the arrival of adverts urging us to shop at the likes of Boden and John Lewis. Is there a lesson here for cash-strapped Boston Borough Council? A few ads would not only enliven their pedestrian website but bring some much needed extra cash into the borough's near empty coffers.
Ten out of ten ... to Boston Borough Council for managing to drive Stephen Walker Travel out of the town after more than a quarter of a century. We always thought that the town had far too many locally run businesses, and hopefully this will make some of the others sit up and take notice. Mr Walker reports that he was unable to agree new lease terms with the landlord - ie the borough which owns the Assembly Rooms. Was the council simply being greedy and hiking the rent to stupid proportions, or is it trying to to clear the decks to make the building more attractive to other possible bidders?
Cop out ... Boston has police officers, we have Police Community Support Officers, we have Special Constables. Then there are the Town Rangers and the Pescod Square security staff who help prevent the glass falling out of shop windows in the precinct by leaning firmly on them to hold them in place. So it beggars belief that an elderly woman can be shoved from her invalid scooter and robbed at 2-15 in the afternoon. As you might expect, not one of these phalanges was in sight, so the police are left with their usual lame plea for witnesses. To make matters worse, the appeal has only just been issued - despite the attack taking place on Monday 28th September ... almost a fortnight ago. No wonder police are known as plod!
Still counting ... another week goes by, and Borough Council's Dear Leader Richard "Papa Dick" Austin clings to the inaccurate claim on the Lincolnshire Independents' website that he represents Boston South on Lincolnshire County Council. It is now 18 weeks since 4th June, when he lost his former seat to Conservative Paul Skinner.

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