Monday, April 19

Friday was a big day for us, a day spent eagerly awaiting the delivery to our e-mail inbox of the first issue of the Boston Bulletin.
As a publication, it superficially resembles the lamentably bad "Boston Matters," which used to arrive on an ad hoc basis through every letter box in the borough before making the rapid transition from doormat to blue bin.
But having said that, the new electronic bulletin has a nicer look to it and is much better written than its predecessor.
The content is, as you might expect, a compilation of good news stories about Boston Borough Council - with a tasty carrot on the first page in the form of a competition with £800 in prizes for the people judged to have the best kept front gardens.
There's also an upbeat assessment of Boston's future from Interim Chief Executive Richard Harbord, who expresses the hope that the new bulletin will help the workings of the council become "ever more transparent and open."
As the man tasked with slapping the useless ruling BBI group into some sort of shape, we wish him luck - but are sure that he'll meet resistance right down the line.
Much of the remainder of the bulletin is a rehash of council press releases, but all in all it's a considerable improvement on previous offerings.
It's also cost neutral, and available only to those people who ask to receive it ... unlike the inflicted "Boston Matters" which threw several thousand pounds of taxpayers' money into the wheelie bin with every issue.
But one thing that raised our Boston Eyebrow was the discovery that the bulletin exists in two different forms, each numbered consecutively.
The one that we received ran to ten pages, but another copy, sent to us by a well-wisher, was two pages longer.
The additional material appears beneath the banner "Council Noticeboard," and is presumably intended for the eyes of the staff rather than the riff-raff who pay their wages.
Interestingly, under the heading "Value for money must be our watchwords" we get to meet for the first time the borough's new Director of Resources.
Boston Eye readers will recall that this post was advertised at the end of last year at the eye-watering salary of £87,500 a year - although we were told that the subsequent salary on appointment was substantially less.
In a spectacular piece of non-transparency the announcement that the appointment had been filled was made at a full council meeting under a cloak of secrecy - and details were even withheld from non BBI councillors who were asked to approve it.
And as far as we are aware there has still been no public announcement of this appointment, which suggests that Chief Executive Harbord has some way to go in his desire to make the council "ever more transparent" - although by definition" transparent" is a superlative and cannot be made clearer than it is.
Forgive the pun, but we think there is a clear absence of transparency when a publication promoted as being for general consumption appears in two forms - one of which is clearly intended to conceal information rather than reveal it.
Surely Boston Borough Council has better ways to keep its staff up to date than resorting to subterfuge - or perhaps it has by now become second nature to the Boston Bypass Independents to use a corkscrew when a ruler is required.
Ironically, another item in the redacted pages is a staff forum question about the council's policy on "awaydays."
Hands up those of you who remember the infamous awayday two years ago, when Cabinet members and some senior officers decided that only the George Hotel at Stamford - one of Lincolnshire's priciest hotels - would do for a meeting ... at a rumoured cost of £680.
And so you don't feel left out, you can read the missing Boston Bulletin pages below... click on the picture for an enlargement.


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


No comments: