The Ballad of Bostonland

Our last blog until the New Year features a non-seasonal faintly pantomimic ode by Boston's poet laureate Carol Ann Duffer.
We hope it brings a smile to you face, and wish your all the best for Christmas and the New Year.

The Ballad of Bostonland

There once was a place called Bostonland,
A magical place that was oh, so grand.
But the old Queen Joyce
Lost her grip on the crown
And the quality of life
Went down and down.

The horses and carts
Got stuck on the roads.
And often didn't move for hours.
So bad were the jams
That the horse**** piled up,
And roses became the most popular flowers

Then along came a champion -
Richard his name.
And he made this almost incredible claim

"Just vote for me and my men of true grit
"And in one fell swoop,
"and not bit by bit
"I'll sweep away all of this vile old horse****"

'Twas a big and bold plan that had people enthralled,
And 'ere long good King Dick and his team were installed
But they dickered and bickered
And messed up the job.
And soon Bostonland broke out in a sob.

How they cried,
How they gnashed and they wailed:
"You've failed us King Richard."
They railed and they cursed:
"You promised the best
"But delivered the worst."

Not only that.
You said horse**** would go
But what have you done - do you think we don't know?
Despite what you promised you don't care a bit
The vile fruit of the horse
You've replaced with BULL****

We'll be back on Monday January 4th


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Week ending 18th December

Our Friday miscellany of the week's news and events
Thanks a million ... (well, 30,000 anyway.) Your continued support saw our blog celebrate 30,000 hits during the course of the week. Thanks for helping to make our little effort so successful ... and please tell your friends where to find us. We were especially touched when a new reader wrote to tell us: "I do enjoy reading your blog, as it gives me a better idea of the state of the place than I could read in any biased newspaper!"
Talking of which ... We commented the other week on the "new look" Boston Standard, and how it now offers readers even less through the use of bigger pictures, bigger headlines and larger typefaces. This "improvement" is growing apace as this week's issue shows. Some pages carry no more than three stories, and a count across the main news pages show an average of just two to a page.
New books? This is a library! ... We don't like the colour scheme, but after years of campaigning, we welcome the news that Boston Library is getting a face lift. What's on the cards? New carpets, signs and general decoration and "convenient" self-service technology. We have our doubts about this latter offering. In all the years we've been using the library, we've seldom seen anyone manage to operate the "convenient self-service" photocopying machine without having to call for help. There will also be improvements to the "People’s Network" computer suite - (don't you hate the "people's" tag that's tied to everything these days? Another welcome benefit will be the introduction of more natural light, and we hope that the terrible strip lighting will at last be consigned to the bin. The staff counter will be removed, "leaving more space for new books" - although why we couldn't have had more new books years ago is anyone's guess. Boston Library has been a bleak source of new books for years - but we live in hope. And let's hope they can get ride of the smell.
That's all right then ... After the last full council meeting we quoted the question posed by County and Borough Councillor Ramonde Newell regarding the withdrawal of the warning flood sirens. He appeared to be very concerned that the sirens were on the way out, suggesting that their international language was really the only way to warn people of impending danger. Yet now he's written to the local press praising the replacement system to the skies and apparently associating himself with the changes he appeared to be unhappy with by signing himself as a County Councillor and Borough member for emergency planning. As far as we can see, Councillor Newell is merely repeating what he was told at the meeting. In the interest of everyone's safety, we hope that he will check it out in more detail as soon as possible. The idea of one politician believing what two others tells him beggars belief!
Plodding along ... We welcome the news that Lincolnshire's Chief Constable hopes to "put more officers on the beat" in Boston - even though we've heard it all before. But we confess to being a little nervous about the subtext that goes with the pledge. "The budget has not been set but we will be presenting plans for more uniformed officers in each division," says the Chief Con. Forgive us if we think that sounds a bit like " how much are you going to give us if you want some extra police for your borough?"
Smarmer of the week award goes to Target columnist George Wheatman for his item on the pressures of being a council leader. He makes it sound as though the criticism heaped on the heads of leaders past and present is somehow unjustified. Generally it is deserved - at least at the time. He also speculates that there will be jockeying for the leadership "if, come next spring there is a change of political complexion after the borough elections." If there is, we will be greatly surprised. The next borough elections are not until May 2011. We thought that George might have known this - or if not, someone else at the Target would have spotted the mistake. Or was it perhaps just wishful thinking?

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More bad news for Boston

The news that Donington has been earmarked as a possible home for a planned rail freight hub, which could attract £200m of investment and create up to 4,400 jobs, generates the usual sinking feeling that one gets whenever one reads about how our neighbours in South Holland seem to have all the good ideas while we in Boston have none at all.
The idea would dramatically change the way big food firms in the area operate, and sweep lorries off the roads and on to the railways.
It's an idea you'd think someone in Boston might have come up with, especially as combining a freight interchange with a port would be an ideal distribution scenario, and the idea of driving heavy lorries off our roads would do much to improve Boston's own dire traffic problems.
But no.
Once again it has been left to our neighbours to take the initiative and team up with a firm of transport specialists to pursue the project in more detail.
They're looking at the idea of an "International Food Park" for South Holland with Donington a strong favourite.
So near, yet so far.
Boston's life story over and over again in recent years.
We have seen the highly successful Springfields Retail Outlet go from strength to strength, now boasting many extra stores and even an hotel. And parking there is a fraction of what it costs in Boston.
So attractive is South Holland as a partner, that even Boston College have joined forces with them on a multi million pound food training centre.
For reasons we never fully understood, Boston Borough Council backed out of a three way partnership with South Holland and East Lindsey to combine back office services to save money and improve efficiency.
Now Boston seems to be floundering alone in trying to generate savings from external deals.
No wonder the Audit Commission couldn't find a good word to say for it.
Ironically the news comes at the same time as the recommendation that the ill-fated Boston Area Regeneration Company (BARC) be closed following a dismal three years during which the Audit Commission hit out at its "failures of governance."
Another white elephant bites the dust.

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Market was curate's egg

People often compare Boston Eye with the model Katie Price (aka Jordan) - saying that at the bottom line we're just big knockers.
And we're afraid that that's partly the case after our visit to the Boston Christmas Market.
But first, let's hear from one of our readers, Claire Eadie , who is a newcomer to the town.
"I was very disappointed to find the distinct absence of a 'Santa's Grotto' at the Christmas market on Sunday, as promised in the newspaper," she writes. "The whole thing was actually very half-hearted, I felt.
"Barely any advertising left me wondering whether they were planning to just see what they could organise on the day, and if something fell through then not many people would be disappointed.
"My three year old was saddened to find Santa missing from the celebrations, as he had been looking forward to it all week. Maybe Santa was lurking somewhere, but we couldn't find him, and when we asked a policeman handing out 'security in the community' leaflets, he had heard nothing of a Santa's grotto."
Frankly, whatever we thought about the market pales into insignificance beside a disappointed three year-old who was looking forward to meeting Father Christmas.
But our feelings as a whole were that it looked ok - superficially.
We also thought that it was better than we expected but not as good as it could have been.
Silly little things like market stalls branded "Bargate Green Market" let the atmosphere down, when half a dozen banners reading "Boston Christmas Market" could have been made for peanuts to cover them over.
We agree with Claire when she talks about the absence of pre-publicity.
Boston Eye's lament that Christmas was apparently passing the town by, was followed a day later by a press release from the Borough Council saying that Boston BID and the council were joining forces to stage a market.
Aside from that, a handful of laminated A4 notices tie-wrapped to the lamp posts in Strait Bargate was little short of pathetic.
Why doesn't the council invest a few hundred quid in a programmable scrolling LED display, which could be hung from the balcony of the Assembly Rooms to shout Boston's news to the town?
Answer: Not enough goes on to make it worth it.
And another problem that Boston BID should be addressing is hidden in the phrase in their announcement "the majority of shops will be open on Sunday."
If Boston really wants to draw shoppers, there must be uniformity - all of the shops opening, and all at the same time.
They can do it at the Springfields outlet in Spalding, so why can't we do it here?
Having said all that, for the first time the market stuck to a proper Christmas these.
We rate it as a good starter for ten - and hope for better next year.


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What the Audit Commission was too polite to say

Yesterday we published the Audit Commission "Oneplace" organisational assessment report on Boston Borough Council and made the point that we felt the Commission was trying desperately to find something to call positive to avoid total condemnation of the council.
Well is that the case or not?
We took a look between the lines to see what sort of interpretation could be drawn from the report.
It says the council performs poorly because of lack of leadership until very recently and a lack of capacity at a senior level.
This is clearly an attack on the Bypass Independents Party, who, after more than two and a half years in charge of the borough can no longer fall back on blaming the previous administration.
The appointment of Richard Harbord as acting Chief Executive has gone a long way to paper over the cracks, and whilst the lack of capacity at a senior level is partly being addressed, the fact that it has gone on for so long is again the fault of the BBI.
What about the criticism that "In recent years plans have not been completed when expected, there has been a track record of services not being planned properly and the needs of local people have not been taken into full consideration. Performance does not meet the Council's own targets, and the process for managing performance is not fully used or enforced. Unless capacity at a senior level is addressed and scrutiny is enhanced, further improvement will be difficult to achieve."
Again, what a desperate indictment of the BBI. An accusation of total failure to do the job for which it was elected.
The "scores" tell it all.
One out of four for Managing Performance, Use of Resources, Governing the Business and Managing Resources and just two out of four for Managing Finances.
At senior management level there is lack of capacity and resources to drive improvements forward, and staff feel they are not getting the leadership they need to support the direction the council is going in.
Again, what a dreadful picture of a floundering administration. Not only does it not care about the taxpayers it pledged to represent, but it treats its staff in the same cavalier manner.
And what improvements can the BBI boast about?
The Into Town bus service.
Really? Not if you see it as the ruination of the ambiance of Strait Bargate.
The government Swim4life initiative, ‘fit kids' programmes.
Walking groups to help residents get fitter.
The town centre clean up - done by local people who aren't the litterers, but concerned citizens doing the job the borough has failed to do for them.
And with no sense of irony, the Audit Commission adds: "Keeping it clean is now the challenge." That's a challenge that our eyes tell us has already been lost.
Improvements to the Market Place are mentioned which have improved occupancy.
But guess what - the market traders have taken over the running of the market stalls.
More and more, it seems that once the BBI abdicates responsibility for a particular task, things immediately improve.
Residents are "more satisfied" with the area as a place to live and believe the community is getting on better together - but Boston is still well below the national average.
The number of people who feel drink and drugs are an issue in open spaces has also reduced but are still at a level most residents would feel are unacceptable.
Council Leader Richard Austin has little room for manoeuvre in the fact of such damning criticism.
The best he can say is that it shows the council, working with other public authorities, is delivering against some of the area's priorities.
He goes on: "The organisational assessment, of which the council was already fully aware, makes it clear for residents the scale of the challenge we are dealing with and the need to improve."
So? - We were aware.
And we didn't do anything until we were pushed.
Councillor Austin says he's confident that next year's report "will show the improvement our residents expect and deserve."
The Audit Commission can't say it, but we can.
If Boston was company and the BBI its board of directors, the shareholders would be baying for their collective resignation.
Boston isn't a company - but even so, this louche, lacklustre bunch of amateurs should have the decency to quit now, and hand the job over to people who can do it.

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