Landing Boston in a mess

The news for Boston this week is the £20 million new school for the Boston Grammar Schools Federation.
Last week it was the £79 million revamp of Boston College.
And in between came the plans to concrete the entire Broadfield Lane allotment site instead of just one third of it.
And back in days of yore, we had the multil-multi-multi million pound plan to turn most of West Street into "Merchants Quay" a retail led, mixed use scheme comprising 350,000 sq ft including a 60,000 sq ft department store, a 60,000 sq ft food store, five major space units and 17 additional units of various sizes.
Building site Boston for years to come.
At the heart of all these plans - regardless of their size - is land, and the money it makes.
The grammar school project for instance will largely be funded by the sale of the High School site.
However, in case anyone hasn't noticed, we're in a recession.
Building firms have closed.
The value of land banks has slumped.
And as well as that, there is little if any movement in the house buying market, and little is anticipated for years to come.
We fear that the sort of schemes we have mentioned could be under threat because of all that.
Boston already suffers from being on the edge of nowhere with a higher than average number of low paid jobs. It is not a convenient dormitory town for more expensive areas.
So assuming - not unreasonably - that the land thrown into the melting pot by these various proposed developments is turned into housing, who on earth is going to come to live here?
We think that it's time to reconsider the town's development future sooner rather than later, or a right royal mess will result.
Also, given the lack of information regarding Merchants Quay and its scheduled completion date of 2012 - just three years away - we wonder if this project has already quietly slipped from the drawing board and into the waste paper basket.

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