BBI "should remember what they said"

The debate over who-said-what-and-when about plans to improve Boston's roads ahead of any future by-pass has been moved on by Borough Council Conservative member Raymond Singleton-McGuire.
"Whatever Councillor Richard Austin and his Bypass Party say in defending their position on the Boston road widening, the facts cannot be changed," he says.
"In light of the Standard article on 15th April, perhaps the electorate of Boston should be reminded of these facts and what was said, as seemingly, Richard Austin, and his Bypass Party appear to have forgotten what they told the people of Boston two years ago.
"Councillor Austin said: 'When that was said there was no certainty about the widening of the level crossing at West Street, and we said as soon as we got into power that in no uncertain terms did we want this (the extra lanes) to go ahead unless the West Street crossing was widened. Railtrack are very difficult people to deal with and Lincolnshire County Council dealt with that matter on our behalf. We changed policy. We got them to switch off the traffic lights and the level crossing was to be widened. We had the choice not to support it and it was definitely in our court whether we did that or not.'
"Councillor Austin added: 'We are very honest people and we do not say things we don’t mean but on the other hand we have to be good managers. Situations change and we need to react to what happens.'"
"In his comments about the extra lanes on the front page of Boston Standard on April 15th Councillor Austin said: 'The Government demands that we do all we can with existing road systems before it will contemplate a bypass.'"
Councillor Singleton-McGuire continued:"There is no getting away from the truth, and whatever the people of Boston are told by Councillor Austin and his Bypass Party, the facts paint a very different picture.
"I would like to quote Councillor Austin’s very words from 2007. 'If we had those roads widened, the Spalding road had got three lanes, and Liquorpond Street had got three lanes, as planned, at huge cost, if that was already in place now, it would not have made one little bit of difference to the tremendous problems we have got at the moment, so it will be a complete waste of public money and will cause years of further congestion and more than that, it will mean that a Bypass, a proper solution is deferred indefinitely.'"
Councillor Singleton-McGuire went on: "The Conservative position regarding reducing traffic congestion has been straightforward and consistent for many years at county and borough. Due to lack of necessary approval and financial support from Government and Region the only way to progress the bypass is to look for other sources of funding - e.g. developer contributions, which will unfortunately take longer, so in the meantime we need to invest in town centre improvements to make some immediate progress. This was not a widely popular position but it was honest.
"The various Independent Bypass Candidates were extremely irresponsible and misleading in suggesting before the 2007 elections that they could deliver a Bypass within a few years. This was evidenced by them having won the election almost immediately reverting to the Conservative responsible position before the ink was hardly dry on their election literature. Councillor Austin was a County Councillor and these uncomfortable facts were pointed out to him before the election so he cannot plead ignorance.
"Since then nearly all the progress has been courtesy of the County Council. Level crossing agreements, removal of traffic lights etc., were delivered without any help from the new borough councillors, indeed, they have insisted that none of their council's money is spent on highway improvements so it is not credible for them to take any credit for them now.
"Indeed, the one thing they should be organising, the Local Development Framework or future building proposals to enable the bypass to be progressed, they have totally failed to get on with - despite offers of support from Lincolnshire County Council.
"We are still committed to providing a bypass for Boston, but the lack of support from the current ruling Bypass Party administration in the town is proving frustrating.
"Sadly, Boston motorists will now have to put up with further congestion while the works which were put on hold by Richard Austin and his Bypass Party, and should have been completed, will now begin two years late."

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