This will hurt you more than it hurts me!

We are agog at the jaw-dropping tomfoolery of the latest news concerning a bypass for Boston reported in the Boston Standard.
If we understand correctly, six months from now we will embark on the thick end of a yearsworth of roadworks on Spalding Road, Queen Street and Sleaford Road at a cost of up to ten million pounds - just to make a point.
Council leader Richard "Papa Dick" Austin claims that this is another vital "step towards a bypass."
Given the traffic chaos that is likely to ensue, we think that it will be a stumble rather than a step, and that it will turn the clock back a couple of years to the time before the traffic lights were either switched off or re-phased.
Since the council took that obvious and highly effective step, traffic flow in and around the town has improved considerably.
So, why try to fix that which is now not broken?
The answer appears to be that you have to spend all this money and cause all this pain to show that what has been done hasn't worked, and that the town still needs a bypass.
In this respect, Councillor Austin resembles a Dickensian headmaster about to administer a thrashing and telling his victim that he will appreciate the reason in years to come.
He is quoted as saying:- "The whole point is that we have got to do this. We have introduced a bus service which is taking a lot of cars off the road. We have got to encourage as much cycling and walking as we can, and if we still have a problem we can still push for a bypass. We can't push for a bypass without all this."
Does this argument sound stupid, or does it sound stupid?
We will believe that the Into Town bus service "is taking a lot of cars off the road," when someone shows us the proof, and not claims it as fact, as is all that has happened to date. So far, the evidence suggests that the bulk of the passengers are concessionary users, who use the service because it is free, and who probably have not previously used cars to travel into town.
Then what about all these people that Councillor Austin wants to encourage to walk or cycle on their journeys?
These people must be few in number, and live in or near to the town in the first place - as it would be unfair to expect anyone to walk any serious distance to work or shop. So the walk/cycle option seems pointless, as the Into Town bus service can already take care of these travellers.
We cannot, for example, imagine the Councillors Austin trotting gamely along for what Google Maps calculates is a 2.2 mile journey from Wyberton to Boston that takes around 45 minutes each way.
Councillor Austin was once photographed with a bicycle, we recall - but in fairness that was just for publicity purposes.
We have always felt in our heart of hearts that Boston does not truly need a bypass.
What it needs is a radical look at how its traffic problems are caused, and then taking the best steps to solve them.
It may well be that this autumn's pain will lead to gain, and prove a by-pass is not needed after all.
Then perhaps the Bypass Independents might get on with something useful and productive for the town instead of all this waffle.
Incidentally, Councilllor Austin's latest offering comes just as Boston Borough Council's website is promoting a new leaflet encouraging people to take part in a choice of walks around the town.
It sounds like a great idea, and we would pick one up - if:-
a) the website told us where they can be found or failing that
b) told us when the launch of the leaflet was taking place, and
c) told us the location of the launch venue.
We say snoitacnummoc - getting communications back to front!


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