Week ending Friday 17th April

Time once again for our week ending awards of the week, starting with ...
Winners and losers award. Back in February, we reported a Victor Meldrew moment in response to a suggestion to cut back the council management trio's working week from five days to four - which it was claimed would save £85,000 a year. Chief Executive Mick Gallagher was was on top comic form when he retorted:- "The management would like to reduce to a five day week because we are currently working six or seven days a week." Lines like that always make us laugh.
However, the exchange did prompt us to do some simple maths. If £85,000 represented one-fifth of the management trio's annual income - then in a full year the bosses would trouser a monster £425,000 .... more than £140,000 each.
Could that really be the case, we wondered?
Well, the good news is that it is not ... if you see what we mean.
The "Rich List" published by the Taxpayers' Alliance tells us that none of Boston Borough Council's staff earns more than £100,000 a year.
It also turns up an interesting reverse earnings statistic in the sense that the longer ago a person worked as Boston's Chief Executive, the more they earn.
Mr Gallagher's fragrant predecessor Nicola Bulbeck, now at the helm in Teignbridge, earned £112,500 in 2007/08 - a £10,000 rise on the previous year.
Going back still further, Mark James, who now heads Carmarthenshire, earned "£100,000 plus" last year, and £148,867 the year before. As it's unlikely he's taken a 50% pay cut out of the kindness of his heart, we can assume a pay rise, and blame the TPA for asking the question in the form of how many staff are earning over £100,000, which allows the authority to dodge the precise detail in its answers.
In the local league, aside from Boston, only North Kesteven paid its top team less than £100,000. Of the rest, East Lindsey's Chief Exec was top on £121,337, followed by Lincoln on £118,191, then South Holland (£106,922) South Kesteven (105,532) and West Lindsey (£104,454.)
Service with a smile award. Talking of Mark James, he receives some pretty short shrift from the people he now "serves" in his present post. You can read more at http://www.carmarthenplanning.blogspot.com/ We were particularly intrigued by the quote "We just hope the Chief Executive still isn't chauffeured around in that large engined Mercedes (at the cost of £66,000 a year.) " In Boston, we make do with bicycles!
Not looking good award. Call us doomsayers if you wish, but we couldn't help but nod sagely when we heard that the £700m redevelopment of a shopping centre in Nottingham will not now go ahead this year as planned. The developers Westfield say plans to renovate the Broadmarsh Centre have been delayed due to the weak economy and confirmed work will not start for "at least two years". Unlike our local developers Modus, who are supposed to be creating the apostrophically-challenged Merchants Quay, Westfield are a big fish in a big pond. If they can't make a development like the one proposed in the capital city of the East Midlands, then what hope is there for a minnow like Boston?
Court in the Act award. It's been said for sometime, but we are now starting to see proof of a reverse flow of immigration to Boston. Why do we ask? Because in the court pages of the local papers in the past couple of weeks, local names have not only once again been making a reappearance - but have even dominated the lists on occasion!

Don't Come To Us for Help award. Almost every page of Boston Borough Council's website invites used to "get texthelp Browsealoud." We imagine that this is not just another example of the authority's approach to English, but a helping hand for the hard of hearing. Unfortunately, we'll never know. If you click on the link you receive the message that the page is unavailable!

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