Getting Market Place right is crucial to town's future

Last Saturday we eavesdropped on the Market Place "consultation" exercise on the bland unimaginative sweep of paving slabs near Boots which we hope will be an early casualty of any redevelopment.
Although one was promised, not a councillor was in sight - but then most of the BBI usually have better things to do with their time than rub shoulders with the army of the great unwashed ratepayers who fill the town on market days.
The two officials on duty at the time were having a tough job trying to explain to an affronted punter the concept behind the consultation - ie that is was his opinion they wanted ... along of course with any other Tom, Dick or Harriet who could clutch a pencil and put their ideas on paper.
Some readers told us that the opportunity to talk was often lost because the staff were monopolised by people wanting to complain about council services generally, rather than discuss the Market Place in particular.
One told us how he waited and waited, then gave up, walked away, thought better of it, and returned - only to find the official manning the stall had attacked a store of buns and ignored him in favour of lunch.
Yesterday, that same person went back to try to make his point ... and again, noticed the fact that the promised councillors were conspicuous by their absence.
Oddly, for a council that that seeks our views on almost everything, the opportunity to give our opinions online does not appear to be available for what is arguably one of the most significant plans to enhance the town centre for many years.
With two million pounds in the kitty, this is a once and for all opportunity to get the Market Place right for the foreseeable future, and we fear that the "consultation" process being undertaken will not do the job.
There needs to be some serious design tendering for once, and avoidance of hiring the narrow selection that the council have used in the past - the ones who fill their reports with twee phrases such as "low hanging fruit" when they mean things that are easy to achieve.
What we need are at least half a dozen widely differing designs for consideration and we must seek to avoid the one size fits all approach that has turned so many town centres around the country into cloned identikit shopping areas.
It might be possible to agree some broad guidelines - such as making the Market Place a car free zone, and also banning those noisy, smelly Brylaine buses from herding shoppers aside and spoiling what might otherwise have been a pleasant day out.
And please, let's not even think of asking Boston College's art and design students to make a contribution!
There's a chance to do something really bold and imaginative for Boston for the first time in decades, which would make the Market Place a tourist attraction in its own right - and we must seize it with both hands.

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