Week ending 7th August

Our Friday miscellany of the week's news and events.....
Numbers game. The Local Data Company tells us that Boston has the highest percentage of empty shops in Lincolnshire at 8.8% - up from 2.71 a year ago. Yet still the applications flood in ... the latest being to turn the Red Lion Street car park into shops and flats. There should be some sort of rule that bans this sort of development until there is a proven need. Not only does Boston already have more empty shops than Lincoln, Grantham, Skegness and Spalding, but some of them are in areas that have lain fallow for years - the former ASDA site for instance.
Alphabet soup. Boston's interim Chief Executive Richard Harbord has said that he can't rule out job losses as he tries to clean up the mess at Worst Street. If it's of any help, we suggest taking the easy way out and starting alphabetically. Repeat after us ...... 'A' Is for Austin ...
No surprises that the council refuses to discuss any financial arrangement following the departure of former Chief Executive Mick Gallagher. However, we think that anyone who parts company from his employer with such haste must surely have received some sort of "compensation" - otherwise quitting just 24 hours ahead of a damning Audit Commission report hints at some sort of conscience ... and there's been precious little evidence of that in Worst Street for the last couple of years. We also think that if nothing else the council should say whether or not a payment was made. And surely, when the council's accounts are published, any settlement must appear in it. As ratepayers we are entitled to be informed.
Abolition of stamp duty. So Boston postal workers are on strike until Monday. How will we notice?.... oh yes .... the pavements will be a lot safer for pedestrians!
Letter of the week asks an obvious question that others have missed. The writer says: "I might appear a bit stupid here, but I would like to know what the role at the borough council of a person with the job title Deputy Chief Executive involves. I would expect it to mean deputising for the Chief Executive (pretty easy to work that out) at times when the Chief Exec is unavailable, to hold the fort if (say) the Chief Exec resigns. So why has the borough (presumably at great expense) bought (and brought) in a recognised local authority heavyweight as interim Chief Executive rather than asking the deputy to hold the fort whilst a permanent replacement is found? Is it an admission that the current Deputy Chief Executive is really not up to the job?" The writer also recalls that at the time the present deputy was appointed that a person specification for the post was produced and published as is usual practice, but an alternative specification was produced for internal candidates only. Under "educational," the external specification stated the candidate must be a graduate, whilst the internal specification stated that candidates must be a graduate or have "suitable equivalent experience." Interesting, given the borough's long standing history of appointing internal candidates to senior positions.
And finally .... If you don't get the joke, please don't write to ask for an explanation. According to the BBC, bird watching huts in Lincolnshire (many of which are around these parts,) are being used as love nests by amorous (human) couples. "Angry twitchers who use the hideaways to observe rare birds are arriving at nature reserves to find the huts already occupied. The bird-watchers have complained to Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust which says repeat offenders face prosecution." Clearly, the Common Shag is not yet an endangered species!


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