Hushings, rather than hustings

Yet another candidate for the Boston North West county council by-election on 15th October has pulled out - leaving a race strictly along national party political lines.
After putting his hat in the ring before nominations closed, Independent challenger Richard Leggott, who also sits on Boston Borough Council, withdrew from the contest last week ... offering just two words - "job done" by way of a comment.
The remaining candidates are now:
Andrea Jenkyns, the previously successful Conservative candidate, who won on 4th June but was forced to resign on a technicality uncovered by Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate Paul Kenny ....
Labour's Pam Kenny, wife of Paul, and also a previous contender ...
David Owens, Boston borough councillor for Fenside, which shares much of the Boston North West footprint, who is the British National Party's new choice to fight the seat ...
... and Mike Sheridan-Shinn, another new candidate, picked to fight the seat for the Liberal Democrats.
With just over two weeks to go to election day, it's simply not possible to describe the contest as an election frenzy - at least as far as use of the internet is concerned when we last looked at 6am today.
The last entry to Miss Jenkyns's personal blog, which has been updated on and off since she resigned, was on 1st September, whilst her "candidate" site remains unchanged since her resignation was announced.
Councillor Owens has updated his blog regularly - but as yet has failed to touch on anything to do with the October election.
If Mrs Kenny is using the internet as a campaign vehicle, it is well hidden from any potential voters - certainly we can't find it.
And, aside from announcing his candidacy on 21st September, Mike Sheridan-Shinn has done nothing else by way of online campaigning.
And we're supposed to make up our minds who to support ....
The full results for Boston North West on 4th June were:
Andrea Jenkyns - Conservative 463
Colin Westcott - British National Party 374 Alison Austin - Boston Bypass Independents 283
Richard Leggott - Independent 279 Pam Kenny - Labour 205
Paul Appleby - Liberal Democrat 130
Andrew Bakewell -Independent 82 You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.

Boston turns down merger plan ....

Boston Borough Council has rejected the plan to merge five "back office" services with South Holland and East Lindsey district councils.
Despite the fact that Boston claimed to have pioneered the idea, and that the merger promised savings of millions of pounds over a ten year period.
How do we know this.....?
By reading a joint statement from SHDC and ELDC, issued this morning, which says:
"An innovative merged services deal which will deliver savings for our residents while maintaining service standards and improving efficiency has been given the go-ahead by South Holland and East Lindsey District councils.
Full Council meetings were held at each authority on 28th September. Members at East Lindsey and South Holland voted for the proposals, with Boston Borough Council voting against the recommendations.
"A spokesman for both councils said: 'This means that we will be working together on a revised business plan for our two authorities only. We will be carrying out a re-assessment of the figures and working on bringing in merged services within 15 months.
"'I believe that this deal, although now only with two councils signed up, will nevertheless deliver savings and offer residents better value for their council tax.
"'This landmark decision shows that we will be leading the way in the county and the region in providing better, more cost-effective public services.
"'All our staff have great experience of providing a high level of customer service and by working together with our neighbours we will be offering residents better value for their council tax, while continuing to provide good public services.
"'We will be able to generate savings through economies of scale and more efficient ways of working.
"'By voting for an in-house merger we get the best of both worlds - we will be building on our experience of providing top class public services and marrying that with stringent business processes to root out duplication, red-tape and bureaucracy.
"'We believe this is a good deal for our residents and for our district. Merging these support services helps protect front-line services and ensures we can continue to attract the highest calibre of people working for our area.'"
Doubtless Boston will get around to explaining the decision to the punters when it finds the time.

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Newell speech "shows how ill-informed BBI is"

Bypass campaigner Michael Borrill has responded with criticism and damnation with faint praise to the hair-raising performance by Councillor Ramonde Newell at the last full County Council meeting (see last week's blog)
In a letter to Boston Eye, he writes:
"The Boston Bypass Pressure Groups spent many hours of their valuable time contacting and discussing with councillors, officers and others of the vital need of a bypass for Boston to support the economic progress of Boston and the surrounding area.
"When the BBI was elected with a large majority, thanks partly to the help and support of the pressure groups, and took control of the borough, it was assumed pressure would be put on Lincolnshire County Council to give Boston 'a fair share of the cake.' How wrong this turned out to be!
"Leaving aside the problems that they have initiated or are failing to deal with adequately in the borough of Boston, their actions at Lincolnshire County Council are giving the town a poor image. "The latest speech by Councillor R Newell at the full council meeting at Lincoln shows how ill informed the BBI are.
"I realise that Councillor Newell now sits at Lincoln as an Independent (I cannot see how you can represent one party on one council and be separate on another) but that is entirely tactical. "Councillor Newell does not appear to have much knowledge of what has been happening in the county - especially with regard to the provision of roads and indeed, Grantham is a larger town than Boston ... although I would agree with him that the immigrant population would appear to be greater in the Boston area than elsewhere. The recently published birth statistics would certainly give grounds for this to be correct.
"The proposals planned for the county's road construction are public knowledge and it surprises me that before Councillor Newell stood up at a full council meeting he had not done his homework.
"Lincoln already has one bypass and is proposing that a further two, the Eastern and the Southern, are built to make a full circle of the City. There is also the prospect of a further major scheme from the centre of the City to Canwick Road.
"Councillor Newell does not seem to know much about 'the strategic route to the sea,' in that Burgh le Marsh does not have a ring road and is not a town. Burgh le Marsh does have a bypass. I am sure that Spalding will be very pleased that their push for a second bypass has progressed! In fact, Lincolnshire County Council are including this proposed scheme in the next Local Transport Plan.
"Councillor Newell will also be concerned to note that work is progressing with traffic problems in Stamford with the possibility of a bypass in the future.
"If Councillor Newell would like to read the notes/minutes of the Highways Policy Development Group of the 6th April 2009 I am sure he would find it most helpful.
"Boston is not included in any mention of a bypass.
"Having said all this, it is pleasing to note that at least someone is trying to look after our interests albeit not too well."
Michael Borrill
Wyberton Fen

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Boston's £1 million gamble on shared services

Tonight is make or break night for the plan to merge the back office operations of Boston, South Holland and East Lindsey.
The first two councils are voting on the issue at their regular meetings, whilst East Lindsey is holding an extraordinary meeting to discuss the plan.
Timing is crucial, and if if any council fails to decide tonight it will be taken to mean that it doesn't want to move on to the next phase.
The report recognises that the risks are "significant" and if the project goes forward, they would need to be incorporated in the council’s corporate risk strategy.
The main risk is that the assumptions made by the consultants, Tribal, are wrong, and affect the council's financial position.
But if Tribal is right, there are significant potential benefits to be had in terms of profit for Boston.
The borough's population of 58,300 represents 20.6% of the proposed merged area and it would eventually save £5,486,000 on an investment of £1,082,000 - gaining a 51% return producing average annual savings of £548,000 over ten years.Unlike the two other councils, which will fund the project from revenue costs, the proposal is for Boston to fund its share of the overall set up costs using capital only, as it doesn't have the revenue reserves to afford an investment of £814,000 so the proposal is for the borough to finance the project by borrowing for capital purposes. This funding cannot be made available until 2010/11 as the 2009/10 programme is fully committed, and the decision may affect the affordability of its plans for 2010/11. The financing costs will be deducted from the savings.
The report runs to 90 pages, which makes it far too long to cover in detail - but you can read it in full by clicking here
In a nutshell, members are being asked to make three strategic key decisions:
- To agree a merger of five back office, high volume transactional services between Boston, East Lindsey and South Holland. The departments concerned are: customer services, finance, human resources, information technology and revenues and benefits.
- To agree a preferred delivery mechanism through an in-house stand alone organisation, jointly owned by the three authorities
- To delegate to the Chief Executives, in consultation with the of the Council, signing a legal agreement between the three authorities to continue this joint working.
Among the benefits are said to be greater staffing resilience achieved through the creation of larger shared service teams; increased skills, and greater efficiency and focus.
The timetable from decision to implementation will be 12 – 18 months.
The report quotes from the Boston Borough Council Branch of their union, Unison, which gave comments towards the end of August.
It said there had been little feedback from staff, and the general consensus of opinion is 'what will be will be.'
Morale was at an all time low, with most staff convinced that their jobs were at risk. Not all staff were given the chance to attend the service review board workshops, and felt that their comments were not always taken on board. Various suggestions made were ignored and decisions were made prior to the workshop so they saw attending as a pointless exercise. Some staff felt that staging the workshops during the holiday period meant that their opinions could not be heard as they were unable to attend at short notice.
Sadly we won't be at tonight's meeting, but if anyone wants to share what went on with us, we'd be glad to hear from them.

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Week ending 25th September

Our Friday miscellany of the week's news and events
Counting them out ... after our piece on the last minute announcement of last Sunday's service at Boston Stump, we received the following from a reader: "I was interested to read your article about the late publication by the council of the Battle of Britain Flight. Perhaps that would explain why so few councillors bothered to attend the service. In the not so distant past it was almost a full attendance, but by my calculations (and I apologise if I missed any, but my vantage point in the church was not great) there were only eight of the current council in attendance (including Mayor and Deputy) and they were almost outnumbered by ex-councillors. I did wonder whether it was because the council had cut the budget for refreshments afterwards."
X certificate viewing ... When first we read about the performance of Boston Borough Councillor Major (Retired or not, depending) Ramonde Newell at last week's County Council meeting, we couldn't believe that he could have put up such a disastrous performance. Then we watched the webcast of the meeting, and decided that if anything, the account on Councillor Raymond Singleton-McGuire's blog was understated. We recall that Councillor Newell's thumbnail sketch on the borough website declares that he is fluent in Cantonese, and laudable as that may be would feel happier if tries for a better level of English next time he addresses his peers at County Hall. In the meantime, we are grateful after all that he declared his party allegiance as Independent, as at least this keeps Boston's name out of it as much as possible, which makes it less embarrassing for the rest of us.
Good news ... Congratulations to Boston United for hosting the county's first disability football tournament on Sunday. Bad news ... The club's initiative again underlines the failure of the Princess Royal Sports Arena to live up to its multi million pound claims to be THE facility for organising sport for the disabled.
Countdown 1 ... Since he ignores the idea of defeat so obdurately, we've decided to keep note of how much longer Borough Council Leader Richard "Papa Dick" Austin clings to the inaccurate claim on the Lincolnshire Independents' website that he is still the Independent County Councillor for Boston South. It is now 16 weeks since 4th June, when he lost his former seat to Conservative Paul Skinner.
Countdown 2 ... refers to the feature in this week's Boston Standard headed "Countdown to Christmas." For the benefit of the innumerate in Church Lane today is exactly three months away from the festive date -- far too early to be ramming it down our throats!
Picture this ... Not for the first time, letters to the local press bemoan the fact that artworks of local scenes bought by the borough of Boston - often with Boston taxpayers money - are languishing in the basement of the Haven Gallery when once they were on show in the Guildhall. We agree that this is a disgraceful state of affairs, and given the pathetic level of "art" displayed in the Haven can see every reason why they should go on display once again.

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Not quite Gettysburg ....

Much has been said elsewhere about Councillor (Major Retired or not, depending) Ramonde Newell's disastrous speech to Lincolnshire County Council, which came during a general debate on shared services.
Many of those who haven't seen it have been in touch to ask exactly what he said we have made a transcript which apapears below ... without comment, as for once, we are lost for words.
Councillor Newell:
The seven districts, er , of this county are in fact similar but they also have enormous differences, erm, you can see some of those differences in fact, erm, as Chris has mentioned, erm, that we're now known as the wet districts.
Now I'm not sure whether the wet actually refers to the North Sea or whether it refers to alcohol consumption, perhaps both actually when I come to think about it. The differences are really quite enormous, erm, Boston, and that is in fact who I represent in a district capacity, is of course the largest town in this authority
Largest town - not city - there is a bigger city but this is the largest town ....
(muttering from the floor)
(Councillor Newell is asked to repeat what he has just said ...)
Boston is the largest town in this authority
(Interruption ... I think you'll find Grantham is ...)
(Laughter)
If I may continue, Sir ...
Of course that would mean that we would have to add the 20,000, er, migrant workers that we have in Boston ...
(mutterings from the floor)
No I'm sure there are migrant workers in Boston, in Grantham as well, but the truth is that we don't actually know the correct figure. I know that the people of Boston when they are walking through it - and many of you will have walked through Boston - consider themselves not necessarily in a Lincolnshire town, but in something of a foreign town.
(mutterings from the floor)
The other difference that we have as far as Boston is concerned is in fact of course our infrastructure problems.
We have no bypass ...
(various mutterings from the floor of "neither do we.")
But of course if we look at Spalding, it has one - it's coming up to its second - I understand that Lincoln in fact has one or two and is pushing for a ring road, erm, we have the large town of (consults notes) er, what's it called now, Burgh Le Marsh ...
(laughter from the floor)
Er with its, er, ring road, so we have therefore these two quite enormous areas.
The third area which was mentioned as well is simply the North Sea.
The North Sea. If we don' t get a barrage to stop the North Sea then Boston will cease to exist.
And finally, education.
Boston College requires considerable infrastructure building - it is not getting it. Boston Grammar School - my grammar school - again is not getting the money it requires for its buildings - just some differences that we have between our seven districts ...

You can view the speech by following this link, then clicking on "Index Points," and scrolling down to 02:10:35

http://www.lincolnshire.public-i.tv/site/player/pl_compact.php?a=29745&t=0&m=wm&l=en_GB#the_data_area

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Every day in every way we'll get better and better

Not before time, Boston Borough Council is to get an "Improvement Board."
A report to this morning's meeting of the borough cabinet says the idea is to assist, support and challenge the council in achieving desired improvements.
A couple of interesting points here ...
The first is the statement of the objective is implicitly a statement that the council has failed in its activities to date - despite all the waffling to the contrary.
It's also interesting to note that improvement boards are more usually associated with action by the Regional Government Office to impose improvement on failing Councils - which makes this a case of closing the stable door before the horse has bolted rather than afterwards.
The initiative behind comes from council leader Richard Austin, who asked "the IDea" - the Improvement and Development Agency for local government which supports improvement and innovation in local government - to chair the board for the council.
It's hoped the first meeting will be held before the end of the month.
For once, this sounds to be more significant than the usual talking shop, as a progress report will go to the Minister for Local Government after every meeting - which will be held on a four weekly basis.
Membership will be limited to ten places. The opposition parties will have to agree who will represent them - and IDeA prefers that the representative will ideally come from the largest opposition party.
If you visit the borough's irrepressibly out of date website, you might first believe that this will be a difficult task for the opposition, as the membership of the council lists a tie between the Tories and the BBG for largest group.
However, the website's assertion that "The political composition of the Council is: Boston Bypass Independents – 18, Conservatives – 4, Better Boston Group – 4, Independents – 3, BNP – 1, Vacancies – 2" was, of course, the situation in June, and three and a half months later, the Tories are now the clear opposition leaders.
Unfortunately, it appears that one improvement board is not enough, and it is intended that beneath the board will be a number of project groups which will have the directors, portfolio holders and opposition members on them, plus specialists for specific topics.
Board meetings will be informal and not decision making, and there is no indication as to whether they will be made public - although notes will be circulated internally.
We wait with bated breath.

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By-election shocker as BBI throws in the towel ...

Boston Bypass Independents have thrown in the towel and decided not to field a candidate in the by-election for the county council seat of Boston North West.
When the nominations were announced yesterday, the candidates were:
Andrea Jenkyns, the previously successful Conservative candidate, who won on 4th June but was forced to resign on a technicality uncovered by Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate Paul Kenny ....
Pam Kenny, wife of Paul, and a previous contender ...
Richard Leggott, already an independent Boston borough councillor, who also fought the seat last time ...
David Owens, Boston borough councillor for Fenside, which shares much of the Boston North West footprint, who is the British National Party's new choice to fight the seat ...
and Mike Sheridan-Shinn, another new candidate, picked to fight the seat for the Liberal Democrats.
NOT STANDING this time .... are Paul Bakewell, who stood as an independent after a lifetime supporting Labour ...
and the BBI's Alison Austin, wife of the council leader, who came third at the June poll.
Mrs Austin's withdrawal from the by-election not only throws the whole thing wide open but is a clear acknowledgement after the BBI's pathetic showing at the county and borough by-elections in June that the party no longer has the popular support of the voters.
Such self-recognition as a lame duck party is bad news for voters when the BBI still has another 20 months in office.
Compared with last time there are now another 365 votes up for grabs - one for every day of the year.
And given the surprise second billing for the BNP last time around, there could be some shocks in store when the election is held on October 15th.
The full results for Boston North West on 4th June were:
Andrea Jenkyns - Conservative 463
Colin Westcott - British National Party 374
Alison Austin - Boston Bypass Independents 283
Richard Leggott - Independent 279
Pam Kenny - Labour 205
Paul Appleby - Liberal Democrat 130
Andrew Bakewell -Independent 82


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If you call this "information" - don't bother!

Why is it that Boston Borough Council seems obsessed with keeping its cards close to its chest?
To a degree, we can understand it when certain committee agenda items are discussed in secret using the often flimsy facade of "commercial confidentiality" or staffing issues.
Having said that, where the livelihood of the council's staff is concerned, it is wrong to deny the very people affected that chance to hear what is being said about their future or lack of it.
That debate could go on and on.
However, there are other, more mundane, things that the council should be keener to share with is than it is.
For example, last week's local papers gave us just 24 hours notice of a public meeting to discuss ideas to revamp Boston Market Place at a cost of £2 million.
Nothing appeared on the borough website, but as we suspect that few people bother to access it, that wouldn't have made much difference.
Expect now to be told that hardly anyone up, which shows that the locals aren't interested in the town and all the usual guff - leaving the council with carte blanche to come up with yet another uniimaginative redistribution of flagstones to allow the Into Town buses unfettered access to Strait Bargate.
It was the same with the earlier "consultations" in the Market Place.
The first of these was announced in the local papers on the day they were taking place - almost as though there had been a deliberate attempt to ensure that as few people as possible saw the message and went along.
The latest feeble attempt at communication was late on Friday afternoon, when the following (reproduced in all its clunky originality and unnecessary capitalisation) appeared on the borough website.
"The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight will take place at 12.30pm this Sunday, September 20 above Boston Market Place, following the Sunday Battle of Britain Memorial Service at St Botolph’s Church at 11.30am. Group Captain Hitchcock and Squadron from RAF Coningsby, Presidents from the Ex-Service Organisations and the President of the Royal Air Forces Association, Mr Bob Cory, will all be in attendance. Following the service the Parade will march off through the Market Place and the Mayor and Station Commander will take the salute on the Saluting Base alongside Boston Mayor Cllr Maureen Dennis. During the march-past there will be a fly-past by Battle of Britain Memorial Flight."
Again, thanks for the notice. You only know about this if you read the borough website, and as far as we can see the news did not reach the newspapers to reach a wider audience.
Not only that ... but just how badly written is this piece of "communication"
"The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight will take place...."
The flight is not an event, but a feature of the service at the Stump, and the name of the group of veteran aircraft based at RAF Coningsby.
We're pleased that the flight will take place over the Market Place, as any attempt to do it any lower might have serious consequences.
And the salute will take place at the saluting base. Whew!
Late information, badly written, innacurate, stating the obvious.
Not only that, but the fly-past - when it took place - only featured the Spitfire ... not the complete flight as billed.
Well done, Boston.

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Week ending 18th September

Our Friday miscellany of the week's news and events
(G)Lib letter ... Councillor John Marriott, leader of the Lib Dems on Lincolnshire County Council, enters the war of words over the Boston North West by-election. For some reason, he thinks it strange that the candidate elected in June polled barely a quarter of the votes cast for the seven candidates. This strange inequality in the British voting system has existed since elections began. We think that it's high time that the Lib Dems at County and local level got on with some real campaigning, and stopped nipping around the fringes. Whatever, we find it hard to take seriously a "leader" with just four followers. Quorate .... but only just!
Still with Boston North West, we wonder whether the John Ruskin who has written to the local papers to belatedly urge all parties to refrain from standing next month, so that ex-councillor Andrea Jenkyns is returned unopposed, is the same former member for Pilgrim Ward, who quit mysteriously and caused a by-election in Boston borough's Pilgrim ward back in June. If he is, he shows a lack of understanding of the political mindset that leaves us unsurprised that he chose to leave politics.
Missing (not in action) ... a reader writes of Councillor Major (retired or not, depending) Ramonde Newell's failure to comment on the Queen Street road plans or attend the meeting where they were on the agenda: "Maybe he still thinks that the BBI are against road widening and only remembers his Leader's past election statement .. that this is a big waste of money, will cause years of traffic chaos, and will do nothing to alleviate traffic flows in Boston. He is one dedicated County Councillor eh! Changes groups too get on Highways and then stays at home.
Deaf as a PCSO ... Week after week we marvel at the inability of the borough's police community support officers to get to grips with the concept that people want to meet them in the street, not to have to travel to some cozy "surgery" where these chubby chocolate soldiers can dunk their digestives whilst we do their job for them. This week sees yet another such story. Let's hope that Lincolnshire Police don't come the old soldier at council tax time and whine about how much more money they need to maintain their so-calling policing of the county.
Fashion plates ... We've often lamented the pitiful state of Boston Library in the past, but not any more. Just think how much better things will be come November when the staff don their lilac and black outfits which are costing the taxpayers £15,000 across the county. A spokesman for the county tells us "This is a good news story for our customers." Why? apparently staff will soon be spending more time "on the floor" with customers rather than sitting behind their desks. Hands up if you'd prefer to see a few more books on the shelves.
Figure this ... In the endless pursuit of mediocrity and dumbing down information, we note the increasing use of smiley green faces, or red ones with down-turned mouths to indicate whether or not a particular activity is going well. But which bright spark came up with this to symbolise equality?


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Share and share alike with any job losses

It would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall at last night's meeting of Boston Borough Council's Joint Committee where the issue of merged services was on the agenda.
As is so often the case when any serious and important matter comes up for discussion, the online agendas viewable by the public are impossible to access - as though someone thinks that the great unwashed army of voters is also too stupid to be allowed to see what our masters are deciding in our name.
The shared services issue is something of a poisoned chalice, as it inevitably means loss of jobs.
According to reports, as many as 60 staff at Worst street could be affected if five departments -IT, Human Resources, Finance, Customer Services and Revenues and benefits - are merged to provide a single service for Boston, East Lindsey and South Holland district councils.
There's also been a suggestion that South Holland's Chief Executive might put in a couple of days a week in Boston rather than replace the recently departed Mick Gallagher - though SHDC's leader was rudely dismissive of any such thought.
Earlier reports have stressed that the councils want to stay independent whilst they cut costs, although "localness" is not an essential when it comes to running services that are not only repetitive, but identical whether they are performed in Boston, Spalding or East Lindsey.
Having said that, we are sure we are not alone in calling organisations such as Lincolnshire Police, to find that the person we are speaking to has no knowledge of Boston or its geography ... and that is something to be avoided.What we do need to be careful about is that Boston does not shoulder more than its "fair share" of any job losses.
A few months ago Council Leader Richard Austin was claiming that the number of council staff had fallen from 355 to 295 since the BBI took power - but we cannot recall hearing news of cuts in South Holland and East Lindsey.
In troubled times like these, we accepts that redundancies are inevitable - but don't think that it is necessary for Boston to lead and others not to follow.

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Silence of the sheep

Unless today's local papers are suddenly filled with screeds of the usual garbage from Boston Bypass Independent councillors, we seem to have entered one of the longest periods of silence from the ruling party for a long, long time.
It seemed at one point that never a week went by without at least a couple of letters from the BBI hierarchy - with Councillor Major (Ret'd, or not, depending) Ramonde Newell leading the assault, closely followed by the Dear Leader Richard Austin and - until he left the BBI tent ("I am just going outside and may be some time") - the former deputy Peter Jordan.
We wonder whether we have to thank the acting Chief Executive Richard Harbord for this refreshing break from the party political claptrap that the BBI has been pouring out like so much water going down a drain.
If he is, we are certainly grateful.
Whatever, the one note samba has been mercifully silent, and for once we say to the BBI - keep up the good work!
Oddly, though, as we observed on Monday, the party has been silent on the matter of the allegedly vital road improvements that have to be shown to be useless to reinforce the need for a fully-fledged by-pass.
There was the absence of response from both Councillor Newell and the BBI as a hole when asked by County Hall to comment on the merits or otherwise of the first phase of plans to improve traffic flow along Queen Street.
Not only that, but Councillor Newell compounded the offence by ignoring the opportunity to attend the meeting on Monday and declare his approval. This from the man who claims to have changed party allegiance especially to get a place on the Highways Committee to help make Boston's case for a by-pass.
Then there is the ongoing matter of the e-petition on the Number10.gov.uk Downing Street website calling for a bypass for the town.
It still remains stuck on the original eleven signatures - with not a single addition from anyone within the BBI
But, as it declares "traffic congestion is killing this town and the local and county councils seem to be doing very little to help the situation," that is perhaps not surprising!

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One candidate less could leave poll wide open

Nominations for the Boston North West seat on Lincolnshire County Council must be in by noon on Friday.
The election was won in June by Conservative Andrea Jenkyns, but she was forced to resign after the sharp eyes and ears of Boston Labour Party's Paul Kenny discovered that she worked a small number of hours every week for a department of Lincolnshire County Council and had been ineligible to stand ... even though she checked with the county at the time and was misinformed.
Just for fun, we decided to try to construct a preview ahead of the closing date for nominations, and asked those who stood last time whether they intended to throw their hats into the ring once again.
Since then, some parties have already announced new candidates, and two of those to whom we wrote - Mr Kenny and Councillor Alison Austin didn't bother to respond. No surprises there.
So here's what we know so far.....
Miss Jenkyns will be standing once more for the Conservatives.
Boston Borough Councillor David Owens, who currently represents Fenside, replaces the previous candidate for British National Party, who came second last time.
Mike Sheridan-Shinn will be standing for the Liberal Democrats - again as a new candidate - and having already lost two elections at county and borough level this year is doubtless hoping for "third time lucky."
Boston Borough's Independent Councillor Richard Leggott will be standing again, but Andrew Bakewell, who stood last time as an independent after a lifetime of serving Labour, will not.
That leaves the BBI, which was represented by Mrs Austin last time, and Labour - whose candidate Pam Kenny is the wife of the man who started this whole ball rolling.
Miss Jenkyns's a majority was 89,and given the anger at the way she was forced out, she has to be considered a highly popular candidate.
But Councillor Owens must also have high hopes the second time around, as his Fenside ward and Boston North West share a lot of the same ground, which makes him a better known candidate than his predecessor.
Although Mr Kenny hasn't replied to our enquiry, we have already said that we thought he might well contest the ward instead of his wife - particularly as he was the man whose actions prompted the by-election. Add to that the fact he hopes to be elected as Boston's MP at next year's General Election, and he really needs to come up with some sort of result after losing two local elections earlier this year.
Similarly, we wondered if Councillor Richard Austin might contest Boston North West rather than his wife for the chance to again become a voice at County Hall, rebuild some important personal credibility, and perhaps be taken seriously again. But he has ruled a challenge out, so presumably Mrs A will stand again.
Certainly, the extra 82 votes now available due to Andrew Bakewell's decision to stand down could play a pivotal role in the election on 15th October.
The full results for Boston North West on 4th June were:
Andrea Jenkyns - Conservative 463
Colin Westcott - British National Party 374
Alison Austin - Boston Bypass Independents 283
Richard Leggott - Independent 279 Pam Kenny - Labour 205
Paul Appleby - Liberal Democrat 130
Andrew Bakewell -Independent 82



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Don't care BBI silent on vital roadworks

Talk about co-incidence .... just last week we found ourselves wondering when the first of the roadworks we heard about six months ago were likely to start.
Well, the answer seems to be ... soon.
A report to this morning's Planning and Regulation Committee of Lincolnshire County Council recommends conditional permission to widen a section of Queen Street in Boston as part of a bigger highways improvement scheme.
The idea is to slice off chunks of Aldi's car park to replace the traffic lights that lead to the supermarket with a roundabout, and to widen access at the second roundabout at the junction with Sleaford Road and West Street.
When the digging starts, it will herald the thick end of a yearsworth of roadworks on Queen Street, Spalding Road and Sleaford Road at a cost of up to ten million pounds - work which the BBI's Dear Leader Richard "Papa Dick" Austin says is another vital "step towards a bypass."
It's a step that many of us would rather not take, as the traffic problems it will generate will take us back to the bad old days before the traffic lights in that area were either switched off or re-phased.
Having said that, it might be possible to do the bulk of this first phase from within the car park, leaving a relatively short period to complete them - but that probably won't happen!
Incredibly at the time of the announcement in June, we were told that the work has to be done to show that it won't improve matters after all and thus demonstrate that the town does needs a bypass.
Councillor Austin said back then:- "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."
As we said at the time, we won't believe that the Into Town bus service "is taking a lot of cars off the road," until 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.
Despite all this, you might expect that the BBI would be trumpeting the news that permission for the first stage of the roadworks was imminent.
But no.
In fact, if you read the report you will be struck by one thing in particular.
The total disinterest of the Boston Bypass Independents ... it fairly leaps off the page.
As is the rule, various people and organisations are consulted ahead of the report's publication
Among them is the local County Councillor - in this case none other than Ramonde (Major ret'd or not depending) Newell, who, you may remember, actually disaffiliated from the BBI after his election and joined the Independent group in order to obtain a place on the Highways Transport & Technology Scrutiny Committee so as to press Boston's claim for a by-pass.
However, although he was consulted for his views on this scheme on 14th August, he had not replied by the time the report was prepared.
Similarly, Boston Borough Council - aka the Boston Bypass Independents - were consulted on the same date.
And guess what?
They had not replied by the time the report was prepared, either.
Need we add any further comment?

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Week ending 11th September

Our Friday miscellany of the week's news and events
Letter of the weak ... Failed Liberal candidate Mike Sheridan-Shinn takes to the pages of the Boston Standard to slag off Tory borough councillors Raymond Singlteon-McGuire and Myles Larrington for having "so much time on their hands" that they can use some of it to blog. The clear message to voters is that they had a lucky escape from a man who seems to think it is a bad thing for councillors to be multi-skilled, multi-tasking or technologically literate. An odd thing about the Sheridan-Shinn letter is that it is totally without context, as none of the things he mentions have previously been reported in the press. He uses words like "smearing" and "backstabbing," which again surprises us. As former readers of Councillor Larrington's now defunct blog will know, his comments always fell within the category known as fair comment, and Councillor Singleton-McGuire - whilst more outspoken - has always avoided becoming unpleasant. Mr SS stood for the Lib Dems against Councillor Larrington in the Pilgrim by-election, coming last of the five candidates, who also included Labour's Paul Kenny - the man whose official complaint against Councillor Larrington was instrumental in forcing him to stop blogging. In June Mr Sheridan-Shinn also fought Boston East in the County Council elections, where he equalled his unbroken record of coming bottom of the poll. Interestingly, that ward was also contested by Mr Kenny.
Gobsmacked IS the word ... It was with real shock that we viewed the pictures on Councillor David Owens's blog (click here to see for yourself) of the camp set up in Witham Country Park. It beggars belief that people can live like this in this day and age - especially in a place that is flaunted as a haven for families and visitors. Alarmingly, Councillor Owens refers to this site as "one of the many blots on Boston’s landscape," which makes matters even worse. If as he reports, councillors will soon be able to pass a bylaw to remove these people from its property, backed by the power of arrest, then they should get on with it. For an authority that throws Designated Public Places Orders around like confetti, there should be no delay for reasons of kindheartedness. Without prompt action a dreadful and potentially fatal threat remains for innocent members of the public.
Counting them in ... Earlier in the week we mentioned that Thanet District Council in Kent planned a code of conduct for councillors who blog. We also noticed with interest that their website publishes the attendance record of councillors. Reading it was very interesting, as we could see at a glance who was pulling their weight and who wasn't. There is no reason why Boston Borough Council could not do the selfsame thing, and we think that councillors ought to promote the idea so that taxpayers can see just how well served they are ... or aren't.
Having arrest ... Boston's PCSO's are endlessly creative when it comes to devising ways to avoid meeting the public. Their latest stunt - called "Supermarket Sweep" - involves noticeboards and "engagement boxes" in which we, the great unwashed, post our concerns for them to collect and read at their leisure. One PCSO is quoted as saying "not everyone has access to the internet, but most people will use supermarkets to get their weekly shopping." We interpret this a meaning that the internet would be the preferred means of communication, as it would save the police ever having to leave their desks. Allegedly, the notice boards in the shops will include local policing priorities - but we fail to understand how that will happen given the locations of the supermarkets involved. Another PCSO says the scheme "will allow us to focus our efforts and provide targeted policing activity." Not to mention avoiding the need to walk the streets. We shall scream the next time a newspaper headline about the appointment of the latest PCSO refers to them "pounding the beat!"
Do you know who I am? ... Weeks after it was pointed out that BBI leader Richard Austin is not only still listed as treasurer of Lincolnshire Independents, but also wrongly as the County Councillor for Boston South, he obdurately clings to the inaccuracy. Talk about a bad loser! A reader tells us that he tried to raise this point with the Lincolnshire Independents' group leader, Councillor Marianne Overton on 4th August. He was told she was abroad, and would reply on her return. He now wonders whether she's fled the country after the Independents' lacklustre electoral performance.

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Fecund hell! Now we're baby boom Boston!

As the £100,000 Project Placemat gathers momentum, with the aim of improving the health and quality of life for Bostonians, there's gloomy news that shows what an uphill struggle lies ahead.
Although Boston has narrowly lost its place at the top of the league for obesity, it now boasts the title of the nation's "baby boom" capital, with the highest number of bundles of joy per woman in the country.
The news of the fecundity of the borough's young ladies is obviously linked to the fact that the rate of teenage pregnancy in Boston is worse than the England average, and it is still estimated that the percentage of adults in Boston who are obese and the percentage who eat healthily are both worse than the average for England.
The latest profile for the borough says that whilst the health of people in Boston is generally similar to the England average, life expectancy is significantly lower for men living in Boston compared to the England average and rates of drug misuse and people diagnosed with diabetes are worse than the average.
There are also inequalities within Boston by gender and level of deprivation.
Something called The Lincolnshire Local Area Agreement (how many of these pathetic local quangos are there?) has prioritised tackling physical activity, smoking, child obesity, alcohol misuse, and road injuries and deaths.
Meanwhile, we note that Boston Borough Council has paid "experts " from the University of East Anglia, which in turn has hired a twee-sounding research outfit called "Work House" to come up with ideas for a new health store in the town.
A health shop doesn't exactly require a degree in rocket science to stock, and we already have at least two that have been in the town for years and do an excellent job.
This just seems like spending money for the sake of it, and will probably prove to be a total waste of time.
Then, Boston hit the headlines again this week with the news of an exciting piece of equipment at the town's Pilgrim Hospital - a £3,000 inflatable armchair called the Camel, which helps to lift overweight people.
It was bought after an obese patient fell in the outpatients' department and couldn't get up again. The Camel was donated to the department by the Pilgrim's League of Hospital Friends. What a shameful waste of money.
Instead of paying lip service to health issues such as wasting cash on pointless research into how to stock a health shop, and lifting fatties who know they're gross but can't be bothered to do anything about it, we need to get to grips more firmly with the major issues.
Part of the problem could be in Boston itself.
We've all heard of sick building syndrome, where occupants of certain office blocks fall prey to more illnesses than those in a neighbouring office. It seems that the building itself is the cause of the symptom, and if it is demolished and the occupants relocated, their health improves.
Whilst we know that it's not feasible to demolish Boston and start again, there are things that we could address that might help.
Improving the look of the place would be a good starting point.
Smartening up the look of the growing number of empty shops would be a big help.
A town that looks bright and busy generate a spirit of well being and happiness.

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Cash should be spent more fairly

A report to tonight's meeting of the borough council Overview and Scrutiny Policy and Projects Committee includes an update on how local people can have a say in spending £100,000 in their neighbourhoods as part of Project Placecheck.
As usual, there's a lot of waffle in the report, but the nub of it is that five neighbourhoods in three wards - Central, Pilgrim and Witham, will benefit from work below ward level in neighbourhoods in and around the town centre area.
Each of the five gets £10,000 , which accounts for half the money involved ... and it's not quite clear what happens to the other half.
Once again, we have to raise an eyebrow, because the focus is - as always - on the town centre.
It seems a shame that the bulk of ratepayers who live outside this narrow zone never seem to benefit and see their own areas improved.
And there's no justification in the argument that these are areas of particular need.
The plan for the next area to benefit - High Street South - lists among the residents' schedule of bad things about the area items such as: pavements need cleaning, bins need emptying, lighting improvements are needed, dog fouling, drugs, boarded up and derelict buildings, fly tipping, too many cars, people leaving glass bottles lying about, pot holes, illegal and bad car parking, problem with rats, waste land, blocked drains, drunks on Friday and Saturday evenings, wheelie bins left in street.
We don't know about you, but we think that this list could apply to pretty well every part of Boston, and we wonder how it was that just five small areas were picked out to benefit from improvement when the rest of the town suffers equally.
We would also argue that this money is being spent on what the council should already be doing across the borough as a whole as part of its duties to taxpayers.
It seems a shame that a scheme designed to benefit the town's residents and bring a long overdue smartening up to improve our quality of life may well actually produce a two tier society with some sections benefiting from improvements for no particular reason.

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PC threat closes councillor's blog

Visitors to Boston Borough Councillor Myles Larrington's blog will find that it is no longer available.
Boston Eye readers may recall that Councillor Larrington, who represents Pilgrim Ward for the Conservatives, cut his blog back to its barest bones after two complaints from local Labour activist Paul Kenny that comments in the blog had broken Section 3 (1) of the Code of Conduct which says “you must treat others with respect.”
Now the blog has vanished completely, because Councillor Larrington has decided that blogging is no longer worth the candle.
We understand that he has been investigating the whole issue of blogging by councillors, and believes that the Local Government Association plans to bring in a national code of conduct regarding blogs soon.
As a result, he feels that it is not possible to continue maintaining a blog for use in a free and open manner, if is it to be subject to such strict criteria.
Although a code would aim to avoid the use of slurs and potentially libellous material, we are told that in Councillor Larrington's view it leaves any councillor open to the sort of investigation to which he is now subject, and creates a ridiculous situation where a councillor might end up constantly facing complaints for merely expressing an opinion which some people found "offensive" or with which they did not agree.
Rather than risk such a scenario, Councillor Larrington has decided to cease blogging altogether.
This is an appalling state of affairs that strikes at the very heart of free speech.
There is no earthly reason why a councillor should be treated any differently to any other blogger and be denied the right to express his or her views on an issue or the attitude of an individual without having to worry about some politically correct set of rules that water down fair comment.
Co-incidentally, tonight sees a meeting of Thanet District Council's Standard's Committee at which a draft protocol on blogging is to be debated.
If it is adopted, it is said that the Kent authority will be the first in the country to take such a step.
Thanet is not without its critics.
The Conservative Party website ConservativeHome says that the authority is making trouble for itself trying to adopt a specific blogging code. A writer points out that "there is a complaints procedure for councillors behaving in an unacceptable way but I'm not sure why a blog - as opposed to a comment in a leaflet or a letter to a local paper - should have a special code of conduct.
"We shouldn't get into the territory of council officers administering codes of conduct telling a councillor what they can or can't say on a personal blog."
We agree completely, and hope that commonsense prevails at Boston Borough Council - although we feel sure that Paul Kenny will be breaking out a bottle of Sanatogen tonic wine to celebrate the demise of free speech and his part in it.

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Shock rise in complaints may just be the start

It's a fact of life that the more a business lets its customers down, the more they complain.
There's a period where people mutter and moan a lot, but once the complaining starts, an avalanche is sure to follow.
Sadly this seems to be the case with Boston Borough Council.
A report to this evening's Audit Panel says that the communications team has received, logged, acknowledged and referred a total of 53 formal complaints between April and June - almost double the 27 complaints received for the same period last year.The lion's share of complaints at 20 concerned the closure of the training pool at the Geoff Moulder Leisure Pool with another one about the state of facilities at GMLP itself.
This was followed by 16 complaints concerning housing/council tax benefit.Car parks/parking enforcement and the behaviour of members of staff each generated three complaints, bin collection and the Broadfield Lane allotments two, and one each for the failure to stop a shop littering, the Butterfly Hospice works, poor service from housing contractors, delay in replying to a Freedom of Information request , non-domestic rates and a housing bid.The report tried to sweeten the pill by claiming that the right to complain was more widely promoted in the spring after something called an Equality Impact Assessment into the service. This highlighted the need to promote the right to complain and as a result the council has put up posters in council receptions and encouraged people to make their views known by providing comment cards.
Frankly we doubt that this would have caused complaints to rise by almost 100%The report says complaints can be a useful source of information about how others see the council, and how the authority is serving its customers.
What a statement of the obvious.
The fact is that the figures show a ruling party becoming further and further estranged from the people it laughingly claims to "serve."
Through no fault of their own we also have to add a demoralised staff uncertain about their future to the recipe, and the scene is set for things to get worse rather than better.
It's more than a month since Acting Chief Executive Richard Harbord began his six month stint at the borough's helm, and shortly after he spoke of the possibility of more job losses as well a reorganisation of the management structure.
Mr Harbord is now around 20% into his time here, and we hope that he will soon made a public pronouncement on his plans so that taxpayers and staff can get a sense of the direction he plans for the borough.

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Week ending 4th September

Our Friday miscellany of the week's news and events
Who goes where .... earlier this week we touched on attendance at council meetings by members. In passing, we mentioned the case of Fenside's BNP Councillor David Owens, who wants to serve on more committees but is prevented from doing to by what amounts to political bullying by the BBI. That doesn't stop him attending, however, and his record is impressive. It currently stands at: Audit and Governance 5 out of 7, Overview and Scrutiny 5 out of 6, Policy Development 2 out of 3, Standards Committee 2 out of 3, Joint Committees 3 out of 5, full council attendance 10 out of 11, and BTAC 3 out of 4. Isn't it time that the BBI lightened up a little and recognised that regardless of party political affiliation then man wants to serve the town and his constituents.
Headline of the week ... goes to the Boston Standard for "shoplifter told to change ways." Presumably sticking a bottle of stolen vodka down your shell suit bottoms is a bit too obvious these days" The Standard's Education Correspondent also gets a bauble for the caption "This trio pick up there results....." in the endless coverage of the GCSE results.
Stitch this ... Boston's Pilgrim Hospital justifies a 20% increase in car parking charges by saying that it's the first in five years. We fail to see how that justifies anything at all. In the past we were told that parking charges helped fund patient services. But last year the hospital blew £400,000 on re-designing the car park, and as far as we can see is now simply being greedy. Expect an outcry over the decision to stop blue badge holders parking for nothing. We don't think that holding a parking badge equates with poverty, and this will doubtless bring in a lot of extra cash - just so long as they retain disabled spaces as close to the hospital as possible to save people with difficulties having to walk unreasonable distances. Just two other things. Firstly the hospital should tell us how it plans to spend the parking money in future. Secondly, if they kept appointments to time, most of us would only pay the minimum fee. If they run late patients should be given a free pass to act as an incentive to run the appointments system more efficiently.
Money money money ... It's now a couple of months since Boston Borough Council decided to ask the company that loaned it a million pounds at eleven per-cent over fifty years. We know there's been a postal strike, but shouldn't the reply have arrived by now? And staying with things past.... We note a mention of the Broadfield Lane allotments in next week's BTAC agenda. You may remember that dozens of allotment holders were evicted because the charity which runs the plots wanted to cash in on developing the site with housing. There was talk of a bidding war between would-be developers ... then silence. So what is going on?
Latest big idea ... is for local library users to pick up a"reading passports" which are stamped after every book they read to make a "memento of their reading experience." For many years now a visit to Boston's badly-lit, strangely smelling library has more closely resembled a trawl through the Dead Sea scrolls than a visit to a modern, well-equipped library. The way to encourage people to read more is to provide them with a good supply of books, not hire DVDs and run an internet cafe that takes up a third of the space. The only we hope we have for the passport scheme is that it will bring to an end the sad habit of readers who deface the books they have read in some way unique to them so as to avoid taking the same book out twice.
Hoist on their own petard ... If the quote from the PCSO which appears in former Lincolnshire County Councillor Andrea Jenkyns's blog is true, then a sacking should follow in double quick time. She says that locals reported a number of people converging on Witham Bank West every night, where they drink alcohol, drop litter and have now taken to using the walls of people's properties and the River Witham as an open air toilet. The resident who told Miss Jenkyns this tale said that when they reported the incident to a local PCSO, the reply was: "Well they have to drink somewhere, they can no longer drink in the streets of the town, and if you drink then you need to also go to the toilet!"

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All mouth - no trousers

One of the problems we've noticed with Boston over the years is that whilst it abounds with people who talk the talk, we seem to be a bit hamstrung when it comes to walking the walk.The latest example of "all mouth and no trousers" comes from the NE group, which manages the ill-fated Boston Enterprise Centre.
Today sees the start of a 12-month series of courses, and NE tells us: "In light of the current economic climate, it is a critical and important time to support the survival and growth of the region’s businesses. It is recognised that local economic growth and development is provided to a large extent by the SME (small and medium enterprises) sector.
"As a direct response, Boston Enterprise Centre is to launch a structured 12-month business support programme (which) will be delivered by local experts and include free training including access to business skills, networking opportunities, workshops, seminars and access to qualifications including National Vocational Qualifications. These events will be open to all businesses in the region, and will go a long way towards cementing Boston Enterprise Centre’s role as a local hub for enterprise."
So what's on offer in these troubled times?
Subjects include "increase your sales," "digital photography for your business, " "teamworking and networking," "planning an e-mail marketing campaign."
So far, so good, you might say, but then we get seminars such as "social media and your business" which for the uninitiated means using such vital tools as Facebook and Twitter; "creating an innovative culture" which is sub-headlined "the incredible power of a creative approach to solving unusual problems especially when individuals are placed non programmed situations."
Then there's "speed networking - an increasingly popular way of increasing business contracts in a fun and interesting way" at which attendees get just four minutes to swap information with a new contact before moving on to the next person possibly meeting more than 20 contacts at a single event.
And finally, how about "To success and beyond," aka "Making tough decisions," which tells interested applicants .... " many businesses are living with the anxiety of not knowing what they are 'supposed' to do.
"The purpose of this event is to show businesses how to begin to find what to do by themselves."
Heaven help us.
The desperation for customers is so great that adverts in collaboration with the equally uselsess BARC (Boston Area Regeneration Company) were appearing as recently in yesterday's local press.
If you recall, the Enterprise Centre cost £3.6m, part funded by the European Regional Development Fund in partnership with Boston Borough Council, Lincolnshire County Council, and Lincolnshire Enterprise.
However, for the convenience of the BBI its lack of success can be squarely blamed on the previous council administration (haven't we heard this one before?)
Not too long ago, the occupancy of Boston Enterprise Centre on Enterprise Park was a pitiful 17%, although the Dear Leader Richard Austin told us that it was likely to rapidly rise to a stonking 75% - equivalent to 26 more tenants joining the eight who are already there. Since then things have fallen very silent.
Could it be that the anticipated improvement has not materialised?


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Time of the signs ... how to transform the Market Place

We've been paying special attention to the Market Place lately after the announcement that the borough has two million pounds to throw at a once in a lifetime redevelopment of it.
The first thing that stands out is the ridiculous swathe of pavement that runs from Boots the Chemist almost across the entire area.
It's there solely to create the chicane that allows the Into Town buses to monopolise the entire area, and helps contribute to the confusion that often overwhelms drivers trying to leave the area and rejoin the main traffic flow.
We note that it is currently daubed with marks that suggest chunks of it are due to be dug up in the not too distant future - so why not complete the job and get rid of it altogether?
The second existing cause of concern is the uneasy relationship between pedestrians and vehicles in the existing parking areas - particularly on the western side. Even locals seem to have difficulties with the fact that traffic has a marked route along through that shoppers on foot appear to regard as pedestrianised.
The third thing that baffles us completely is the surge of reaction from people who think that the best use of the Market Place is for parking cars.
Of course vehicles need to access the area. But to fill it with hundreds of cars for the entire day seems an absurd misuse of the area.
One of the reports commissioned by the council - the one that based its recommendations on the building of the now failed Merchants Quay development - made much of the fact that aside from the multi storey car park proposed for the West Street site, another similar parking facility should be incorporated.
This is about the only recommendation that still makes sense.
If the Market Place site is to be developed for the benefit of the local population (whose needs must come before those of visitors) then parking should be banned at street level but provided nearby. The only problem would be than the cost would probably swallow up all of the money allocated for the project, and more.
But as we've said before, this is a once and for all chance to create something that will enhance the centre of the town - so long as we avoid the temptation to build one of those off the shelf town centres that all look the same.
As a starter, one of our readers suggested the possibility of changing most - if not all - of the shop signage to make it in keeping with, say, a Georgian town centre. This would transform the look of the entire Market Place at a stroke, giving it an attractiveness and uniqueness that would make it a talking point and a true sight to see.
The idea could be taken further with colour schemes, street furniture - the list is endless and a huge effect could be achieved for proportionally little cost. Of course, the national store chains would baulk at the idea of dispensing with their garish modern logos, but it ought not to take a great deal of persuasion to get them to see that agreeing could bring huge publicity benefits.
And lest we forget .... a Market Place cannot be designed around a bus route.
The Into Town service must be re-routed so that we can once again enjoy a pleasurable shopping experience devoid of the noise and fumes from buses that herd us aside like sheep.

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Communication is name of the game ...

What follows is a tale of three councillors - or rather two councillors and an ex-councillor.
Councillor Number One is Better Boston Group councillor Paddy Rush, who has replied to criticisms of his performance made by a group calling itself "We love Boston."
The e-mail prompted us here at Boston Eye to examine Councillor Rush's attendance record, and found that according to the published minutes he has attended only one meeting of a possible nine gatherings of BTAC - the Boston Town Area Committee, and three out of the eight full council meetings for which minutes are available to the public.
Councillor Rush has now told us:
"Firstly I apologies for my late response, I was very surprised and disappointed to receive your email. Whilst I appreciate that you would feel obliged to notify me of such a scenario as has been indicated. The first allegation regarding me living in Cambridge (made by 'We love Boston') is completely untrue, I have never lived in Cambridge and live locally, therefore I also do not claim travel allowances, I am willing to explain where I have claimed for expenses if you require and this was only to cover actual additional travel to attend meetings. Finally with reference to my attendance, it is with regret that I cannot attend more meetings but I have a job which requires me to work unsociable shifts making it difficult at times but I always attend when I can and ensure I am up to date with the issues we are dealing with, and work very closely and regularly with my political group (BBG) and I continue to work within my ward on constituency issues."
We don't want to continue banging this particular drum much longer - but we would say that to take on a job as a councillor when one's work hours will make attendance at meetings almost impossible makes the decision to seek office questionable.
In the piece we wrote before the bank holiday, we pointed out that only one other councillor has fewer committee responsibilities that Councillor Rush.
Enter Councillor Number Two - the BNP representative for Fenside, Councillor David Owens who, as we pointed out only has less on his plate because of party political prejudice by the Bypass Independents who refuse to appoint him to any other committees. Councillor Owens declares on the borough website that he "is looking to gain permission to sit on many more, should council permit."
Now he has set up a blog of his own, and you can read it by clicking here. Like other members who blog, Councillor Owens has begun by setting his sights on one of the mysterious groups who appear to take decisions without anyone apparently being consulted - in this case something called the Community Cohesion Delivery Group.
We've said before that we have nothing but praise for councillors who have taken up blogging. Sadly one has been shut down pro tem after a politically motivated complaint, whilst another goes from strength to strength - and blogging brings us to ...
Ex Councillor Number Three - former Tory member for Boston North West on Lincolnshire County Council, Andrea Jenkyns, who was forced to resign after the local Labour Party dredged up a minor technicality surrounding her election.
Miss Jenkyns has already announced her intention to stand again at the by-election, which has been scheduled for 15th October - six and a half weeks away.
In the meantime, she is continuing to blog, to keep her former constituents up-to-date, and has just published an update of recent issues she has reported to the county's Highways Department, which you can read if you click here.
We congratulate Miss Jenkyns on not being downcast by the events of recent weeks.
Unfortunately, whilst Miss Jenkyns is keen to keep the ball rolling while the constituency is unrepresented, is seems that the officers at County Hall are less so in some cases.
In two cases where drivers and pedestrians are at risk because of grass which needs cutting and trees that need lopping, the officer dealing with the problem is on leave until 14th September, which apparently means that nothing will get done.
Just another fortnight for the grass to grow longer and the trees to continue obscure the view of road users.
Can't anyone use a morsel of commonsense and deal with this in the meantime?
The J-word springs to mind.

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