Time to clean up town's bleak image

If we were trying to put together an image of Boston from the jigsaw puzzle of items about it that have appeared in the news in the past few weeks alone, the picture on the box would be very bleak indeed.
Males in and around Boston have the lowest male life expectancy at birth in the county, and whilst females can expect a further five years, it is still the third lowest life expectancy in the county.
Unemployment rose by three per cent in and around Boston last month.
We're the area most at risk from flooding, with the forecast for even worse times ahead - and the County Council plans to withdraw the warning siren service.
Boston is one of only five local authorities where women have no choice between the three options of home birth with a midwife, a local birth centre or an obstetric unit in a hospital.
Anti-social behaviour is on the rise, despite promises to curb it.
United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust, which includes the Pilgrim Hospital, is second on a "roll call of tragedy" published in a national paper with 226 "needless" deaths.
The by-pass which everyone wanted, and which the BBI promised with such confidence, is now at least ten years away, but with the greater liklihood that it will never come to pass.
The town has inflicted itself with a bad image through the unnecessary imposition of designated public places orders which suggest that - without them - we would have a serious public problem with alcohol.
And with Christmas just around the corner, the crowds in Strait Bargate are to be herded like cattle by buses that no-one wants to see in their town centre.
That's just for starters.
What is going wrong with Boston?
We need some thinking people to come up with some sensible answers.
The town's image needs a makeover.
We need an image Czar - and not just a couple of tourism press releases.
And soon.

You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.