Bids are just a waste of money ...

The other day, when we were talking about the greedy Boston Municipal Charities and the Broadfield Lane allotments, we remarked that boosting the amount of money they have to dispense from a few hundred to thousands of pounds a year would simply produce a crop of applicants who just want the money because it's there, and whose need would not be particularly great.
One day, perhaps we'll find out if we were right. In the meantime, there's a good clue in the "quality" of applications for a share in the £10,000 community fund on offer to people living in High Street South. They're set to be benefit from a neighbourhood project from Boston Borough Council called "U-Decide."
Voting packs have been delivered to all 500 homes in the area for residents to choose their top five projects devised by organisations who are pitching their projects for community cash.
So what's been selected for them to choose from?
Well, there are ten projects bidding for up to £2,000 each of the £10,000 pot.
We won't list them all, but they include:
Work with young people to design community art in metalwork with a skilled blacksmith ...
A bid from the Heritage Trust of Lincolnshire – to stage three art events centred on 116 High Street - the building which housed Boston's first bank, and which is now in danger of collapse through neglect ...
Improving the "wasteland" in front of the toilet block. We're not sure how you improve wasteland - perhaps by digging a few extra potholes or something like that.
Two projects are for money to clear litter - something that we thought was the job of the Borough Council. And we also feel obliged to ask how serious the litter problem is if bids are being made to buy tools and equipment for between 4-10 offenders to pick up litter supervised by a paid probation supervisor one day a week for 45 weeks - that's a lot of litter. Then there's a bid to help pay for a rubbish skip from time to time for use by residents, and pay for four large community litter picks. The mind boggles at the amount of rubbish apparently being dropped - in fact we can't believe that the problem warrants such sledgehammer tactics. Just better policing.
Meanwhile, a local church wants money to decorate and refurbish a meeting room used by residents. Presumably the room would have remained undecorated had not this manna from heaven suddenly been made available - and shouldn't this be the church's job in any case?
We said we wouldn't list the lot, but in summary, Lincolnshire Police want money to install 40 mini cameras and 30 voice door security devices to promote home security. Given that there are 500 residents, this just seems like bidding for the money because it's there and the cash maxes out at 70 bits of kit - and we also wonder how great the problem of crime in the area is. Again, better policing would help.
There's a bid to fund two sessions to tell people more about Pilates, exercise and Nordic walking;  a bid for an information Board telling the history of the South High Street Area and to refurbish the Bass Memorial (even though George Bass was born in Aswardby) and another bid for community noticeboards to advertise local events and a post box for responses. We can only guess at the sort of suggestions that might find their way into that.
We're not knocking the idea of helping local communities, but most of these ideas reek of "hey, there's cash up for grabs, how can we get our hands on a slice...?"
Unless things have changed, the High Street needs a used car lot for all the vehicles being sold illegally on the street.
The lucky winners will be selected at the Decision Day on Saturday 30th January, and we can't wait to hear the outcome.
As an aside, we read this information on Boston Borough Council's website a week after it was issued as a press release, and in the modern style, it is headed "Who wins? U Decide."
We may sound fuddy-duddy, but we think that in a borough where there are more 60 tongues spoken, it might be a good idea to use correct English to help those who are still learning to improve their grasp of the language - and that probably includes a chunk of the indigenous population!

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