Lots to talk about

There are two particularly interesting items on the agenda for tonight's full council meeting.
The first is the dissolution of BARC, the Boston Area Regeneration Company and brainchild of the gifted former Chief Executive and rainmaker Mick Gallagher (whatever happened to him?)
This is another of those cabinet decisions which the BBI mafia now want rubber stamping so that it can then tell the full council what to do next after it has had further meetings on how to spend BARC's leftover cash.
To call BARC a flop is like claiming that Hitler didn't come out of World War II quite so badly after all.
The only ray of sunshine in this otherwise occluded story is that Boston may at least benefit with possible improvements to Boston Market, town centre signage and information, investment in various business, marketing and enterprise schemes - though not necessarily all of them. Also mentioned are shop and property design and enhancement grant schemes, which is optimistically claimed could attract matched funding from English Heritage.
We think this latter hope may well be pie in the sky, for as far as we can see it is based on an item on BBC Radio Lincolnshire more than a year ago, when a spokesman for English Heritage said:"We don't invest massive amounts every year but when we're interested in a place we'll consistently invest over a period of time. It might take seven or eight years to regenerate a place. In Boston it might take longer." That certainly makes the borough's interpretation of matched funding sound somewhat fanciful.
The other big item on the agenda is the issue of a change in the council executive.
No, don't get your hopes up.
Because of national changes, the present system under which the council is run has to alter, and basically the options are to choose between an elected Mayor who is not a councillor and who appoints his cabinet from those who are, or a council run by a leader with greatly enhanced powers.
What a choice.
As we've said before, we can't think of anyone in the town who's got the stature to fill the boots of an elected mayor. They need charisma, authority, personality, charm .... the list is endless.
That leaves us with the choice of a leader with more powers.
The idea's fine if a leader is up to the task - but what we've seen of the leadership to date fills us with dread.
The only good news is that the changes take effect after the next Borough Council elections in May 2011 - so at least the BBI mob will be out on their bypasses.
We said at the start that there were two particularly interesting items on tonight's agenda for - but there are probably three if you consider the cabinet's request to rubber stamp a gift of £25,000 to the good people of Wyberton to turn the plot known as Cloud Cuckoo Land into allotments. Apparently one key reason for this is that "allotments create multi-functional benefits in terms of healthy eating and lifestyles, environmental enhancement and generating a shared sense of belonging and pride."
As we've said before: try telling that the allotment holders needlessly evicted from Broadfield Lane - a site that not only meets all the above criteria, but had the added importance of creating a "lung" in the heart of the town. We seem to recall that Councillor Ramonde Newell, who represents Staniland South ward where the allotments lie pledged his support for the victims of the land grab, but have heard nothing much since. Meanwhile, the needs of people in Wyberton must come first ... mustn't they?

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