"Change of heart - or shrouded apology?"

Our piece on Friday about former Bypass Independent Deputy Leader Peter Jordan's insistence that the party's embrace of the Queen Street and Sleaford Road "improvement" scheme came after a long series of meetings and "robust" discussions with Lincolnshire County Council to achieve a high proportion of the many changes they wanted, came not only as a surprise to us, but more significantly to Better Boston Group Councillor Brian Rush. "Can we really believe this, a change of mind by the former Deputy Leader Jordan?" he asks in an e-mail to Boston Eye..
"Or is it a somewhat shrouded, but timely, pre-apology to the people of Boston, regarding the road widening that is about to begin?
"An 18 month project, possibly causing total chaos and disruption to the towns traffic, but more importantly of little or no benefit to road users, and almost certainly damaging business prospects at this, the worst possible time.
"Councillor Jordan's attempt to placate is far too late in the day, and for him to try to claim uninformed innocence pre Election '07, as an 'error of judgment' made by the Boston Bypass Group, cuts no ice now.
"Would that the BBI ever admitted responsibility for anything would be truly unbelievable.
"This communication is typically Jordanian, in that it is he, not 'the Portfolio for Transport Issues, Richard Austin,' who controls and sets out the blurred dictum of this council; it is he that considers his reputation to be far above all others.
"Sadly so many remain to sit in awe, some feel mentally ill-equipped, and others unwilling to challenge. This is food and drink to such ego as Peter Jordan OBE.
"It is arrogance such as this that has caused untold damage and loss of credibility for the ruling group.
"Unfortunately this so called humble revelation is not as he would have us believe.
"The truth is that opposition elected members have never been privy to any new or previously unknown information that has been uncovered, nor have we been given any written or oral evidence of those numerous robust meetings and discussions that apparently took place.
"This further lack of 'risk assessment' opens yet another troublesome can of worms, and suggests the presence of secret agendas that has been prolific within the BBI. They will never learn.
"We all know that within months of the Election, the BBI. abandoned their manifesto call to reject the road widening, and Councillor Jordan remains less than genuine again with his revelations. He is no stranger to secret meetings.
"Interestingly we have heard many times his speeches regarding his past illustrious career, and how he came to achieved such greatness.
"It was, he will tell listeners, always based on planning, teamwork, respect for staff, clear attention to detail, and evaluation of risk, blah blah.
"I know, I know, 'illustrious' is not the word everyone would choose ...
"But what I cannot understand is, how he seems to have failed to employ those same skills, that he says were instrumental in rewarding him with such high office in commerce and industry?
"I think its called due diligence, that is Latin to you and I, but it's things like background research, examination of facts, inspecting minutes of meetings regarding traffic congestion problems in Boston etc. etc.
"This must be simply second nature, to one who had previously reached such dizzy heights.
"Wouldn't this type of publicly available information be considered vital, especially if one was considering planning to stand for election, evaluating information to assess the detail of using Boston's road and traffic congestion as the core element of your political platform. Or maybe he just didn't have a good team around him, that were able to do his bidding.
"Or of course I may have got it all wrong.
"This could be a genuine new approach by the BBI.
"Maybe this is the first of many admissions, and dare we say apologies, for a long list of errors.
"Could we even fantasise that they might for once refuse to be dictated to by Lincolnshire County Council!
"Would that they come up with one idea of their own that benefits the people of the town.
"Convince themselves that the unfair criticism they recieve is real and justified.
"That, instead of taking offence at 'sheep' comparisons, they take some individual actions from time to time.
"Oh! and by the way what is the point in having a ''portfolio' shepherd if the crook is used by someone else?"
Councillor Brian Rush

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