So WHY is this such good news?

There's a lot of excitement about the fact that Boston has just got its 70th CCTV camera.
Hurrah, now there's a greater chance than ever that we'll be stared at and suspected whilst we go about our normal daily business.
The news is peddled by Boston Borough Council as "the streets of Boston have become even safer," although we're not quite sure how that works.
If you have the misfortune to get beaten up as you walk the streets around closing time, the fact that your attacker is eventually identified as you recover in hospital is surely little compensation.
We wonder whether fewer people would receive the news in the Pilgrim if - instead of having the equivalent  "70 extra policemen on the street," as the man in charge of the CCTV project boasts - the real police spent more time on the streets .
Trouble hotspots in Boston aren't that difficult to identify, so the police can't claim that it would be a difficult job.
Apparently in the 12 months to November last year, the cameras were instrumental in 709 arrests. That's a puny ten, each, per year .... a record which should not be beyond the wit of a patrolling policeman or woman.
Boston's population is a movable feast, ranging from around 58,000 to 70,000 when the immigrant population is taken into account.
Either way, the number of cameras seems excessive, representing as it does, one camera for every thousand residents - or possibly even fewer.
The irony of this apparently escapes the policeman in charge of Boston who naively claims "to many would-be offenders the CCTV cameras are a deterrent."
We entering the realm of cardboard cut-out policemen here, which is probably what's next on the agenda.
The news of the CCTV cameras comes as Lincolnshire County Council announces that it is cutting its funding of  PCSOs by a quarter of a million pounds.
PCSOs, you may recall, were meant to be extra eyes and ears on the streets in the war on crime and anti-social behaviour, but regular readers of Boston Eye may recall that Lincolnshire's entire force of 150 PCSOs issued just 15 fines between 2006 and 2008. This cost almost £10 million, which meant each fixed penalty notice worked out at more than £650,000 in public money.
Now, the promised retrenchment of PCSOs is set to take place with them setting up shop in libraries and the like to have a chat with locals about things that worry them. They will also be taking on a slew of other duties currently being done by other public servants such as trading standards and the fire service.
We are regularly accused of being anti police because of our criticism of the way Lincolnshire Police use their staff and their resources. But that is far from the truth. All we want to see is the police doing the job that they are paid for, which is getting out on the streets, providing a reassuring presence, deterring crime, enforcing public order, and - fate forefend - arresting people.
One thing that did amuse us was the location of the cameras: - four at Pilgrim Hospital and Redstone Industrial Estate, three each at Boston College's DeMontfort and Rochford campuses, two in Kirton, eleven in Fenside with the rest in the "Boston built-up area, including Daisy Dale and Wellington Road."
Did we say eleven in Fenside? Surely, it's time for a little boundary reform here. Can't we redraw the maps and slice off a bit of Swineshead and Holland Fen, stitch Fenside on to it, and cede the whole lot to East Lindsey? Sounds like it would halve the borough crime statistics at a stroke.

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