Empty shops plan leaves councillor "aghast"

We're not alone in our criticism of the plan before Boston Borough Council's Cabinet to deal with the problem of empty shops (see "Plans for empty shops are not enough," Thursday 25th February.)
Councillor David Owens, BNP member for Fenside, has moved quickly to bring the idea back to the council for it to be reconsidered, rather than let the Cabinet pursue its usual policy of steamrollering matters through without further discussion.
Councillor Owens tells Boston Eye: "For the record, I read with utter amazement when last week the agenda and associated report appeared on the council website for last week's cabinet meeting (these always take place during the day and never during the evening). I eagerly scrolled through the report relating to empty shops in the hope that there was a cohesive and sensible plan to try and get our town centre off its knees and take some positive action to help remove the plague of empty retail units.
"The report states there are 25 empty shops in town, but I think whoever wrote the report has only walked through Strait Bargate, as there around that number there alone. However it gets worse.
"My views on the matter are as follows; the short term 'fix' of placing graphics in empty shop fronts is at least doing something to remove the mess that many ex-tenants leave behind when they close the doors for the last time, so I can see some merit in doing that. The cost of which is expected to be £12,000 or 23% of the grant.
"The medium term measure is one that has really got my goat, once again we see the 3rd sector sniffing around. I am sure they can smell a fool and his money a mile away and it would appear they have landed a big fish this time!
"My reasoning for this view is simply this: the 'community hub' idea, in my opinion, is simply another means of passing the buck on to the third sector rather than the council coming up with a plan to help resolve the issue, and is a disgrace. We already have a Charity HUB in the Medlock centre - why do we need any more?
"I challenge how on earth this is going to assist or help any prospective business to set up shop in Boston. I am aghast that somewhere in Boston Borough Council this even saw the light of day, let alone permitted it to come to Cabinet as proposal, I am shocked but not at all surprised it has been approved and the spend is to go ahead.
"A grant of £30,000 - or should I say 58% of the available funding - is to be used to open ONE or maybe TWO shops in the town, that’s to say that 58% of the money is being utilised to deal with 8% of the problem (i.e. two out of 25 empty shops).
"Absolutely ridiculous! This lion's share should be spent on what is classed the 'long term measure' as outlined below.
"The long term measure, which is getting the least amount of money, is probably the best option and the one into which most effort should be put. This may go some way to encouraging new enterprises into the town, and after all that’s what we need, not another charity-style outlet. This aspect of the plan sees £10,000 - or 19% of the funding - and just goes to show what an upside down back to front bunch we have running this council, but then again I think the residents already know that!
"Given the strength of my feelings surrounding this, I tipped off fellow councillors on the opposition and asked them to pay particular attention to this when it came before cabinet.
"I can inform Boston Eye that, within 30 minutes of the decision being taken, I started the process to call this in ( i.e. bring it back to council for scrutiny) as at no point in time were the elected members consulted on how this money should be spent. The cabinet need to be aware that the £52,000 is still TAXPAYERS MONEY no matter from what government department it comes from and needs to be spent prudently and wisely."

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