"We need to show Boston is open for business"

The hopes we expressed that last week's Performance Review & Governance Committee might have the good sense to reject the Borough Cabinet's lightweight and obvious plans to spend almost £53,000 to address the blight of empty shops in the town centre, were sadly dashed - but not until after what sounds to have been an interesting meeting.
Better Boston Group member Councillor Brian Rush was in the chamber, and was kind enough to share his thoughts on the proceedings.
"In the Pocket Guide for Public Scrutineers, the first of the Four Principles of Good Scrutiny suggests: 'Good scrutiny provides critical friend challenge to executive policy and decision makers.'
"It seems that Councillor Dungworth and the officers he is assisted by see only one word in this statement - that is 'critical.' Not a word that sits comfortably with any of them.
"The discussion regarding the call-in on 'Empty Shops Funding Grant' displayed a dramatic turn of events in that Councillor Sheila Newell has at last questioned something.
"The sad thing is that the voice may have been female, but the wording sounded suspiciously spouse-like..!
"Of course this was probably due to the worry that an Audit Commission representative would be present, and the normal deadly silence of BBI Scrutiny Panel Members might be considered, by them, to be unchallenging.
"So if this was a contrived action, then it is also time for them to recognise the damage being regularly done to their group from the confrontational actions of one Councillor Dungworth.
"His body language and angered verbal responses to questioning shows just how inadequate he is as an executive Cabinet Member.
"His recent 'racist' comment to another member shows only to clearly how disturbed he is when challenged.
"His reputation of ignorance grows at every meeting, his constant fielding of questions asked directly to him, are immediately redirected to attending officers; this does nothing to inspire confidence in the depth of his 'knowledge' regarding his portfolio.
"The call in was instigated only to ensure that best and most effective use was being made of the funding. This is a duty of democracy.
The Opposition members on the panel made it very clear that they all had great respect for the work done by community organisations, but questioned whether giving prime commercial space to another organisation such as this, would somehow encourage and reinvigorate our town centre.
"It seemed that yet again we were to adopt a lazy and unexciting attitude to this windfall, and that would have been unacceptable.
"The Chairman moved the meeting on to conclusion after Councillor Myles Larrington sought to examine the possibility of alternative suggestions that might be on offer.
"I did have one, and accept it may not be ideal, but it also might have sparked a few other suggestions.
"Through the combined use of the resources within Business Link, Chamber of Commerce, and partners within the struggling Enterprise Centre, we could have sought applications from aspiring fledgling retail business, and through a detailed selection process, found one or possibly two that appeared to have real potential, and based on such promise, presented them with a twelve month occupancy on the offered terms.
"With a little work and encouragement, (or a bit of begging) the project could have 'engineered' assistance from right across the commercial field for product, supplies, and services. (Their payback would have been publicity)
"Given the right profile, media interest could have been mustered, thereby advertising the MY BOSTON theme.
"We would hopefully have assisted in the creation of another employer, and as suggested, this is a pilot scheme; next year we may have been in a position to repeat the exercise.
"If nothing else it might have given a little indication that Boston was Open For Business.
"Will the scheme now going forward do so? I hope so - we`ll just have to wait and see."
Brian Rush

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