New look ... or more pie in sky?

A glimpse of Boston's wish list for future regeneration can be glimpsed in the agenda for tonight's meeting of the borough's Overview and Scrutiny Policy and Projects Committee.
It follows the decision to wind up BARC - the Boston Area Regeneration Company, and recommends a future approach in which Boston delivers regeneration and economic development with Lincolnshire County Council, but recognising the benefits of private sector involvement through an informal public/private sector forum.
Winding up BARC leaves £431,700 to play with as a starter for regeneration projects, and the sort of things deemed worth spending on* include a Conservation Area Partnership Scheme funding restoration and improvement of property and shop frontages in the town centre conservation area.
The report to tonight's meeting estimates that this would cost £150,000 - "but will attract up to £500,000 funding from English Heritage." The italics are ours.
We've got our doubts about this, because English Heritage tends not to dole out that size of sum to penny ante councils like Boston. It saves the big bucks for the big projects.
Indeed, in December 2008 when English Heritage's Historic Areas Advisor Clive Fletcher appeared on BBC Radio Lincolnshire's Breakfast Show, he said:
"I know the council is looking at a package themselves from the regional development agency, but we do this sort of thing up and down the country.
"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."
And, as an example, he cited Cromford, near Matlock in Derbyshire, where English Heritage spent 15 years helping shop owners do their places up and converting space above shops for residential use.
Other items on the wish list are:
● Continuation of the Business Support Programme costing £40,000 over two years, and the Boston Enterprise Week costing £30,000 over three years.
● Developing a South Lincolnshire Marketing Strategy and Action Plan. £45,000.
● Improving signage and information in the town centre. £50,000.
● Improving areas "around the periphery" of the Market Place. £100,000.
● St Botolph's Church new café and shop refurbishment. £100,000.
● Improvements to Boston market. £50,000 - £75,000.
So there you have it.
Some big numbers - many of which seem to have been conjured up out of thin air.
If we live long enough we might not recognise the Boston of the future. Hopefully, it will be a brighter, cleaner, more interesting place in which to live and work.
But we we've been promised a bypass as well, haven't we?


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*In Councilspeak   "a list of indicative projects that could take forward regeneration and economic development activities in the Borough."