Busy Bs ... but they produce no honey!

By a strange co-incidence, our blog last week questioning the worth of the Boston Improvement District (BID) was followed by a piece in the Target written by the group's "new manager" Niall Armstrong.
He looks ahead to the BID annual meeting on 15th June which promises a preview of the projects that are planned for the year ahead, and promises members the chance to put questions to the board and offer suggestions for projects they would like to see undertaken.
We are hopeful that this will be the case, as Boston BID certainly seems short on ideas and imagination and struggling to justify its existence.
When the BID was still a gleam in a quangoist's eye, an item on the Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce website unimaginatively headlined "Boston Bid Putting Boston On The Map" told readers that:-
"A vote – Yes – will enable Boston businesses desire to drive forward in a commercially organised way to solve the top six issues holding back growth.
"A vote – No – would suggest that businesses are satisfied with the current conditions, footfall, the town's appearance, services, reputation and the constraints which the town now experiences."
The six issues mentioned in the BID aims and objectives are to make Boston, safe and secure, clean and attractive, to improve the perception and image of Boston town centre, improve accessibility and to be parking friendly, promote a strong and active network amongst the business community, and to deliver matched funding.
Whilst all this is laudable, it is not earth shattering, and all it has boiled down to so far is the employment of the town rangers and a bit of weeding in West Street.
Mr Armstrong's report goes to talk about the progress of the Community Hub project with which the BID has only a peripheral involvement, and which it certainly did not devise.
"Look out for the Boston BID directory over the course of the next month or so," he trumpets.
This will be a directory listing all the businesses located in the BID area, together with additional information such as the location and cost of car parks in the town, and should serve to further promote businesses within the town."
We're not sure how a glorified 'phone book is going to do that, and we are less excited by BID's "main project" for the year, which is to "promote Boston to a wider audience primarily through the heritage of the town.
"Boston has a rich and varied history which is not promoted in a cohesive way and the BID would like to rectify this," says Mr Armstrong. "The ultimate aim would be to provide an offering that would attract people not only from the UK but also from overseas. If we are successful this would invigorate the local economy by increasing visitor numbers which generates additional sales for retailers, provides custom for the hotel and guest house sector and increases the awareness of Boston Lincolnshire. A thriving tourist economy would also enable further grant funding to be applied for which would improve the infrastructure of the town for the benefit of residents as well as visitors."
Again, all very fine.
But as we've already said Boston BID is simply duplicating the work of existing organisations - principally, in this case, that of Tourism Lincolnshire.
Whilst we agreed that this group could do a lot more for the area, time and again we come back to the fact that Boston in all honesty has very little to offer - and most of what is on the menu is fairly standard tourist fodder.
Last October we wrote about the glut of organisations beginning with "B" that exist to promote Boston. Since then we have lost a couple, BARC and the Boston Conservative Business Network, which came and went in the blink of an eye.
But there is still the Boston Area Partnership, whose raison d'etre appears to duplicate that of Boston BID, the Boston Town Area Committee (BTAC) and the Boston Area Chamber of Commerce which must have similar objectives.
All we seem to be doing is throwing time and money at duplicating each other's efforts, which means lots of meetings, lots of talking, pages of minutes - and little by way of results.
Boston BID's offering seems more like busywork that a genuine effort to come up with something different.

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