Numbers highlight borough's weaknesses

Boston Borough council's assets are worth a grand total of £27,290,116 according to figures going before the council's Policy and Projects Committee tomorrow night.
The committee is being asked to scrutinise a draft strategy for the future; comment on its suitability and sufficiency; consider the relevance and appropriateness of its strategic objectives and refer the whole kit and caboodle to the cabinet for adoption.
Basically, the idea is that over the next three years there will be a basic review of the council's property holdings and exploration of options for underused, costly and inefficient assets.
Office accommodation needs will be looked at - including exploring options for sharing premises, making better use of what the council already owns and seeing whether better opportunities exist elsewhere. The review will also look at how the council works and whether opportunities exist for mobile and home working.
There will also be a review of community asset holdings and the long term options for their use - including "consideration of community asset transfer alternative uses that may better meet corporate objectives." That could be good news or it could be bad news, depending on what it means, as the bulk of our community assets seem to be public open spaces and recreation areas.
Looking down the list of the council's assets is an involved and time consuming process.
The council seems to be rich in car parks and public conveniences, whilst the two assets which comprise the bulk of its worth will soon be beyond its reach in terms of realisation should the need arise. The Princess Royal Sports Arena, valued at £11,242,000, is already designated as a freehold asset that is let, whilst the Geoff Moulder Leisure Pool and fitness suite, at £4,300,365, is still listed as the council's freehold property, but is of course, due to be let as soon as another couple of million quid of our cash is thrown at it.
Certainly a review seems to be long overdue.
Looking at the list of council income from assets shows the age old practice of letting your mates have something for nothing is still very much en vogue.
Why else does Lincolnshire County Council pay £1 annual rent for an asset that a private individual might be asked to pay £5,000 for, whilst East Midlands Electricity rents chunks of land around the town for less than £50 a year? Here's an area where market forces shiould be introduced.
Not only that, but why - after all the investment made in "affordable" industrial units here, there and everywhere - are so many vacant ... six of the 18 units on the Riverside Industrial park alone are earning nothing, which says little if anything for the people charged with bring business to the borough.
We shudder to think what the situation is at the £3.6 million Boston Enterprise Centre on Endeavour Park, which at the last count had an occupancy of a meagre 17%.
The really interesting thing about all the figures and statistics in the report to the Policy and Projects Committee is not so much how they add up, but what they show us of the shortcomings of Boston as a business operator.

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