Week ending 4th June

New kid on the block ...? As we wrote last week's piece about the warnings for the future from Boston's Interim Chief Executive Richard Harbord, we got to wondering about what the future has in store. Mr Harbord was appointed in August last year for a six month tenure, which was later extended until this October. Unless another extension is planned, can we expect to see an advert appear for the post in the not too distant future?
Unbalanced ... We note that three of Boston's seven county councillors are on the rota to meet and greet punters at this year's Lincolnshire Show. All of them are Conservative members, and the one independent will not apparently be there. Although the Tories dominate our representation at County Hall, it would have been nice to have seen what little balance there is represented for visitors.

Stuck in the depot ... It's now two years since Boston borough council spent £7,000 on a machine to remove chewing gum from the town's pavements. At the initial PR photo opportunity council leader Richard (Papa Dick) Austin said with characteristic understatement: "This is great news for Boston. Tidying up the town centre is something I am passionate about." Then the machine disappeared from the public gaze. After we mused over what had happened to the great gum remover, it suddenly reappeared - then vanished again. Ready for the next appearance?
Words fail them - 1 ... as regular bloggers, we have to say how disappointed we are at the decline of blogging by our local political representatives, which has shrunk to just an occasional posting. What's happened? Have they been nobbled? Let's not forget the furore over blogging by our borough councillors, and the ban on them linking from the borough's website to any external sites they maintained. Now, contributions are coming at intervals of weeks rather than days. What a shame that after an initial burst of enthusiasm, one of the few avenues of insight into the workings of our local authorities have fallen silent. At the moment three councillors blog - one borough, one borough and county and one county councillor. The Boston Bypass Independents also have two blogsites, - one of which has been mute for three years, and the other too trivial and idiotsyncratic to mention.
Words fail them -2 ... It's not only our county and borough councillors who've been struck dumb. After delighting us with regular updates about what's going on in the borough, the council's website has also fallen into an early summertime lethargy. The most recent entry was the announcement of the appointment of the mayor more than a fortnight ago, whilst a visit to Boston's Facebook pages still regards as news the fact that there have been no recent posts. All of this seems nothing like the declared aims of making the workings of the council become "ever more transparent and open." Ironically, we note that whilst the borough can only manage half a page of dry old stuff for its "noticeboard" in this week's Target, Louth can manage an entire page that - if nothing else - looks a lot more interesting.
Ten out of ten ... to whoever took the decision to close London Road later this month for roadworks that are so "essential" that although they are only expected to take a couple of days are made under an order lasting for eighteen months. London Road is currently serving as a useful pressure valve for those days when unanticipated work on the town's major road scheme causes tailbacks. We can guarantee that the worst day of the week for queues will co-incide with the London Road closure.

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