Our Friday miscellany

of the week's

news and events

Worth waiting for? …The report we mentioned yesterday – the one marked “to follow” – finally arrived at around lunchtime. Time will tell whether it was worth the wait – but the recommendation that caught our eye said “Additionally it was noted that the funding agreement between the Council and BSI remains unsigned and this should be resolved at the earliest opportunity.” If only that was the same agreement that has seen millions in taxpayers’ hard earned cash poured into the bottomless money pit they call the Princess Royal Sports Arena? If  that had remained unsigned – could we get our money back?
Burning issue … As the cuts begin to bite, there’s been a fall in number of cremations, where income has fallen by £17,000 for “reasons unknown as it does not follow usual death trends.” We think we know the answer to this one, as warnings were sounded in the past about the possible effects of raising Boston Crematorium and cemetery charges at the same time as a new crematorium opened in Alford. The rising cost of dying these days makes people shop around – just as they do with any big item of expenditure, and we’d bet that Alford’s business has improved at Boston’s expense.
Message not received … After we raised an eyebrow last week about the eerie alliance between the Lincolnshire Independents led by County Councillor Marianne Overton and the Boston Bypass Independents, one reader got in touch to tell us: “I have taken Councillor Overton to task about the content of her messages which continue to extol the 'accomplishments' of Bypass Party in Boston and found her to be unwilling to challenge such. In fact I gathered from her reply that she was a total 'believer.’ This being the case I have told her that I will continue to look forward to her missives only as the comedy item of council communications --unless of course I get crossed off the circulation list due to my differing point of view. We shall see what happens!” We think we can guess.
Sallying forth … In our observations on the Roll of Achievement the other day, we noted with some disappointment that the name of one contributor was spelt incorrectly. We also note that in the late Ernest Bowser was said to be chairman of the Witham Forth Internal Drainage Board. Unless the board’s range extended as far as Scotland, could we suggest amending the spelling to Fourth .
A star is born … Are there no limits to the talents of county and Boston borough councillor Ramonde Newell? The council’s most prolific newspaper letter writer and blogger has now added television to his quiver. And quiver you will if you visit You Tube by clicking here. Councillor Newell’s début is as a sort of poster boy for Brylaine’s Into Town bus service. But far from presenting his case in a bright and bouncy way calculated to get us all rushing to apply for a free bus pass, he labours through his script with eyes downcast - like a man standing at a public urinal. Perhaps he’ll improve with practice … but given his record to date, we somehow doubt it..

With his apparent enthusiasm for bringing “On the Buses” back to the small screen we wonder – given a passing likeness – whether he is thinking of auditioning for the part of the demented inspector, Blakey (see picture above.)
Kick from the Shinns … Talking of letter writing, it seems that the new challengers for pride of place in our local “newspapers” are the Boston Liberal Democratic Party – aka Mike and Helen Sheridan-Shinn, who dominate the papers this week. For some peculiar reason, Ms Sheridan-Shinn was determined to tell us that this year she favoured a white poppy rather than a red one – and seizes the opportunity to name drop Lord Davies of Stamford – the former Stamford MP who defected from the Conservatives to Labour, and who found fame for a £20,000 expenses claim for repairs to the bell tower on his £5 million home, Frampton Hall. Why has she done this?
Pass the sal volatile! … We were surprised to learn that the council department with the third highest level of absenteeism through sickness is Cultural Services, behind Environmental Operations, and Revenue, Benefits and Customer Services. A helpful pie chart of causes for absences lists: “Infections, flu, cold related, stomach, liver, kidney , digestion, gastroenteritis, sickness nausea, neurological, headaches, migraine, genitor, urinary, menstrual , eye, ear, nose, throat, dental, sinusitis, back or neck problems, chest, respiratory, chest infections, other musculo-skeletal problems, stress, depression, anxiety, neurasthenia, mental health, fatigue, pregnancy related, heart, blood pressure, circulation, sick certificate required.” And that still left 15.9% of reasons for absence listed as “other.” What on earth was wrong with them, we wonder? Beri beri, plague, dengue fever....

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