Oven fresh  -

so why is this

roll so crumby?

Not for the first time, we’re baffled at the way Boston Borough Council goes about turning what on the surface is a good idea into a regular mish mash.
The latest hodgepodge is the Roll of Achievement, which has appeared without pre-publicity or fanfare on the borough website.
The thinking behind the idea is to create a permanent and accessible record for individuals with a connection with Boston and who have contributed to it, and the idea of putting it on the website is to attract more visitors.
It is claimed that this will cost as little as £500, although sceptics have their doubts - particularly as a Roll of Achievement Group and an Achievement Controller are required to make it work.
So far so good, but on Monday night, the roll – containing just six names - appeared as the late Tommy Cooper would say … “just like that” with an appeal to the punters to send in more nominations.
Why Monday 8th November?
Would it not have been better to have announced a public appeal for nominations, done a little more homework, then published with a more representative list in a pre-Christmas flourish - or better still launched as a New Year feature
Of the six names  half are sporting figures selected by a member of the council’s communications team.
Two of the remaining three appear to have been nominated by relatives, and the third by an American gentleman named as Warren Winkelsteiner, an epidemiologist and professor emeritus in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, and whose name is actually Winklestein.
Given that he – and probably some of the others, too – must have been approached to make their nominations ahead of the launch, why were not more names assembled?
What about those people listed elsewhere on the borough website under “Famous Bostonians” – don’t they deserve an entry as well?
And the starter for ten list is open to a question or two.
If war hero and former councillor Alan Day is worth a mention- and he surely is - then why were the details of the Staniland family ... whose sacrifices in the First World War, and whose public service are so eloquently described in “A Town Remembers,” omitted at this early stage? And where is Lynn Ellis?
We get the feeling that the starter list was cobbled together on the back of a fag packet and rushed into print – like so many BBI schemes.
More thought, more time and better timing would have seen an impressive list that Bostonians could feel proud of – not this shonky offering.
Fortunately,  submissions may not include current serving or prospective elected members, which at least spares us from a list of BBI also rans who think they might be worth a mention - though we expect they'll be queuing for a place after May's elections.


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