Week ending 17th December

Our Friday miscellany

of the week's

news and events

Out of the mouths of political babes … The debate about the Bypass Independents’ membership of the Independent Network drones on and on. Now it is being explained to us by a gentleman called Spencer Pearson, who is the prospective BBI candidate for Staniland North – a seat currently held by Councillor David Lingard, who presumably is standing down at next May’s elections. Mr Pearson is keen to tell us that BBI councillors are asked to sign up to the ten “Bell principles” laid down by the Independent Network. These include such things as being free from the control of any political party, pressure group or whip,making decisions transparently and openly and treating political opponents with courtesy and respect. As Mr Pearson is not presently a councillor we would forgive his naiveté – except that we worry about the credentials of a candidate who cannot believe the evidence to the contrary that stares him in the face

Game of the name … It’s not occurred to us until now, but the BBI’s obsession with its “independent” status could well be the prelude to a change of name ahead of the elections in May. The town’s multi-million pound road improvement scheme will be complete by then, and it wouldn’t surprise us if the BBI claimed “job done” insofar as traffic flow had been improved, and perhaps adopt the less wordy and more popular sounding “Boston Independent Party” as a new name. Certainly it might fool a few voters into supporting what must be the most unpopular local group of politicians in Boston’s history. Whatever, a bypass for Boston is now dead and buried – at least for the coalition government’s term of office which ends in 2015 … just in time for a new batch of local elections.
Boston – where’s that? … But a bypass for Lincoln could still be on the cards – after County Council officers went to Westminster to lobby transport minister Norman Baker to ask him to favour the scheme. How come they can’t do something similar for Boston? We think we know the answer to that one.
Rolling on … Boston’s Roll of Achievement has a new member at last. Without wishing to seem unkind, we have to say that the story of the widow of a weight training club owner who continues to run the business “for love” is highly laudable but no more than that – and would not meet our definition of “achievement.” Was her nomination the only one received? If not, how many others were rejected? As we’ve said before there have to be fairly stringent criteria for admission to the roll – otherwise the whole thing becomes nothing more than a list of anyone who applies for admission.
Drain on resources … Argument over the appointment of BBI Councillor Gerry Clare as Boston representative on the county council Flood and Drainage Management Scrutiny Committee continues. His appointment was made without consultation or discussion with the excuse that a nominee was needed at short notice. It’s now emerged that the timetable was actually quite lengthy and that Councillor Clare’s name went forward a full three weeks before the first meeting of the committee. Apparently the plan now is to formalise the appointment at the next council meeting. Not without proper, transparent, and open discussion and a vote, we hope.
Killjoy was here … Talking of transparency, we are pleased to note that a formal procedure has been suggested for attendance at next June’s Local Government Association annual conference in Brighton. The recommendation is that the council’s leader and deputy, plus the leader of the largest opposition group be asked to attend at a total cost of £1,557 excluding accommodation, travel and subsistence,which can all be claimed on expenses. In addition the recommendation is that should the councillors who hold these positions at the timet be unable to attend, there should be no substitutions. Boston Eye readers will recall that at the time of this year’s conference Leader Richard Austin offered the opposition leader an invite which was declined – at which point he extended the offer to “the next biggest political group on the council”, which turned out to be his own party members who were not in the cabinet! Not surprisingly, one may think, by sheer coincidence the winner of a ballot amongst this ‘group’ to attend the dog-hanging - was the leader's wife. Sounds like there was a killjoy around when the latest recommendation was drawn up.
Room for more spending … It’s too costly to provide the money for stickers which would improve the look of empty shops, but not apparently to carry on enhancing the Community Rooms for which £30,000 was allocated and presumably spent. We learn that they closed for a few days while a new heating system was installed. Was this included in the budget? If not, how much has it cost? And was it really necessary given that the building may be demolished in the not too distant future.
Twits … Boston Borough Council ‘s website invites us to visit its Twitter page, where people can become “followers” or fans of the council. “Bostonboro” as it is called boasts eleven followers – which is ten more than we expected. Then we noticed that four of them – oddly all young men of a similar age – have signed on from BBC Lincolnshire. Perhaps this is intended as a joke. If not, it is very very sad.
Yo ho ho ... That’s it for today. In the spirit of Christmas we plan to lighten up next week. We'll have the winning entries in our competition to find a Boston slant on engravings by the French artist Gustave Doré originally produced to illustrate an edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy. That will be followed by the runner up to our Christmas card competition for the best caption to a Boticelli masterpiece. Then there’s our very own version of A Christmas Carol, and finally the overall winner of this year’s Boston Eye Christmas caption competition.

You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.