Week ending 21st January

Our Friday miscellany

of the week's

news and events

You like it or you hate it ... Yesterday’s blog on BBI leader Richard Austin's latest efforts at making the party look as though it is achieving something produced “a thought or two” from Independent (yes, really Independent) Councillor Richard Leggott, who asked: “Why is Councillor Austin picking out Tory councillors as boycotters of Boston 200? How many of the BBI councillors stayed away? Possibly as many as the number of Conservative councillors on Boston Borough Council . And if all people who did not attend are boycotters, then 98+% of Boston must be labelled as such. And if half of those who did attend were from outside Boston, then it could be said that 99+% of the borough probably boycotted the event. This is assuming that Councillor Austin's figures of attendance (c.1,300) are correct and not double counting any visitor who popped out for a fag or the toilet and returned. As for the rest of Councillor Austin's desperate spin about the BBI Party 'achievements' it reminds me of someone spreading Marmite thickly on a round of toast in order to hide the fact that it is burnt. ( And you know what they say about Marmite- and the BBI!) Roll on May 5th.”
None too policed -1 …Our Tuesday blog about police budgets also posed the question of where Boston’s PCSOs are to be found – as they are seldom if ever seen out on our streets. The responses were interesting and did not pull their punches. One reader e-mailed to say: “I can tell you where these police officers and PCSOs are to usually found in Boston....parked in disabled parking bays (no prosecutions but a promise of a police donation to charity....I wish!) parking on bus stops (whilst popping in to the CCTV office for an hour long coffee with our 'eye on the town' waste of taxpayers money crew)  loitering on double yellows whilst collecting the shift curry supper (no payment seen to change hands...but this is now a police 'investigation I'm told...as if ; or ticketing my disabled blue badged car... five fixed penalty notices in the recent past... four of which were cancelled, eventually, because 'there is no evidence I parked the vehicle.'”
None too policed – 2 … Another reader asked:  "Did you note that two of the new PCSOs were actually the traffic wardens that used to patrol the town. As usual with the public sector, posts are lost but another is simply created to move people into rather than get rid of them. I have played with the budget predictor on the police website, I greatly reduced the spending on intelligence, it seemed to make no difference to the picture, which seems to confirm my thoughts that no matter what happens there seems to be little intelligence within Lincolnshire Police! How much did Lincolnshire Police pay someone to produce this piece of rubbish on their website? Could this money have been spent on a policeman?"
Water-bout it? … We read with interest that a £40 million pound plan to bring water to Boston from Anglian Water’s Covenham Reservoir near Louth aims to “secure” supplies in the expectation of a “significant” increase in the borough’s population over the next 25 years. Hands up those of you in the older parts of town who’d happily settle for decent water pressure now rather than plentiful supply a quarter of a century hence.
Value for money … Yet again Boston councillors defer a decision on increasing their allowances until after the elections in May. At present they get £2,378 – whilst other districts pay almost twice that. The vote to wait was passed by 23 to two, with two abstentions – which meant that five councillors – around 15% of the membership - couldn’t be bothered to attend. We’re sure that any who get returned will be there for the vote on a pay rise, but the issue raises another point. If – and it’s a big if – the BBI retained control of the council, we are sure they would call the pay rise a faircompensation for the work they do. If the Tories take control, any remaining BBI members will accuse the party of lining its members’ pockets. Either way, the timing is bad – but we do think that £2,378 a year for councillors who attend and do their fair share of committee and other duties is derisory and should be increased. There are also some who take the money but do a fraction of the work – perhaps payment could be pro-rata by attendance and responsibility, rather than flat rate.
My Town, My News, My Paper … So runs the slogan on the masthead of the Boston Standard. Inside, the waffle about the paper’s “Brighter Boston” feature promises among other things, to “Highlight organisations, businesses and attractions that will encourage visitors to come to Boston.” In that case, would someone please explain the feature on page 18 headed “Spring over to nearby Spalding for shopping?” As it happens, Spaldonians were less than enthusiastic about buying space to promote their services, leaving the Standard with a chunk of space to fill in which they dumped the long established Maude’s jewellers from Boston. We wonder how Maude’s feel about the decision. Another “Spalding feature” is already being promoted, and this – coupled with the Boston Target’s regular exhortation to shop in Louth makes us wonder where the loyalties of our local “newspapers” lie.
Remote control … Sill with the locals, we understand that our Boston Standard is now sub-edited remotely from a “hub” somewhere in the East Midlands. Could this explain why a letter to the editor this week referred to Boston’s “Market Square” no fewer than four times – including the headline? It could and should have been changed to “Market Place” but we wonder whether whoever handled the letter didn’t realise the mistake.
Roll on ... The recognition of boxer Callum Johnson’s achievement in winning a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, with the presentation of a Scroll of Honour is a nice thing to do – but we scarcely feel that it qualifies him as a “hero” of Boston. Callum also appears on the borough’s “Roll of Achievement.” A scroll and a roll in the space of a few weeks is going it some, and it reminded us about how feeble the Roll of Achievement is looking a couple of months after its launch. Can nothing be done to make this feature look relevant and interesting? If not, it should be consolidated into the “Famous Bostonians” feature that appears elsewhere on the borough’s website which itself should be better promoted.

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