Who goes there?

New debate urged

on council knees-up

The process of “calling in” a decision taken within Boston Borough Council is a safeguard aimed at preventing misuse of powers by a committee.
Because of the way the council is run, the Bypass Independent Party tends whenever possible to take decisions arbitrarily and with total disregard for opposing opinions or objections – hence the frequent use of this safety valve to make sure that the opposition gets its hour in the sun.
In the past, the mechanism has been used to re-examine decisions such as the creation of the totally pointless Roll of Achievement, and the “My Boston” project, which has still to spend more than £20,000 of government cash on the purpose for which was intended.
On Thursday the council’s Performance Review Committee will hear the call in of yet another cabinet steamroller decision on who should attend this year’s annual conference of the Local Government Association in Birmingham, and it follows something of a debacle over last year’s conference – when the venue was at the far more attractive seaside location of Bournemouth.
Regular readers may recall that Council Leader Richard Austin invited the leader of the largest opposition group – the Conservatives – to attend … an invitation which was politely declined.
Some observers told us that the conversation at the time also included mention of the possibility of the future avoidance by the opposition of call-ins of cabinet decisions -but they were too polite to assume a connection.
When the invitation was refused, the leader offered it to “the next biggest political group on the council” which through some abstruse creative political mathematics turned out to be his own party members who were not in the cabinet! Surprised observers were even more gobsmacked when by a serendipitous happenstance, the winner of a ballot among this 'group' to accompany the leader to Bournemouth, was the leader's wife.
No such opportunity for such fortuitous lightning to strike twice in the same place exists this time around, as last month’s cabinet meeting accepted the highly sensible and democratic recommendation of Chief Executive Richard Harbord to send a maximum of three elected members to the event at £519 a pop – plus expenses. The group will be cross-party comprising the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council, and the Leader of the largest opposition group - with substitutions if any of the postholders at the time cannot attend.
Whether the call in on this occasion is slightly tongue in check given last year’s history is not for us to say.
But the grounds for it are perfectly relevant.
The four councillors who want the decision re-examined – Conservative Michael Brookes, genuine Independent Richard Leggott, Independent/BNP member David Owens and the Better Boston Group’s Brian Rush – say that the decision was not one for the cabinet alone – but one for all groups and parties on Boston Borough Council.
The options open at Thursday’s meeting are not to call in the decision; to refer it back to the cabinet for reconsideration; or to refer the matter to the full council for debate.
As in the past, the result is a foregone conclusion, because if the committee agrees to call the decision in, the BBI stranglehold will ensure that the status quo maintains.
In Boston, it’s called local democracy.

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