Boston's road "debt"

should be

settled soon

The other day we mentioned a sum of around a million pounds said to be owed to Lincolnshire County Council by Boston Borough Council (aka the Bypass Independents Party) for certain works on the town’s road improvement scheme.
Our enquiries suggested that the sum related to work on the bus station and provision to assist people with disabilities.
Now the issue has found its way into a wider arena – with a question at last Friday’s Lincolnshire County Council meeting from Councillor Steve Williams, the Conservative county councillor for Spalding Elloe, and South Holland district councillor for Spalding St Paul's*.
This was the reply he received from Councillor William Webb, Lincolnshire’s Executive Councillor for Highways.
“The Boston improvement schemes (which) include highways widening, the widening of the railway crossing, the improvement of the flow of traffic through the town – and also improvements to public transport and the transport infrastructure – was a package deal between the County Council and Boston Borough Council … a package of £10 million over three years.
“Boston Borough Council intimated to us that they were unwilling for their share of that £10 million - even if it was a pooled budget - to be used on tarmac. Therefore they suggested that they should use their share on the infrastructure to the public transport system. The £7½ million towards the black top if you like – the highways improvement – are nearly used up, and in fact the scheme is nearly completed on time and on budget and negotiations are ongoing with Boston Borough Council.
“I understand that meetings are to take place shortly – on which I can’t comment – as to the funding of the remaining part of the system which includes the public transport infrastructure, but I can assure Councillor Williams that the county council’s part of the procedure will be completed very shortly, and that they should be aware that £300,000 was vired to Boston Borough Council for the development of their local development infrastructure a couple of years ago. So we’re hoping that that matter can be resolved in negotiation with Boston Borough Council in the very near future.”
Hmmm…
Another version of events says that the BBI thought that the bus station improvement works might be cancelled to save money. Unfortunately for the BBI contracts had been issued and so, reluctantly, Boston agreed to stump up around £¾ million for the time being.
From Councillor Webb’s response, it seems likely that the council won’t be able to wriggle out of paying the balance either. We just hope that they get it out of the way in the current financial year – rather than try to burden whoever takes on the running of the council after May 5th  with still more debt.
Meanwhile – with an eye to a future that may not see his party playing a role – Councillor Ramonde Newell ( Independent at County Hall rather than BBI) came up with an interesting but shaky idea to progress his party’s alternative to the bypass they promised … the distributor road.
Pointing out that funding for the road will need to come mainly from land development projects, Councillor Newell told Councillor William Webb: “The government has just made £560 million available to encourage green travel. Could sections of a distributor road around Boston be part of such a green travel plan…?
“Boston has 25 borough car parks that ring the town. They could be linked to a green town centre for electric vehicles together with recharging points. Would the LCC be prepared to work with Boston to see if they could come up with green proposals that might meet the government’s green funding requirements?”
In reply, Councillor Webb had this to say….”We are quite excited by the proposals to encourage green transport. This is something which we will most definitely look at in conjunction with Boston Borough Council. There are, we think, quite exciting possibilities throughout the county - but none more so than in a situation such as Boston, where we know that if we could only get the funding from the correct place then a distributor road is more than necessary. We’ve always said this, there’s never been any argument about that. And if we have the opportunity to tap into another fund then we will grab this opportunity with both hands - and we look forward to working with you.”
Aside from the fact that we are sure that whilst the present leadership maintains, the idea of working with Boston is as popular with Lincolnshire County Council as a cyanide sandwich, we somehow don’t see this idea coming to fruition.
Councillor Newell’s idea is not clear enough.
Do the car parks form steps in a chain linked by a series of distributor roads? If so they are too close to town and will do nothing to relieve traffic congestion.
Do the car parks become a gathering point for electric vehicles? If so what’s the point? These vehicles may produce less by way of pollution but are still a source of congestion.
What exactly is “a green town centre for electric vehicles?”
If you want cleaner air, how about banning the polluting Brylaine fleet from Strait Bargate?
A look at the map shows Boston’s outermost car parks as still being almost in the town itself – such as Boston Shopping Park (the old ASDA site,) Tunnard Street, Station Approach and Blue Street.
Councillor Newell’s idea might have some merit, but at the moment – dare we say it – it appears to have been drawn up on the back of a fag packet.

* Yes we wondered too, so we e-mailed Councillor Williams to ask what prompted him to raise the issue. He told us: Sorry for the delay in replying to your email, but I have had no access to my emails until today. I raised the subject of funding for highways at Boston after a conversation with a Boston resident who had concerns that in the present economic climate, and taking into account Bostons' financial situation, "would there still be a new bus terminal and disabled facilities". I may not be a Boston councillor but I am a County Councillor and represent the people of Lincolnshire first and Spalding Elloe second.

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