Week ending 18th February

Our Friday miscellany

of the week's

news and events

Is crime a problem in Boston or isn’t it? After the borough was caught telling porkies on its website about December’s crime figures,  Council Leader Richard Austin tells the local papers that we should not be overly concerned about the level of offending in the borough as it’s really only penny-ante stuff. “We have a small minority of persistent low grade offenders who blight and shame our town,” he writes. So what he seems to be saying is that if suits you to massage the crime statistics so they don’t look so bad by dismissing some offences as “low grade” – that makes it all right. We’re further confused as this “apparently high amount of reported anti-social behaviour” comes so soon after the borough claimed that “new statistics show a marked reduction in the number of incidents of anti-social behaviour in the Boston area.” A while ago, we were encouraged to report anti social behaviour – and this is the result. Don’t forget that throughout this year we’re now also being encouraged to report “hate crime” – whether real or imagined. How will the council explain away the increases in that area in a few months’ time, we wonder?

According to Councillor Austin, one reason why the £100,000 Placecheck Project was established in Boston was to help fight anti-social behaviour, By our reckoning, that brings Boston’s spending on crime to more than half a million pounds - doing the job of the police at a time when the council is badly starved of money.

Secret squirrel strikes again … A couple of days ago the agenda for next Wednesday’s special cabinet meeting to fix Boston’s budget appeared online. On the first day we noted with interest that a report on Leisure Services by the Chief Executive and Strategic Director and Deputy Chief Executive was listed in the general business, but was unavailable at the time. A day later the item had been moved to the confidential agenda section – which means that the press and public will be thrown out of the meeting when it is discussed. Even our normally lethargic local “newspapers” are becoming a little tired of the BBI’s obsession with secrecy. They protested at being excluded when changes to staffing conditions were under discussion last week, and we hope that they might yet again in this case. Earlier this week we warned that it looks as though the borough’s leisure service plans were slipping into chaos with the Geoff Moulder Leisure Centre likely to be most seriously affected. Let’s not forget that this council has frittered away millions on the Princess Royal Sports Arena and has dragged its heels in the matter of pushing ahead with the “privatisation” of both the arena and the GMLC. All of this is important stuff which is of direct interest to taxpayers. It should be discussed in the open air not the stifling atmosphere of the committee room.

Still on sporting matters, it’s now more than six months since we were told that sport in Boston could benefit from 'substantial investment' with an application by Boston College for funding from the Skills Funding Agency to expand and improve its sporting curriculum by investing in land at the Peter Paine Sports Centre. Then, the cabinet gave its backing to a proposed lease between the authority and the college for the land it owns at the Rosebery Avenue site. Council leader Richard Austin said at the time: "It looks like a marriage made in heaven at first glance and wants to be pursued with enthusiasm are my initial thoughts." So what’s going on then…?

Earlier we mentioned the Placecheck programme, and that reminded us of last week’s headlines featuring the chairman and secretary of the Main Ridge scheme praising community volunteers for the efforts that have apparently “claimed back” the “no-go zone of Burgess Pit. A little bird tells us that co-incidentally the couple are both prospective BBI candidates. Another publicity coup for the BBI election machine!
We’re not sure whether it’s good news or not, but the latest figures from the Local Data Company show that Boston has fewer empty shops than when last surveyed. The figures say that the town now has 7.6% of empty shops which is down from 8.3%. These figures have in the past been vigorously contested by Boston BID – which like the BBI only believes in good news. The fact is that empty shops are still too many, and too obvious. For the umpteenth time, we ask what has happened to the government grant money that was allocated to decorate the windows of empty shops to make them less unsightly to passers-by. The amount in question was £12,000, we seem to recall. We’d hate for it to find its way into another budget because of time constraints.

Just as spring is coming into its own it was very disappointing to see all the bushes on the plantation besides John Adams Way between the air monitoring station and the Salvation Army citadel being hacked down by borough workmen. All right, we know that it is used as an overnight haven for some of our migrant population, but there must be a better solution than to spoil an otherwise attractive amenity area that makes the journey in and out of town look slightly more attractive.

At last Boston has a healthy claim to fame. Apparently Britain's largest purple sprouting broccoli farm is nearby - or so all the national papers told us yesterday as news that the tasty vegetable was in short supply after a bad winter dominated the headlines. We knew you'd be impressed.

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