Come on Boston - make

your voice heard!

It is seldom if ever that Boston Borough Council misses a chance to pat itself on the back.

The latest triumph being trumpeted on its website is to say that the council was one of only 128 out of a total of 433 in the UK to meet a requirement to provide an e-petition facility on their websites.

Yes, really.

We’re sure that you are completely under-whelmed by the news.
The chance to post an e-petition has been available since December 15th.

The idea is that your petition and supporting information can be made available to a potentially much wider audience, and thus get more names in support.

Anyone who wants to support a petition can add their name and address online. Information about the subject is also provided, to put the petition in context and help people to decide whether to sign – and you can also see who else has supported it.
So far the people of Boston have greeted the chance to get on their hobbyhorse with the level of enthusiasm that we have come to expect.
Not a single petition has been posted in the three months since the opportunity was created.
Three test petitions were posted before the site became operative. For some unaccountable reason they still remain on there in the standard dummy Lorem Ipsum text used by the printing and typesetting industry since the 1500s, and which has its roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC.
End of history lesson.
As befits Boston Borough Council, there is a shed-load of rules attached to placing a petition. You have to wait up to five days for it to be approved, and you need at least ten signatures or the council won’t accept it.
It’s a shame that Boston people have been so backward in coming forward and presenting petitions but it seems they are not alone.
No-one in neighbouring South Holland has taken up the opportunity, and as far as we can tell there is no such service available yet in on East Lindsey.
At county council level, Lincolnshire is far pickier. Petitions with 1,750 signatures can be referred to the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee, where a chief officer could be called to give evidence, and only those petitions with 3,500 signatures could trigger a debate at the full council.
Pretty safe there, then.
Current petitions at county level number a paltry two – one about heavy lorries, farm vehicles and trailers causing damage to the roads, and the other calling for
wi-fi access to the internet in local libraries.
But that’s immaterial – at least there are some.
There are a host of things that people in Boston could petition about.
Opposing the iron grip of secrecy imposed by the BBI Star Chamber could be a good starter for ten.
Or testing public opinion for a ban on buses driving through Strait Bargate.
Or what about using the e-petition service as a test bed for the debate over whether or not Boston should have an elected mayor?
Let’s hope that local people take a look at the way they think their lives could be improved and start petitioning.

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