Week ending 11th March

Our Friday miscellany

of the week's

news and events

There are lots of protests in this week’s local “newspapers” about the BBI’s obsession with secrecy and making sure that the general public is kept in the dark about council decisions for as long as possible. Now it appears that this also extends to councillors as well. After the brou-ha-ha surrounding the decision to eject the public from the debate on the collapse of the borough’s leisure service plans, it emerged that whilst it was ok for the Chief Executive to brief the press two days later, members remained under a confidentiality embargo for the duration.
An interesting challenge is waiting in the wings for the forthcoming Boston Borough Council election on May 5th. A reader writes to tell us: - “I am intending to run for Fenside Ward, and possibly under the banner of English Democrats. It is also my intention very soon to get 2,400 of the electorate to sign a petition to create a referendum on having a elected executive mayor, which I plan to run for and hopefully win.” The more the merrier, we say. The English Democrats (motto "Not left, not right, just English") are an English federalist political party, seeking a devolved English Parliament with at least the same powers as the Scottish Parliament. They are not to be confused with the far-right street protest movement the English Defence League. Talking of elected Mayors – what ever happened to the announcement by Bypass Independent Councillor Jim Blaylock that he planned to campaign for a referendum on whether Boston should have an elected mayor rather than seek re-election?
Once again, Boston Borough Council – aka the BBI – is trumpeting the news that there will be no increase in council tax for borough taxpayers this year – of a zero per-cent increase, as they so fond of calling it. It would be a praiseworthy act were it not for the fact that in last year’s emergency budget, Chancellor George Osbourne announced that the Government would work with local authorities to freeze council tax for a year from April. Doing what you’re told isn’t quite the same as coming up with the idea yourself.
The new Mid-Lincolnshire ‘phone book dropped through our doors last week. It calls itself “compact” (translation: very small – and printed in microscopic type) and made of 100% recycled fibres (thinner than tissue paper.) The news that you can be sure that every advertiser in the book is “genuinely looking for new business” means the classified section no longer lists all trades – only those who have paid for space. Boston just scrapes its way on to the Mid Lincolnshire map. Unhelpfully, areas that would be useful to us, such as Spalding and Sleaford are omitted, but areas that involve a three-day camel trek to reach such as Gainsborough and Market Rasen are included. What a totally useless directory!
Talking of maps … we viewed the long awaited 3d map of Boston being produced by the Boston Improvement District with something approaching horror. It more closely resembles a screenshot of Google Earth than anything else. BID manager Niall Armstrong tells us that there are still some parts that need to be filled in “and once this is done adjustment will be made to make sure that the street plan remains visible.” Surely, that’s the idea. Whatever – whilst it offers a grand bird’s eye view of Boston, it is of little use as a map – which is what it was designed for … at  a wholesale price of £1.70 a copy, don’t forget!
Apparently a fortnight is also a long time in politics as well as a week. The Boston Target of February 23rd quoted Deputy Chief Executive Phil Drury denying suggestions that the private management company Leisure Connection was seeking to renegotiate its deal to run the PRSA. Quote from the Target this week: “Members agreed to scrap a proposed deal which would have seen private firm Leisure Connection take over the running of the Geoff Moulder and the PRSA.” All right - it’s not quite the same thing. But …
There was an insightful exchange between the genuinely Independent Councillor Richard Leggot and BBI Leader BBI Richard Austin at last week’s council meeting. It followed a decision to expel the BBI from the so-called Leaders’ Meetings which the ruling party so often fails to attend. Councillor Leggott asked: “Councillor Austin, on behalf of the people of Boston, I ask you, are you not ashamed that it is the attitude displayed by yourself and other representatives of Boston Bypass Party in attendance at the regular group leaders' meetings with the Chief Executive that has led to the necessity for such meetings, in future, to be held without a Bypass Party presence if they are to continue at all? Quick as a flash, Councillor Austin retorted: “I have always been willing to join in the leaders’ meetings, I am quite happy to do so in future. They have not been successful or productive meetings due to the aggressive and continually attacking nature of the opposition leaders. The Chief Executive has told me that he has agreed to a meeting of opposition leaders. This is not the first of these that have been held and they are a perfectly normal part of local government life.” The answer produced a supplementary question from Councillor Leggott. “Councillor Austin in his answer has ably demonstrated some of the reasons why the opposition groups have asked for separate group leaders' meetings. He has not addressed the question which was put - are you not ashamed - he has blamed everybody else and then involved the Chief Executive, or as we opposition groups refer to him now, Councillor Austin’s flak jacket. Following the response from Councillor Austin there is no need for any follow up question to reinforce my point.”
The phrase “keep the home fires” burning took on a whole new meaning this week with the news that the company that runs London's fire engines faces a financial crisis and claims that the problems at AssetCo Fire and Rescue could see them being sold off to raise funds. Why are we bothered? In April 2006 Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service signed a 20- year private public partnership support services contract with AssetCo to supply, manage and maintain their vehicles and operational equipment.
If the Boston Standard believes it can stem the inexorable decline in its readership via the cult of personality, we would advise against it. Page 1 of this week’s issue reports the Standard coming to the rescue of the Seabank Marathon, and pictures five members of staff jumping for joy at the news – presumably in the absence of anyone else. Page 2 features a photo of the editor to illustrate her appeal for sponsorship in the Lincoln 10k run. “If every reader donated just £1, I would … raise £10,000” she burbles. Not with a circulation of 8,756, you won’t! Page 9 has a story all about the Standard launching a new directory site, whilst on page 12, the big news is that there is still time to book a free session with the paper’s financial advisor. Page 21 carries a half –page feature on how great the Standard’s website is, whilst the whole of page 23 is dedicated to the list of nominees for this year’s Boston Standard Pride Awards – an event that if memory serves us right successfully filled quite a lot of pages last year and will doubtless do so again in 2011. If the Standard is looking for something really different in this day and age, might we suggest that the inclusion of news would be an excellent starting point. For a moment, we thought that the headline “Dullest February in Boston since 1993” also referred to the Standard – but on closer examination discovered that the story was about the local weather.
Finally, a little known fact emerged this week that ought to be worth an entry in the borough’s Roll of Achievement. History’s greatest gardener – Capability Brown – married a Boston girl … Bridget Wayet.


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