Week ending 25th March

Our Friday miscellany

of the week's

news and events

When people talk about something not being worth the paper it is printed on, they seldom have political candidates in mind. But it seems that as our local elections draw nearer concerns are being raised that, on occasion, candidates with no chance of being elected to a particular seat have been nominated simply to make up the numbers. This pointless exercise plays a deceit on the electorate. Voters may be tricked into supporting a party on the assumption that the seat would not have been contested if the group in question did not believe it could win it. This might have the effect of robbing a genuine candidate of a chance. Even worse, if by some fluke the "paper" candidate won, how interested would they be in their council duties? The BBI has shown us what can happen when lacklustre councillors are elected. They show no interest, seldom speak, and vote as they are told. History should not be allowed to repeat itself.

Considering that the public often get cross with their councillors, when one councillor gets annoyed with another we have a potentially volatile situation. Such was the case when Councillor Anne Dorrian of the Better Boston Group became frustrated with the BBI’s Alison Austin. Unfortunately, according to local newspaper reports, Councillor Dorrian used an “inappropriate” phrase in an e-mail - but apologised within hours. That ought to have been the end of the matter. But Councillor Austin – whom we have never thought to be a shrinking violet – responded with a formal complaint which led to a year-long investigation that cost us taxpayers £4,366.42. She told the newspaper that she regarded the episode as “bullying” and Councillor Dorrian’s apology “can never reverse the effect upon me of what was written about me.” Funny, we have a similarly bad feeling about such a terrible waste of our money – especially as the council committee which heard the complaint didn’t deem it serious enough to warrant any kind of punishment. Oscar Wilde said “Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much,” while Mahatma Ghandi observed “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” Between the two, there’s a message in there somewhere.
Having said that, this seems to be a week of unforgiveness by the Austin council family, who are clearly in combative mode. Mrs A’s other half – BBI Leader Richard Austin – is pursuing the Conservatives with a complaint to the Electoral Commission over statements in the newsletter produced by Tories on Lincolnshire County Council. The newsletter says the BBI took the council to the brink of government intervention, and made large cuts in staff and services. Hyperbole is a mainstay of politics. It is defined as “the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally.” And anyway, are we wrong when we seem to recall Councillor Peter Jordan telling a meeting of the full council a year or two ago that the borough was almost bankrupt?
When Polish President Lech Kaczynski died in an air crash. Boston Borough Council was quick to fly the EU flag at half mast and open a book of condolence. A fortnight ago a disastrous earthquake and tsunami struck Japan – killing thousands and reducing whole towns and cities to rubble. Boston is has “twinning” links with Hakusan City in Japan. Has anything been done by way of sending a message of sympathy? Not as far as we can tell.
There’s a lot of publicity about the news that a scheme which helps homeless migrants in Boston to return to their native lands is to continue for another year, after a bid for £55,000 was successful. No doubt some of the 30 people already sent home under the scheme were here illegally. The latest announcement ignored the earlier news that illegal immigrants paid to leave the country can apply to return after just two years instead of current five-year minimum. Critics call the combination of payouts and swift returns a “fare-paid holiday at taxpayers’ expense.” Doubtless we’ll soon find out.
Another long letter from BBI Councillor Ramonde Newell in the local press laments the billions spent on wars that could instead have been used to ease our national debt and help with the budget deficit. His tour de farce is equally unforgiving to both the coalition and the previous Labour government. Councillor Newell signs himself as “Major (RTD) – which is short for “retired” … not anything else that might come to mind. This leaves us wondering why someone who spent so long in army service – as you have to do to reach the rank of major – is so averse to fighting. The dictionary defines an army as “a large body of people organized and trained for land warfare” so the odd battle ought not to come as a surprise. Mind you, they have Majors in the Salvation Army as well, don’t they?

A fritter ...

In the endless battle of the blame game, BBI Councillor Richard Dungworth must at least rank as a Brigadier. In another letter in the local papers, he says that the “previous Conservative-led council” missed an opportunity to refurbish the Geoff Moulder Leisure Pool when it had the luxury of a £40 million windfall from the sale of council housing stock. The windfall arrived in 1999, and it seems entirely possible to us that the pool was not then in need of refurbishment. Councillor Dungworth blames the old administration for frittering away money on the Haven Gallery and the PRSA. Strangely, we seem to think that huge amounts of money have also been frittered away by the BBI in the direction of the PRSA as well and are continuing to be so – but somehow, that goes unmentioned.

Elsewhere in the local papers is the news that Boston’s Early Morning Swimmers’ Club is closing after 31 years. A report tells us “after the council decided to demolish the training pool and closed it in 2009 a user group was formed in which the club participated to try and save the pool.” Swimmers’ Club Chairman David Lamb added: “With a petition of over 8,000 signatures, the council reversed their decision – but it has not acted to re-open the pool.” Comments, please, Councillor Dungworth.

Let’s see if we’ve got this right…. The cells at Boston Police Station are likely to close, with prisoners transferred to Spalding. This is because of the “state” of the cells in Boston, and the move would mean that money would not need spending on refurbishing them. So far, so good, but Spalding Police Station is set to undergo redevelopment which will see an increase in its cell capacity. Surely, a sensible answer would be to refurbish the ten cells in Boston and keep prisoners there, rather than building more cells in Spalding. At the root of all this, says Assistant Chief Constable Keith Smy, is the fact that Boston is “an old building.” Old? That’s a matter of opinion. Our recollection is that the police station was opened in the late 1970’s, which scarcely puts it on the list of Boston’s medieval monuments.

Boston’s green waste collections are under threat after four years because the money has run out. Although it was a good try, and collected some 3,000 tons of green waste which might have otherwise have gone to landfill, it was far from perfect. It required residents to bag up their waste, and then drive it to a not-always-convenient location in a narrow time frame to get it collected. The council says that if we can’t compost out own waste, we can take it to the LCC tip at Wyberton. But the problem for many is the same as with the old collection system. What do you do if you don’t own a car, or for other reasons (possibly of disability,) are unable meet the conditions? Some years ago, Boston Borough Council mooted a garden waste collection scheme where residents would pay £20 a year and receive a special wheelie bin which would be emptied once a fortnight in the growing season. Why this idea was never progressed, we will never know, but it seems time to reconsider it. Certainly things work well in both South Holland and East Lindsey. In the former, you can buy garden waste collection bags and leave them out for collection. In East Lindsey, bins are provided and collected as part of the service. We are sure that many people would be quite prepared to pay a reasonable charge for a collection service in Boston. Why not test the waters?

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