Week ending 8th April

Our Friday miscellany

of the week's

news and events

...and our 700th blog

The other day we were talking about Boston Borough Council and secrecy - and it now seems that the need not to know has been extended to our councillors themselves. Under the section "How does the council work...? the invitation "click here for further details of councillors (in wards)" is followed by the information "You are not authorised to view this resource. You need to login." - which ordinary members of the public are unable to do, of course. And under the section "council and democracy" (no pun intended) clicking on the section entitled "Councillors" produces a ward chart with names and home addresses of members. Regular users of the council website will recall that once upon a time, there was a section which listed all the borough's councillors, together with their photographs and their e-mail addresses. Now it seems, we are no longer allowed to know what they look like, nor to contact them unless we know how the system works. We hope that this is simply an error, and that it will soon be rectified.
We hear that the English Democrats are challenging the decision to reject three of their candidates' applications for next month's borough elections because of errors in the electoral numbers submitted. By one of those unfortunate ironies, the letters sent from the council declaring the nominations for all three candidates void was dated 18th February 2005. "We find this very amusing," said a spokesman. "We get one number wrong, but they get numbers, months and years wrong!" Welcome to Boston!
Our quote of the week comes from the Risk Management report next week’s Boston Borough Council's Audit Committee meeting. It reads: “The authority's risk appetite is defined by the tolerance lines on the risk matrix below which is used to score residual and target risk and to identify control and monitoring requirements. These are guidelines and can be flexible where necessary.” Trust us; you’d be none the wiser if you saw the “matrix” in question.
The news that the vegetable firm Staples has won permission to site 40 caravans for workers  – despite Environment Agency misgivings about the risk of flooding – may be the thin end of a welcome wedge. A public inquiry into the agency’s stance saw Boston Borough Council backing Staples and submitting a study which contradicted the agency's predictions. The argument was accepted by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, who ruled that the agency's computer modelling was over-cautious. That’s one small step towards a possible improvement in the borough’s economy. If the Environment Agency can be persuaded to look again at its models – and the result lowers the flood risk estimate - businesses and builders might decide that Boston is no longer a high risk flood area. We may then see more inward investment – so long as we are sensible, and don’t open the floodgates to development, so to speak. In that case, we can do without huge posters such as the one below – prominently displayed on the A52 Liquorpond Street, the road that takes visitors in and out of the town.

The message it sends is unambiguous. The illustration clearly depicts Boston, and the flooding is not minimal. Are we so determined to drive investment away - despite the evidence to the contrary?
Lincolnshire County Council is taking over the management of the Visit Lincolnshire tourism website a month after forcing its closure by pulling out its funding along with the axed East Midlands Development Agency. The website will become part of a wider strategy for boosting visitor numbers, which will include working with the private sector. In the past, Visit Lincolnshire has been largely indifferent to Boston as a destination, and so far little seems to have changed. We can only keep our fingers crossed – but it would not be a good idea for Boston to put all its eggs in the county council’s basket. Having said that, we wouldn’t give the task to Boston BID, given its track record to date.
Still with attractions, we are somewhat baffled by the decision to drop visitor charges to Boston’s Guildhall for a year. Prima facie, it seems an act that combines generosity with a desire to educate people in the history and heritage of their town. Cynically, we imagine that visitor numbers have been so low that it was decided to abandon charges to avoid red faces when the accounts are published. Certainly, charges were proposed to continue in the 2011-12 –  although they were for a 10p reduction for ordinary visitors. Other council documents talk of using £7,750 savings on publicity budget for the Haven and the Guildhall to cover rent for an industrial estate unit and to buy a container unit to store the Guildhall’s collection of items.

Now that’s what we call conserving our heritage. And no wonder no-one visits when you blow the publicity budget elsewhere.
And here’s an idea for a worldwide attraction for Boston in the months ahead. Why don’t we set up a couple of webcams aimed at the Market Place so that people can watch the progress of the multi-million pound regeneration project from the comfort of their homes – wherever they live. Perhaps it could feature on a website showing off some of Boston’s other attractions. It can be done for such a small cost these days that it would seem a heaven sent opportunity to promote the town.
As one door closes another one opens. The council recently confessed to wasting a shed-load of money on the utterly useless community rooms and art gallery project but took the view that as the cash came as a government grant, it didn’t really matter, and the whole thing could be treated as a learning experience. Undeterred, that nice Communities Secretary has just handed Boston another pile of cash. Just over £82,000 comes in the shape of what is little more than a bribe – a payment in exchange for freezing council tax … something the BBI trumpets as if they did it without any external inducement at all. Boston has also picked up another £208,000 from the same ministry in the form of a grant to help disabled people live in their homes more comfortably. And there’s more. Another £152,110 is arriving in the shape of a “New Homes Bonus Scheme Grant Determination.” What’s it for? “The purpose of the grant is to provide support to local authorities in England towards expenditure lawfully incurred or to be incurred by them.” Now there’s a blank cheque for you.  With such generosity, we wonder if minister Eric Pickles is any relation of the late entertainer Wilfred (“give him the money, Mabel”) Pickles.
In the old days, newspapers came up with all sorts of cunning ideas to win new readers. But in Boston, a more fundamental human appeal seems to be the one that they think will work most effectively. The Boston Target has stolen the Standard’s thunder by talking over the offer of a free sausage roll for every reader. Crumbs! Meanwhile news that the food company Domino’s Pizza is to open a shop in town is accompanied by the quote that the company “has identified Boston as having a great potential for pizza.” Perhaps that’s why we already have so many places selling them. We note that this new one is planned for Skirbeck Road – doubtless to make it easy for the students to stuff themselves with junk food without having to walk too far to get it. It seems that whatever we try to do, there are people determined that Boston should regain its crown as the fattest place in Britain.
As Boston ponders where its next penny is coming from to help collect the mountain of green waste set to accumulate across the summer months, East Lindsey District Council has announced the resumption of its annual collection, which uses wheelie bins collected at the door rather than Boston's haphazard street corner collection which requires residents to deliver their waste to a vehicle. Whilst East Lindsey seems able to deal with the issue with ease – and with its own funds – Boston relied on a Defra grant and simply wound up the service when the money ran out. We are neighbouring authorities. How come one can do a proper job, and the other totter from crisis to crisis?
At last! We congratulate District Judge Richard Blake for his robust stance at Boston Magistrates in handing out prison sentences to a persistent thief, a man who failed to carry out a community service order, and a third who didn’t pay his fines. For too long people like this have received warnings and gone on to ignore them. Perhaps it will also see an end to the laughable “mitigation” offered by our local solicitors, who think that being an alcoholic is a defence for stealing booze.
Next week, we plan to look at the manifestoes of the people and parties fighting for a seat in the forthcoming borough council elections. We welcome copies from any party or individual who would like to be included

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