"Broken promises

made me quit" 

On Friday, we carried a comment from an anonymous council member concerned that councillors elected under the BBI banner in 2007, who then left the group, continued in office without offering voters the chance to re-instate them at a by-election.

The comments followed an item by Councillor Brian Rush - who had quit the BBI, allied with the Better Boston Group for the remainder of the previous council term, then stood successfully as an independent.

“If you are voted in by the people, you are responsible and answerable to the people - not two parish councils who you can stand in front of, and who probably don’t want to say anything bad to a nice man to his face” said the writer. “If he had asked the same question to the full Boston borough council when he decided to switch, obviously they would have voted against him. The only fair way was to ask the people. Local issues need to be addressed by local people; real power must be returned to local people.”
Councillor Rush has since come back to Boston Eye with the following in reply.
“The ‘anon’ writer, who suggested that I ought to have stood for re-election in 2007/8, might at least do me the service of considering a few things.
“It may have escaped Anon’s attention but the Boston Bypass title did include the word Independent.
“This only carries some significant importance because it was reinforced by these facts.
“Those of us who were ‘approached’ to stand under the bypass banner, were given an absolute assurance by Richard Austin and Peter Jordan, that the only item that we would be expected to collectively support, was the delivery of a bypass.
“Other than this, we were told … and I quote, Elected Members will be free to act and vote as ‘Independents’ on any other issue.
It was only after the election that Mr Austin and Jordan decided to abandon that promise; this would prove to be the first of many dishonourable acts of treachery.
“I resigned from the Boston Bypass Independents because ‘they betrayed my election promise’ to fight for a bypass for Boston, as stated in the group’s manifesto.
“Does Anon not also recall the fact that the BBI promised ‘a full investigation into the financial affairs of the PRSA? ‘
“He will know this never took place either. Instead overseen by Councillors Jordan and Dungworth, they continued to pour valuable taxpayers money into what BBI cabinet member Ray Newell publicly condemned as ‘a white elephant.’
“In case Anon is unaware, I have continued with my promise, and have publicly challenged and questioned PRSA performance and management.
“I will concede that the action I took may have been contentious, but I honestly believe I did the right thing, and one can only assume, looking at my re-election results, that many of those I represent who came out to vote, obviously do not hold the same view as Anon and even those who did not vote, cannot have considered my continuance a serious enough issue to have got out of their chairs to vote me out!
It is a moot point, but look at what has happened to those BBI-ers who did abandon those promises!”

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