Week ending 13th May

Our Friday miscellany

of the week's

news and events

What a splendid Friday 13th - Google’s Blogger service crashed due to technical problems, which prevented us from posting for most of the day. Our apologies on their behalf, as this was something totally beyond our control.

Amidst all the hoo-hah of the past few days about leadership of the new council, we mentioned that we’d heard that the job of mayor had also been stitched up. Now we hear that Councillor Mary Wright was announced as the borough’s next Mayor at a meeting of the Witham Placecheck scheme earlier in the week. Councillor Wright is a newly elected representative for Witham Ward, and we are sure that joy was unconfined when the news was broken. What bothers us is that despite being publicly announced, both the roles of leader and mayor are subject to nomination and election by the full council. Perhaps the Tories plans the same “we’ve got the majority … so there” tactics, and the whipping of their members so heavily criticised by the late-lamented BBI bosses. But the fact remains that whilst the Conservatives may have an overall majority of six, unless their backbenchers turn out to be a compliant lot, it only takes a few to disagree with the top brass to put the cat among the pigeons!
Meanwhile, we note that Labour has appointed its team - a leader, a deputy leader, and a Chair of the Labour Group. Mind you, that’s easy-peasy when there are only three of you in any case, and it makes us wonder – how big does a group have to get before it runs out of titles and reverts to a simple leader and deputy scenario?
As reality sinks in for our thirteen newly elected councillors – many of them completely new to the job - and they start to get to grips with the work that needs to be done at West Street, we wonder if it is by sheer co-incidence that tomorrow sees the start of Adult Learners Week. If they were hoping for any pointers, they will be disappointed. Boston – where the word education is largely seen as a profanity – will see courses for painting with acrylics, painting on glass, and painting watercolours. There are just two attempts to bring us into the world of IT - a computer and online basics course, and creating a poster. Still, there’s always next year.
Businesses in Boston Market Place have been given cold comfort if they were hoping for a bumper Christmas. Apparently council staff have been dropping in to tell them that not only will the £2 million refurbishment project be late starting, it may also drag on into the New Year. If it does, work will be suspended for a fortnight over the festive shopping period. And a Yo, ho, ho to you too …
Two visitors enter the Giles 51 Gallery in Strait Bargate, and spend some time wandering around looking at the exhibits before departing. Throughout their visit, the “receptionist” never once raises her eyes from her keyboard or troubles to speak to them. This useless addition to the town’s “culture” was provided at great expense along with the “community hub” next door, which is now more presentable but no less pointless. What a shame that those who staff it cannot take the trouble to make the few visitors that do go in, feel welcome and a part of – not apart from – the community.
As a communications tool, there is nothing to beat blogging – and politicians find it particularly useful, as it is an immediate way to put a point across. However, in the case of Boston Borough Councillor David Owens, this point appears to have been missed. His most recent blog was a week ago today – 6th May, the day after the local elections. The one before it was 10th May last year … the day after the general election. If a week is a long time in politics, then a year is an eternity. Way back then, after throwing in his lot with the Independents on the council, Councillor Owens was telling us “Please fear not, I have in no way whatsoever switched allegiance from the BNP, in fact far from it.” A year on – under a photograph of a line in the sand, he writes: “As many people who follow local politics here in Boston may be aware I have drawn a line under my association with the BNP and stood for election as an English Democrat.” What next, we wonder?
For the next four years, at least, Councillor Owens and his newly elected Fenside colleague for the English Democrats, Councillor Elliott Fountain, plan to push for the return of the Party in the Park and also for an elected mayor for Boston. Until yesterday, whilst Councillor Fountain didn't blog, he Tweeted – and if you had any doubts about his preferred candidate should an elected mayor get the nod, his Twitter page was headed “elliottformayor” and proclaimed “i am elliott fountain, i am running to be elected mayor of boston lincolnshire , to make it a better place to live for everyone, please support and follow me.” Since the election, several readers have been in touch about some of the comments posted on the page – but when we looked yesterday it was all very prosaic. What we did note  was that the wannabe mayor’s “followers” included some people you might not usually think of as being interested in political campaigning. But today, the entry appears to have completely vanished.
We know that being a councillor is an important job, but this week’s Boston Standard has perhaps over-emphasised the might of the council leader.

Local hacks, please take note - it’s a council – not a kingdom!
Still with the Standard, and its entertaining use of the English language, we also spotted this little gem in the court news.

It makes it sounds like one of those cars driven by circus clowns…..
Speaking of which, the penultimate blog on the Boston Bypass Independents’ webpage followed the meandering trend set earlier. But we were taken by the following lines penned by Blogger Number Two: “In any circus … it is the clowns who often steal the show. To be a clown probably needs the greatest talent of all; something which few people can do effectively.” If BLT is who we think he is, then he, of all the BBI members, should know!
Behind the scenes, work is going on to excise the name of the leader of Boston Bypass Independents from Boston Borough Council’s website now that he no longer runs the council. But fans will still find him on Facebook by clicking here then clicking on the photo to enlarge it.

Facebook is normally used by more outgoing people than Councillor Austin, and looking at some of the names on his list of “friends” we’re reminded of the old phrase “with friends like these …”
Meanwhile another Facebook entry tells us something we didn’t know before.

Posted in the day of the election, it claims: “The BBI have been working for a bypass for the last four years. We are hoping to be announce a partnership with a local developer soon which should see the first section built.” It’s unlike the BBI to hide its light under a bushel, and we wonder what impact such news might have had on the election outcome had it been more widely known.
Finally, yesterday’s comments by re-elected Councillor Brian Rush produced an anonymous comment from a colleague. “My concern is that many of the councillors who did get in under the BBI banner in 2007 and then left the group should have had a by-election. These people were not originally voted in as independents, but on getting a bypass. This recent election was the first chance to reject these people, and maybe they lost their seats due to that fact. 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. 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.” We wonder whether the writer has wind of any members of the new intake planning to switch allegiance at an early stage.

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