Rocket science

- not rocket salads –

will make Boston better

If you think that nothing could be worse than living in a deprived area where life expectancy is low and drug taking rife, then call your estate agent now and ask him to sell your house in Boston and find you one elsewhere.
A turgid but terrifying document called Lincolnshire Joint Strategic Needs Assessment: Draft Overview Report 2011* has hit a computer screen near you, and it makes depressing reading for local people.
The assessment is the way primary care trusts and top tier local authorities “describe the future health, care and well-being needs of local populations and strategic direction of service delivery to meet those needs.”
This then helps them “to provide personalised services, promote health and well-being, prevent ill health and reduce health inequalities.”
Given the number of times Boston has previously appeared at the lower end of statistics like these, history suggests that whatever is being done – if indeed anything is being done – is having little, if any, impact on Bostonians.
Some headlines:
Twelve per-cent of Lincolnshire’s population now live within the 20% most deprived areas of England compared with 11% in 2007 - this figure is 29.8% for Lincoln, 22% for East Lindsey and 16.7% for Boston.
Female life expectancy is 82 years in Lincolnshire with Lincoln and Boston having the lowest life expectancy of 81.1 years.
Male life expectancy is 78.3 years with Boston having the lowest male life expectancy of 76.6 years.
Disability-free life expectancy at age 65 varies across the county, but the smallest gap is in Boston - which ranges from 16.7 to 19.3 years of disability-free life expectancy.
The infant mortality rate in Lincolnshire is 4.3 deaths per 1000 live births – but in Boston it is 8.1.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is affected by lifestyle factors which show that it is higher in areas of deprivation which also have the highest rates of adults reported smoking. In Lincolnshire these areas include Lincoln, Boston and East Lindsey.
Teenage pregnancy rates in Lincolnshire have continued to drop in line with national and regional rates but there are still areas within the county where levels
remain significantly higher – in particular East Lindsey, Boston and Lincoln City.
Areas with higher levels of deprivation also tend to have higher rates of sexually transmitted infection – and again, Boston is high on the list – following only Skegness and the coastal area.
Finally, although estimates of drug misuse in Lincolnshire are lower than both the East Midlands and England estimated levels, the figures mask wide variations across the districts. Lowest is West Lindsey with an estimated 3.5 problem drug users per 1000 people – whereas in Boston the estimate is 12.6 per 1000.
Whilst district councils have a peripheral role in the well-being of their residents, Boston tends to go further than some.
A while ago there were talks about creating a “healthy eating café” which struck us at the time as being not only a waste of money, but also a drop in the ocean of dealing with Boston health problems.
Thankfully, it appears to have died the death along with the Bypass Independent Party.
But a legacy of their nannying rule is the community “hub” which devotes most of its effort to trying to prevent people from smoking – usually involving the staff dressing up in silly costumes, which we are sure will have a real impact.
The problem is a classic example of the chicken and the egg – and which came first.
Hand in hand with that is the claim that Boston currently has the lowest standard of education in Lincolnshire, and problem areas such as Fenside - the most deprived
ward in Boston - which is ranked 923 out of a total of 8,414 wards in England placing it in the top 11% of most deprived wards in the country.
Against the context of reports like this we wonder why the world and his wife seem so keen on bringing back the Party in the Park – which seems to be dominating minds in the council more than anything much else.
Generally speaking, Boston is in decline.
The evidence is in the appearance of the town centre – the sameness of the drab, unimaginative poorly maintained shops, which include three mobile phone outlets in a row in Strait Bargate, and the excess of charity shops in and around the town.
The evidence is in the litter which abounds in our streets.
The evidence is in the total absence of a visible police presence.
We could go on.
Top of Boston Borough Council’s list must be to make the town a better place.
This does not mean selling rocket salads to reluctant fatties.
It means rounding on those responsible and getting them to focus on Boston and its trouble and come up with a cure as soon as possible.

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*You can read the full report by clicking here