Week ending 3rd June

Our Friday miscellany

of the week's

news and events

Everywhere we turn, we seem to encounter demands to dispose of our green waste more considerately. This is all very fine, but the impression we re being given is that it is wrong to put garden waste into our green wheelie bins. Although it is inconvenient for Boston Borough Council, for many residents it is the only solution and it is not unllawful. The so-called garden waste collection service calls at fewer destinations these days. Visitors to the Slippery Gowt tip are instructed to rip open their waste bags rather than just throw them into the skips. Many people are rightly reluctant to use their cars to cart garden waste. Many do not have cars to use – or cars that are too small. Many are disabled, and simply unable to undertake the struggle needed to comply with any of these requests. We have said it before – the answer is the introduction of a third wheelie bin into the system – one exclusively dedicated to garden waste. Other district councils in the county can manage this, so why not Boston? We suspect that people may even be prepared to pay for the privilege. Such an idea was proposed some years ago, and we do not recall huge howls of protest at the idea.
There’s some consternation at Westminster this week with the publication of a list which ranks MPs

according to how sexy they are. Boston’s member, 47 year-old Mark Simmonds  (pictured left) comes 177th out of 648 MPs on the list. We’re not quite sure what this means – either Mark is sexier than we previously thought (although to be honest, it’s not something we’ve spent much time thinking about) – or the numbers from 178 onwards are a pretty gruesome bunch. It gave us pause for thought, though. Does anyone fancy drawing up a similar list for members of Boston Borough Council? It could be quite an eye-opener! It’s just a shame that so many of those of-so-sexy BBI councillors are sadly no longer with us.

As Boston Borough Council issues a warning about the e.coli outbreak, it also highlights a link to a helpful list for the town’s bon viveurs which makes “awards” for levels of hygiene and management. These range from gold for “excellent standards of hygiene and management” through silver and bronze, to a refusal to make an award due to “unacceptable standards of hygiene and management.” Six of the borough’s dozens of eateries fall into this latter category – including a well-known local pub and a busy fish and chip shop. The question we think needs asking is: - why are these places still allowed to open? If, as we assume, the awards accorded by the borough staff are for a different level of hygiene than that required under health and safety rules, then what is the point of doing it? Be that as it may, the borough’s food premises are being inspected on a regular basis which seems largely pointless – but something that costs time and money.
We appreciate that it must be a struggle when it comes to filling Boston Borough Council’s monthly bulletin. The content can’t all be worthy stuff – although it mostly is – and the occasional lighter feature helps to leaven the mix. But we do wonder how great enthusiasm is among Bostonians to learn about the joys of owning veteran MG sports cars. The latest bulletin is the fourth out of fourteen issues to feature them – and more than 2,000 words have been written on the subject accompanied by no fewer than ten pictures. Time to put it in the garage, Morris.
How times change as they move on. Every so often, a website called Political Calculus analyses what the opinion polls are saying and produces a prediction of who would be running the country if an election were to be held tomorrow. Readers may be surprised to learn that the overall average gave Labour a lead of 4% over the Conservatives, down from 5% last month. The Liberal Democrats continued to poll at around 11%. The new national prediction is that Labour would have a majority of 34 seats, winning 342 seats - down 9 seats since 1 May. Let’s hope that figures like this are heeded at a local level – especially by parties that think they rule the roost.
For some while there has been an entertaining local blog on the internet called Watching Lincolnshire County Council. It was run by staff past and present, and was something of an eye-opener from time to time. Sadly, a visit earlier this week produced the message "watchinglcc.wordpress.com is no longer available. The authors have deleted this blog." It doesn’t take much imagination to imagine why. A lot of the items uncovered things going on behind the scenes that we are sure the council wished would rather have not found their way into the limelight. Sadly, their response seems to have been not to try to clean up their act – but to pressurise the publishers into silence. We’ve been on the receiving end of this sort of treatment ourselves, and are sorry that watchingLCC succumbed. History is full of examples of organisations which preferred to use bully-boy tactics on anyone who dared to criticise them – and we are sure that you don’t need us to remind you of some of the more unsavoury examples from, the past 100 years.
Good news for people living in Spalding, who are being asked for their views on plans to reduce traffic congestion in the area. Lincolnshire County Council wants to build a new road linking the B1172 with the A151, to ease the impact on traffic flow of the town's six railway level crossings. Although the route of the planned road has yet to be decided, discussions with affected landowners are continuing, and public consultations will be held in July. It’s not such good news for the people of Boston, though, as we see another few millions that might have gone towards a Boston bypass going on cosmetic surgery for Spalding. We said a long time ago that Boston has now received all the traffic monies it is likely to for the foreseeable future, and this latest news serves only to underline the fact.

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