Our Friday miscellany

of the week's

news and events

After all the trumpeting about the deal to “save” the Geoff Moulder Leisure Centre training pool, it seems that the plan isn’t quite as original as it was cracked up to be. Frampton and Holme’s Independent Councillor Brian Rush, writes to say: “It is ironic isn’t it, that this ‘new idea’ was put forward by the Better Boston Group way back? We had many meetings with Adrian Reed (executive headmaster of the Witham Schools Federation) and the Swimming Club, regarding just such a take over at the time. Had this idea not been talked down by Boston Borough Council officers, but taken forward - instead of running with the Leisure Connections debacle - so much time could have been saved, along with lots and lots of taxpayers money. I know success is never guaranteed, and I do hope the Conservatives will be big enough to give credit where it is due. Sometimes local people do know best, and maybe, just maybe, if our officers began to listen to local ideas, Boston might just be a better place.”
After our attempts earlier in the week to clarify exactly what the election of a mayor might mean for Boston, a reader sent us details of developments at Labour-run Leicester City Council – which recently abolished the post of chief executive. Directly-elected mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said the post was "redundant" because his role included most of the responsibilities of a chief executive, and that the council could save £175,000 a year by abolishing the post. Critics who say that changing the system would be more expensive, please take note!
What a funny old world it is when freedom of speech is threatened in a place like Boston! We accept that some people don't like what we say about our local politicians - invariably the politicians themselves - but have always remained satirical, and nothing more.  We once said that if identified we would cease blogging, and until recently that would have been the case. However, earlier this week we were confronted by something quite sinister.  An e-mail apparently from a senior councillor - couched humorously, but unambiguously -  claimed to know where a team member lived and included the words "be careful what you write ... "  We replied and questioned the implied threats in this communication and sought clarification, without success. We are not scared by bullyboy tactics and claims of knowing things which can be no more than guesses.   It is sad when politicians stoop so low to avoid criticism, but Boston Eye is made of sterner stuff. We would also be grateful if whoever has been repeatedly trying to hack our site would call it a day!
There seem to be some strange attitudes where our so-called visitor “attractions” are concerned. We note that the Guildhall – one of our few historic buildings – will close at noon tomorrow, then again at 12.30pm on 3rd September and 1pm on 24th September. The reason is that it has been booked for private functions on those dates. The Guildhall’s opening times are already pathetic – just 10-30am to 3-30pm Wednesday to Saturday. Surely an accommodation could have been made so that the private events started a couple of hours later to avoid the possibility of  potential visitors being disappointed? Apparently not.
But it gets worse. Now, the Maud Foster windmill has closed its tearooms after months of disruption from roadworks that made no difference at all to the traffic problems on Spilsby Road that they were designed to alleviate. 
Much further down the chain, we note that the giles52gallery  -which cost taxpayers so much money when it was created as part of a “community hub,” has been closed for the last fortnight – during what is probably the busiest time of the year for visitors. It seems that the goal of wrecking the town’s small businesses by closing the Market Place for at least  eight months is not enough. The plan now appears to be to run down what few visitor attractions we have as well.
Talking of the Market Place, we note that this week’s Boston Standard claims credit for the opening of an information centre to keep business owners abreast of developments. It was planned anyway, but according to the Standard came “just days after we called for a meeting.” Unfortunately, we can’t quite trace this call being made in the "newspaper" or on its website. Not only that, but as businesses can see their livelihoods being destroyed before their eyes, we see little to be gained from the presence of  a mostly unmanned information centre and a comments book – though some of the comments might well prove interesting!   Staff from the contractors will be available for three hours each Wednesday and Friday – but what can they say to make people feel better?  They can sympathise - possibly - but nothing is going to change. Hurrah for the Boston Standard. File the story under the same category as its “demand” for answers concerning North Sea camp made three weeks ago – which apparently have yet to materialise.
And still with the Market Place refurbishment – we have raised the point several times that works such as this seem to take far longer than they once did. An especially good example was the previously-mentioned Spilsby Road fiasco – which took twelve weeks to complete – possibly because on some occasions there were as few as three workers on site.

A  reader sent the picture on the right, which goes a long way to explaining why it will take  at least eight months to complete the Market Place works. Two men prepare for the arrival of a two foot length of kerbstone - which is being manoeuvred into place by a third man using a mini crane. How long it takes to lay each kerbstone is anyone’s guess – but we bet that in the old days of manual labour it would have taken a fraction of the time.

We are sure that the change of name from the Boston Bypass Independents to the Boston District Independents will do much to win the hearts and minds of the borough’s electorate. Accompanying the news is the same old waffle about independent thinking - and the suggestion that individual independents have little influence ...  whereas combining "independence" wins places on committees and greater power. Going it alone doesn’t seem to have harmed our individual independents so far, as they are well represented on committees. It sounds to us like the mixture as before – and as far as we can tell, the BBI/BDI hasn’t exactly blazed a trail at Worst Street since May’s elections. But now that it has finally thrown in the towel, it might find time to delete the BBI blog which began on 12th May 2007 and ended fifteen days later - and which still lists all the founder members of that ill-starred council  ... despite the claim that “this blog will be updated regularly to keep you informed on our progress…” Its earliest broken promise perhaps …?
Finally, in a move which could come back to haunt him, Skirbeck Ward Labour Councillor Paul Gleeson is inviting Boston people to name their local “grot spots.” He says – quite rightly – “We feel it is essential to run an all year round campaign on cleaning up our town and our estates.” The idea is that we send in photos of our grot spots and the reasons why we have nominated them. The details will then be highlighted on the local Labour Party website. We hope that they are prepared for the site to crash due to the sheer volume of contributions!
That’s it for this week – we’ll be back on Wednesday after a a slightly extended Bank Holiday break – but we’re not going away - and if you need us,  you can get in touch by e-mail.

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