Who was that mystery man in the mask - oh, just the loan arranger

The million pound mystery - Boston's pioneering version of quantitative easing all those years ago -rumbles on.
According to the BBC's website of Lincolnshire news, "an investigation" has begun at Boston Borough Council into the reasons for the loan ... at 11 per-cent ... taken out nearly 20 years ago, and officials have admitted they haven't a clue why the money was borrowed or what it was used for.
The BBC quotes Councillor Richard Lenton as saying that the situation is "unacceptable" - which has echoes of the saga of Sir Fred Goodwin's bonus about it.
"A lot of the records seem to have disappeared one way or another. We are in fact investigating this, we're going back to State Street (the holders of the loan) to find out exactly what it is for.
"Investigations are going on through the finance department at the moment, clearly this is an anomaly.
"To do this over a 50 year term is a bit peculiar. You've got to question the thinking."
As far as we can discover, no mention of this matter appears in the Council's Policy and Finance Committee's minutes up until May 1991.
But the year was one of some upheaval. The late R Ernest Coley retired as town clerk early in 1991 and there was an acting postholder until the unforgettable James McAusland took the reins later in that year .
But, despite all the current fulminations, this loan affair is not "new" news in that councillors were told of it in late 2006.
At that time they were aware of forthcoming financial budget restraints, and started work on a five year plan.
Officers were told to contact the loan company to see if agreement could be reached to settle it.
But the amount at was far more than the council could afford to pay and the advice was to wait until times were better.
We suppose that any further questions were "lost" in the run up to the 2007 May elections.

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Mayorvellous!

Well, we said we could always hope that something approaching decency might emerge when the time came to select the borough's Mayor for the year ahead.
Which is why we are so pleased to see that Councillor Maureen Dennis, who was elected to the Council to represent Old Leake & Wrangle in 2003, and was one of the few candidates to survive the BBI landslip of May 2007 has been honoured with the job.
Councillor Dennis defeated the current Deputy Mayor, Councillor Gerry Clare by 15 votes to 13 ... a winning margin of just two .... after a secret ballot.
Interestingly, we understand that two is precisely the same number of BBI members who are believed to have fallen out with the leadership in recent times. Is a further reduction in the BBI majority on the cards?
Equally interestingly Councillor Dennis would have been automatically entitled to the position under the previous system, so it seems that enough councillors at the meeting (a handful were absent) remained satisfied with the "if it's not broken, don't mend it" way of doing things after all.
Councillor Dennis was generous in her acceptance of the job according to local paper reports.
She referred to the job as "the hand of friendship to the people.
"When we have a bad press they are down, and I want to lift them out of that."
Prepare for some heavy lifting in the year ahead then, Madam Mayor!
As with all things, there is good news and there is bad news.
The good news is this year's election result.
The bad news is that it most probably paves the way for a BBI ouncillor* to don the ermine next year, as there is little by way of excuse to avoid it.

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*ouncillor
Not a typographical error, as readers might imagine. A political lightweight, used in reference to the Boston Bypass Independents.

Don't miss the bus - vote early and vote often!

In Ireland there was once a famous pursuit known as "personating."
It involved obtaining the identity of someone eligible but unable to vote either because of infirmity, or in some cases by virtue of being dead, and casting their vote for the person that the pretender wanted elected.
It's a trick that has now largely died out, but, of course, polls remain malleable.
To tip the balance gently in the direction you would like it to go depends on a number of influences.
Firstly you can encourage people to take part, or you can discourage them.
And you can do your best to ensure that people only vote once.
In the context of the current poll on the Into Town bus service, which closes at the end of this week or a week today, depending on what you read, where you read it, and whom you believe, these two key factors have not been met.
The best line of encouragement is to make a poll as accessible as possible to as many people as possible.
But before it even began, this poll period was reduced by 25% - from four weeks to three .... which must have the effect of allowing fewer people to take part.
The survey is being run for Lincolnshire County Council by the Mott MacDonald Group - "a management, engineering and development consultancy serving the public and private sectors world-wide."
Indeed, Mott Macdonald would appear to be such massive global player that we assume a survey like this is a small beer operation being done for pin money.
But to ensure that it doesn't waste a penny of its fees, completed forms have to be returned to its Norwich headquarters by post at the expense of whoever has taken the time and trouble to fill them in.
We think that this is quite unusual.
Almost every organisation which invites people to take part in a survey provides a Freepost address to return the answers to.
We think a lot of people won't take part if they have to pay and post the replies .... and as far as we can tell, there are no collection boxes locally for people to use.
Still, there's always the internet.
According to Lincolnshire County Council, the survey is available on the Boston Transport Strategy website.
If it is, we can't find it ... certainly it's not on the link posted on the county website.
There is, however, a survey on the Boston Borough Council website on behalf of Mott MacDonald in which you can apparently participate until 11th March - even though (according to the county) it runs only until the 8th.
Despite its obvious resources the company chooses the cheap and cheerful "Survey Monkey" to conduct this online exercise.
And one problem with this particular survey is that there is nothing to stop you completing and submitting it again ... and again ... and again.
Yes, if you want to influence the result it's as easy as filling the form in repeatedly until you feel confident that your wishes will prevail.
As the personaters used to say ... "vote early and vote often."
And this is called local democracy!

Write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence if requested.

Dodge these issues at your peril!

We never cease to be amused by the priorities of the great and the good and how they compare with the wishes of the people they claim to represent.
The Community Action Plan - drawn up to give our otherwise rudderless leadership a sense of direction - sets out improving transport as its top priority.
The plan says reducing traffic congestion is overwhelmingly the public’s highest priority – apparently 68% of people said this was what most needed improving. For some reason this was particularly important for older people, whilst younger people were also concerned about availability of public transport and safe cycling facilities.
The public opinion was garnered in general survey carried out in 2006/07 ... so it is now well out of date.
We think that most people - if asked again today would say that they were now far happier about the traffic situation in and around Boston.
Aside from a the odd occasion when things jam up like they used to, it is fair to say that traffic now flows well, proving what many had long said - that the problem was caused by traffic lights and not by traffic. Now the lights are off, the traffic flows ..... quod erat demonstrandum.
As far as safer cycling facilities are concerned, cyclists continue to do what they've always done - use the pavements as cycle tracks regardless of the bylaws and the safety of pedestrians knowing that no-one will bother to stop them doing so.
The next priority is improving the health of the community – encouraging participants to take part in physical activity and eat healthily and providing better facilities to do so.
This apparently is the justification for spending a fortune on the Geoff Moulder Leisure Pool.
We don't dispute the worth of this particular facility - in fact we wish the council would focus on the Moulder site and ditch the PRSA once and for all - but we do doubt that investment in sporting facilities will do anything by way of encouraging a healthy lifestyle among the town's tubbies and the borough's biggest.
Generally, sporting and health centres are treated as fashion items .... to be tried on for a short while and then discarded when the novelty wears off.
And frankly the obese 29% of the borough's residents are highly unlikely to be in any way concerned about leading a healthier lifestyle.
We hate to sound patronising, but you know the sort of people we mean, and therefore you know that what we say is true.
Oddly enough, item three on the list - enhancing the quality of the town by reducing litter and generally smartening the place up is, in our book, the most important.
Whilst no surveys exist to prove the point, Boston has to be the litter capital of this part of Lincolnshire.
The streets are strewn with rubbish, and whilst people use the town as their personal tip, there is no way that they are ever going to consider improving their own lifestyles.
And it would be great if, for once, the reports on how to make the borough a better place made less of the "town centre" and more of the town as a whole ... or should that be hole?
People who live in the town but not in the centre are sick of seeing the amount of filth that litters our streets and gutters and blocks the drains. Not just rubbish, but food, glass and animal waste seem to be everywhere.
We recall with amusement the fanfare that accompanied the gum removal machine last September ... but wonder what has happened to it since - certainly we've not seen it in use since the photocall.
Another thing that could be done to make an immediate impact on the town centre would be to ask some of the big name outlets like Carphone Warehouse and Thorntons to give their shopfront a lick of paint.
A token it might be but it would certainly bring a huge improvement at very little cost - as would smartening up the ever-growing number of vacant shops from that make Boston look like Dodge City.
Small improvements can have a big impact without the need for fancy reports....

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New, radical ... but still celebrating May 2007

What a shame that BBI press officer Councillor Ray Newell has taken Boston Eye off his mailing list.
Otherwise we would have known that the party DOES plan to field candidates in the forthcoming County Council elections.
The announcement is made in the guise of a letter to the toadying Boston Standard rather than a press release, which we guess is one way to get it published.
It celebrates a "new, radical reforming group" that has pursued a programme of improvement and change and sorted out the mess left by previous administrations.
For a moment there, we thought that Councillor Newell had joined some of his former colleagues and defected to another new party, but we have to assume that his words really do refer to the BBI.
We've seen little in the way of reform ... apart from the way we select the Mayor.
Improvement ... well, buses grinding their way between the pedestrians in Strait Bargate is certainly better for people who can't be bothered to walk a few hundred yards.
Sorted ... er how about the PRSA debacle, and the mystery million pound loan?
Councillor Newell's paean for the BBI eventually descends into a party political rant that slags off the Tories on the County Council and the Police Authority.
We aren't quite sure how the Boston electorate "will have the chance to change this situation" at the county council elections, as even in the unlikely event that they won all seven local seats they would have little collective influence on the decisions being taken at the authority.
And if the BBI does win any seats, will they fall under the mantle of the newly formed Lincolnshire Independents (co-prop: Richard Austin?) and the new councillors therefore be the servant of two masters?
We imagine that the candidates will be selected from the existing ready-tamed band on the borough council.
It's all getting very confusing - as is the way our radical council works.
More and more frequently, we are seeing items on agenda left in abeyance, or being pushed forward to another date.
Could this be an example of the "smoke and mirrors" mentioned by another councillor a few days ago?
Meanwhile, the "radical" BBI remains firmly rooted in the past ... at least as far as its website is concerned.
The last entry was made on 12th May 2007, so there is clearly little interest in keeping electors up to date on the party's activities.
And the list of elected candidate includes the two who have resigned, the four who defected and formed the Better Boston group and a fifth who decided to become truly independent.
Something of a yearning for the good old days from a party that claims to be so progressive, it would appear.

Write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence if requested.

PS - if you're at tonight's council meeting, we'd love to know who gets nominated for mayor.