So many people from at home and abroad are visiting this site that I have decided to write a weekly commentary to replace the News Section. It will be a personal view of the town and district and what is happening there together with my own comments. I have resisted my wife's suggestion to call it "An Old Codger Writes . . . " and it will therefore be known as "A Bourne Diary".One of the biggest changes this week has been the progress of new industrial premises at the corner of Meadow Drove and the main Spalding Road where the building is nearing completion and the name of the new occupier has gone up in elaborate lettering and so we know that it is to be the headquarters of Nursery Supplies. Their existing site in Exeter Street will be cleared to make way for the controversial shopping development by the grocery chain giant Sainsbury's that is bound to exacerbate the parking chaos in the town that grows daily.
Continual rain would be the perfect solution to finding a parking space on busy days because a trip into town at midday on Saturday revealed a dozen or more vacant spaces as the continual downpour kept many people at home. It is quite surprising how the prospect of a soaking will deter even the most avid of shoppers.
It is a pity that local councillors did not seize the opportunity to buy the Exeter Street site and develop it for residential use, one and two person flats and maisonettes for example, for it is this smaller type of accommodation that is needed to solve our housing crisis rather than build the larger luxury homes on green field sites that merely attract new families to move to the town when the facilities are totally inadequate to cater for such an influx. It is the young, single people who need new affordable homes and as most prefer to live in or near the town centre, then this should be regarded as an opportunity missed but then when did councillors ever listen to the voice of the people?
Bourne Grammar School, flagship of the town's educational establishments, is in danger of losing its privileged status and becoming a comprehensive school. A government committee has paved the way for local referendums on the future of such schools and they could be held as early as next September. The head teacher Dr Stuart Miles and the governors are against any change of status and they are supported by the local M P Mr Quentin Davies and the Mayor of Bourne Councillor Don Fisher. There is no doubt that many people regard grammar schools as elitist but there is no doubting their successful academic record and the positive attitude of both pupils and staff and, as Mr Davies says, it would be an appalling act of vandalism to destroy them. If the future of Bourne Grammar School does rest on a ballot among parents, it is to be hoped that common sense prevails among them.
Finally, an example that old fashioned romance is not yet dead. Richard Parker, managing editor of the Bourne Local newspaper, has just proposed to his girl friend Angie Matthews by placing an advertisement in his own newspaper to mark their third anniversary together. "Angie: It's taken me three years to pluck up the courage, but will you marry me?" he asked in his advertisement although such diffidence in a newspaper executive is totally unknown to me except in the pursuit of a good story. Angie has said "Yes" and the couple plan to celebrate the Millennium by tying the knot in the year 2000. Aahh!
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