Bourne Diary - October 1999

by

Rex Needle

Saturday 2nd October 1999

I am often asked how our town came to be known as Bourne and have been surprised to discover that most people who live here know little of its derivation although one or two have a vague idea that it is connected with water in some way but have no idea why.

We have to look to the Well Head or St Peter's Pool for its origins because the name Bourne indicates that this is a place near to the source of a spring or stream and it is the course of the ensuing waterway that gives Bourne its name. The Old English word burna, common in the early Anglo-Saxon period and found in modern form as burn, especially in Scotland, meant stream and also spring although this particular Bourne was recorded in a document of about 960 as Brunne. It eventually came to be known as Bourn but since 1893 an "e" has been added to the end of the name at the request of the Post Office to distinguish it from Bourn in Cambridgeshire because there was a mix up of letters between the two destinations. A wide range of English place names derives from this connection with a river or stream and the name Bourne occurs in several localities and many other towns have burn, borne, bourn or bourne as an ending such as Ashbourne, Pangbourne and Sittingbourne.

The water from the Well Head springs run into the Bourne Eau, a name that has also puzzled many people who have decided that the word eau comes from the French, meaning water, but that is not so. It actually derives from eä, a pure Old English word that was erroneously given by cartographers on their maps as eau and few examples of this spelling occur in documents before the 18th century. Although the modern tendency is to go for a French sound when pronouncing eau, this does appear to be a very recent practice. Eä is a dialectical survival in its own right meaning drain and far more accurate than the French when relating to a Lincolnshire watercourse and older people in many parts of the county still say Eddick rather than Eaudyke.

And so the water connection is correct and it seems quite probable that the early settlement which later grew into the town of Bourne originated around the Well Head, a natural feature reputed to be replenished by seven springs that would have provided an abundant supply of water for the early settlers. In fact the water supply here has been so productive in past years that Willingham Franklin Rawnsley in his informative book Highways & Byways of Lincolnshire published in 1914 wrote that "near the castle hill is a strong spring called Peter's Pool or Bourne Well Head, the water of which runs through the town and is copious enough to furnish a water supply for Spalding".

This water from the Bourne area was also reputed to have curative properties and a century ago one of the most important springs was Braceborough Spa where it gushed from the limestone at the rate of a million and a half gallons daily. There was another source five miles to the west at Holywell and a chalybeate spring at Billingborough was described as "continually gushing up" near the church while there were others at Great Ponton and Stoke Rochford which was said to "abound in springs of pure water rising out of the rock and running into the River Witham".

The springs at Bourne are possibly one of the most ancient sites of artesian water supply in the country, figuring so prominently in the history of the town that at times, quite remarkable traditions have gathered around them. One of these was still current in the mid-19th century and asserted that the Bourne Eau flowed underground from Stoke Rochford, sixteen miles away, and that a white duck which was immersed at Stoke, was later seen to rise at the Well Head, a tale that owes more to the imagination than actuality.

Enterprising businessmen during Victorian times realised that Bourne's water was an asset to be exploited and soon took advantage of the abundant natural supplies that were available under the town. In 1845, Mr Robert Mason Mills purchased a chemist and druggist's shop in West Street and in 1864 began the bottling of aerated water in a factory behind the premises under the name of R M Mills & Co. Water for the bottling and aeration process was drawn from the Bourne Waterworks borehole that had been sunk in North Road in 1861 by natural artesian pressure and the company, Bourne Waters, was given a seal of approval when it was granted a Royal Warrant by H R H the Duke of Connaught.

The business continued until 1878 when Mr Thomas Moore Baxter, who was born in Wisbech but had practised as a chemist in Brighton, took over the chemist's shop and on the death of Mr Mills in 1904, he also took over the aerated water business that became known as Mills & Baxter. He married Mr Mills' only daughter and their son Mr C H M Baxter eventually joined the company. In the early years of this century, the firm was manufacturing a dozen aerated beverages using flavouring extracts from various roots and herbs and special medicinal waters were also being made from doctors' prescriptions. When Thomas Baxter died soon after the First World War, his obituary notice in the local newspaper emphasised that Mills and Baxter waters were still widely popular, even at royal tables.

Early in 1934, the mineral water department became a limited company trading as Mills Bourne Water Ltd. Bourne table waters were advertised as "the purest in England from an artesian spring of great depth" and supplies were despatched by horse and trailer from a depot in South Street which is now a public car park, although there were also deliveries by the company's own motor vehicle.

Another firm to bottle water was Lee and Green Ltd who set up a bottling plant at the old theatre premises in Abbey Road in 1891. One of their advertisements from the turn of the century proclaimed: "As the beauties of nature appeal to the eye, so the exquisite flavour of Lee and Green's Dry Ginger Ale charms the palate". Their water was drawn from a bore on the premises that was 100 feet deep. In 1901, the old theatre was partly rebuilt and the new building marked with a stone "L & G 1901" and since those days of high water production and distribution, many old bottles have been dug up in gardens and building sites around the town. An additional bore was sunk in 1905 at the Bourne plant to supply extra water to meet the demand and the business remained open until June 1934 when it was sold to the agricultural engineer W M Friend.

All water in the Bourne area is now drawn out through boreholes administered by Anglian Water and supplies a much larger catchment area, often to the disadvantage of the town because both St Peter's Pool and the Bourne Eau have been known to dry up during spells of drought in recent years.

Saturday 9th October 1999

The bottom may have dropped out of the lamb wholesale market and business for our Welsh hillside farmers appears to be in the doldrums but the historic annual Sheep Fair which has been held at Corby Glen for 761 years is alive and well. Over 2,200 animals were brought in for sale on Monday and although the numbers and the prices were slightly down on last year, there are no signs that this event is likely to fold.

Corby Glen was once a small thriving town, the Glen refers to the river and was affixed to the name in 1955 to distinguish it from other Corbys in the country and the size of the Market Place reminds us that it has been an important local centre since the early 13th century. The market cross, erected in the reign of Edward III (1312-1377) is the first thing you see on entering the square and it was from here that visiting monks preached the word of God to stallholders and townsfolk while they went about their business because the market created a ready made audience, a captive congregation. No more weekly markets are held here and the Sheep Fair is the last remaining of the great sheep fairs once held across England. It owes it origins to a Royal Charter granted by Henry III in 1238 which decreed that one Hammo Pecche and his heirs had the right to hold fairs at Corby on the Feast of the Assumption and until the 1930s it was usually held on the first Monday before October 10th. This was a general market for the sale of sheep, cattle and horses although sheep were always the principal item. Traditionally, the beasts were kept in a bunch or tethered by the roadside while only the sheep were penned and until the end of the 19th century, the wooden collapsible pens were provided by the Lords of the Manor at Irnham Estate.

The spirit of the fair remains although in years past sheep were driven to Corby by their shepherds and buyers and sellers stayed in the village overnight. There were further changes in the character of the fair after the Second World War. Previously, sheep had either been brought in by drovers or by train over the weekend but the closing of the railway station in 1959 and the growing use of road transport enabled sheep to be brought in by livestock transporters in the early morning and taken away the same evening, the custom that continues today. Meanwhile, legislation that introduced the breathalyser in 1967 in an attempt to deter motorists from drinking and driving reduced the conviviality of the fair for farmers and fewer now congregate in the bars of the historic Woodhouse Arms, the early 19th century hostelry that overlooks the village green, and in Corby's two other remaining public houses, the Fighting Cocks and the Glazier's Arms.

Nevertheless, fair day is still as in years past, a red letter day in the village calendar and the festivities that surround it start on a Friday and continue throughout the weekend until the last sheep has gone on Monday evening.

Stalls are erected in the historic Market Square from Friday onwards with country crafts and memorabilia much in evidence and a fun fair with swings, roundabouts and sideshows is located on the green. There is also a horticultural show in the village school and a display of local produce together with jazz bands, Morris dancing and one year a mediaeval mystery play was staged by pupils of the Corby Glen primary school. Archery demonstrations, local history displays, art and photographic exhibitions, a wheelbarrow race, a conker competition, tug of war, a dog show and even a competition to guess the weight of a sheep - all have found a place in the festivities in recent years and then there is always the harvest festival service in the village church on Sunday evening.

There was a pleasure fair here throughout the 19th century when it was held in the Market Place with the traditional sideshows, gingerbread stalls, shooting galleries and boxing booths. Older residents can still recall the mass of stalls in the Market Place with swing-boats and roundabouts, skittling for a copper kettle and in some years, stalls for the sale of goods produced locally that would attract people from the village and the surrounding countryside.

Early on Monday morning the familiar pens are erected on every available green space in the village in readiness for the day's sale and by mid-morning the sheep have been trucked in for the auction. Expert eyes assess their qualities as owners wait anxiously for the bidding to begin and by late afternoon it is all over and the transporters head for home for another year.

But the fair has in the past had another purpose, that of bringing together families who have been split when sons and daughters left the village to pursue marriage and careers elsewhere and this event was the catalyst for a weekend reunion, visits made possible by the coming of the railway which brought travel across counties within the reach of most people. Stuffed chine topped the bill of fare at family get-togethers and on the eve of the fair in October 1867, villager George Bird wrote in his diary: "Mother very busy making plum cakes, cheesecakes and such like." The widespread increase in car ownership has to some extent diminished the tradition of such gatherings at fair time.

Nevertheless, if any one annual event links Corby's agricultural heritage with the present community and at the same time charts the relative decline of the village then it is this. The sheep fair mirrors the economic conditions of the district and the local farming industry in past centuries when the farmer's financial year was organised around this event for at this time they were forced to sell sheep to settle rent arrears. The fair, like the village, was in relative decline towards the end of the 18th century but it picked up during the 19th century and in 1863 George Bird wrote in his diary of "the largest shew of sheep, beasts and horses that has ever been seen on the ground before." He also mentioned that there was talk of making the fair a two-day event. The following year, 93 truckloads of sheep and beasts were sent away by train alone. In 1876, there were 12,000 sheep penned and the next year there were only 7,400 and in 1882 George Bird wrote: "Corby Fair the poorest I've seen, not above 5,000 sheep penned." By the turn of the century, the number of sheep in the sale had risen slightly to 6,000 but in 1913 the figure had again dropped, this time to only 4,000 "and few beasts and foals either".

The agricultural depression of the last quarter of the 19th century had a sudden but decisive impact on the Corby Fair but in the wake of this decline, the associated activities also suffered and by the 1930s the sale of beasts and cattle had died out but the ram fair remained. As a result, the Corby Fair continues today with vigour and enthusiasm and although numbers no longer reach the peaks of past times and market fluctuations continue, there is little likelihood that it will disappear in the immediate future.

Saturday 16th October 1999

Any possibility that the tide of progress might be halted and that Bourne would retain its status as a small and quiet market town has been dashed with the announcement of yet another massive development, this time a £10 million business and commercial project to the south of the town. Seventeen acres alongside the A15 trunk road have been earmarked for a mixed-use business area and we are told that it will include a restaurant, petrol filling station, public house and hotel. The site will be accessed from a new estate road and roundabout and the remainder of the land developed for a range of uses including offices, light industrial units and warehousing.

Tesco's have already had an interest in part of this site for a new out of town supermarket but their application for planning permission in 1996 was refused because the proposed foodstore was outside the recognised town centre and would jeopardise the viability and vitality of existing shops in Bourne. Traders however are more receptive to the new commercial development in the hope that it will boost their own businesses.

The announcement has been made amid much euphoria about the expectation that it will create hundreds of new jobs, attract fresh inward investment opportunities and provide scope for locally based firms to expand and develop. The fact that planning permission has not yet been granted by South Kesteven District Council seems to deter no one, not least our councillors, who are again saying, as they have done in the past when faced with such major changes to our town: "Bourne is going to grow and it seems that we cannot do much about it." Their votes in council and committee now seem to count for naught.

It is only seven months since we learned of a massive housing development of 2,000 homes on the opposite side of the road, a project that was received with similar equanimity by our elected representatives. Residential development of such significance will rob the area of 200 acres of green belt, increase traffic on roads already overcrowded at peak periods and push up our population by around 6,000, an increase of 60% on our present numbers as well as putting pressure on public services. A commercial development at this point will also bring its problems and the greatest effect will be on the A15 because of the heavy traffic it will generate and so improvement work on this stretch of carriageway must be a priority before the business park starts to operate.

If expansion of this magnitude is as certain as our councillors predict, then it is up to them to ensure that the necessary safeguards are in place before they are completed because the alternative will be chaos.

The signs installed by letting agents on the front of the old post office in North Street have caused much comment because the elegant stone façade has been damaged in the process and the signs themselves are an added eyesore to our town. Only one sign from an estate agent is allowed without prior planning consent on private or business premises that are on the market for sale or rent. South Kesteven District Council is now investigating this particular case in which those responsible for erecting the second sign are likely to be in breach of the regulations.

These signs have been in place for several weeks and my photograph of them appeared in this column as long ago as September 18th (See Bourne Diary) but it puzzles me why this anomaly was not spotted before by someone in authority rather than a member of the public. One of our local councillors perhaps, because two of them serve on the council's planning and development control committee, one as chairman, and this committee's responsibilities include the town centre enhancement of Bourne and the control of buildings that are of historic or architectural interest and the old post office falls into this category.

Estate and letting agents should also be aware of the law relating to these signs because it was their conduct in the first place in cluttering up the street scene, particularly in London, that prompted the legislation. It therefore follows that if two or more signs now appear on an available property then those erected after the first one have been knowingly put there in defiance of the law. There is also a growing habit of side-stepping the restrictions by attaching two signs to the same post and there are many cases of this in Bourne although this practice also falls within the jurisdiction of this legislation.

It may be argued that this is only a small matter not worthy of comment or debate and I can hear the age-old cry "everyone does it" as though such violations are allowable if they become commonplace. But the enforcement of the law is too serious a subject for it to be ignored. The police are already turning a blind eye to many infringements, such as cycling on the pavement, illegal parking, vandalism, shoplifting, petty theft, minor assaults and break-ins, speeding and car crashes. If we continue to allow breaches such as this to go unchallenged, then other more serious crimes and misdemeanours will follow the same path. A total disregard of the law is a real threat to the safety and wellbeing of the community because it will inevitably lead to a break down of our social order and put us on the road to anarchy.

The furore over the installation of mini roundabouts in North Street and West Street as a result of the opening of the new Sainsbury's supermarket has subsided and the new road layouts appear to be working well. Perhaps the road and traffic experts from Lincolnshire County Council were right after all or maybe the new retail outlet is not attracting quite as much business as was expected. Certainly, the flurry of shopping activity that accompanied the opening in August has faded and the queues of cars that were predicted to create traffic chaos at these two points have not materialised.

Only time will tell whether Bourne has room for three big supermarkets as well as the smaller traditional grocery retail outlets, or perhaps Mike Holden, chairman of the Bourne Chamber of Trade and Commerce, is right when he says that the town is prospering and that the new business and commercial development will add to the boom.

Christmas is coming and then the millennium, two big events that will be marked by the tinkling of the tills, a magical noise that brings joy to the hearts of our shopkeepers, and as traders intend to remain optimistic come what may, all mention of the many boarded up premises that hit the headlines last month has been erased and quietly forgotten from the pages of our local newspapers whose owners are anxious not to jeopardise their advertising revenue. The immediate outlook for the town does look rosy but we must not lose sight of reality and when this wave of shopping euphoria is over in the New Year, these empty premises could still be there and will most probably continue to blight the street scene for many months to come.

Saturday 23rd October 1999

For the past few weeks I have been following in the footsteps of Bourne's local hero Charles Richard Sharpe, the country boy who ran away from home to join the army when he was only sixteen and ten years later won the Victoria Cross for bravery in action, Britain's highest award for gallantry. I have pieced together his story and searched out the accounts of his action in the trenches of Flanders during the First World War which led to him receiving his decoration from King George V himself during a ceremony at Windsor Castle.

His is a stirring tale and one that has led me to ponder on the nature of heroism. It has been my experience as a soldier with the regular army that comrades who wore the distinctive medal ribbons as proof of their valiant acts were quite ordinary people, no different to you or I. In fact, the one thing they all had in common was their complete ordinariness but extraordinary circumstances had involved them in a situation that needed a split second decision. Is such bravery of this order the province of the few? Or is it an unpremeditated act on the spur of the moment that could have happened to any of us? Is it a foolhardy venture without thought of the consequences? Or perhaps a matter of expediency in the pursuit of self-preservation? All of these reasons have no doubt played a part in those acts of bravery that adorn our military history and a complete vindication of the belief that cometh the moment, cometh the man. But which was it with Sharpe? Which was it with any of them and did they fully understand the nature of their conduct at the time?

My search for his story took me to see the two people in Bourne who knew him best, his stepdaughter Mrs Kathleen Cooke and her husband George who lived with him in the years before his death. I also went over to Grantham to photograph his medals, now in the care of South Kesteven District Council, and was given a most courteous reception by the Chief Clerk Malcolm Hall and the Public Relations Officer Fiona Truman whose help was invaluable. I have also read the various accounts of Sharpe's heroism in newspaper cuttings of the time and checked every possible source for information about him. A picture gradually emerged of a modest and unassuming man, reluctant to talk about his exploits. When he returned to England two months after that fateful summer's day on the battlefield in 1915, he silenced an inquisitive reporter anxious to fill his notebook with tales of derring-do by saying: "A British soldier will never glorify his own deeds. I only did my duty."

Once out of the uniform on which he wore the distinctive crimson ribbon to mark his gallant act, there was nothing about his demeanour in later years to identify the hero. His employment in civilian life was quite humble but then for what trade is a man fitted whose highpoint in his army career had been the killing of enemy soldiers? He lived a quiet and uneventful life, helping young people who had fallen foul of the law, cooking simple dishes for his family and enjoying a pint of beer and a game of dominoes most evenings at the Mason's Arms in South Street. This was hardly the life of a hero but although he was no longer in the public eye, his act of courage remained a famous event because it was an inspiration for all young recruits who volunteered to serve after they had heard of his exploits.

All deeds of gallantry are remembered after the man responsible has died. So it is with Sharpe. The image of Sharpe V C is far more potent than the man who wore the medal. It is revered and honoured in his home town, by our local district council, by the old comrades of the Lincolnshire Regiment, by the British Army itself, but the man has become a mere memory. The people must have their heroes and it is their heroism that lives on long after they have gone to the green fields.

A survey of historic street furniture has been launched by South Kesteven District Council in an attempt to find out what is out there and to make sure that it stays there. Street furniture is a generic term for the equipment we see around our towns and villages, public seats, litter bins and signposts for instance, but many of these items, especially in country areas, have some age and historic interest. Parish and town councils are therefore being asked to help by identifying old mile posts, circular sign posts referring to the now defunct Kesteven County Council, as well as red telephone boxes and letter boxes that still remain, having missed the effects of modernisation.

The check is being made by the council's planning department and planning assistant Claire Mileham says that the aim of the survey is to produce a record of the frequency and condition of the street furniture to prevent its disappearance and in order that it can be maintained.

This has interested me because there is one item that may be missed: the iron rails often seen at the road's edge in country areas, and although most people may have seen them, few will actually know their origins. They are known as Cheshire rails and were introduced in that county earlier this century where they are still a distinctive feature. They were once painted black and white, although many sections are now rusting and deteriorating, and conservationists are calling for their restoration. There are also many miles of them in other parts of the country, including this part of Lincolnshire, although not always of the same design, but most sections are also falling into disrepair.

These iron fences were originally the idea of a Cheshire county councillor who in 1929 urged their introduction to improve visibility around bends and at junctions where the traditional hedges blocked the view for drivers at critical points in the roads system at a time when the motor car was becoming more popular. The rails enabled road users see oncoming traffic through them and so take the necessary care to avoid an accident.

The rails, also known as hurdle fences, became a distinctive feature in the countryside and have proved their worth over the years but are now fast disappearing and many were dismantled during the Second World War in the search for metal to build munitions but were in fact never used and lay rusting in scrap yards long after the cessation of hostilities.

The biggest drive for conservation is in Cheshire itself where there were once more than 120 miles of these rails around the edges of fields but they have not been maintained and have now been reduced to less than 80 miles although volunteers are busy spending time cleaning and painting what is left to ensure their perpetuity.

The best examples of Cheshire rails in this area are at Braceborough, four miles south of Bourne, where there are bends on approach roads at either end of the village. They are however rusting and leaning badly and mostly overgrown with clumps of tall nettles and other vegetation which makes their original purpose of improving visibility for drivers quite useless. I am sending this suggestion to the council in the hope that it will be added to their list of historic street furniture and that the rails will soon be given a lick of paint to ensure their survival as a feature of our countryside.

Saturday 30th October 1999

The public exhibition held at the Red Hall to allay fears about the effect that 2,000 new homes will have on Bourne appears to have done nothing of the sort. Two hundred people attended but many came away totally dispirited by the experience because a large question mark still hangs over the provision of the additional facilities that will be needed to cope with this massive influx of people that is likely to increase our present population by more than 50 per cent.

One thing that we did learn was that this new residential development to the south west of Bourne, off the main A15 road, will claim over 300 acres of existing farmland and will be known as Elsea Park. Construction could begin next spring and the development would take ten to fifteen years to complete but there is no time schedule for the new facilities that are included in the plan.

"It is not a standard house estate", say the developers. "It is something special. It is designed to become a natural part of Bourne." They acknowledge that the new houses must fit in with their surroundings but then as Bourne is a mix of stone and pantiles, red brick and slate, the properties often rendered and painted, they have an endless variety of designs to choose from and so the comparison is meaningless. Equally hollow is their statement: "Looking to the future. Recognising and cherishing Bourne's past is important but how is the town to grow and develop to respond to the housing needs of the future?" - because this is made to sound as though they have the answer.

Let us get one thing quite clear from the start. The developers are in business to sell houses and as they plan to build "affordable housing", they will be designed in the most economic way they can no matter what the street scene is in Bourne at the present time. Few people from the town will be buying these homes. The majority will go to newcomers moving in. But what bothers those who are already living here is whether the long list of facilities and amenities mentioned in what they call "the concept of the master plan" will materialise or whether they are merely window dressing for the exhibition and the planning application.

This is what has been proposed:

It all sounds extremely worthy but a few hours after the exhibition closed, I started receiving emails from visitors voicing very real fears about this development, particularly the lack of facilities and the long wait for the so-called relief road. "What I saw and heard at the exhibition made me think", said one. "The people of Bourne should take notice of what is being planned or they will wake up one day in a town they no longer recognise."

Another message said: "It does seem iniquitous that various builders have more than doubled the size of the town without putting so much as one brick on top of another for the benefit of the community. It also seems odd that almost every public amenity we have, parks, playing fields, almshouses, have been provided by a local charity with barely a hand's turn by the district council and yet we pay them as much in council tax and business rates as the inhabitants of Grantham."

Our councillors have already said that as the area earmarked for Elsea Park is scheduled for housing within the current Local Structure Plan, then such a development is inevitable. But they still want local people to express their views to their elected representatives. Well, these are two such views and there are many similar opinions floating around out there. It is to be hoped that they will not be ignored and that our councillors will ensure that cast iron guarantees for the introduction of these amenities will be in place before they put their hands up to vote through this scheme when it comes before South Kesteven District Council's planning committee for final approval.

One suggestion that has been emailed to me is that Bourne ought to have a community trust to involve residents in the town's future shape and management but the formation of such an organisation would be too late to monitor this development because it is due to go before the district council's planning committee on Tuesday 2nd November. Considering the short time that has elapsed between the exhibition and this meeting, it would appear that this scheme is being propelled forward with undue haste for it gives little opportunity for the public to air their views. Here then are the names, addresses and telephone numbers of our local councillors who serve on SKDC if you wish to contact them with any observations you may have about these proposals, whether for or against.

Those who wish to oppose this development should be aware of the mighty forces of bureaucracy that are rallied against them and I relate this cautionary tale as an example. In 1987, a protest group called the Bourne Residents' Action Group, better known as BRAG, was formed to fight the establishment of a broiler chicken unit alongside the A15 on the northern outskirts of the town. The site had been earmarked for such a development by the Lincolnshire-based poultry packing firm of G M Padley Ltd but their outline planning permission lay dormant for several years until the firm eventually decided to proceed and by then the residents of nearby homes, mostly in Stephenson Way, became concerned about the effects that the excreta from sheds full of chickens being reared by intensive breeding methods would have on their homes, particularly when the wind was blowing in their direction.

The subsequent campaign by BRAG was the most vociferous we have seen in Bourne and it took the form of meetings and demonstrations, petitions, a series of protest letters to our M P and other important people who might raise a voice on their behalf. Deputations even went to Grantham to lobby meetings of the planning committee and South Kesteven District Council in full session and on one occasion three coaches carrying 120 banner-waving people turned up at the council offices to protest. But BRAG, like King Canute, was unable to halt the tide of commercial progress and the broiler unit with its five sheds built on prime agricultural land is now a familiar sight a short distance from their homes, albeit just outside the regulatory 400-yard limit.

A few days ago, a sad reminder of this lost cause appeared in the letters column of The Local newspaper announcing that BRAG was settling its affairs. The money raised from donations and protest meetings had been eaten up by the cost of printing, postage, the hire of halls and legal fees during the two years the campaign was active. The group was being wound up and the £191.26 left in the kitty donated to Bourne Civic Society.

Our councillors repeatedly ask us for our views but even when they are backed by a very well organised protest group such as this they are ignored. No wonder the people lose heart and feel that they no longer have any say in what should and should not happen in their locality. We do not live in an ideal world and as long as those in power continue to ignore the wishes of those who put them there, there is little likelihood that the situation will change for the better.

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