|
Saturday 7th
February 2004
Flowers at the roadside after a fatal traffic accident
have become a common sight in this country in recent years as a tribute from
grieving relatives and friends trying to cope with the trauma of sudden death
involving a loved one. It is a spontaneous reaction to the tragedy and a way of
showing that they care while serving as a reminder to those who pass by of the
feeble grasp we have on life when behind the wheel.
But this simple gesture has been under scrutiny by Lincolnshire County Council
after officers questioned its validity, although they gave no reason why. In
fact their objections had no basis in either law or common sense and on this
subject alone, bureaucracy should take a back seat and let the public do as they
will.
The council expended many hours agonising over whether to allow floral roadside
tributes after accidents to continue and a list of five options was drawn up as
an alternative. These included grants of £100 to relatives for the provision of
memorial benches or trees in open spaces or even a communal memorial with the
names of the victims killed in the vicinity. Richard Wills, the county’s
director of highways and planning, said: “Fatal road collisions deeply affect
the families of those who are killed and they feel a need to place flowers in
the immediate aftermath of a tragedy. It is now becoming a common practice and
the longer it goes on, the harder it will be for the authority to introduce a
policy to deter such practice without appearing insensitive or uncaring.”
Mr Wills, however, omitted to say what harm is being done by leaving flowers at
the scene as a gesture of sympathy, often on the spur of the moment, to indicate
that although a life has been lost, it is remembered by those who knew the
victim and wish to be associated with their memory. Fortunately, common sense
has prevailed and at a meeting this week, the county council decided that
roadside floral tributes would be allowed to continue as a matter of policy.
“This is an extremely delicate issue and I am pleased the council adopted a
framework to avoid confusion and distress in the future”, said Mr Wills
afterwards.
It is difficult to understand why the subject was brought up in the first place
because how people choose to grieve has very little to do with our local
authorities. Leaving flowers at the scene of a fatality has become a ubiquitous
practice throughout the civilised world, a sign that although death may come
suddenly and without warning, the victim has not departed this life without the
love and affection of those who knew them. To deny anyone the chance to mourn
loved ones in this way is both heartless and unthinkable and furthermore, it
will not happen. Roadside floral tributes have become an unstoppable custom that
is gathering momentum as the years go by and will soon become a tradition, and
no amount of rules and regulations will stop it. Councillors and their officials
ought to devote their time to making the roads of Lincolnshire safer rather than
discussing the denial of a gesture of remembrance to those whose lives they have
claimed.
A new and alarming factor has crept into the controversy over the closure
of the public lavatories in South Street, Bourne. They were shut in October 2002
on the pretext that they were being vandalised and had become a meeting place
for paedophiles, homosexuals and sex perverts, although only the flimsiest of
evidence for this was produced by South Kesteven District Council.
Councillor Peter Martin-Mayhew, the cabinet member responsible for public
lavatories, claimed that he had stood outside the toilets for two hours one day
to check on their usage and only one woman went in and yet when he took the
decision to close them, they had become dens of iniquity. Or to quote his exact
words: “The things I saw were absolute filth and included posters, pamphlets,
names of schools and children. This is a wake up call for us as a council to
decide whether we wish to continue funding public toilets which are degenerating
into places for homosexuals and paedophiles to operate."
The shutting of public lavatories is not confined to this locality because the
British Toilet Association has revealed that one in five across the country has
been closed in the past three years and of those that remain, two thirds are
open for fewer than 12 hours a day. There must be a reason for this because it
is most unlikely that so many local authorities should suddenly take independent
decisions to close their loos either for no apparent reason or for a cooked up
excuse.
An obvious course then would be a concerted attempt to phase them out. Local
authorities are taking in more money as every year passes while spending less on
the public services for which they are primarily responsible. Salaries rise
annually for an ever increasing workforce and so a band of highly-paid officials
daily comb spending budgets for ways of pruning outlay while experts at national
level constantly feed them with suggestions and advice, always legal but
frequently devious, and inevitably to the detriment of the public they are
supposed to serve.
Councils have no statutory obligation to provide public toilets and a
requirement to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act by October 2004
will present them with significant expenditure to bring those they do have up to
standard. They will then find it simpler to close them down and leave the issue
of toilet availability to other providers such as public houses and cafes. This
theory is borne out by the fact that not only have the lavatories in Bourne been
shut, but those in Market Deeping and Stamford have suffered the same fate and
now we hear that loos across the land have also been closed. This could not have
been done without the influence of some guiding hand and where else could that
originate but Whitehall?
If what I have suggested is correct, then our democratic process is indeed in a
sorry state because it means that councillors have colluded against the people
who elected them to deprive their communities of much needed facilities to save
money, using the emotive subterfuge of predatory paedophiles. What then will be
next on their list?
Two letters in the local newspapers remind us that the much trumpeted
efficiency of our local authorities is far from that and they still have a long
way to go before we are satisfied that the money with which they are entrusted
for public services is being spent wisely. Mrs Julie Williams of Rockingham
Close, Market Deeping, told the Stamford Mercury last week (January 30th)
that with so many bottles for disposal after the Christmas merrymaking, she
filled not only the required big blue box but also the big green box that is
normally reserved for paper, cardboard and plastic. Her enthusiasm for recycling
was not shared by the men on the collection lorry because they emptied the blue
box and left the green one complete with its contents. South Kesteven District
Council is urging everyone to leave out glass for recycling on collection days
and all contributions are equally valuable for this purpose no matter what the
colour of the box they are packed in. I would hope that this is not the
beginning of a demarcation ruling by the collection men because the industrial
history of this nation is littered with such disputes that have brought down not
only systems of procedure, but jobs and businesses with them.
Ms Sandra Brown of Manor Court, Bourne, highlights another questionable incident
that might benefit from an investigation, this time by Lincolnshire County
Council. In a letter to The Local (January 30th) she says that during the
recent cold snap, the morning after the salt and gritting lorries had been out
to make the road surfaces safe, she spotted a sweeping lorry making its usual
rounds along West Street at 9 am. “Is the council in its wisdom recycling salt?”
she asks. “Or does the council have money still in the pot to get rid of before
the new financial year begins in April? If so, they could put it to better use
by putting a crossing for elderly people near the almshouses in West Street
where the road has become so dangerous because of cars using it like a race
track. Wouldn’t that be a better way to spend our heard-earned money instead of
sweeping up newly-laid salt?”
What the local newspapers are also saying: The houses are going up fast
on the site of the old Bourne Hospital and The Local reports (February
6th) that developers plan to hold an official opening later this month. They
have written to the town council asking the mayor, Councillor Trevor Holmes, to
attend and cut the ceremonial ribbon but he was a leading campaigner to either
have the old hospital refurbished and re-opened or a new one built on the land,
and so he has declined the invitation. “The loss of the hospital was a triumph
of bureaucracy over common sense”, he said. “It achieved a short term financial
gain over the long term needs of the town.” The mayor’s sentiments are
understandable because his fight to provide hospital facilities for the town was
undertaken with some passion but life moves on. New houses for Bourne appear to
be an inevitable part of our progress, whether we want them or not, and as the
new tenants move in, he will still be their mayor and his presence at the
ceremony would be an indication that they are welcome to come and live here.
Editors of The Local and the Stamford Mercury had little
difficulty over choosing their front page story this week because the £10,000
appeal for the Butterfield Centre was reached after only three months of fund
raising. The centre provides social facilities and care for more than 200
elderly people but rising costs threatened its future and there were fears that
it may have to close. An appeal was launched last November and the response has
been a remarkable demonstration of voluntary effort from all sections of the
community resulting in the target being reached this week. The jubilation was
summed up by the chairman of the Friends of Butterfield, Bob Roberts, who told
The Local (February 6th): “It has been a superb effort to raise such a
considerable sum in such a short time. Thank you to everybody.”
The credit for the successful fund-raising has been claimed by the Stamford
Mercury who launched a “Back the Butterfield” campaign three months ago and
have since been chronicling its progress with a weekly Roll of Honour detailing
where the money has been coming from. The list contains a wide variety of events
from talks to lunches, plays and bazaars, bingo session, carol singing and
coffee mornings, as well as many workplace collections, organisations and
individuals. “It took you, the people, just 12 weeks to come up trumps”, said
the newspaper (February 6th). “The centre is now looking to secure more
permanent funds from the local authorities.”
One of the biggest single donations to the Butterfield appeal was a
welcome cheque for £1,000 from Bourne United Charities which administers money
left to this town by benefactors in years past. This organisation does not enjoy
a high public profile, mainly because its affairs appear to be conducted in
private. Coincidentally, a vacancy has occurred on the Board of Trustees as a
result of the resignation of company director Michael Warner, through ill
health, and so an excellent opportunity has arisen in the wake of the deserved
publicity they have received this week for the remaining 14 trustees to
demonstrate the democratic nature of their task by spreading the net wide when
they choose a replacement.
In the past, the selection of trustees has been decided behind closed doors and
the successful candidate has usually been someone nominated by and acceptable to
the others and so, as with all such bodies, the will of the strongest among them
will prevail. The result is that debate is rare because opinions are very much
the same and so decisions made are not always the best. Secrecy also leads to
rumour and speculation and I have heard stories that two prominent townspeople
have sought to fill vacancies in recent years but in each case they were turned
down because both were connected with voluntary organisations and might use
their new position to ask for funds, a particularly lame excuse from an
organisation whose sole objective is meant to be charitable causes.
Prejudice in appointing trustees is not good for the administration of a
publicly registered charity. Some trustees are reputed to even regard BUC as a
private organisation when in fact, nothing could be further from the truth and
their activities should always be open to inspection. On the question of
electing new trustees, the Charity Commission for England and Wales dislikes the
system of making appointments by word of mouth or personal recommendation
because these methods are more likely to narrow the field and do not provide
such a thorough means of finding the right people for the task. Such methods are
also likely to work against having a diverse trustee board from a range of ages
and social and economic backgrounds and the commission suggests that a greater
diversity is an important factor for accountability and promoting public
confidence. Their recommended solution is to use more inclusive and transparent
methods of recruiting trustees such as advertising that can be an effective way
of reaching a wider group of people possessing the particular skills required.
Unfortunately, Bourne United Charities has become a closed book to most people,
even though the trustees administer large sums of money that stem from bequests
to this town in times past although they tell us nothing of their activities. It
is our wealthiest organisation with assets in excess of £7 million and an income
of around £300,000 a year but the monthly meetings are held in private and the
issue of press statements about their decisions or even the appointment of
trustees is largely unknown. The commission strongly urges transparency to
maintain public confidence and perhaps this is the time for the trustees to
embark on a new policy of openness by firstly advertising the current vacancy
and secondly by telling the local newspapers once he or she has been appointed
and the reasons why that choice has been made.
This would be a first step and in the future, perhaps the trustees might keep
the people of Bourne informed how money that has been left to this town is being
spent in order that we can judge for ourselves whether they are doing the job
for which they have been appointed. We live in an age of accountability and
there is no reason why Bourne United Charities should be excluded from a
perfectly reasonable system of checks and balances.
Thought for the week: Charity begins at home, is the voice of the world.
-
Sir Thomas Browne, English physician and writer (1605-82).
Saturday 14th
February 2004
The maypole is one of England’s oldest country customs,
observed each year on May 1st and latterly on the first Monday of the month. The
festivities on this day were once annual events throughout Great Britain, and to
a lesser extent in France and Germany, but now only survive in a few rural
areas although there are now signs of a revival.
The celebrations are directly related to the ancient Roman floralia, a
theatrical festival in honour of Flora, the goddess of spring, and of the
Druidic feasts in honour of Bel, the god of heaven and earth. In Tudor England,
the custom was for the people to go into the woods at night, gather branches of
trees and flowers, and return with them at sunrise to decorate their homes. Then
there was the crowning of the May Queen who held sway for one day over her
court, consisting of Morris dancers, Robin Hood, Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, Little
John and other members of the same band.
The maypole tradition is generally regarded as an ancient fertility emblem
belonging to the beginning of summer and represented by a tree brought in from
the forest and set up on the village green. This was done in the darkness of the
early morning when the young people went out on May Day and cut down a tall
young specimen, lopped off most of its branches leaving only a few at the top,
and after it had been erected, adorned it with garlands and flowers to serve as
a centrepiece for their revelry and dancing. The tree was generally a birch and
usually set up on April 30th, except in London where permanent maypoles stood in
the streets. Sometimes, the parish possessed a standing maypole, a permanent
shaft which remained in position all year round but freshly painted and adorned
when May Day came round.
The celebrations were much censured by the Puritans and in 1644 maypoles were
forbidden to be erected by the Roundhead Parliament. Most of the standing
maypoles came down although a few remained in some quiet places, waiting for
better times, but no one danced around them any more because their use had been
condemned as being associated with paganism and immorality. They were, however,
sanctioned by the Restoration and on the return of Charles II, an immense cedar
pole, 134 feet high, was floated up the River Thames in 1661 and carried in
triumphal procession through the streets to the Strand where it was erected and
adorned with crowns and the Royal Arms, splendidly gilded, and hung with
garlands and streamers and three lanterns which were lit at night. It remained
there for half a century until it was taken down in 1717 and used by Sir Isaac
Newton as a support for the great telescope that had been presented to the Royal
Society by a French astronomer.
There were many revivals of the May Queen ceremony during the 20th century with
a pretty girl presiding over the May day celebrations, thus we have carnival
queens, dairy queens, rally queens and harvest queens, all of which derive from
this ancient custom although it is not so much an unbroken tradition dating back
to mediaeval England as an inspiration the organisers had last winter. The
maypole too has been slowly returning, mainly through the schools celebrating
the old May Day tradition as part of their studies.
We are to have a revival of the custom this year during Market Towns’ Week in
the region, an event sponsored by the East Midlands Development Agency and the
Countryside Commission, when Bourne has been chosen as one of the 14 towns to
participate. Children from the Abbey and Westfield primary schools in Bourne and
the community primary school at Thurlby, will take part and they are currently
practicing for the event that will be staged in the new market place outside the
Corn Exchange where a maypole will be erected on Monday 3rd May. The maypole is
at present doing the rounds of the schools to enable children become familiar
with it but it has been given to the town on a permanent basis and so we can
expect that an annual maypole dancing ceremony will be returning to Bourne on
every future May Day.
A surprising suggestion has been made to the Bourne Forum that the Elsea
Park development and, more importantly, the loss of the hospital site, need not
have happened had South Kesteven District Council been minded to oppose it in
accordance with new government guidelines. The building of a new 2,000-home
estate on 300 acres of farmland to the south of the town raised more opposition
than any other issue of recent years and yet the planning application sailed
through the various stages after most of our local councillors decided that the
development was inevitable and it would be useless to oppose it.
Guy Cudmore, a town councillor and therefore not privy to deliberations at
district council level, filed a contribution to the Forum on Saturday raising
questions that have a direct bearing on the subject. He wrote:
It has been suggested to me that the whole
question of land acquisition and planning permission for Elsea Park is open to
suspicion. By the time that SKDC came to consider planning permission, there was
a change in government guidelines in the offing. The government now discourages
developments which are purely dormitory accommodation for commuters. Had SKDC
had a mind, they could have stalled this application legitimately for long
enough for it to fall foul of the new guidelines. That would probably have saved
the hospital site from housing development. The SKDC Chief Executive could have
lobbied the Deputy Prime Minister to reject the absurd advice of the Planning
Inspector regarding the hospital, short of mounting a legal challenge, but, for
some reason, did not bother. As somebody said to me, the local establishment is
very good at looking after its own.
In view of the outcry from the people of Bourne about both of
these developments, we ought to be told whether this is true because if it is,
Bourne need not have been subjected to so much house building as it is at the
present time and we would not have lost the extremely valuable hospital site
which was seen as an end to primary medical care facilities for the town in the
foreseeable future. More importantly, did those councillors from Bourne know of
this and yet say nothing at the time the application was going through?
The one man to answer these questions is Councillor John Smith who sits on SKDC
for Bourne West and is the cabinet member responsible for economic and planning
matters. He has been an occasional contributor to the Forum in the past and in a
message filed on 3rd February 2002, he promised to keep us in touch with council
affairs because he wrote: “From time to time I intend to give you here the news
from the district council and consult you on various matters of topical
interest. I guarantee to take your views into account together with all other
interested parties. Inevitably it is not possible to please all the people all
the time but I do try to do what I consider is in the best interests of Bourne.”
The Forum welcomes this assurance and as this is the first question we have
asked Councillor Smith, we look forward to an interesting and informative reply.
Never was a public amenity more doomed to failure than the rural mini-buses
launched a year ago to serve villages in the Bourne area. A 12-month-trial for
the scheme was announced in October 2002, funded at the rate of £30,000 a year
that was subsidised by South Kesteven District Council and the Countryside
Agency.
The idea was to introduce a community amenity that would help reduce traffic on
the roads and ease our car parking problems on Tuesdays, and on Thursday and
Saturday market days, and half a century ago it would have been a runaway
success but we live in more affluent times when most people have a car and those
who do not, which mostly means the elderly, have a son or daughter or friend
willing to give them a lift on demand. Taxis too have become a commonplace form
of transport, even for a half-mile trip home from the supermarket with the
shopping, by using the travel vouchers handed out by SKDC. These, and other
available methods of travel, have made waiting by the roadside for a minibus on
selected days at specific times a most inconvenient and unattractive
alternative.
The phrase “use it or lose it” has never had a more resonant ring than in this
instance but passengers have failed to materialise and some routes are now being
phased out while the others will follow unless there is a resurgence of usage
that seems unlikely. This outcome was predicted in many quarters and we are
tempted to ask what research was done before so much public money was committed
in this way. Furthermore, will those who were responsible for introducing the
mini-buses, and the councillors who voted for them, be asked to explain their
decision or will they remain at their posts busy working on other schemes funded
by public money that may also suffer the same fate? I think we should be told.
The police have discovered that there is concern in Bourne about
youngsters cycling along the pavements. The mere fact that this has only just
come to their notice must be a reflection on the time spent by officers on the
beat because had they been carrying out the duties of our constables of
yesteryear they would surely have encountered this problem long ago. If they
wish to know how serious it has become, then perhaps they might like to read my
Diary entry for Saturday 14th June 2003 when the risks we face while out
shopping became all too apparent.
Inspector Mick Howells of Bourne police says: “We have received renewed
complaints from groups representing elderly, and also blind and partially
sighted persons, who are at particular risk. We cannot wait until someone is
injured. It is an offence to ride a pedal cycle on the footpath and although it
may seem a minor offence in the grand scheme of things, it does cause a danger
to pedestrians.”
Apart from kids cycling around the town on the pavements during the day, the
worst offenders are the newspaper delivery boys in the early mornings when
anyone out and about at that time risks life and limb as they come hurtling past
without lights or a bell, both of which are now required by law. If the police
are unable to stop them, surely they ought to receive some form of instruction
from the newsagents who employ them or even their parents before they leave home
who should tell their offspring that they are risking a £30 fixed penalty notice
if they are caught.
Instead we get a warning in the newspapers under the heading of “Crackdown on
footpath cyclists” (Stamford Mercury, Friday 6th February) when we all
know there will be no such thing. A crackdown means that severe or repressive
measures will be taken against offenders but that would require a strict
enforcement of the law which would mean more police officers on the beat. That
is a most unlikely eventuality and so they settle for a few paragraphs in the
local newspaper that will be forgotten in a week.
What the local newspapers are saying: The debate over the proposed town
centre development for Bourne is becoming bogged down in bureaucratic jargon
from both the Town Centre Management Partnership and South Kesteven District
Council that is difficult to follow. Now is the time for this project to be
explained to the people in uncomplicated terms without resort to obtuse statements that
need close textual analysis to make sense of what is being said.
The Stamford Mercury does little to help its readers by reporting
verbatim while offering no interpretation as to the meaning and their front page
report (February 13th) is a perfect example of editorial hot air. If the two
organisations wish to carry the people with them in this project, then the case
must be presented in a clear and lucid manner and without the whiff of the
committee room in every sentence. Councillors often find this difficult which is
why local authorities such as SKDC employ public relations officers who
understand the need for clarity and candour and until these matters are fully
explained in terms that we can all understand, then there will continue to be
reservations.
Recent events have added to the confusion with members of Bourne Town Council
voting for the planning guidelines and then shortly afterwards making a complete
U-turn on the decision. Then we have a set of valuations for properties within
the designated area, a key triangle of land between North Street, Burghley
Street and West Street, that upset many of the owners who had heard these
controversial figures for the first time because they had not been consulted. One
of the most speculative assessments, for example, concerns the worth of a
building in Wherry’s Lane used as the headquarters of the Hereward Lodge of
Freemasons and by no stretch of the imagination could this monstrosity command a
price of £250,000 while other figures appear to be similarly out of touch.
This part of the consultation process was intended to be private but by chance
it was attached to the guidelines document sent to the town council and property
owners in the designated area soon latched on. As a result, the Mayor of Bourne,
Councillor Trevor Holmes, made his well publicised attack which lead to the
opposition from town councillors, now reversed.
What is at issue here? The map for the designated area does not show a new town
centre, rather the clearance of a suitable space within easy reach of North
Street to accommodate a sizeable national supermarket or store, Asda, perhaps,
Wilco or even Dixons, and an indication that this might be so has already come
from SKDC. Is this to be the centre of the much vaunted town centre development,
a big retail shed surrounded by pretty looking street furniture and a few paving
stones?
The inference has been that the town centre area around the old market place
will be totally redesigned but only complete pedestrianisation and the
re-routing of the two main roads, the A15 and the A161, can accomplish such an
objective and that will not happen in the foreseeable future. What appears to be
planned instead is a major commercial development with more retail outlets and
the secrecy surrounding the proposals are already creating rumour and
speculation about land deals and contracts with big business. This is not the
way for the project to proceed and it is time that the public is given a more
detailed appraisal of what is intended in simple language and then I am sure
that once the proposals are understood, support will follow rather than
scattering scraps of unintelligible information about that lead everyone to the
wrong conclusion.
The departure of their editor, Angela Lowe, for pastures new is reported by
The Local with some regret and this is totally justified (February 13th)
because she will be sadly missed. During the three years she has been in the
chair, the newspaper has been busier and livelier than ever before and a typical
issue which appeared on Friday 29th March 2003 carried a remarkable number of
group photographs containing 653 faces of local people, an astounding feat for a
single issue of 28 pages. This is local coverage at its very best because it
reflects the old tradition that every name and every face is a potential reader
and readers are the very lifeblood of a newspaper's circulation. During her
tenure, Angela, who is 27, demonstrated that she possesses enthusiasm,
efficiency and charm, a rare combination in any editor, and she will be a hard
act to follow.
Thought for the Week: Fools are in a terrible, overwhelming majority, all
the wide world over. - Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian dramatist and poet (1828-1906)
and Europe's leading 19th century playwright.
Saturday 21st February 2004
One of the grandest properties in Bourne in past times
was the Abbey House, described as "a fine mansion" when it was built in the
mid-18th century, but its life was a comparatively short one because it was
demolished in 1878 and no one appears to know the reason why. Had it become too
large and unmanageable or perhaps fallen into disrepair? I have searched the
archives in vain to find out why this imposing Georgian property should
disappear from such a coveted location near to the church but can find no
mention of it other than reports of it being dismantled.
The house was built in 1764 by George Pochin, three years after he inherited the
estate of his uncle, Sir Thomas Trollope, and became Lord of the Manor of Bourne
Abbots. Pochin lived there for a short time but it was eventually bought by the
church for use by their ministers and during this period, it was always known as
Bourne Abbey, perhaps because it was built on the site of the old abbey
buildings of mediaeval times.
The vicarage was originally at Brook Lodge in South Street which was used from
1763 to 1807 but a larger property was needed and the Abbey House was deemed to
be a suitable place. Pochin died in 1798 but his sister Mary stayed on until she
too died in 1804 and in 1808 it was taken over by the church as home for the
Vicar of Bourne, then the Rev Thomas Denys. He was succeeded in 1842 by the Rev
Joseph Dodsworth who died at the Abbey House in May 1877 after serving the
parish as curate and vicar for more than half a century. The new vicarage was
opened in 1879 but that too became redundant when it was replaced by the present
building in 1986 and is now the Cedars retirement and rest home.
Demolition of the Abbey House, or Bourne Abbey, began late in 1877 and
construction of the new vicarage was well advanced by the summer of the
following year. The Stamford Mercury reported on Friday 23rd August 1878:
The new Abbey is nearly completed and though
not so large as the old edifice, it is thought by most people to be more
appropriate.
The work however was not without its dangers and the newspaper
reported the following week, on Friday 30th August:
A serious accident occurred on Monday in
connection with the building of the new Abbey. It appears that two men named
Hare and Brown were engaged taking down some scaffolding and by some means a
pole slipped before they were aware of it. Hare fell to the ground, breaking an
arm in two places, but it is hoped that under the skilful treatment of Dr
[Frederick] Glencross, he is progressing favourably.
No reason was given as to why the Abbey House was pulled down
and no mention is made in subsequent newspaper reports. Its disappearance from
the landscape is therefore a matter of speculation. Did Mr Dodsworth, like many
of today's clergymen when faced with the prospect of living in large and
draughty vicarages, eventually find the place too big to manage and too
expensive to heat? This may have been the case because by then, Dodsworth was a
widower, his second wife Ellen having passed away on 31st March 1876, and so he
may have drawn up the plans for the new house, only to die before they came to
fruition.
Or perhaps his successor disliked the property. The Rev George Massey, of Uley,
Dursley, Gloucestershire, having accepted the incumbency in July 1877, arrived
at Bourne on Tuesday 23rd October 1877 when a special peal was rung on the
church bells to welcome him but there is the possibility that his wife did not
like their future home and insisted on a more suitable one for herself and the
family. There is evidence from this period that clergymen's wives were a force
to be reckoned with and their husband's appointment often depended on their
decision. Whatever the reason, the Abbey House had disappeared by 1879 when the
new vicarage opened and Mr and Mrs Massey were the first tenants.
Contemporary prints show the Abbey House to be a fashionable Georgian country
mansion with a pleasing aspect and situated close to the church although a water
colour sketch from 1858, describing it as "Bourne Abbey", survives by an unknown
artist and signed only by his or her initials "M.A.N." suggesting that the house
was then in an extremely dilapidated state although the vicar at that time,
Joseph Dodsworth, was a sufficiently wealthy man to maintain it in a reasonable
condition. We can only assume therefore that the sketch was idiosyncratic and
the work of someone who may not have liked the house and therefore presented it
with an unpleasing appearance.
But the question as to why such a substantial property should be pulled down
after only 114 years persists although the answer may well lie in some dusty
archive waiting to be discovered quite by chance by a future historian and only
then will the mystery be explained.
The Bourne Forum continues to provide a platform for discussion about a
variety of local, national and international issues and is busy most days. This
week has brought contributions on several important topics of concern to local
people, notably the Elsea Park housing estate. Last week, Guy Cudmore, a member
of the town council, suggested that this massive estate of more than 2,000 new
homes, and a second of 70 homes on the old Bourne hospital site, need not have
happened had South Kesteven District Council been minded to oppose them in
accordance with new government guidelines discouraging developments of a purely
dormitory nature.
We asked Councillor John Smith, who sits on SKDC for Bourne West and is the
cabinet member responsible for economic and planning matters, whether there was
any truth in this and he has replied with a lengthy and thoughtful assessment
that should dispel any doubts about this development in the future. The
alternative to new houses at these locations, he argues, would probably have
meant residential development next to Bourne Wood or towards Dyke village,
causing terrible traffic problems in the town, and I suggest, a public outcry
that would have smothered the protests we had over Elsea Park. He also makes
another valid point that is now becoming accepted wisdom:
“Personally, I feel that Elsea Park is a prestigious development and will
gradually, over the years, bring great benefit to the town of Bourne.”
New residential estates are often condemned by their critics as get-rich-quick
schemes for developers and certainly no one runs a business without making money
but if the nation needs additional homes, then they must be built and this
requirement and the choice of location is a combination of responsibility
between national and local government. Those who dislike sacrificing large
tracts of greenbelt countryside to bricks and mortar, and I am among them, can
apportion blame to one person or one authority, because these developments are
part of the juggernaut called progress which is currently propelled at an
excessive speed by the demand for new homes in rural locations and only a major
change in government policy will change what is happening.
For the convenience of visitors who do not read the Forum, I have added
Councillor Smith’s reply to the web site as a separate article in order that it
may be read in the future by anyone who might question the validity of the
development and it may be accessed from the front page of the web site.
A second subject of vital importance has also attracted many contributions this
week and that is the perils that face motorists using the A15 north of Bourne,
towards Dyke and Morton villages, a stretch of road that has become an accident
black spot in recent years and attracted a great deal of coverage from the local
press. Two lads were killed there when their car ran off the road and crashed
into a tree last weekend and although it is not our task to identify the cause
of this particular tragedy, it has once again raised public fears about the
safety of the carriageway at this point.
“That stretch of road is very deceiving”, wrote John Morfee. “I drive it every
day to work and often see that people are tempted to overtake the bus on what
appears to be a clear road only to be caught unawares by cars suddenly appearing
around the bends.” Matt Willson said: “I was once forced off the road (whilst
driving safely on my side, I should add) and into the ditch by someone
overtaking in the opposite direction. With that perspective gained, I was
fortunate to realise early on in my driving years that the extra ten seconds
gained in arriving ahead of the car in front didn't amount to much.”
Sheila Rowe also identified a worrying aspect among drivers who use the A15 out
of town when travelling north. “I have lived on North Road for over 20 years and
the number of fatal accidents on that part of the road runs into double
figures”, she wrote. “Sadly, I also have seen how motorists start their
acceleration from the Tesco garage and can hit speeds well into the seventies by
the time they reach Mill Drove, sometimes in tandem, racing each other. Either
speed cameras or some form of traffic calming needs to be put in place as soon
as possible or more lives will be lost. Surely the highways department should
look at this notoriously dangerous piece of road.”
The local authority responsible for this road is Lincolnshire County Council and
as the leader is another of our councillors, Ian Croft, the member for Bourne
Castle, perhaps he, like Councillor Smith, will respond to this public concern
or perhaps ask his Director of Highways or Public Relations Manager to do it for
him. All local authorities are committed to the development of IT in the coming
years and the use of public forums such as this are proving to be an excellent
method of tapping the feelings of a community and identifying those issues that
are causing concern but the system will not work without the input from those we
have elected and who are responsible for our affairs at town, district and
county level.
What the local newspapers are saying: Both of our main newspapers, The Local
and
the Stamford Mercury, fill their front pages (February 20th) with reports of the
road fatality on the A15 north of Bourne in the early hours of Saturday morning
when two teenagers lost their lives and a third was badly hurt. The boys, Joshua
Knowles and Stuart Woodham, both aged 17, had been inseparable friends, and many
floral tributes have appeared at the crash scene where they died instantly after
their car left the road and struck a roadside tree. The Local also devotes space
inside to a celebration of these young lives and it is a reminder to all of us
of our boyhood years in good company and that life can be as quickly taken as it
is given. “The strength of their friendship was always something of great joy to
their families”, said the newspaper. “They were like twins.” Fittingly, they
will have a joint funeral service at the Abbey Church on Wednesday and friends
have been invited to speak at the ceremony and to remember the boys at a
reception afterwards.
Vandals have again been causing problems at the Abbey Lawn, home of Bourne Town
Football Club and other sporting organisations, by causing more criminal damage
on Wednesday evening. The Local reports that “alcohol and drug fuelled youths
are meeting regularly at the ground and destroying anything in their path” and
in recent weeks windows and doors have been smashed and the drainage system
wrecked. The football club is now seriously concerned with the continuing damage
to their premises and the latest bill is expected to be around £1,000. Terry
Bates, the club chairman, told the newspaper: “We have to take immediate
measures or I can see no future for sport at the Abbey Lawn. Words are no longer
strong enough and action is needed quickly.”
The police reaction, however, appears to be less than enthusiastic, even
indifferent, because the newspaper quotes community beat officer Steve Smith as
saying: “We regularly send officers to the area but the culprits hide when they
see us coming.” There was a time when no one could escape the long arm of the
law and when all criminals knew that there was no hiding place secure enough to
shelter them from their wrongdoing but it appears that policing at that level is
now a thing of the past.
There are further problems with vandals at the Burghley Centre where the owners
are planning to erect high gates topped with spikes at the two entrances, in
North Street and the car park. The Stamford Mercury reports (February 20th) that
in the past, windows have been smashed, benches and light fittings damaged and
shop doorways used as urinals, but in future the gates will be locked at night
to prevent intruders from getting in. This problem is also known to the police
because Sergeant Steve Gallant of Bourne told the newspaper: “At various times
we have been looking at the centre as a bit of a hot spot in terms of disorder.
We have at times moved people on but the vast majority of the damage there
remains undetected.”
No matter, our bobbies are doing a good job, according to Lincolnshire Police.
The Stamford Mercury warns (February 20th) that council tax rises are on the way
in April and the police force is the first to confirm that their slice of the
bill will be going up by a massive 7.5% which is almost six times the rate of
inflation. Councillor Martin Hill, chairman of the police authority’s finance
and strategy committee, is quoted as saying: “While Lincolnshire has continued
to suffer a raw deal in terms of financial support, we have succeeded in
delivering effective and efficient policing. We have achieved some of the
greatest reductions in crime in the country. However, we will not become
complacent nor let this success detract from the greater issue.”
From the archives: A splendid specimen of the osprey (Pandion haliætus) is now
to be seen at the establishment of Mr John Evans, taxidermist, West-street,
Bourne, to whom it has been entrusted for the purpose of preservation. It was
shot by Mr Ward on the 21st of September in Deeping Fen, near Tongue End, and
measures 23 inches from end of the bill to tail end and 5 feet 3 inches from tip
to tip of wings. – news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 19th October
1883.
Thought for the week: A man should know something of his own country before he
goes abroad. – Laurence Sterne, Irish-born writer and clergyman and author of
Tristram Shandy (1713-68).
Saturday 28th February 2004
The state of the roads in the Bourne area is under
scrutiny following the tragic death of two teenage boys earlier this month when
their car crashed into a tree alongside the A15 north of the town. The
circumstances of this particular accident are not the issue here because that
will be decided by an inquest later this year but it has prompted many opinions
on our road system and whether what we have is safe enough for the traffic it
now carries.
The two main roads that cross in the town centre, the A15 and the A161, are
specific examples because neither is purpose built yet they serve as the main
arteries carrying traffic north and south, east and west. The routes they take
are largely the footpaths of centuries past, later used by carts and wagons and
then by stagecoaches when some surface work was done by the turnpike trusts of
the 18th century to make them more easily passable although they were still
frequently knee deep in mud and mire during inclement weather. The coming of the
railways during the mid-19th century reduced the pressure on the roads although
macadam surfaces were soon providing a more comfortable ride when the motor car
began appearing in 1900 and it soon became obvious that this new form of
transport was here to stay. It was at this point that a major reappraisal should
have been made of our future road system but no one gave it a thought and so it
was during the next 100 years when the volume of cars and lorries began reaching
phenomenal levels when mistakes were made by government in their attitude to
road building and we are still suffering the consequences today.
As motorised traffic increased in the early years of the 20th century, the roads
still followed the routes of the old footpaths, sticking to the contours of the
landscape through undulating countryside with steep hills and sharp inclines and
around sharp, sometimes blind, bends, taking in villages and country towns, with
trees and fields, farms and smallholdings, on either side. It was at the time
these roads were due for improvement to take the new age of vehicles that the
routes should have been redrawn and the roads built elsewhere to make them
straight, flat and safe, envisaging the motorways of the future, but a strategy
of this magnitude was lacking and, of course, the omission can only by
identified by hindsight.
If planners of vision had been employed during the 1930s, and, more
particularly, in the post-war years of the 1950s and 1960s, the pattern of our
road system in South Lincolnshire today would be very different with main
highways running past villages and towns such as Bourne instead of going
straight through them, endangering not only pedestrians but also creating a
pollution that is injurious both to health and the environment while the effects
of traffic vibration are now known to have a deleterious effect on historic
buildings as Stamford, England’s foremost conservation country town with more
than 800 listed properties, has discovered to its cost. Instead, new motorways,
such as the M1, the first stretch of which opened in 1959, soaked up the bulk of
the national budget which has been devoted to similar projects ever since and
what money there was to invest in rural roads was spent piecemeal on patching up
what we had rather than replace them with new ones.
It is a sad and sorry tale but as with all mistakes from the past that we now
inherit, it is difficult to apportion blame except perhaps that there has never
been a concerted will to improve things and that the pressing problems of the
moment always took precedence over what might or might not happen in the future.
Successive governments at all levels, when faced with demand for road
improvements in country areas to keep pace with increasing traffic levels and
new regulations, merely nodded approval to widening existing roads and
reinforcing them with generations of fresh Tarmac, then painting them with the
new white and yellow lines and erecting myriad signs and direction posts on the
verges, while the routes they took were largely ignored. By the time it dawned
on planners that dual carriageway roads sited away from built up areas were the
way forward for the movement of high levels of vehicles, and that by-passes for
market towns were more appropriate than repairing old and inadequate roads,
major changes were impossible and although many larger towns and cities have
been isolated by ring roads and super highways, small communities like Bourne
have been largely neglected and so they are left with the footpaths of
yesteryear, converted piecemeal over the centuries into makeshift trunk roads
with all of their faults and dangers.
It may be too late to reverse the trend. The building of new roads now takes up
a massive amount of land and open countryside is being gobbled up at an alarming
rate for house building. A bigger obstacle is the cost and governments,
particularly this one, have yet to learn that money raised from the people by
consistently high levels of taxation should be spent at home on improving the
lot of those who contributed rather than the profligacy of ill-advised foreign
adventures and burgeoning bureaucracies.
But even if more money were available, there is also the question of priorities
and when you consider the competition from the rest of Lincolnshire, Bourne has
little chance of attracting the capital expenditure required. We therefore seem
to be stuck with roads such as the A15 for the foreseeable future even though
doubts about its safety were expressed almost 100 years ago when the motor car
was still a comparatively rare sight on the road. In 1909, when the double bend
in South Street was known as Dr Gilpin's corner, because the doctor then lived
and ran his practice from Brook Lodge, the former vicarage next to the church,
there was public disquiet about traffic safety at this point and yet the
following year, in 1910, the local authorities turned down a proposal to
purchase land in the vicinity with a view to widening the roadway and make it
safer.
As predicted, there were several mishaps on the corner and early in 1917, danger
signs were erected after a complaint by a local resident who was involved in an
accident, not with his car, but with his horse and cart. There were more
collisions in subsequent years and in 1928, Kesteven County Council, then the
highways authority, was asked to improve the road as a matter of urgency but as
we all know, nothing was done. The problem was exacerbated by the railway that
crossed the road a few yards further south and the traffic delays were
compounded when the level crossing gates were shut to allow a train to pass.
Although this added inconvenience disappeared when the Bourne to Spalding line
closed in 1959, the situation has since become far worse because of the massive
increase in through traffic and the road becomes progressively more unsafe with
each passing year and accidents that happen here invariably make headlines.
The local authorities missed a second chance to improve the road at this point
when a cottage attached to the smallholding at No 35 South Street was demolished
in January 1977. The location of the property was unfortunate because it stood
on the west side and looked as though it was leaning forwards into the road at a
most unsafe angle, creating a hazard for the increasing traffic flows of the
previous decades, and although scheduled as a Grade II building, it was pulled
down in January 1977. This was the perfect chance to improve the highway at this
point and remove a highly dangerous black spot and yet again, nothing was done.
Instead, permission was given to build two new houses on the land that had been
made vacant by the demolition although they were sited well back from the road.
But the double bend remains, a nightmare for motorists during the rush hour
periods, especially in the evenings, when queues of traffic tail back as far as
the grammar school and even further and each accident that occurs reminds us of
another tragedy lurking just around the corner. This is one of the worst
stretches of urban road in Lincolnshire and is in dire need of improvement or
replacement as a matter of urgency and yet the local authorities do nothing.
These cases have a hollow ring because the clamour for road improvements along
dangerous stretches is far more vociferous than in years past. Certainly, the
answers to our problems lie in the past when things could and should have been
managed differently. Situations may have changed but there still appears to be
either an unwillingness to accept that problems exist or a tacit refusal to
tackle them and so, apart from periodic cosmetic treatment, there will be no
radical change and the roads we have today will stay much as they are and as
experience from past years has shown, the fatalities will continue.
What the local papers are saying: Free parking in Bourne is likely to end
soon, according to the Stamford Mercury. The argument whether or not
drivers should pay to leave their cars has been simmering for some years but a
front page report (February 27th) suggests that charges will be introduced to
bring the town in line with Stamford and Grantham, despite opposition from
shopkeepers and the public. A recommendation to this effect still has to be
agreed by South Kesteven District Council when it meets in April but if charges
are introduced, the newspaper suggests that drivers will have to pay as much as
£5 a day in a short-stay car park although the occasional cost in Stamford is
currently 40p an hour.
The problem over vandals causing damage to sporting facilities at the Abbey Lawn
fills the front page of The Local telling us that night-time patrols have
been set up to catch the culprits and deter future offenders (February 27th).
Last week, the newspaper reported that “alcohol and drug fuelled youths are
meeting regularly at the ground and destroying anything in their path” and in
recent weeks windows and doors have been smashed and the drainage system
wrecked. The ground is the home to Bourne Town Football Club and officials are
seriously concerned with the continuing damage to their premises with the latest
bill expected to be around £1,000. This week, the newspaper reports that the
club is so determined to bring justice to the few who spoil the enjoyment of the
many, that club chairman Terry Bates has pledged relentless pursuit of the
guilty. “The club is operating a zero tolerance approach to unauthorised entry
to our property”, he said. “We expect lighting and cameras to be installed in
the very near future and in the meantime, we shall continue to patrol the Abbey
Lawn with professional security support.”
What the local newspapers are not saying: Neither of our two main local
newspapers carried a word about the announcement from the Prime Minister, Tony
Blair, that he is proposing a crackdown on the circulation of drugs in schools
with random checks on pupils. This is surprising because the subject spawned
many column inches in both The Local and the Stamford Mercury when
a major story broke last June with the head teachers of Bourne Grammar School
and the Robert Manning Technical College announcing that police with sniffer
dogs were to make periodic visits because the problem was getting out of hand.
The Prime Minister’s remarks last weekend have brought protests from both the
police and the teaching unions that the scheme would be unworkable because of
various legal implications, not least what would happen if pupils were searched
without parental permission and whether they would be arrested and brought
before the courts if they were found in possession of illegal substances.
The government proposal was a ready made opportunity for the local newspapers to
discuss this issue again and although there is no evidence that the threat has
been carried out at either of the schools in Bourne, this was the time to find
out whether drug tests are still an option. Instead, the subject was totally
ignored and we wonder whether it was a deliberate omission or a sign that the
newspapers do not keep in touch with what is happening in the rest of the
country, especially as this topic is the subject of a lively debate among
contributors to the Bourne Forum.
Shop watch: The speed of service at our new garage and shop facility in
North Street still fails to live up to its name of Tesco Express. They do
continuous business here and neither the forecourt nor the store is ever empty
but there is a marked absence of staff manning the checkouts. One day last week,
the queue stretched down the shop as far as the newspaper stand and yet there
was only one operator at the tills although other workers were visible, buzzing
around filling shelves or having cups of tea out the back. Managerial
intervention or a new system is badly needed to hasten things before someone
demands that the store’s name is in breach of the Trade Descriptions Act.
The good old days: John Close, a labourer, aged 22, appeared before the
Kesteven Quarter Sessions held at Bourne Town Hall on 3rd April 1838 accused of
breaking into the Eastgate shop of William Watson and stealing five loaves of
bread, a pound’s weight each of cheese, tobacco, tea and sugar, candles and
other articles, and of stealing an earthen pancheon [a shallow milk bowl], the
property of John Phillips, a grocer of Church Street, and of stealing 13 fowls,
the property of John Osborn, of North Street. He was found guilty on all charges
and sentenced to be transported to Australia for 10 years and he sailed for New
South Wales in 1839 aboard the ship John Barry. – from the Lincolnshire
County Archives on convict transportation.
Thought for the week: England's streets are increasingly plagued with
fast food litter and chewing gum, according to a new survey. In 10,000 sites
checked, there had been a 12% rise in litter from takeaway food outlets while
nearly 95% of town centre streets were dotted with chewing gum. The Keep Britain
Tidy group which conducted the survey, has urged councils to clean at night when
littering is worst. - news report from BBC Online, Monday 23rd February 2004.
Return to Monthly entries
|
