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Saturday 1st May 2004
Pay parking will not be coming to Bourne for the time
being. This was the result of a decision taken late on Thursday afternoon by
South Kesteven District Council after several weeks of campaigning by
townspeople and traders in which a petition containing 4,000 signatures opposing
charges was raised and presented to the authority. After a two hour debate, the
meeting voted 39-14, with two abstentions, not to proceed with the £60,000
expenditure required for the works associated with the introduction of pay
parking in the town and this effectively ends the issue for the time being,
although doubtless it will be back on the agenda in the coming years.
The widespread protest that has emanated from Bourne since pay parking was first
mooted has been a fine example of democracy at work with everyone concerned
working for a common aim, councillors, newspapers and those directly involved
and it is to be hoped that the message it sends will be understood by the
electorate, that they can make a difference. Perhaps it will also persuade
people that voting in elections, at local and government level, is not such a
waste of time after all.
What the local newspapers are saying: Late events can play havoc with a
weekly newspaper’s production schedules but The Local rose to the
occasion with front page picture coverage from Grantham giving the verdict on
the pay parking dispute and of course, they claimed the credit (April 30th).
“Town’s united voice topples pay parking plan”, ran the headline followed by a
report which said: “Bourne has triumphed in the long running battle. Charges
will NOT be imposed thanks to the astounding efforts of the townsfolk backed by
our campaign. Our councillors deserve full credit for standing up for the
people of Bourne in the face of what, at times, seemed to be a battle already
lost.”
The Stamford Mercury was less fortunate and despite promising the result
in last week’s issue they were unable to deliver. Instead, the newspaper gave a
roundup of the events so far and a tag line saying; “Find out what the decision
was in next week’s Mercury.” Too late. The Local has said it all.
A curious letter appears in the correspondence columns of the Stamford
Mercury signed by Councillor Peter Martin-Mayhew commenting on vandalism at the South Street toilets in Bourne only days after they were reopened (April
30th). He is the cabinet member of South Kesteven District Council responsible
for the lavatories and the man who closed them in October 2002 and his letter appears to
be a defence of that decision because he writes: “Perhaps this will really act
as graphic proof of the problems we were facing when the toilets were closed. I
did get a strong feeling at the time that people felt I had overreacted and was
closing them down for the sake of it. We are not proposing to close the toilets
again but clearly there has to be some hard work within Bourne to keep this
facility safe.”
The general feeling in Bourne has been that the lavatories were closed as a
means of saving money, as have one in five similar facilities across the country
in the past three years, and that their use by perverts was merely an excuse to
shut them. After all, if litter continues to appear in public places, the
council does not call off its street sweepers. Councillor Martin-Mayhew uses the
old ruse of blaming the majority for the actions of the few but it is now
obvious that the council misjudged the reaction to its drastic closure decision
and was forced to reverse it. Now that the lavatories have been refurbished and
are operating once again, it is up to the council to maintain and protect them,
even it that means seeking police assistance, because this is not the
responsibility of the general public as he infers.
Neither is it the role of councillors to sit in judgment on the public but
it is their job to deliver services and to ensure that they are properly maintained. The obvious
answer is the one he suggests, a facility that is fully manned, but then you
only have to visit Spalding to find that out because they have public lavatories
that have won awards and where vandalism is unknown. If a town a few miles down
the road can do it, why not Bourne? This is the issue that SKDC should be
addressing rather than trying to justify ill-advised decisions of the past that have
been against the public interest and have solved nothing.
There has been a marked deterioration in the Old Grammar School since its
plight was highlighted in this column a year ago. Nothing has been done to
rectify the decay that has set in and those who wished to see it fall down may
soon get their way.
This is one of the oldest secular buildings in Bourne and a permanent reminder
of the establishment of popular education in the town but has had little or no
maintenance in recent years and the structure has now been declared unsafe with
a leaking roof that will take at least £20,000 to repair, probably much more,
and this is money that will be hard to find.
The school was a gift to the town in 1636 when William Trollope, a local
landowner, also made a bequest in his will providing an endowment of £30 a year
to pay the headmaster’s salary. It was sited next to the Abbey Church where it
stands today, forlorn and forgotten, boarded up with safety notices printed in
red letters warning visitors not to enter.
Those who value our heritage must be continually vigilant because the vandals
are always at the door, ready to knock down what we have left of the past. It is
worth remembering that the Red Hall, the jewel in our heritage crown, nearly
suffered this fate on two occasions. When the new railway line between Bourne
and Saxby was built between 1891 and 1893, the original scheme proposed the
demolition of the Red Hall to make way for new sidings to take freight traffic.
The suggestion caused some outcry and a petition was duly raised by the
townspeople and presented to the railway company in 1892 in an attempt to save
the historic building from demolition. The petition was handwritten and signed
by 75 of Bourne's leading citizens, headed by the Vicar, the Rev Hugh Mansfield,
his churchwardens and parochial church councillors, and by tradesmen and
shopkeepers as well as several private citizens of wealth and importance.
The protest succeeded. Feelings were so strong that the railway company relented
and the Red Hall was preserved only to face further uncertainty when the line
closed almost a century later. At that time, the early 17th century building was
used as the stationmaster's house and ticket office but when the station closed,
there was again the threat of demolition and this time, the most vociferous of
those speaking out for it to be pulled down were local councillors. Kesteven
County Council, now superseded by Lincolnshire County Council, met on Wednesday
23rd February 1955 to consider a recommendation from their planning committee
that they should not take it over. A report on the subject advised that the
council would not be justified in assuming ownership and financial
responsibility for the Red Hall because of the uncertainty of finding any real
use for even two or three rooms and the likely heavy liability for maintenance
costs, despite the offer of a £5,000 grant from the Historic Buildings Council.
Renovation was estimated at £14,000, the bulk of which was for the main
building.
The meeting was mainly hostile to any suggestions that the council should save
the building and Alderman G A Jenkinson (Old Somerby) told members: “The people
of Bourne don’t want it under any circumstances and I will back them absolutely.
If Bourne doesn’t want it, why do we want it? I say let it fall down and the
sooner the better.” Two Bourne councillors were similarly scathing. “Both Bourne
Urban District Council and South Kesteven Rural District Council have definitely
turned it down as being a useless proposition”, said Councillor H L Hudson while
Councillor R A Collins described the building as “nothing more or less than a
white elephant”. Alderman C H Feneley (Deeping St James) also added his view
that “no historic building should prejudice the march of progress”.
There was a spirited defence of the building and one councillor suggested
that the people of Bourne should be consulted but it was to no avail. The vote
was 33-19 against the council taking over the Red Hall and so its fate appeared
to be sealed. But help was at hand, notably through the efforts of the late
Councillor Jack Burchnell, and after a long and determined fight, he ensured
that Bourne United Charities acquired the freehold in 1962 and they remain the
owners to this day. The building was in a dilapidated condition when they took
over but with the aid of local funds and grants, it was carefully and
sympathetically restored to its former elegance and the building re-opened in
December 1972. Since then, the main rooms have been used as offices and as a
meeting place for local groups and conservation organisations and, after the
church, it has become the best known building in Bourne.
These are matters we should ponder on when contemplating the future of those old
buildings we have left and very soon decisions will have to be made about the
future of the Old Grammar School. Not one of those members of Kesteven County
Council who so roundly condemned the Red Hall to oblivion is remembered today
yet the building still stands through the will of the people. Councillors should
therefore remember that history will judge their conduct by consigning them to
total anonymity if the decisions they make are counter to public opinion. Only
those who make their mark, often in the face of insurmountable odds, will be
remembered.
Fire in the home is a comparatively rare occurrence today because there
are few naked flames but in the days before electricity became so widespread in
domestic properties, the possibility of an outbreak from candles, oil lamps,
boilers and open hearths was ever present. Such an occurrence almost eighty
years ago became one of the biggest disasters at Langtoft village, five miles
south of Bourne, where five families were rendered homeless in the space of
twenty minutes.
At 10.30 am on Wednesday 10th March 1926, the alarm was raised when flames were
seen shooting from the thatched roof of a cottage in the main street occupied by
George Day and his wife and a strong wind soon spread the blaze to the adjoining
cottage. Villagers rallied to fight the fire with buckets of water but were
unable to stop it spreading further to another row of thatched cottages on the
other side of the road 12 yards away, one of them used as a general dealer’s
shop by Mr William Howard. Ironically, he had been helping tackle the original
fire when he found his own home ablaze and soon it was enveloped in a mass of
flames, together with the adjoining thatched cottages occupied by Mrs Mary Rate
and Miss Sarah Ann Stainsby, and within minutes, it was obvious that all five
properties were doomed.
Villagers concentrated on saving what furniture and effects they could get out
but in the second of the cottages, Mrs J C Whitaker, a bed-ridden lady, was
carried to safety and taken to a neighbour’s house. In the event, only a small
portion of the contents from each were saved. Across the road, some of Mr
Howard’s furniture, including a piano, was brought out into the yard but another
disaster speedily followed. The fire fighters had attempted to extinguish the
flames by climbing on ladders to reach as near to the roof as the intense heat
would allow but on looking down into the interior, discovered that everything
inside and in the yard, including the piano, had fallen prey to the flames as
the roof eventually collapsed.
The roof of Mrs Rate’s collage followed suit, destroying all of the contents
although a fair proportion of the effects from Miss Stainsby’s home, the last of
the three in that row to catch light, were salvaged. By the time the fire
brigade from Market Deeping arrived, the situation had become hopeless but they
still made attempts to extinguish the flames using water pumped from the nearby
dyke to douse the smouldering mass of debris.
The cottages were rented to the tenants and owned by Mrs G Bates of Church
Gresley, Burton-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, and were insured. But only two of the
occupiers had their contents insured and all had to accept the generous
hospitality of friends and relatives in the village. A few hours later, all that
was left of the five cottages were charred walls which stood only about six feet
in height.
An investigation subsequently revealed that sparks blown on to the thatched
roofs by the wind from a nearby washhouse had started the outbreak. Fire so
easily started, quickly consumes.
Thought for the Week: Over half of the 14.5 million Britons who own pets
said they would need between two and five days off work for “bereavement” if
they died while 10 per cent would need up to two weeks, according to a report
from the insurers Direct-Line, although only one in five thought they would need
time off if a family member died. - news report from the Daily Mail, Monday
26th April 2004.
Saturday 8th May 2004
The new Mayor of Bourne took office on Wednesday at the
annual meeting of the town council and the appointment this year goes to
Councillor Mrs Petronella (Pet) Moisey who becomes the 33rd to hold the office
since it was inaugurated in 1974.
The recent introduction of the mayoralty in Bourne may come as a surprise to
many people who regard it as a traditional appointment, which indeed it is, but
the town was never large enough to sustain such high office in the past.
A mayor was originally an overseer or bailiff and stems from the Norman maeur
or mair although there is an alterative explanation that it comes from
the Latin major meaning greater or superior. These derivations invite the
assumption that the mayoralty we know today is an extremely ancient institution
whereas it is a comparatively late development in local government organisation
yet still conjures up images of Ruritania and even Toytown, for those of us old
enough to remember the popular BBC Children's Hour radio series of that name.
The position of mayor in England was largely governed by the Local Government
Act of 1933 that required the council of every borough to make it their first
duty at each annual meeting to elect a mayor who normally holds office for one
year but may be re-elected. There have been changes in the rules since,
consistent with the various re-organisations of local government, and so the
title of mayor is now usually reserved for the head of an urban administration,
one that has been granted district or borough status by royal charter. The
system is different in the United States where the mayor is the elected head of
a city or town and in 1999, the Labour government in Britain floated proposals
for directly-elected mayors, a system that is now being adopted by some of the
larger authorities, notably in London where the controversial Ken Livingstone
was elected by public vote in May 2000 and will again be facing the electorate
next month. The latter system is also prevalent in Europe and ostensibly enables
decisions to be made without the red tape of committee and council meetings and
is therefore meant to be a faster and more efficient means of running local
affairs.
It is unlikely that small towns such as Bourne will ever get a directly elected
mayor and so the present system will remain with us for the foreseeable future.
The mayoralty in Bourne dates back only 30 years. From 1899, our affairs were in
the hands of Bourne Urban District Council which had a chairman but under the
local government re-organisation of 1974, all urban authorities in England were
replaced by district councils and henceforward, Bourne's affairs came under the
control of South Kesteven District Council based in Grantham. The town however,
retained a parish council which, because of its historic status, was given
special dispensation to become a town council with a chairman who is also the
mayor, and this authority took over the Coat of Arms and civic regalia
previously enshrined in Bourne UDC. Our first citizen, therefore, is no more
than the chairman of the parish council but by recent tradition, is elected as
mayor by his or her peers.
Apart from taking the chair at council meetings, the mayoral duties are
ornamental rather than practical and extend to attending public functions as a
representative of the town council, and indeed the town, garden fetes, concerts,
dinners, coffee mornings, and the like, and therefore involve a constant round
of glad-handing and the risk of putting on pounds while navigating the rubber
chicken circuit, culminating with the Civic Ball at the end of the term, when
those who have been of help during the year are thanked personally for their
support.
The office then, is one of adornment rather than achievement, as exemplified by
the silver chain of office worn during their tenure. It is filled by rotation on
a basis of seniority rather than merit, a case of Buggins's turn, and as council
seats are liable to change, it is possible to become mayor twice in a short
space of time, as has happened to seven councillors in Bourne since 1974. There
is also no requirement to be elected by the people, as with the present council
which has 15 members, all of whom have been returned unopposed without a single
vote being cast, and so anyone who is sufficiently determined to become Mayor of
Bourne could achieve that ambition in a short space of time.
Some of those who do become mayor tend to get carried away with the euphoria of
elevation and may be forgiven for promising the unattainable when donning the
chain of office for the first time, however well-intentioned these aims and
objectives may be, but the mayor has no more powers to make them happen while in
office than they did as a mere town councillor but it does sound good at the
time and is therefore worthy of a round of applause and headlines in the local
newspapers. Reality is a little different.
What then can we expect from our mayors in the future? The answer is very
little, except a high profile and there is little wrong with that. The title is
far more important than the job itself. But all organisations need a figurehead
and in Bourne, that role is filled by the mayor. The office may be an
anachronism but if Parliament can have its pomp and ceremony, then why cannot we
have a little of the same. It achieves nothing but the chain of office does
symbolise a dignity and a civic pride in our town and for that reason alone, it
is worth keeping and so each year, a selected councillor will suddenly be pushed
into the limelight for the next twelve months when they will be feted like
royalty although their job is one with no official parameters other than to be
seen and occasionally heard.
What the local newspapers are saying: All of our newspapers this week are
full of the euphoria of victory over the pay parking issue which was decided at
a meeting of South Kesteven District Council last week but the Stamford
Mercury sounds a note of caution. “The deal struck at Grantham leaves Bourne
open to new attempts to scrap its free car parks”, says Christian March in a
front page story (May 7th). “With the rapid expansion and wide ranging proposals
to redevelop the town centre, the next battle may not be too far off.”
This would seem to be a fair analysis of the situation. Continuing his theme on
the inside pages, Christian March interviewed several prominent people connected
with the issue, among them Duncan Kerr, the council’s new chief executive, who
said: “I cannot rule out that the cabinet could ask the council to change its
mind but I don’t think that’s very likely.”
Perhaps not, for the moment. But a revealing contribution has been made to the
Bourne Forum this week by someone with the appropriate pen name of Robert de
Brunne saying: “The battle for no parking charges is not finished yet. How many
noticed that when the Exeter Street car park was resurfaced, cables were laid
ready for the parking meters to be installed as and when Grantham decides?” If
this is so, then the grey men who actually run the council have already made up
their minds and last week’s democratic decision by its elected members is
meaningless. I think we should be told.
Vandals have returned to the Abbey Lawn after valiant attempts to safeguard this
valuable sporting amenity that is used by several of our leading organisations,
notably the town’s cricket and football clubs, and The Local suggests that
the latest round of criminal damage could spell the end of organised sport in
the town (May 7th). Youngsters treating the area as a recreation ground are
blamed for causing the problem but wrecking a new clock on the cricket club
pavilion and ripping away guttering can hardly be described as a social
diversion. The police have been notified and their response is to initiate more
patrols by their community support officers but they do not specify whether
these will be held at weekends and at night when the vandalism usually occurs.
Bourne is an unlikely place to find coal but a seam was discovered on the
outskirts of the town in the late 19th century. It was not the high standard
black coal that is so familiar but a lignite, or brown coal, which was found
during the digging of a tunnel through the hillside at Toft, three miles south
west of Bourne, one of the biggest civil engineering feats along the route of
the railway link between the Midlands and East Anglia.
The lignite was unearthed in the shaft of the tunnel as it was being built
through Stamford Hill that was mainly composed of the argillaceous rock known as
Oxford clay that provided the raw material for thousands of bricks fired locally
and used to line the interior. The discovery of the new material was reported by
the Stamford Mercury on Friday 13th February 1891:
The excavation now proceeding reveals the
fact that the lower part of this formation consists of shale. This bed of shale
is composed of hardened vegetable matter, the remains of an ancient forest,
condensed by the overlying rock. The most superficial inspection betrays the
original fibres of the woody stems that composed it, crossing each other in all
directions. We have further verified this by microscopic examination. The
alumina of the lower strata of clay is strongly impregnated with the oxide of
iron. The shale unearthed possesses the properties of coal for it will readily
burn. Indeed, these "brown coals", as they are called, were used for fuel in
some parts of Germany and Austria. Portions of the stems of plants peculiar to
the carboniferous period, which generally occur in the shales and sands forming
the "roof" of a coal seam, have been found. Though it would be both unscientific
and ridiculous to hastily deduce from these superficial evidences the existence
of coal in the underlying strata, it is only natural that the progress of the
excavations should be observed with keen interest alike by local geologists and
by commercial men.
In the event, it did not prove to be a commercial proposition
but it was an interesting discovery and one of many that come to light when we
dig into the earth. Meanwhile, the 330-yard long Toft Tunnel became disused when
the railway closed in 1959 and the metal track was removed three years later but
the actual structure survives. Since 1993, the area has been preserved as a
nature reserve by Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust and is well worth a visit as a
relic of the days of steam and as you walk its length, pause for a moment in the
enveloping darkness of the tunnel and you may well hear the whistle of an
approaching train.
From the archives: James Johnson, aged 18, of Deeping St James, near
Bourne, was sentenced to be transported for seven years after being found guilty
on 3rd April 1837 of receiving eight fleeces of wool at Market Deeping, the
property of Joseph Beecraft Mawby, knowing them to be stolen. He was also
accused of receiving seven more fleeces of wool from J B Mawby and eight fleeces
from Robert Searson, as well as stealing a hempen sack at Deeping Fen, the
property of John Holland, but was found not guilty on these charges. The court
was told that Johnson was able to read and write imperfectly. Two other men were
convicted with him, Peter Moore Johnson and Samuel Preston, after being informed
against by John Henson. He sailed for New South Wales the following year aboard
the ship Lord Lynedock. - from the Lincolnshire County Archives on convict
transportation.
Message from abroad: All your pictures are of excellent quality and you
have learned the tricks in making a good one. Bourne is certainly well known by
now and you have done a great service in showing that a small English town has a
history that was unknown to thousands of people just a few years ago. – email
from John Hughes of Fort Worth, Texas, USA, Wednesday 5th May 2004.
Thought for the week: Tesco now takes £1 out of every £8 spent in British
shops. If you don’t count non-foot items, it’s £1 in every £4. It sells more
baby products than Boots and Mothercare combined and more pharmaceutical
products than Boots and Superdrug combined. It sells more CDs than HMV and
Woolworth’s. It sells 4.4% of all UK clothing. Soon Tesco will be running your
bath and raising your children. - Deborah Ross writing in The Spectator,
Saturday 1st May 2004.
Saturday 15th May 2004
Britain’s green belt
is under threat from current
government policy that is allowing various schemes to go ahead on land that
should be protected from development, according to new information just revealed
in Parliament.
The term green belt applies to those areas that are meant to be preserved to
prevent urban sprawl and the most obvious example in Bourne is the 300
acres of agricultural land alongside the A15 to the south of the
town where Elsea Park is currently under construction. This is one of the many
schemes on protected acreage that have been approved under the Labour
administration since 1997, despite the declaration of Prime Minister Tony Blair
in an interview with Country Life magazine that: “I love the countryside.
For me it is the open spaces, the closeness to nature. You really have to plan
for your rural environment.”
Yet of the 162 developments on green belt sites in the past six years, 43
involve housing while the others include gypsy or travellers’ camps, waste
management and landfill and business parks.
The situation has been highlighted in a report by the Sunday Telegraph
(May 9th) quoting the Campaign to Protect Rural England, an organisation that
rightly fears for the future of this green and pleasant land. Nic Best, their
regional policy officer, warned that many parts of the country were being
seriously damaged by the loss of green belt land. “It is the quality of the
landscape that attracts people”, he said. “We are killing the goose that lays
the golden egg by building over our best asset.”
According to government figures, 11 per cent of land handed over to developers
in Britain between 1998 and 2001 was from green belt and rural campaigners warn
that this trend will continue, much to the detriment of the countryside as
planning authorities adopt a more flexible approach in their powers by changing
green belt designations to allow additional housing schemes proceed.
Elsea Park is a major housing development costing an estimated £10 million that
will eventually bring 2,000 new homes to Bourne and was announced in March 1999,
the biggest single residential expansion in the history of the town and if it
comes to fruition in its entirety, it will increase the population by 50% within
a decade.
The 300 acres are on the very edge of a small wood known as Elsea Wood from
which the new estate takes its name. The project was greeted with a great deal
of criticism, mainly because of the speed with which it was pushed through and
the lack of public consultation. The main objections were that a development of
this magnitude would not only encroach on the existing green belt but would also
increase traffic flows through the town centre at peak periods and on roads in
the vicinity that were already overcrowded, especially the main A15 into
Peterborough. The population explosion would also bring an estimated 6,000
newcomers to the town, putting more pressure on schools, libraries, public
transport, leisure amenities, medical and other facilities.
A public exhibition was held at the Red Hall in October 1999 in an attempt to
allay public fears about the effect that 2,000 new homes would have on the
locality but many of the 200 people who attended came away totally dispirited by
the experience because there was insufficient information over the provision of
the additional facilities that would be needed to cope with this massive influx
of people. Despite the opposition, members of South Kesteven District Council's
planning and development control committee voted 15-1 in favour of granting
outline planning permission when they met on November 2nd and this was
subsequently ratified by the full council and approved by the Secretary of
State.
Building began in the summer of 2001 and the scheme is now well advanced and it
must be admitted that it looks good. There is also a planning gain with the
developers promising a new school, community hall, sports pitches and a relief
road, but these benefits have yet to appear although we have the assurance of
Councillor John Smith (Bourne West), the South Kesteven District Council cabinet
member responsible for economic development, that these benefits were the
subject of a Section 106 agreement (S106), the legal contract that formalises
what will be provided by the developer for the new community (Bourne Forum 14th
February 2002) and it is up to his council to ensure that they do eventually
materialise although in some parts of the country these agreements have been
drawn up in a sloppy fashion and have proved difficult to enforce.
Meanwhile, the prospect of Bourne from the south has become extremely attractive
as a result of the establishment of Elsea Park and although the houses may seem
expensive, they are very desirable, built in wide landscaped avenues with plenty
of space and the estate is excellently maintained. The design and location has a
countryside setting and appears to be perfect, almost idyllic, and it has also
enhanced this part of the town but there is no escaping the fact that it has
been created at the expense of green belt land and has extended Bourne’s urban
sprawl. Under present government policy, such developments appear to be
unstoppable and perhaps this is the way it will be in the Britain of the future.
The pursuit of power has been the subject of many psychological treatises down
the ages and in recent years, Henry Kissinger, the former United States
Secretary of State who helped negotiate the end of the Vietnam war, famously
suggested in 1976 that it was the ultimate aphrodisiac.
But I doubt if this is the real reason why some men seek to control others
although it may be an entertaining sideshow to their endeavours. Most wish to
hold office for other reasons, vanity being high on the list together with the
prospect of baubles in the Honours List, but all appear to have a yearning to be
acknowledged as being part of the decision making process and therefore superior
to their fellow man.
There are many realms in which this can be achieved, the golf club and
freemason’s lodge being among those places where even life’s failures may
achieve some seniority, while business and commerce needs brains and often money
to succeed, and so politics is usually the well-trodden road the ambitious take
to success, seeking the top post of this or that authority as their ultimate
goal and once achieved they are reluctant to let it go and cling to office with
a bulldog tenacity.
The high profile of national government provides a scenario of power and its
inherent failures, those who succeed and those who are cast into the political
wilderness, the back benches of the Commons and the luxury of the Lords being
filled with those who did not quite make it. In the shires, we need to look to
the district and county councils for those in search of ascendancy in authority
and although the financial rewards are not as great, the compulsion to achieve
may be equally potent.
Old men long retired find these rural corridors of power a haven for their
ambitions and many stay on long after they would have been forced out of any
salaried post with a private firm, undeterred by ill health, loss of faculties
and an inability to keep up with the advancing technology that is becoming an
integral part of their administration. The power and prestige of being a
councillor and a chairman or cabinet member into the bargain is a seductive
attraction they are unable to resist and the generous salaries and allowances
now offered are the icing on the cake.
There are councillors who serve for the good of the community but we hear little
of them. Instead, in an iconoclastic world where we create our heroes only to
pull them down at the first sign of weakness, the headlines are reserved for
those who transgress or perhaps depart from the accepted standards of behaviour
that we expect from our elected representatives and therefore the impact is all
the more devastating.
Earlier this year, the leader of Lincolnshire County Council, Jim Speechley, a
wealthy farmer from Crowland, was jailed for 18 months for trying to alter the
route of a bypass to increase the value of land he owned. He had already been
forced to stand down as leader in 2002 after an auditors’ inquiry condemned him
for creating “a climate of fear” among staff and other matters but perversely
his Tory colleagues then re-elected him as leader before he was again forced
out. Yet he clings to his council membership from his prison cell pending an
appeal against his conviction and sentence and continues to receive £600 a month
in allowances while his name still appears on the county council web site as the
member for Crowland and Whaplode.
He was succeeded as leader of the council by an old friend, Councillor Ian
Croft, the member for Bourne Castle, and now he too finds himself in hot water
for supporting Speechley in various ways and for a breakdown of relationships
with the council’s chief executive, David Bowles, the public servant who blew
the whistle on the case and appeared as a prosecution witness.
Last week, the Stamford Mercury reported on the humiliating apology Councillor
Croft gave after appearing to excuse the behaviour of his jailed predecessor
when he addressed a packed meeting in the council chamber on Friday 30th April.
He told members:
I unreservedly condemn the criminal activity of the former leader of the council
Jim Speechley. He let me down, he let down this Conservative group, the council
as a whole and, indeed, the people of Lincolnshire. I did not intend in any way
to excuse the crime for which Councillor Speechley has been rightly convicted
and sentenced.
Councillor Croft also referred to an interview he had given to BBC Radio
Lincolnshire in which he claimed that Speechley had been let down by poor
systems and suggested that the chief executive, David Bowles, should resign:
I again unreservedly withdraw that remark. It was improper of me to speculate in
that manner. I have written a letter of apology to the chief executive and I
have reported myself to the Standards Board.
There were allegations that Jim Speechley was still running the council from his
prison cell and that the Tories had launched a fighting fund for their former
leader, all vigorously denied although Councillor Croft did admit that he had
received a four-page letter from his predecessor but did not study its contents
and took it straight to the monitoring officer.
David Bowles, who had been off work for four months suffering from stress,
returned to his duties on Friday 23rd April. On Tuesday 6th May, members of the
controlling Conservative group unanimously agreed that Councillor Croft should
carry on as their leader and therefore of the county council and, as a result,
he continues to be the most prominent and important local politician in
Lincolnshire.
What the local newspapers are saying: The prospect of Roman remains could delay
work on an £80,000 scheme to improve facilities at the Willoughby School in
South Road, Bourne. The Stamford Mercury reports that archaeological experts
want to check the site before the builders move in to find out if there is any
evidence of their occupation 2,000 years ago (May 14th). The Romans occupied
Britain from 43 AD until early in the 5th century and significant discoveries
have been made in the past, notably pieces of a tessellated pavement in 1776 and
a hoard of gold coins in 1808, both in the area of the site of what is thought
to have been Bourne Castle. Land around Bourne Grammar School has also produced
a number of finds including coins and pottery and in view of the close proximity
of the Willoughby School, further discoveries are likely when the project begins
later this year.
The Local carries a lively letters page and one contribution is important
because it echoes the fears of many people, namely the current role of the
police in protecting the public (May 14th). In a most thoughtful assessment of
the current situation, Mr Ralph Bradley of Waterside Close, Bourne, refers to
the recent wave of vandalism that is threatening sports events at the Abbey lawn
and he asks the pertinent question: “Where is our expensively assembled and
trained police force? Their complacency and lack of determination in tackling
this problem is difficult to fathom and maybe confirms the widespread view that
the police have largely withdrawn from enforcing most of our laws which was once
traditionally regarded as central to their role.”
This well argued letter will strike a chord with everyone in Bourne who has been
the victim of a crime or knows someone who has and it cries out for a response
from the Chief Constable himself and so perhaps The Local will recognise that Mr
Bradley’s contribution is worthy of a follow up next week because it is one of
the most important issues concerning the community today.
Thought for the week: Parking problems? Come to Harlow in Essex and see the
proposed Tory-Liberal Democrat council plans for the biggest car park in the
country. Every household with a car but no garage will pay £45 a year minimum to
park outside their house. No car, then pay £10 for twenty permits to allow
visitors park. Should a person be self-employed and use a small van, then the
charge will be £500. – letter from L K, Essex, to BBC TV Ceefax, Saturday 8th
May 2004.
Saturday 22nd May 2004
Many of the fields around Bourne have turned a golden
yellow in recent weeks as hundreds of acres of oilseed rape burst into flower.
Some people claim that this bright colour is garish and one that intrudes upon
the traditional English landscape and although it may be unfamiliar to some
because its appearance in many areas is comparatively recent, it has in fact
been with us for centuries.
The Dutch engineers who came here to drain the fens in the 17th century were the
first to plant oilseed rape (Brassica napus) in Britain because they
needed the oil it produced to lubricate their drainage pumps and the image of
oilseed rape remained industrial until the 1970s when it began to be promoted as
an edible oil, a home-grown alternative to groundnuts, sunflowers and soya.
Since then, acreage has increased enormously and the yellow flowers have become
a common sight in the farming counties and here in the Bourne area, the crops
can be seen in abundance and their strong smelling scent wafts across the road
as you pass. It is perhaps the most frequently planted break crop for the
revenue from a good harvest of rape seed can equal or exceed that of wheat
because it can be sold for a good price to the crushing mills for conversion
into vegetable oil and its high profit potential has lured many farmers away
from continuous cereals.
Rape is drilled in late August immediately after the cereal harvest and the
seeds, contained in long pods at the top of the stem, are ready for combining
the following summer but they must not be left to become too ripe otherwise the
pods shatter before they enter the combine and the small brown seeds are lost.
Many farmers therefore cut it early and let it dry in the field, a practice
known as swathing, and these piles of dried stalks thrown into rows by the
cutter can often be seen in the fields in late summer. The combine is then able
to pick up the dried rape and thresh it with less wastage.
The sight of huge swathes of this crop in the countryside is a sure sign that
spring is well and truly here but there are some who object to the name oilseed
rape and all that it implies, claiming that it does not sit easily with the
glorious sight of acre after acre of beautiful yellow flowers giving off their
pungent smell. Many farmers in Britain now merely use the term oil seed but
political correctness in North America has taken its identification a step
forward. A friend in British Columbia, Canada, tells me that the name has been
changed to canola and the resulting oil product which is sold for cooking is
known as canola oil.
Old books on farming frequently refer to oil seed as cole or coleseed and in the
absence of photographs, this has confused many people as to the crop's identity.
Also, its eye-catching colour that has proliferated in the fields in the past 30
years has persuaded the public that it is a new crop when in fact it is an
ancient one. Lord Willoughby, who opposed the draining of the fens, wrote as
early as 1598 in a letter to the Earl of Essex that he was convinced the land to
be drained was eminently suited for growing rape seed "which is of singular use
to make soap and oils with" and would therefore "not help the general poor but
undo them and make those that are already rich far more rich".
William Wheeler, in his book A History of the Fens of South Lincolnshire
(1868) also indicates that oil seed was being grown here when the Dutch engineer
Cornelius Vermuyden began his task of draining the fens during the early 17th
century and as Lord Willougby had predicted, the newly enclosed land was
particularly suitable for its cultivation and it therefore became a major crop,
second only to cereals such as oats, and used mainly for making soap and oil. In
a petition to King Charles I (1600-1649), it was stated that since the draining
of the fens, crop yields had increased dramatically and they had an abundance of
all sorts of grain and "seed for oyl". This was a cogent reason for oil
seed production two centuries before the discovery of petroleum and so one of
the most important functions of the fens after drainage was to provide England
with a continual supply of soap.
What the local newspapers are saying:
The Stamford
Mercury may have gone a little over the top with its front page this week by
suggesting that the introduction of film shows at the Corn Exchange this year
will be a case of “Hollywood Comes to Bourne” (May 21st), even reproducing the
headline on the famous hillside sign in California with the name of this town
tagged on the bottom. Nevertheless, the new amenity is a pleasing addition to
our leisure facilities and if all goes to plan, the first movies could be
showing by the autumn with audiences of between 80 to 100 people under a scheme
put forward by the Lincolnshire Cinema Exhibition Consortium (Cine-lincs),
funded by the Film Council.
The Stamford Mercury also reports that a skateboard park may be on the
way for Bourne after a campaign to find a site was launched in 2002 by local
enthusiast Chas Shrosbree (May 21st). Youngsters have been practising their
sport wherever they find an area of concrete or hard standing, including local
car parks and even the paved area around the Cenotaph in South Street but after
1,000 people signed a petition, they have proved that there is a genuine desire
for such a project which is now likely to go ahead on the site of the old water
cress beds between Baldock’s Mill and Manor Lane. The sports envisaged here are
skateboarding together with associated pastimes such as in-line roller blading
and BMX.
The land is owned by Bourne United Charities who have offered it “in principle”
but £190,000 is still needed for the scheme to come to fruition. It is also a
project that will need careful thought because many will consider this an
inappropriate location, being a sensitive environment within the conservation
area and the Wellhead Park, although it has not been tended well in recent
years. The Bourne Eau that runs nearby has been totally neglected and the
connecting footpath to South Street is overgrown, uneven and slippery underfoot.
The establishment of a skateboard park would be the perfect opportunity for the
trustees of BUC who administer the land to put these things right as part of the
overall scheme that would greatly enhance this part of the town and may well
counteract any criticism.
For the second week running, The Local has printed a letter whose
importance outweighs many of the news stories given prominence elsewhere in the
newspaper (May 21st). It once again deals with the public concern over yob
behaviour at weekends throughout the year and the level of policing in Bourne
which the writer claims is “woefully inadequate”. Parents too come in for their
share of the blame for the continual vandalism, hooliganism and anti-social
behaviour that is causing misery for the majority because so many allow their
children out at night without proper supervision and so mischief and mayhem is
often the result.
This is one of the most important issues facing the community today and I
suggested last week that it would be worthwhile for the newspaper to approach
the Chief Constable and tell him of our concern and to gauge his thinking on the
matter because letters from readers give us the ultimate yardstick of public
opinion.
The song of the blackbird is one of the most beautiful you will hear in
England during springtime and we have been delighted in past days with a visitor
to our garden that has been trilling away morning and night from various vantage
points around the house, the fence, the shed and the television aerial. This is
a male bird with a virtually unmistakeable appearance, its coat being jet black
with a yellow bill, and its song is distinctive, a mixture of mellow warbling
notes, each phrase dying away before the next strong and melodious burst. There
is also a sweet, muted sub-song, hummed through a closed bill and sounding like
a distant echo.
John Clare (1793-1864), the peasant poet who lived not far from here, knew this
bird well and celebrated it in verse, referring to it as “he” because only the
male sings:
The blackbird is a bonny bird
I love his mourning suit
And song in the spring mornings heard
As mellow as the flute
How sweet his song in April showers
Pipes from his golden bill
As yellow as the kingcup flowers
The sweetest ditty still.
On Sunday, while we were sitting on the patio enjoying the
sunshine, it alighted on top of the nearby bird table and entertained us again
and for a moment I thought it might come and perch beside us but after eyeing us
suspiciously, it swooped off to a new song post and was soon sharing its fluting
melody with the neighbourhood.
Blackbirds are also the most friendly of our native species because they have
become the best adapted to our welcoming gardens, running and hopping across the
lawn to extract worms and eat up caterpillars and grubs, or flying up into the
shrubs and bushes for berries and soft fruit, or noisily turning over leaf
litter for seeds and insects. They also show little fear of humans and can be
befriended with a little perseverance. I remember my wife rescuing a female
blackbird from the lawn after it had knocked itself out by flying into the
window and she fed it bread and milk until it recovered. Later that summer,
after its eggs had hatched, it brought four fledglings up to the back door where
they came often for weeks afterwards. My mother never believed the tale when I
told her but one afternoon when she came for tea on the patio, I whistled to
them and they all came strutting up to the table for morsels of cake and she was
so utterly astounded that she bored her friends with the story for months
afterwards.
We have had guests staying from the city who complain that the countryside is
too noisy because of the birdsong, especially if they awake around 4 am and hear
the dawn chorus, dominated by the blackbird which takes over the main singing
role, but our new visitor has prompted us to throw open the doors and windows
when we get up in the morning to hear him singing his heart out and what a
wonderful start to the day it is and yet he is always back in the evening with a
repeat performance.
There was an added bonus this week when we heard the cuckoo for the first time
this year, calling to us from across the fen. I had feared that it might not put
in an appearance at all this year but several times this week we have heard that
distinctive cry from its song post on a branch of one of the scattered trees out
there over the fen towards Dyke village and I paused in my gardening tasks and
stood listening to that magical sound of spring. When we moved to this house
overlooking the flat landscape on the very edge of Bourne more than 20 years
ago, our favourite migratory bird sang early and late most days. In fact, there
were several of them and their song delighted the neighbourhood morning and
evening for many weeks because the call of the male cuckoo makes this one of the
best known though least seen of our summer visitors. I made a note in my diary
and the date was 22nd April 1983.
Cuckoo Day is traditionally April 14th or 15th when we can expect to hear it in
these islands for the first time although there is not any hard and fast rule
but we in Lincolnshire are rarely so blessed and it is usually a week or two
afterwards, often even later, that their characteristic call comes to us from
across the countryside to remind us that they have arrived after their marathon
flight from Africa where they have wintered in warmer climes. No sound is more
eagerly awaited than the loud, ringing, repeated song because it signals the
arrival of spring and although many people have heard the cuckoo, few people
have ever seen one. They are quite large birds, well over twelve inches long,
and they have a bad reputation because they do not build nests for themselves
but lay their eggs in those of other birds and leave them to hatch them out and
bring up the young. But despite this wayward conduct, they remain one of the
best loved of our summer visitors.
A few years ago we were driving home across the fen one May day when we heard
the cuckoo and then had a rare sighting as it perched on an overhead power cable
in a field alongside Mill Drove singing its heart out but this was an unusual
occurrence that stopped every passing car and soon there were a dozen vehicles
parked along the roadside verge, their windows wound down as the occupants sat
enjoying the sound of this harbinger of warm and pleasant summer days ahead.
Since then, the cuckoo has become an even more elusive bird because its numbers
are being seriously reduced and its song at this time of the year can no longer
be guaranteed as an annual delight. It has to face the shootists on the
Mediterranean islands, particularly Malta, in Spain and in France, as it wings
its way north on its annual flight to England, but once here it will find that
its habitats are being denuded year by year because the intensification of
agriculture and the urban sprawl persist at an alarming rate. Their decline is
yet another example of man's uncaring attitude to the world around him and that
if we continue on this destructive path, poisoning and killing all that was here
before us, then nature will have its revenge because of the imbalance we have
caused in pursuit of profit, greed and so-called sport.
Thought for the week: Accuse not Nature, she hath done her part; Do thou
but thine. – John Milton, English poet (1608-74), from his great epic
Paradise Lost.
Saturday 29th May 2004
A man living in the West Country who complained to his
local council that the street outside his home had not been cleaned was sent bin
liners and a broom to do the job himself.
The equipment was delivered to Harry Sas, aged 53, of Old Church Road, Clevedon,
Somerset, following three protests about the lack of kerbside maintenance in his
neighbourhood. He admitted afterwards that he had suggesed “tongue in cheek”
about doing the work because he was unhappy with the state of the street but was
surprised when his request was granted within days. He is now picking up and
bagging the litter for collection once a week.
The cleaning equipment was delivered by an employee of North Somerset
Council. “We have listened to what residents have been saying and have tried to
clean at different times of the day but there are always cars parked”, said a
spokesman. “We have even hand-cleaned the area once but we do not have the
resources to do this all the time. Mr Sas requested the tools and, as a gesture
of goodwill, a member of the staff delivered them to his home.”
This might be the answer for all of our local authorities who plead poverty,
despite putting up our council tax payments year after year with increases well
above the rate of inflation. South Kesteven District Council already delivers a
supply of black bin bags to every home in Bourne once a year and in future, it
might be a worthwhile exercise to include a brush and pan.
Coincidentally, a contributor left a message on the Bourne Forum last Friday
night saying: “The town has been particularly filthy in the past few days. The
Market Place was full of litter on Friday and Abbey Road was even worse. Why do
we need so many councillors when they cannot even keep the streets clean?”
It was indeed in such a state because a neighbour photographed Abbey Road a few
days before when it looked like one the worst spots you could find in the most
deprived of our inner cities. But when I drove in early on Sunday morning, the
entire town centre was spotless. There was not a single crisp packet, smashed
bottle or plastic takeaway carton in sight and the scene was similar in West
Street, South Street and Abbey Road. This was soon after 8 am and as I went past
the Abbey Lawn, I spotted the reason why: a workman pushing his street cleaning
barrow back to the depot after a job well done. On the same morning, I noticed
that a telephone kiosk in North Road that had been smashed by vandals earlier in
the week, leaving a pile of shattered glass around it on the pavement, had been
repaired and the debris cleared away.
Perhaps this is the way forward, to avoid the implications of the broken window
syndrome, where one small incident left unattended can lead to widespread apathy
and subsequent neglect. Perhaps those in charge, whether public or private
authorities, have at last realised that the only solution to the continuing
problems of rubbish and vandalism is to clean up and repair, again and again if
necessary, until the culprits, whether they drop litter or cause criminal
damage, tire of their childish antics or become more aware of their responsibilities
to the community. The alternative is to allow the town to slip into the deep
abyss of a neglected environment, where bad becomes worse and worse becomes
irrecoverable, and surely after all we are being forced to pay, we deserve
better than that.
Conservationists were horrified to learn that an osprey was shot in
Lincolnshire last week. The bird was not killed but found in time for its injury
to be treated although its recovery is doubtful because they do not survive in
captivity. There were fears that the bird was one of those recently introduced
to Rutland Water near Stamford in an attempt to encourage the species to breed
in this region again but it was not ringed and therefore came from elsewhere.
The osprey (Pandion haliætus), also known as the fish hawk, is a moderate
sized raptor normally seen near lakes, broads and estuaries outside the breeding
season. It lives entirely on fish and this may be the reason why it was harried
to near extinction in Britain in past times because it was competing for stocks
of trout. Then after an absence of almost 50 years, a pair of these large brown
and white birds set up their nest in a tree near Loch Garten on Speyside in
Scotland in the mid-1950s and their presence has been nurtured by the Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds ever since, with nesting sites closely
guarded in many parts of the country.
Ospreys have a slow flapping flight but they also soar, hover and drop from a
height on to their prey feet first, and they have a shrill, cheeping cry, rather
like the call of a young game bird. In early spring, before the female arrives
at the eyrie, the male performs spectacular flights, climbing as high as 1,000
feet, hovering briefly with tail outspread, and then plunging earthwards. It can
sometimes be seen in this locality but sightings are a rare occurrence because
it is still a threatened species despite the perseverance of conservationists.
During the 19th century, they were a common sight but because of their
magnificent appearance, they frequently fell victim to the guns of hunters who
sold them to taxidermists for mounting in glass cases, a practice banned today
by law. Bourne was one of the centres of this trade in Lincolnshire, mainly
through the expertise of Mr John Evans who had shop and workshop premises in
West Street where he would accept any attractive or unusual bird or animal for
stuffing and the Stamford Mercury reported on Friday 19th October 1883:
A splendid specimen of the osprey 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.
This was a magnificent adult bird that was shot for no good
reason other than to adorn some Victorian sitting room but it was the practice
of the time to take a gun to any attractive or unusual bird that might be
spotted in the countryside and although our attitude to wildlife has changed
drastically since, the shooting of an osprey today is proof that not everyone
shares the same sentiment.
What the local newspapers are saying: The County News continues to
drop through our letter boxes despite increasing evidence that it has become
a white elephant. The 20-page monthly colour publication was launched by
Lincolnshire County Council in February 2003 as a two-year pilot project to keep
residents informed about its role and delivered free to 314,000 homes and
businesses but the newspaper has little to recommend it and there is no doubt
that it would have disappeared long ago had it been subjected to the commercial
pressures of circulation and advertising rather than being financed by our
council tax.
This is the newspaper that purports to cover the county authority’s activities
in Lincolnshire although it rarely mentions Bourne yet every resident gets one
and the latest issue, for June 2004, arrived on Thursday carrying an editorial
outlining the costs involved. Figures for April 2004 show that the annual net
cost of publication is £373,406 which means that the newspaper is produced,
printed and delivered for just under 10.7p per copy. About three quarters of the
cost goes on printing and distribution and income last year was £81,500 that was
raised through commercial advertising. What we are not told is that the council
has spent £454,880 on the newspaper which is now £217,216 in the red and that
income from advertising has been less than half of what was projected yet it
continues to appear, subsidised by the public purse. Councils are there to
deliver public services and not to publish newspapers and despite the editorial
telling us “the feedback so far has been very encouraging” my own experience is
that many of the copies delivered go straight into the wpb or the bottom of the
bird cage.
The most important story this week comes again from the letters pages of the two
local newspapers but this time it has revealed an interesting comparison. The
Local carries a scathing criticism of the large-scale housing developments
now underway in Bourne which the writer claims “is ripping the town apart” (May
28th). The letter is well informed and cogently argued but is unsigned although
we are told that the name and address were supplied. Yet the same letter, with
some minor amendments, appears in the Stamford Mercury with the signature
of John Burke, Spalding Road, Bourne, under the headline “Bourne doesn’t want
more housing estates”.
This raises the important question for an editor as to whether anonymous letters
should be published and in my opinion the answer is that they should not.
Firstly, they lack credibility and secondly they could have been written by
anyone, perhaps even one of the reporters to fill an empty column space on a dull day. The
Stamford Mercury carries an announcement that anonymity will only be
considered in exceptional circumstances and I assume that in this case, the
writer was persuaded to add his name because of the importance of the subject
matter to the public debate on expanding residential development whereas The Local
has no declared policy for its correspondence column and it was therefore printed at its face value.
But the enterprise of the Mercury earns it a major
contribution to the letters page and at the same time a significant news
story on Page 3 developing the topic under
discussion and may well provide a follow up next week.
Mr Burke says that everyone he speaks to in Bourne is of the opinion that the
town does not want or need any more new houses and the influx of newcomers
moving into those that are being built is affecting the quality of life in the
town. “We have been at stretching point with the infrastructure for many months
and it is getting worse”, he writes. “This can be experienced quite clearly when
visiting the dentist, doctor and schools. Is it time to set up an action group
to enable the people of Bourne to be listened to?”
This letter, in whichever newspaper it is read, will strike a chord with many
people but the decisions have been taken and are irreversible. The voice of the
people was raised when the various development schemes were first put forward
and it was to little avail because we are slowly learning that the electorate is powerless to act against the bureaucratic juggernaut of local
authorities that are mainly rubber stamping wider policies formulated in Whitehall
and to which many of our local councillors cave in without a fight.
House building is one of the most lucrative businesses in Britain today
which explains the determination of developers to have their plans passed and
local authorities who oppose them may face heavy legal expenses in preparing for
and attending appeals which often explains their reluctance to refuse many of
the larger housing schemes.
The controversial building of houses on meadowland alongside The Croft, a large
house in North Road, was met with such widespread public opposition when it was
put forward a year ago that refusal was inevitable and the plans by CFD Ltd of
Oakham, Rutland, were eventually rejected by South Kesteven District Council
last December. The site is one of the only open spaces left on that side of town
and there were fears that an additional 37 houses would cause major traffic
problems on the main A15 which runs past the site. The application has now gone
to appeal which is due to take place in November and there will be no result
from that until well into the new year. Meanwhile, new plans have been submitted
by the developers, this time for 51 houses and although the town council has
again turned them down, we face the same bureaucratic procedure at district
level before getting a final decision.
Opposition to the building of houses on this very attractive area of open space,
which also includes an orchard, appeared to be solid in Bourne but nothing is
ever as it seems and it now transpires that some of the land included in the
proposed development is owned by partners in the Galletly Medical Practice which
is next door, opened in 1996 and now part of the Lincolnshire South West Primary
Care Trust, and so it is assumed that the doctors who work there support the
application to build new houses at this location and the subsequent loss of
green space.
The premises they occupy were originally an equally large house known as The
Gables, once the home of Dr John (Alistair) Galletly (1899-1993), a highly
qualified doctor who ministered to the sick of this town for 41 years. He was
well-liked and he had the good of the community at heart, becoming chairman of
Bourne Urban District Council, a county alderman and fulfilling a wide variety
of public appointments. His love of the countryside is also well documented and
his opposition to the proposed residential development that would envelop his
beloved rose garden will perhaps be condemned from beyond the grave.
Message from abroad: Your web site is the best I've seen for Britain.
Thank you so much. – email from Kathy McCullough, Roselle Park, New Jersey,
USA. Saturday 22nd May 2004.
Thought for the week: No man is justified in doing evil on the grounds of
expediency. – Theodore Roosevelt, Republican President of the United States
1901-09.
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