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Saturday 5th November 2005
It is to be hoped that councillors and their officials
have learned lessons from the fiasco over the delayed opening of the new south
west relief road that revealed the weakness of the present system of overseeing
the planning gain for housing developments.
The benefits are the subject of a Section 106 agreement (S106), the legal
contract that formalises what will be provided by the developers, and it is up
to the local authorities 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.
Allison Homes, the Spalding-based developers, built the 1½-mile stretch of
carriageway at a cost of £4 million to relieve traffic congestion in the town
centre, a role that is now being fulfilled despite a five-month delay. It was
part of the planning gain in return for permission to erect the 2,000 home Elsea
Park estate, now enhancing the southern aspect of the town and attracting many
new families to join our community.
The road should have opened during the summer and although it was finished at
the end of May, Allison Homes sealed it off with concrete blocks at both ends to
prevent traffic from using it while they argued about the next stage of the
planning gain, the provision of a new school. There were accusations that the
town was being held to ransom until the developers got what they wanted and when
agreement was reached, the road finally opened on Saturday 8th October.
The new four-classroom school with its own playing field is now very much needed
because Elsea Park has already generated 100 additional pupils for local schools
that are already full but it will not be completed until September 2007 by which
time that figure will most probably have doubled, perhaps trebled. There will be
a public consultation to hear the views of parents and other interested parties
and work will begin when it is proved that there will be sufficient children of
school age to fill it, a provision that would seem to be taken as read.
Agreements will then be signed with the developers and perhaps council officials
and their legal advisers will be sufficiently aware of what happened over the
road to avoid a recurrence by having a school completed but not opened for
lessons while yet another clause becomes the subject of prolonged argument.
We should not forget that Allison Homes has also promised other facilities as
part of the planning gain which was the subject of an exhibition at the Red Hall
in October 1999 at a time when there was a great deal of public opposition to
the housing development. The total package agreed with South Kesteven District
Council included:
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A primary school for local children
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A multi-purpose community hall
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Sites available for a doctor's surgery and crèche
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Cycle, pedestrian and vehicle links and a shuttle bus route
through the development
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Sports pitches, toddler play facilities and nature conservation
areas
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Links to Bourne town centre and existing public footpaths to the
surrounding countryside
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Retention of the majority of existing site features e g
hedgerows, ponds, etc
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The south west relief road to reduce traffic congestion within
Bourne town centre
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Measures to safeguard and enhance the ecology including the
protection of Math and Elsea Woods, a Site of Special Scientific Interest
The Elsea Park estate is now a fact and already part of our
topography while many of the incomers have embraced their new way of life and
are fast becoming integrated with the existing community. It is therefore
essential that the council ensures that the terms of the planning gain are
enforced with as little inconvenience to the public as possible and it is hoped
that in the future we will not be subjected to the prolonged and bitter haggling
that occurred over the road while completed facilities languish unused.
To the residents of Hereward Street who are becoming sorely tested by the
frequent use of their road by heavy vehicles making deliveries to Budgens’
supermarket, I commend the sit-down solution successfully implemented by John
Caldow, aged 54, a trader, from Manningtree in Essex. Fed up with Tesco’s
massive articulated lorries performing three-point turns inches from his front
door, he decided to take direct action. Grabbing a chair, he placed it in the
path of an oncoming 30ft. juggernaut and sat down. Then he poured himself a cup
of tea and started reading the newspaper, refusing to budge for the next two
hours by which time the driver realised that he could not be moved and drove off
without completing his delivery.
The result is that Tesco has been forced to use smaller lorries more suited to
the town’s narrow roads, an outcome currently being sought by the residents of
Hereward Street and no doubt Meadowgate that is regularly subjected to similar
inconveniences, frequently mounting the pavement and creating a danger for
passing cars and pedestrians. It would be particularly significant if such a
protest were carried out in Bourne because each of the streets is home to a town
councillor, Guy Cudmore, deputy mayor in Meadowgate, and Councillor Jayne
Pauley, chairman of the highways committee, in Hereward Street, and what better
example could they set for their fellow residents than by leading a similar sit
down protest whose effectiveness has already been tried and tested and proven to
be successful.
What the local newspaper are saying: Councillors and officials planning
the sale of the bus station in Bourne to pay for a new multi-storey car park
adjacent to the Budgens’ supermarket can be in no doubt that public opinion is
strongly against them if they read this week’s Stamford Mercury (November
4th). The official view is put quite specifically by Mike Sibthorpe, the
council’s head of planning policy and economic regeneration, who said: “There is
a widespread view that the bus station as a facility is an under-used property
asset and that subject to appropriate alternative provisions being made, the
site could be disposed of as part of the regeneration of the town centre area.
It would appear that a relatively small number of buses are now using the bus
station. If it were possible for those buses to pick up and drop passengers at
appropriate roadside facilities, there would not likely to be a continuing
requirement for a bus station.”
This would appear to be official speak for the fact that a decision has been
made behind the scenes and the bus station will be sold, irrespective of what
the people want because he does not say where the ubiquitous opinion about under
use comes from. Indeed, it will be news to most people in Bourne who deplore the
prospect of intending passengers, many of them children, being forced to stand
at the kerbside to catch a bus, while the traditional stopping and waiting place
for buses and coaches serving Bourne will be demolished.
The news reports and letters do not contain a single word in support and there
is even condemnation from Councillor Don Fisher, a former Mayor of Bourne and
long-standing member of South Kesteven District Council (since 1979) who makes a
vital point: “When redevelopment of a town centre is proposed, the town involved
is supposed to benefit from planning gain, not be asked to sell off valuable
assets to underwrite the cost. I fully back calls to keep the bus station. It is
a valuable amenity.” Have he and his fellow councillors been consulted on this
matter?
Fortunately, there is a ray of sanity in the discussion from the
Town Centre Co-ordinator, Ivan Fuller, who lives in Bourne and is therefore more in touch with
public opinion because he told The Local that the issue was still under
discussion. “There are no plans for the demolition of the bus station and no
specific decision has been made”, he said. “We are still in the process of
conducting a full evaluation. As and when things happen, they will be
communicated to the public straight away.”
Yet, those who follow the machinations of local government will realise that the
writing is on the wall. Bourne will lose its bus station which the people want
to keep and a multi-story car park which they do not want will be thrust upon
them like a dose of bad medicine while council officials murmur cheerfully:
“It’s for your own good.”
Shop watch: Although we do not have an acute car parking problem in
Bourne at the moment there are times when it is difficult to find a space,
usually at peak shopping periods such as Thursday market day and during the
Saturday shopping rush. However, it is invariably hard to find room at
Sainsburys in Exeter Street from around 10 am onwards most days and it is not
because of heavy usage by customers’ cars but because others park there and go
about their business elsewhere in the town. This must be the reason because two
or three mornings last week the car park was almost full yet the number of
people shopping inside did not match the number of vehicles left outside.
This is bad for business because if people want to use the supermarket they also
want a car parking space and are likely to go elsewhere if they do not get one.
Ticketing might be the answer with an endorsement at the till for bona fide
customers before they can leave, a scheme used successfully by Morrisons at
Grantham. Otherwise wheel clamping by attendants, or the threat of it, would
deter the culprits but in the current climate of limbo at Sainsburys where the
shelves are not replenished, items often unpriced and the inevitable queue at
the checkouts, it is doubtful if any action will be taken.
The machines are fighting back, taking over our lives without our
knowledge and their independent action increases with each innovation. A friend
who lives at Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire emailed last week to ask why I had
telephoned from my mobile the previous day but had not actually spoken to him
because all he heard was my voice and that of someone else discussing an
involved set of instructions. This was baffling because I had not telephoned him and
had not in fact made a single call either from my mobile or land line but he was
so insistent that it demanded an investigation.
Checking outgoing calls, I found one logged to my friend in Whittlesey at 11.46
am the previous day, the very moment I had popped into town to buy some clothes
from Jesse Bellamy, the outfitters in North Street, always carrying my mobile
switched on in an inside pocket. I paid with my Visa card and was presented with
a gizmo by the shop assistant with a request to enter my pin number, the first
time I have ever used this system, and so he explained how it worked, telling me
to “Hit the ENTER key before and after”, the very words my friend had heard over
the line. The telephone had therefore dialled up his number from the address
book and transmitted this conversation while I was totally unaware of what had
happened.
The electronics from the credit card gizmo must have been responsible,
triggering off the mobile that could not have dialled up accidentally because it
would have taken six different key strokes to do that and arrive at the
Whittlesey number. Now how many times has this happened before or is likely to
in the future, each time costing money at mobile rate? What is more worrying is
the thought that whenever you come into contact with electronic gadgetry while
carrying a mobile, it is likely to dial up someone in your address book and make
them aware of your activities. You have been warned!
People are so friendly in Bourne that when anyone says “Hello” I always
reply with a smile, delighted with the acknowledgment. I was greeted thus at
Pets Parlour in North Street on Friday last week when I popped in to buy some
bird seed for our garden visitors but on turning round could see no one else in
the shop and thought I had been hearing things but a few moments later came a
second unmistakable “Hello” in my right ear.
This time I spotted the source of the salutation and it was not a person at all
but an African grey parrot staring cheekily at me through the wire mesh of its
cage. Now how do you greet a parrot other than to say “Hello” in return,
especially when by this time other customers were milling about, and so I did
but then in a pet shop no one bats an eyelid when you are caught talking to the
birds.
I had a senior moment on Saturday night while adjusting the clocks for
the end of British Summer Time and put them all forward an hour instead of back.
Consequently, we were up and about at 6 am next morning and the error did not
dawn on me until I noticed that it was not getting light as early as I had
expected. Later on Sunday, I related the experience to a friend who emailed back
with a mnemonic that might be useful to oldies whose memories are becoming
similarly impaired: “Spring forward, fall back”.
Thought for the week: Our public services are run by a class of
bureaucratic careerist spivs who would obey any order to save their jobs and who
are creative only in finding new ways to extract money from the public without
providing much in return. – Anthony Daniels, writing in the Daily Mail on why
he has departed Britain to live in France, Wednesday 26th October 2005.
Saturday 12th November 2005
There is increasing
concern about the lack of will from
our local councillors to participate in public debates on matters of vital
interest to the people who elected them to office, particularly in the new
discussion forums that operate on the various Internet web sites.
This is disappointing especially as four important Online web sites covering
this area, for Bourne, Market Deeping, Stamford and Grantham, are quasi-official
and run by South Kesteven District Council as part of the government’s
Pathfinder initiative to bring the Internet to a wider population, providing
increased citizen access to public, private and community sector information.
Yet none of the six Bourne representatives serving on that authority are
involved in the public debates on their own available forums where their
contributions would enlighten discussion and provide a conduit for the
dissemination of information that would advance our knowledge of local affairs
and clear up misunderstandings when they arise.
There seems to be a perception among some local councillors that election to
office endows them with an superior status precluding them from ever again being
in contact with the common herd but they lose touch with the people at their
peril. Admittedly, local councillors do not have a high reputation for
articulacy and many have not even mastered the intricacies of the Internet, even
though they have each been issued with £1,000 lap top computers. But those whose
machines stand idle and unused have been offered expert help by SKDC and they
must also have young relatives who can tap out a message or two until they do
become proficient with its use and so there is little excuse why they do not
contribute to the very forums they voted to establish. It is therefore an
obligation to master the new technology if they wish to carry out their duties
with any degree of efficiency.
There is such a low level of participation that a contributor to Grantham Online
this week said that the forums are all but dead. “The Grantham forum plods on,
albeit with about four real contributors including the moderator”, he (or she)
wrote. “The remainder of the community forums are completely moribund and must
create a very poor image for any visitors.”
This is an appalling condemnation of an enterprise endorsed by the councillors
themselves and yet they refuse to participate. Our own offering, the Bourne
Forum, is by contrast well-used, lively and entertaining, attracting daily
postings, sensible debate with at least one town councillor regularly
participating but here also there is currently no input from any of our members
of SKDC. Why do they not contribute when the people who elected them are crying
out for answers to essential questions affecting their lives and are anxious to
hear their views and explanations on many issues? Their continuing silence is
seen as an arrogance of office and one that is most likely to be remembered when
they offer themselves for re-election.
Five of our town councillors, three of them also members of SKDC, are
co-opted trustees of Bourne United Charities and the malaise of total silence
appears to have spread to this organisation because despite scathing criticism
in the newspapers and elsewhere in the past few weeks, there has been no
reaction from the boardroom at the Red Hall where they meet. This is an
untenable state of affairs from an organisation that administers money left to
this town in past years yet refuses to divulge a word about its activities.
The trustees have been accused of neglecting their duties in allowing St Peter’s
Pool and parts of the Wellhead Gardens deteriorate into an eyesore yet not a
word has been uttered in defence and the assumption will therefore be that they
cannot offer one and that the allegations are correct. Even a detailed letter
outlining the parlous state of the area sent to all trustees by the Deputy
Mayor, Councillor Guy Cudmore, has been practically ignored because I understand
that he has received a two sentence reply that could be construed as being curt
and dismissive, a sad response to the obvious concern he was expressing on
behalf of the people of this town with suggestions that might alleviate the
present unacceptable appearance of a much-loved amenity.
While BUC persists in excluding the people from its deliberations, the trustees
will continue to be regarded by some as stubbornly refusing to accept public opinion and those who identify with this
perception should consider standing down and making way for new blood with
verve and enthusiasm for the task in hand before the appearance of this valuable
open space declines even further.
The provisions of the National Health Service introduced by a Labour
government in 1948 continue to disintegrate before our very eyes and barely a
week goes by without news of another cut back, much to the disadvantage of the
elderly and infirm. Eye care and the supply of spectacles have long since been
privatised, prescriptions need to be paid for, although there are exemptions,
family doctors have abandoned their patients during the evenings and at weekends
and free dental care has long since disappeared, despite our dentists having
been trained at public expense.
The latest to exclude NHS patients unless they join a privatised scheme is the
Bridge Dental Practice at Market Deeping where some have been attending for more
than thirty years. A round robin from the present practitioner, Jonathan Cliffe,
says: “I realise these changes will not suit everyone”, intimating that those
who are not satisfied will have to go elsewhere when there is nowhere else to go
because other dentists in the district have introduced a similar system. Old
people particularly who have paid for government health care through their
National Insurance contributions during their entire working lives will be the
worst hit. Most live on fixed incomes and will be unable to afford the new
charges without reducing their heating bills or making other economies in their
living standards and so they will probably leave and pray that they do not need
urgent dental work in their remaining years.
Meanwhile, the latest cuts will mean that pharmacies in Bourne will no longer be
open on Sundays for the dispensation of urgent prescriptions. For the past 50
years they have operated a rota system to ensure that patients in need would
have the medication they required but the Lincolnshire South West Primary Care
Trust is withdrawing the funding for the service on the grounds that there is a
lack of demand. Even one person needing pills or potions to alleviate distress
on a Sunday morning would justify opening but the trust disagrees and so once
again patients will have to take their chances.
Our M P Quentin Davies, the member for Grantham and Stamford, is furious at the
decision that he regards as yet further erosion in patient care. “The health
service is being gradually run down by one cut after another”, he said. “The
trust seems unable to understand the elementary fact that people are just as
likely to fall ill and require medication on a Sunday as they are on any other
day.”
The trust also runs the two medical practices in Bourne where the delay in
getting an appointment to see the doctor is a long as ever. Although more than
70% of patients in this country can see a doctor within 48 hours, the Hereward
clinic last week quoted a seven day wait for an appointment and the patient was
not even asked whether the condition needing attention was considered to be
serious. This impediment acts as a deterrent to those seeking a consultation
because they are likely to shrug and bear it or the indisposition may have
cleared up by the time the appointment is due. The clinics, which have a nine to
five, Monday to Friday regime because the doctors refuse to work evenings and at
weekends, try to dilute the seriousness of the problem by arguing that only
working days count when assessing the waiting time yet, as Quentin Davies has
pointed out, illness does not differentiate between weekdays and weekends.
The days of Doctor Finlay have long gone. When the NHS was launched with such
high hopes half a century ago, the Labour government promised that it would care
for us from cradle to grave and it has done so for many years. But we are now
witnessing the piecemeal dismantling of a once noble endeavour and the health
service that began with such grand ideals is being replaced by a privatised
conglomerate in which men in suits armed with balance sheets take precedence
over patients, the very people they are supposed to serve.
What the local newspapers are saying: More NHS cuts are on the way,
according to The Local that gives front page coverage to claims that the
ambulance service is being drastically reduced (November 11th). Unison, the
trade union representing staff employed by the Lincolnshire Ambulance and Health
Service NHS Trust, has written to Bourne Town Council saying that new
operational plans will cost around 40 jobs and reduce the annual commitment to
buying new vehicles, thus making cuts by stealth through having an older fleet
on the road. Quentin Davies has again joined the debate by claiming that the
trust has told him the plans will mean the loss of two ambulances. “This
represents a downgrading of NHS cover”, he said. “There is no other way to
interpret it unless you believe that having fewer ambulances on the road will
make no difference.”
The controversial scheme to turn the car park next to Budgens supermarket into
a multi-storey may be scuppered by geological conditions in the area. The
Stamford Mercury claims that the underlying ground is waterlogged and will
not be able to support such a building (November 11th), conditions that have
become manifest in the past, particularly when the Corn Exchange was being
altered and extended in 1990 (not built in 1996, as stated by the newspaper).
Town councillor Alistair Prentice is quoted as saying: “The builders ran into a
number of problems and a lot of extra stone work had to be added to shore up the
structure. To build such a large structure as a multi-storey car park on the
site would seem to be a bad idea in this light as the problems would remain the
same.”
This, if it is true, together with the mounting public opposition to a
multi-storey at this location, would appear to be the end of the project but
don’t bank on it. Once council officials have the bit between their teeth, even
the most ill advised schemes are still likely to come to fruition, no matter
what the cost or inconvenience.
The Herald and Post is not exactly compulsive reading because it rarely
carries local news items yet for the past few weeks, two copies have been
dropping through my letter box, one folded neatly inside the other. If this had
occurred once, I would have considered it a mistake but it has now happened on
four occasions. The newspaper claims that it is delivered free to all homes in
the town, although it is also on sale in the shops for 30p, and some months ago,
we found piles of them dumped in the hedgerow alongside the footpath behind the
Robert Manning Technology College. It would therefore appear that someone is
anxious to get rid of their copies in double quick time but it does all seem a
wanton waste of paper.
Last year, I researched a rich vein of social history that I had
discovered in the public library at Stamford consisting of letters home to loved
ones by Bourne boys serving during the Great War of 1914-18. It took several
months of poring over the files and then copying out every letter that I found
and although it is not a large archive, it does give us an insight into the
thoughts of those lads suddenly whisked from civilian life to the trenches of
the western front and in other theatres of war.
By the time I had finished, I had discovered correspondence from 32 young men
from the town and at least four of them did not come back.
Many of them were former pupils at the Boys’ Council or Board
School [now the Abbey Primary School in Abbey Road] and before leaving for
overseas they were persuaded by their old headmaster, Mr Joseph Davies, to keep
in touch by letter and he replied to every one. This produced a considerable
archive about life in the trenches but only a small part has survived and much
of what was written was deleted by the war censors to avoid giving information
to the enemy.
Nevertheless, the lads give accounts of their daily lives, often under
conditions of extreme privation, and sometimes describe the actions in which
they had taken part. They also speak of their hopes and fears for the future but
above all, they remain loyal to their king and country, to their family and
friends back in Bourne and to their old school that is remembered with deep
affection. Not once do they question the cause for which they were fighting,
despite the jingoism of the time that had led many of them to enlist, in some
cases, below the official age, and the horrific experiences of Flanders fields,
Gallipoli and elsewhere.
It is not certain how many young men from Bourne volunteered for Kitchener’s new
army after the war broke out on 1st August 1914 and perhaps we will never know.
But the number of those serving in December 1916 was 234 because that is how
many Christmas parcels were sent from the town to serving soldiers and sailors,
including 30 in hospital and four prisoners of war, a very large number for such
a small community when the population at that time was only 4,310 (the 1921
census figure). The War Memorial, erected in 1956, contains the names of 97 who
did not return although local military historian Tony Stubbs, who has researched
the monument, suggests that at least 40 more names are missing.
My illustrated account of their correspondence home is published on the web site
today to mark Remembrance Sunday,
Thought for the week:
This war, like the next war, is a
war to end war. – Lloyd George, British Liberal statesman and Prime Minister
(1863-1945), referring to popular opinion that the Great War would be the last
major war.
Saturday 19th November 2005
An attempt is to be made to establish the authenticity or
otherwise of claims that Bourne once had a castle by a field archaeologist, Bill
Manners, who is negotiating with Bourne United Charities for permission to
survey the Wellhead Gardens where, according to tradition, it once stood.
This is a commendable enterprise because we are all anxious to find out the
truth of the matter. A great deal of hot air has been exuded in past times
supporting the castle theory but no serious excavations have actually taken
place although those who cling to the theory that a Disney type castle once
stood on the site quote the various sources that appear to support them yet
close examination of them does not.
One thing that is required in any future research is an impartial approach,
uncluttered by fanciful theories from past centuries, because none have been
substantiated, hence the dearth of documented evidence for a battlemented
fortification. Mr Manners however, appears to have already made up his mind,
because he is quoted as saying: “Personally, I believe there was a castle there
once. The Wellhead would have been an ideal site for an old Norman motte and
bailey with the good water supply in the area and the potential for a moat.” (The
Local, Friday 11th November 2005).
This is a pity because a strong opinion before the work has even begun is hardly
an example of an independent scientific approach. Subsequent research attempted by
those with similar preconceived ideas have resulted in the mishmash of evidence
that we have inherited today and which needs intensive examination to
disentangle.
The first thing we should dispose of is the so called map or chart of the 1861
excavations, much flaunted to support the castle theory, but in reality the work
of not an archaeologist but of an imaginative artist anxious to please his
patrons and a document that has loosed many a hare since. The other myth that
must be discarded is any connection between a castle and Hereward the Wake, as
claimed by all past historians with the exception of the studious J D Birkbeck,
senior history master at Bourne Grammar School, whose A History of Bourne (1970)
did much to dispel this and other wild claims of past writers. If a castle had
existed prior to the Norman invasion then it would be included in the Domesday
Book of 1086, but it is not and so this refutes all of the major literary
references to a castle.
A popularly quoted source in this matter is John Leland (1502-1552), a
distinguished scholar and antiquarian who spent six years of his life travelling
through England visiting the remains of ancient buildings and monuments of every
kind, the results of which he presented to Henry VIII before he died, mentally
deranged. Yet all he found were the undulating features we see today. Earthworks
therefore, but no castle. A similarly obscure reference exists in the parish
registers during the Civil War period saying: “October 11th, 1645, the garrison
of Bourne castle began” but this refers to soldiers being garrisoned on the
field where the castle is reputed to have stood although it has given rise to
the theory that Cromwell turned his artillery on the castle and conveniently
destroyed it, not an action recorded in the annals of the Civil War.
One source dominates most of the accounts of the castle and that is an early but
undated account from a man called Peak or Peake who is supposed to have written
a manuscript in the early 16th century on the towns of Kesteven in which it is
included. But despite the many references to this MS, it is difficult to
authenticate or to even trace Peak who does not appear in the Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography (60 volumes, 55,000 people) or even in the county archives
at Lincoln where his work would surely rest yet James Stevenson, the archivist,
is unequivocal because he told me: “I have checked all our indexes and other
finding aids, relating to both archival sources and printed works, but regret to
say that we have no references to a description of towns in Kesteven by a man of
that name.” Dr John Ketteringham, a distinguished county historian based in
Lincoln, came to a similar conclusion. “This does not mean anything to me”, he
said. “I have looked at the records and have found nothing.”
A hint of what may have occurred is found in one of the first histories of
Bourne by John Moore, published in February 1809 under the patronage of Mrs
Eleanor Pochin, widow of George Pochin, Lord of the Manor of Bourne Abbots for
37 years, who also quotes Peak’s description but does not improve on the source
although he quite clearly suggests that a castle existed as early as 1062. To
substantiate this date, he refers to the Croyland [Crowland] Chronicle by the
monk Ingulph that has since been discredited as a forgery while the date 1062 is
obviously incorrect because no castle is mentioned in the Domesday Book, a
document for which, given the thorough nature of the survey, such omissions were
most unlikely. He also uses Peak’s description of the castle at length and it is
Moore’s history that has been quoted by subsequent historians and used
effectively to describe the results of the excavations of 1861.
Moore also states as facts that Hereward the Wake is buried in the Abbey Church
and that the Gunpowder Plot was hatched at the Red Hall but no one takes either
seriously today.
Many antiquarians travelled England in past centuries in search of historic
remains and it was not unknown for folklore and gossip picked up in local
hostelries to be included to make their accounts more interesting and in this
way misrepresentations were subsequently repeated as fact. A perfect example of
this came two years before Moore published his book with the appearance of The
Beauties of Lincolnshire (1807), a topographical and historic description of the
county by John Britton although his entry on the castle was transposed and
unfortunately appeared under Aslackby. In addition, Britton confessed later
there were “instances of carelessness” in the text and added: “I found it
necessary to employ a literary gentleman who I expected would execute the
writing or rather arranging of Lincolnshire with satisfaction to all and credit
to himself but I have been painfully deceived.”
Until recent years, the castle in Bourne was always described as Saxon and past
historians, notably J J Davies (1909), J T Swift (1925) and Christopher Marlowe
(1926) as well as many historical novelists such as Sir Walter Scott, Charles
Macfarlane, Charles Dickens and Charles Kingsley, all stated that the castle was
home to Hereward the Wake. But now it is known that the Domesday Book carries no
such entry, castle enthusiasts have started claiming that it was built after
1086 even though documentation on the Norman occupation after the Conquest have
no references to it.
Discussion on these sources can be unending and theorists will cherry pick those
parts which reinforce their opinions. The fact that a community once lived on
the site of the Wellhead Gardens is not in dispute because it is a matter of
common sense that people who settled here in past times would choose to live
next to the water supply and so excavations must yield important discoveries,
perhaps dating back to Roman times, but whether they will be the substantial
relics of a mediaeval castle remains to be seen.
The current debate is whether a castle was built here, not a fortified manor
house, but a large, stone structure with towers, battlements, courtyard, moat,
dungeons, drawbridge and suchlike. A detailed archaeological survey is required
to prove it one way or another. Mr Manners, aged 51, from Grimsthorpe, near
Bourne, who is reputed to have some experience with the Channel 4 Time Team,
says he will be carrying out “a resistivity survey” which involves introducing
an electric current into the ground and measuring the different levels of
resistance produced which will give him “a rough idea” of what may be hidden
below although I would have thought that if there was a possibility of solving a
1,000 year old mystery by injecting a few volts into the earth then it would
have been tried long ago.
In any case, it does not sound to be an exact science but as a preliminary
examination it would be acceptable provided it leads to actual excavations.
Whatever the method used, those taking part must have an open mind, clear their
heads of all prejudice and approach the project with a clean slate. Only then
will we arrive at the plain unvarnished truth that will remain indisputable for
future generations.
What the local newspapers are saying: There are problems at the
Butterfield Centre and the Stamford Mercury reports that it has been
closed for the past week after its manager for 20 years, Mrs Shirley Maile, aged
57, was suspended from duty (November 18th). No other details are available
except the concern of senior citizens who use the centre which is devoted to
providing support services for the elderly. The disturbing factor is that
officers have refused to make a statement and the nine trust members have been
told not to disclose what has happened. This is not an acceptable way to run a
public organisation because continuing silence in times of trouble engenders
gossip and rumour and is not in the public interest. Gagging is particularly
deplorable in this instance because the Butterfield Centre depends on voluntary
financial assistance for its very survival and the trust cannot expect such help
on one hand while excluding those who give it on the other. Only a full and
frank statement as to what is going on is the acceptable way forward.
The latest public relations proposal to be staged by South Kesteven District
Council is a citizens’ jury at which the people will be able to quiz officials
to find out whether they are delivering the services they should. The Local
reports that anyone who is prepared to be unbiased and impartial and interested
in the key service areas of crime and anti-social behaviour, rubbish and litter
and economic development, can apply to be on the jury (November 18). The council
does not have a happy record with this sort of community consultation as a
letter on an adjoining page in The Local illustrates. The writer, Brynley
Heaven, describes how he attended the recent Rural South Assembly at
Billingborough on November 8th and handed in a written question asking how it
could be safe to close the well-used bus station at Bourne. He adds: “The
chairman of the assembly, Councillor Peter Martin-Mayhew, failed to read the
question out, did not ask any of the many officials present to read it out, nor
did he invite me as questioner to put my question. I am to get a written answer
which, at the time of writing and after sending a reminder, has not been
received.”
SKDC will have to buck up its ideas or the new wheeze is likely to end up on the
scrap heap of failed local government initiatives.
It is not long since there was talk of ending the Poppy Day tradition
through lack of support but recent years have brought a resurgence of awareness
of the real meaning of the occasion and an insistence that it should continue.
The large numbers attending the Remembrance Day Sunday service at the war
memorial gardens in Bourne was the largest for many years and
interest has been stimulated at similar events around the country, not least
during the Saturday night observance at the Royal Albert Hall in London where
the culminating act of the poppy petals falling is a particularly moving moment.
A contributor to the Forum describes how on Friday, November 11th, anniversary
of the day the Great War ended in 1918, he saw from his office window tiny tots
attending a nursery nearby and noisily enjoying themselves as kids do yet when
the canon sounded for the two minute silence at 11 am, every one of them stood
still as a mark of respect. They were of course too young to understand the full
meaning of Armistice Day but as the observer remarked, their supervisors are to
be congratulated for showing them the significance of what it meant.
Most people have been wearing a poppy, the symbol of Remembrance Day and a
reminder of the fields of Flanders in Belgium, scene of the war’s most dreadful
fighting. Poppies are resilient plants and the seeds can lie dormant for many
years, bursting into bloom when the earth is turned as they did when trenches
were dug on the Western Front. The most famous bloom of poppies was in Ypres
where three major battles were fought with tragic loss of life, and the sight of
them inspired a Canadian soldier, Major John McCrae (1872-1918), to write his
most famous poem In Flanders Fields which in turn encouraged the British Legion
to adopt the poppy as their emblem and they were sold in November 1921 for the
first time.
The decline of interest in Poppy Day was dramatically reversed by the traumatic
events in New York on 11 September 2001 and subsequent acts of inhumanity which
have left increasing numbers of people feeling vulnerable and with a stronger
than ever need for an end to all conflicts and now white poppies are appearing
at the same time to represent the desire for peace on earth.
Our own war memorial is comparatively new and maintained in good
condition but that is not the case in some towns and villages in other parts of
England. The War Memorials Trust has restored 400 since it was set up seven
years ago but many more have fallen into disrepair and others vandalised because
their significance is not always appreciated.
The trust claims that local authorities are usually to blame because they fail
to ensure that they are properly maintained and a greater appreciation of their
importance to the community is required to ensure that they are preserved for
future generations.
The cenotaph in the memorial gardens in South Street, Bourne, was erected in
1956 due to the generosity of leading public figures and is not only one of the
most impressive for a market town of this size but is also well maintained by
Bourne United Charities. Not only does it provide the perfect centrepiece for
our observances every November but it is also a place of interest to visitors
who can see that this town has not forgotten its war dead.
Thought for the week: At the going down of the sun and in
the morning, we will remember them. – lines from For the Fallen, written in
September 1914 by Laurence Binyon, British poet and dramatist (1869-1943).
Saturday 26th November 2005
Buses and coaches were once a most popular form of travel
and one that rivalled the railways. But the increasing number of car owners
during the second half of the 20th century was a major factor in the closure of
local railway lines and the curtailment of many bus routes.
The coach companies were flourishing in the early years of the century and the
green buses of the Lincolnshire Road Car Company linked Bourne with the
neighbouring towns and villages while the history of Delaine Buses, from 1890 to
the present day, gives a specifically local example of how public passenger
transport not only developed but also survived the changes and is now one of the
most successful in Britain today.
Increasing traffic flows have played a major part in the expansion of Bourne and
brought it nearer urbanisation. In 1970, a sample traffic census revealed that
in the peak hour between 8 a m and 9 a m on a Thursday market day, the number of
vehicles entering the town by the four main roads was 733 while during the same
hour, 642 vehicles left. But despite this motorised activity, Bourne was still
considered to be a rural area and in January 1972, a fox appeared in the Market
Place at 11.30 a m and was caught in the bus waiting room beneath the Town Hall,
a reminder that the countryside was still not far away.
Nevertheless, this once quiet country community was becoming busier and as the
weekly street market was then held in the town centre, which was also a stopping
place for buses, some regulation was needed and on Monday 11th June 1973, the
first traffic lights were installed at a cost of £10,000. There were also
attempts at this time to move the market off the streets because of the dangers
being created by stalls erected alongside the pavements in North Street and West
Street, so narrowing the space available for passing traffic although it was to
be several more years before this was to become a reality. But it was obvious at
this time that buses could not continue to use the Market Place with the
kerbside as their terminus and so the construction of a new bus station was
undertaken.
The chosen site was at the corner of St Gilbert's Road and North Street and the
new facility came into use in the autumn of 1974 and although it meant a longer
walk for bus passengers arriving in town for a day's shopping or business, it
was an obvious and rational development. Shortly before Christmas the following
year, a new town service was inaugurated with buses travelling at intervals on
circuits from the bus station through many parts of the town.
The bus station is still in regular and busy use and in recent years a new
covered waiting area has been added and long distance coaches between London and
the north call here daily as well as a number of others from various coach
companies as this form of transport enjoys a revival. Apart from providing a
convenient picking up and dropping off point, the available space enables
coaches wait and adhere to their schedules which was not possible at the
kerbside where large vehicles parked for any length of time were liable to
cause problems for other traffic.
The first signs that the town might lose the bus station came during the autumn
of 2000, when it was proposed that one of the parking bays was to be removed to
make room for a new supermarket development planned nearby and so after more
than a quarter of a century, the bus station was perceived to have outlived its
original importance to the town.
The supermarket development never materialised, mainly because the North Street
terrace that had been earmarked for demolition, was saved through public
opposition and is now part of a new red brick housing development called
Marquess Court that does credit to that part of town. Yet official persistence
to close the bus station continues and although few councillors have knowledge
of what is actually going on, Mike Sibthorpe, head of planning and policy and
economic regeneration at SKDC, has made no bones about his intentions,
continually quoting “a widespread view” that the bus station is under-used
although this supposed intelligence is totally unfamiliar to the people of
Bourne.
Briefly, his plan (I say his plan because it has never been put to a vote by the
council’s 56 democratically elected councillors) is to close and sell off the
bus station and use the money to finance a multi-storey car park adjoining
Budgens supermarket, a facility that no one wants and one that would be
misguided, even reckless, to implement because the proposed location has no safe
access for increased vehicle activity and incoming roads are already so
congested at busy periods that they have become dangerous for the unwary.
Intending passengers would then be back at the kerbside from where to board and
alight their buses, exactly as they were prior to 1974. If the scheme therefore
goes through, Bourne will back in exactly the same position as it was thirty
years ago which is hardly an example of the progressive planning policy that Mr
Sibthorpe professes to espouse.
He has promised that no final decision will be taken without full consultation
with the bus operators, schools and other bodies to determine the impact of the
closure and to identify what alternative provisions would be required to cater
for passengers. Will he ask me or the readers of this web site or those
outspoken contributors to the Forum? Will he ask those who actually use the
buses in Bourne? Will he ask anyone you know? The answer to these questions is
that he will not. The consultation may be regarded as a ray of hope but on the
evidence of similar strategies for many unpopular projects in the past it does
not gleam very brightly.
What the local newspapers are saying: The future of the bus station is
the main talking point in The Local and should be required reading for
all officers and elected representatives on South Kesteven District Council. The
front page story details a growing campaign to save it with the launching of an
email newsletter by a private resident, a public petition and a protest from bus
operators, Delaine Buses (November 25th). There is also a lively selection of
letters on the subject on the correspondence page with not a voice raised in
favour and if closure and demolition now go ahead it will be difficult for our
local authorities to maintain the charade that they are carrying out the will of
the people.
The opposition was summed up by Anthony Delaine-Smith, managing director of
Delaine Buses, who told the newspaper: “I am happy to state that Delaine
services will not divert into residential streets that may be unsuitable for
mainstream bus operations to satisfy any attempt by the council at an
ill-conceived relocation of the bus station to raise funds for a multi-storey
car park which itself would be an eyesore.”
Meanwhile, the growing feeling of public isolation in the administration of our
health services is graphically illustrated by Councillor Don Fisher during a
meeting of the town council’s amenities committee on Tuesday. The Local
reports that he won unanimous approval for a motion calling for the
reinstatement of Sunday opening for local pharmacies which dispense emergency
prescriptions and the maintenance of vital services at Stamford Hospital and
those involving carers (November 25th). Councillor Fisher, who has been an
elected representative since 1976, told the meeting: “I have no faith in
democracy. The government should act on what people want and they are not doing
so. It is disgraceful.”
This is a perfect example of the way the lower echelons of our local authorities
have been enfeebled in recent years leaving them with little or no power other
than the writing of letters of protest to those who make the decisions which is
what the meeting agreed to do.
The obituary columns are among the most widely read sections of
our newspapers and therefore editors should nurture them and ensure that
everyone from their circulation area, certainly those who have achieved some
status in life, is remembered in some detail, not only as a mark of respect for
the dead but also as a memorial for the future because as time passes, the
newspapers become an archive to be consulted by social historians and even
descendants tracing their family trees in years to come.
Yet the Stamford Mercury, which purports to cover Bourne,
consistently ignores the passing of many notable citizens and not a line was
printed in recent weeks about Percy Wilson, a prominent councillor and
headmaster, or Alec Stokes, one of the important members of the BRM team based
in this town. A full page of obituaries appears most weeks but they are usually
of people from other districts in their circulation area and so an opportunity
is missed because local newspapers are meant to serve the community in which
they are published. Accounts of the lives of those who have passed on are worthy
of publication because a well written obituary encapsulates someone’s entire
existence on this earth and we hope that when we too depart, there will be also
space for us to be remembered for posterity, no matter how small our
contribution may have been.
The increase in flagrant breaches of the law and other regulations that
are perceived to be of little consequence to society is irritating to those who
do observe the code of community living and the temptation to report offenders
is ever present although it does take courage and whoever does so risks a
mouthful of abuse or even a punch on the nose. A contributor to the Forum this
week has confessed to being angered by the selfishness of some parents on the
twice a day “school run” and in some cases their total disregard for road
safety, despite the high profile campaign to deter such behaviour. Having raised
the issue with the local police over the past 15 months without success, he
reported a parent for suspected drink driving and she was subsequently stopped,
tested and prosecuted.
The moral issue of snooping on someone in this manner is a difficult one to
reconcile in an age when most people prefer to keep their own counsel, no matter
what the crime. The biblical example of the Levite passing by on the other side
to avoid becoming involved in an event has never been more apparent than it is
today yet the law is quite clear that each one of us is responsible for helping
to control the actions of those who do transgress.
An acceptance of anti-social behaviour, even minor infringements of the law, is
likely to conceal a reluctance to help in more serious cases and this is
regrettable because an ordered society needs the co-operation of us all. It is
therefore encouraging to learn that Lincolnshire Crimestoppers is now taking the
initiative in trying to persuade the public to pick up the phone and provide any
information they may have about crime in their area which is then passed on to
the police for investigation. The appeal is aimed at those who do not want their
lifestyles, their freedom from fear and their community, threatened by criminal
activity and the no nonsense campaign covering Bourne has been launched with the
slogan “Rat on a rat”.
Crimestoppers is an independent charity, a community service operating across
the country, set up in 1988 in an attempt to break the wall of silence that
surrounds most wrongdoing but accepts anonymous calls made to a special
telephone number where information can be provided without risk of retribution.
It is a simple and secure service that allows police intervention and to bring
offenders to justice and past performance has already created a highly efficient
system built on integrity and trust.
Since its formation, Crimestoppers nationwide have received over 640,000 calls
leading to the arrest and charge of over 57,000 criminals and over £84 million
pounds of drugs and £65 million pounds of property have been seized. Last year
Lincolnshire people made 243 calls resulting in 14 people being arrested and
charged. North Yorkshire in the past have had very similar figures to
Lincolnshire, but last year following a similar Rat on a Rat campaign, calls
there increased by 84% to 527 calls which led to 241 persons being arrested and
charged as a result. The success of the campaign therefore is not in doubt. The
latest initiative is designed to raise awareness among the public and to
increase participation in this part of the county. “It is your eyes and ears
that are required”, said a spokesman.
An example of the snail’s pace at which the government
bureaucratic machine operates can be found in North Road, a once attractive and
imposing early 20th century house now standing empty and boarded up, a target
for vandals and intruders, while a decision on its fate is awaited from
Whitehall.
The Croft and surrounding parkland is the subject of a bitter dispute between
developers who want to build fifty houses on the site and the people of Bourne
who are anxious to preserve the green space and even see the property converted
for community use, perhaps as a hospice, theatre, dance school or sports centre,
all of which have been suggested as suitable projects for its preservation.
The history of this tussle dates back to 1993 when application was first made to
build houses on the seven acre site, much of it green space, and although this
was refused, there have been repeated attempts to proceed with the development
culminating with an informal hearing, first held in October 2004 but adjourned
and reconvened as a full public inquiry held over three days during June 2005
although the result is still awaited. The reason for the delay is that the
government inspector who officiated at the inquiry, Peter Jamieson, was taken
ill in August and has been unable to deliberate and with no prospect of him
returning to his duties for several more weeks, the result will not now be known
until next year.
Illness and other exigencies that preclude civil servants from working are
always with us and with such an important matter as this, one would have thought
that a mechanism was in place for a substitute inspector to take over rather
than subject the town and the developers to such a protracted postponement but
that is not the way of officialdom. It will be therefore well into 2006 before
we know whether this green space will be lost in the cause of residential
development and until then, the property continues to deteriorate and there are
still many who fear that we may soon be back to square one with the inquiry
being held all over again.
Thought for the week: Too bad all the people who know how to run the
country are busy driving cabs and cutting hair. - George Burns, American
comedian (1896-1996).
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