Bourne Diary - May 2006

Saturday 6^th May 2006

One of my first assignments as a young reporter more than half a century ago was to interview the retiring Mayor of Peterborough and when I asked how his year in office had gone, he replied: "It was like being king for a day". His assessment has stuck with me ever since for it sums up the unreality of a situation in which you are suddenly thrust into the limelight by being given a job in which you are feted like royalty but one that has no official parameters other than to be seen and heard.

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 has connotations 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 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, or a town mayor that has been granted special dispensation by government.

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 method that is now being adopted by some of the larger metropolitan authorities, notably in London where the controversial Ken Livingstone was elected by public vote in May 2000. 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 arrangement will remain with us for the foreseeable future. On Tuesday 2nd May 2006, Councillor Brian Fines, aged 69, a retired engineer, became the 35th Mayor of Bourne and will continue in office for a year, with his wife Pauline as mayoress, as is the custom.

The mayoralty in Bourne dates back only 32 years. From 1899, the town was administered by 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 from then on, 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 permission 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 town mayor by his 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, 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 he or she wears 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.

This year there has been a departure from past tradition in which the deputy mayor automatically succeeded, in this case Councillor Guy Cudmore, but he failed to win the confidence of his colleagues who voted at a secret meeting in January not to support him and Councillor Fines, a former army officer, was parachuted in as a replacement at short notice. This has been seen as an early elevation because he is a comparative newcomer to local authority work having been nominated for the town council as recently as May 2003 and winning a seat on South Kesteven District Council as a Conservative member for Bourne West in the same year although he is now vice-chairman of the development control committee.

Some who are elected tend to get carried away with the euphoria of office and may be forgiven for promising the unattainable when donning the silver chain for the first time, however well-intentioned these aims and objectives may be. One mayor, for instance, said that he wanted to put Bourne on the map although it was a safe bet that the status of this town would not have changed one iota when he left office twelve months later, which proved to be the case. Other aims to which they have aspired were also unlikely to materialise because the mayor has no more powers to make them happen while in office than he 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 public 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.

It was anticipated that our new first citizen might share his hopes for the future of the town during his year in office with visitors to this web site and although Councillor Fines was asked to contribute a mayoral message, as others have done in the past, he has not responded to our invitation. This is a pity because we have around 2,000 visitors a week, the bulk of them from this locality and, most importantly, many others from around the world who were either born here or claim ancestry from Bourne and look to this web site as their link with the town.

They identify the chain of office as the connection between the Town Hall and the people and if the person who wears it does not address everyone, then those who are excluded will fear, and rightly so, that the mayoralty exists only for the select few which is far from the original intentions of this now traditional office.

What the local newspapers are saying: Our new mayor, Councillor Brian Fines, has also been having flights of fancy about his appointment, outlining to The Local newspaper after being installed on Tuesday what he intended to achieve during his year in office (May 5th) under the headline “New mayor Brian has big plans for Bourne”. His main aim is to attract more big businesses to the town rather than offshoots of the multi nationals and to see the town becoming “more cohesive”, although he does not tell us exactly what that means. A more modest ambition is to encourage local people to take advantage of the many clubs and facilities that exist and perhaps even the establishment of a regular Saturday morning session at the Corn Exchange to enable sports and hobby clubs spread the message, an idea fully explored in this column two weeks ago by county councillor Mark Horn (Bourne Abbey).

The town council is considering moving the market back on to the street, according to a front page report in The Local which says that West Street is the chosen location where traffic would be banned for one day a week to enable traders and their stalls take over (May 5th). This is not the best solution to a problem that does not actually exist for although Councillor Shirley Cliffe, the prime mover behind the scheme, thinks that Bourne is dying and the market is dwindling, that did not appear to be the case on Thursday when there were plenty of stalls and business was brisk. The purpose built paved area outside the Corn Exchange where the market is currently held was opened in December 1990 for the very reason that the streets were considered to be the wrong place and putting it back on the pavements would be a retrograde step that would not increase trade because the market has reached its capacity for a town of this size. Fortunately, this is not a decision for the town council but for Lincolnshire County Council, the highways authority, and so we may be saved from such an unwise proposition.

The cost of a possible public inquiry into the proposed housing development on the old railway station site in South Street is likely to be in excess of £20,000, according to the Stamford Mercury. Controversial plans to build 121 homes on the land have been shelved after a site inspection by South Kesteven District Council revealed possible traffic dangers but the owners, Wherry’s Seed Merchants, have indicated that there may be an appeal (May 5th) and this is likely to be a costly exercise. The council says that the final figure would depend on the need to employ barristers and the length of the hearing but could well exceed £20,000 of public money.

An online Citizens’ Jury has been launched this week by South Kesteven District Council to test public reaction over its priorities and performance. This is a new development of the jury system that was held at council headquarters in Grantham last December but it has been decided that it would work better online where it will attract a much wider audience, the latest estimate suggesting that more than 70% of the population has access to a computer and the figure is growing daily.

During the year, the council will hold four online juries and members of the public are being invited to participate in a pilot edition due to start this month when they will be asked their opinion on current priorities concerning anti-social behaviour, access to council services, affordable housing, communications and consultation. If the jury’s verdict is at odds with council policy, members will be asked to suggest those areas on which it should focus and we are promised that they will be given serious consideration. “We feel that this will enable a more open and honest debate”, said a council spokesman, “and because it is over a longer period of time, jurors can request additional information as they go along.”

The idea has been enthusiastically received by members and Councillor John Kirkman (Bourne East) told me that they were looking forward to a lively debate with active participation by the public. “It will not work if the jury is used merely to criticise the council”, he said. “Constructive input, ideas, suggestions, moans, criticism are required and I hope that is what all contributors will aim to do.”

Thought for the week: Keep a diary and one day it’ll keep you. – Mae West, American film actress, sex symbol and comedienne (1892-1980).

Saturday 13^th May 2006

Industrial odours have been a constant problem in Bourne over the years but recent complaints about a factory chimney and a vegetable processing plant pall into insignificance when compared with the terrible pong that once emanated regularly from the animal waste processing plant at the Slipe in South Fen.

The factory was owned by T W Mays and Sons Limited, a company with diverse agricultural interests, particularly fallen stock which was collected and processed at a slaughterhouse and skin yard on the banks of the Bourne Eau behind Eastgate and the meat and offal dealt with in a by-products factory while the manufacture of fertiliser was a major boost to its business. Carcasses of livestock such as horses, cattle and sheep were brought in by cart and it was the firm's proud boast in a tradesmen's catalogue of 1909 that "every atom of the carcasses reaching these works would be turned to some commercial account".

Hooves, horns and bones were sent to the Slipe to be turned into glue, a malodorous process that plagued the town, particularly during hot weather when the stink became so pungent that it wafted in from the fen whenever an east wind was blowing and penetrated shops, houses and schools and as a result, the premises soon became known as "the Bovril factory".

For twenty years, townspeople put up with the smell and the company spent large sums on special equipment designed to reduce the nuisance and monitor its effects but the pong persisted and by the summer of 1978, Bourne decided that enough was enough and so many complained to South Kesteven District Council that firm action became unavoidable. A report on the problem was drawn up by the Chief Environmental Health officer, Geoffrey Fox, and the environmental health committee met in July to consider it and decide whether the firm should be ordered to either curtail the nuisance or face an abatement notice which could have forced them to end production.

The company fought back, saying that steps were being taken to reduce the smell and that they were monitoring the results but their new equipment was not yet fully operational and in the meantime, anything that was done to hamper production at the factory could jeopardise the future of the firm and the jobs of thirty workers employed there. But committee members were on fighting form and Councillor Douglas Reeson was unequivocal in his condemnation of the annoyance and even health hazard it was causing because he told the committee in an eloquent address:

Perhaps the firm has tried to do something about it but that does not help the people living in Bourne who have to put up with this stink. I live a mile and a half from the factory and can clearly detect it when the wind is in the right direction. The smell is quite appalling. One cannot explain just how abominable it is. I would like to be able to bring a sample of it here in a can in order that members can experience it for themselves. We should warn this company that unless this stench is contained, we will be taking further action against them. The people of Bourne cannot live with it whether there are thirty jobs at stake or not. This is a nuisance that has been dragging on for years and the horrible aroma has been coming from this factory ever since I started attending council meetings when they were held at the Corn Exchange. I do not think that anyone should be asked to live with this sort of unpleasant odour. I feel very strongly about the possibility of people being put out of work but there are thousands of others living in this town who might reasonably expect some relief from this awful nuisance.

There was a further complaint at the meeting that many also found the company’s practice of transporting animal remains through the town centre in open lorries totally objectionable and this was considered by councillors to aggravate what had become an unacceptable annoyance. The committee voted unanimously that the situation could not continue and agreed to give the company one last chance to end the nuisance and it was obvious that the writing was on the wall to ensure that the smell disappeared completely.

But the complaints persisted and although the intensity of the smell was reduced it was never completely eradicated and eventually the problem was overtaken by events because the firm's prosperity was not to last. By the 1980s, economic conditions and changing patterns of trade dictated the end of their operations. Their various activities were either closed down or taken over and soon the only remaining signs of the firm’s presence in Bourne were Mays' Sluice at the end of Eastgate which regulates the water levels along the Bourne Eau and the old glue factory that had long since closed down its operations. The building was used in recent years as a practice location for the local fire brigade but soon became badly neglected and dilapidated and awaiting a buyer while the tall chimney remained a landmark on the skyline for a few more years, a reminder of its once prominent place in the commercial life of the town until it was demolished in 2005. It was the end of an era and farewell to the terrible pong.

Bad odours however still frequently permeate the town but from different industrial sources, although councillors lack the will to tackle them with the same zeal and fervour that their predecessors did almost thirty years ago.

What the local newspapers are saying: The proposal to move the weekly market back on to the streets is to be left to the people to decide, according to The Local. Their front page report on deliberations by the town council’s amenities committee on Tuesday says that the change will only be made if there is sufficient public support (May 12th) and letters to the newspaper will be the barometer.

The purpose built area in front of the Corn Exchange has been the market venue since December 1990 and the campaign to move it is being led by Councillor Shirley Cliffe who wants it re-established in West Street on one day a week. “We used to have 87 stalls in the street market in the old days and people driving into town would stop when they saw it”, she said.

Eighty-seven stalls does seem rather a lot at a time when the population was around half of what it is today and even if they ranged along the kerbsides of both West Street and North Street they would extend well out of town in both directions. I think that 20-30 is nearer the mark, perhaps even less, as proven by my archive photographs of the town, and as there were 21 stalls operating at the Thursday market this week, it is difficult to find evidence that the enterprise is dying completely, as Councillor Cliffe suggests.

We of the older generation tend to see the past through rose-tinted spectacles when things seemed to be so much better. Long hot summers may be remembered as the halcyon days of childhood but the weather pattern was little different to what we have today with just as much cloud and rain. It is the good times that are always uppermost in our memory and a busy and bustling street market may be part of this lost world although the truth was most certainly very different.

There is no doubt that the market is declining as the result of changing times but it is not yet terminal. Stallholders are facing stiff competition from the big shed retail companies that provide shoppers with a wider range of goods, usually at lower prices, at any time of the week and the chance to park easily. The challenge is fierce and only those well established street markets that are a pleasure to visit as well as being an excellent sales outlet with bargain prices are likely to survive. Moving Bourne’s market back on to the streets may replicate a picture postcard view of yesteryear but it will be far less convenient and will certainly not persuade people to buy more.

The latest investigation into the possibility of a mediaeval castle on the site of the Wellhead Gardens has revealed a 99% certainty that one existed, according to the Stamford Mercury which reports the findings of the team that has been carrying out an electronic survey in recent weeks (May 12th). It is comforting to know that a battlemented fortification once stood there and that after several centuries of speculation by archaeologists and historical experts it can now be confirmed by two chaps, Bill and Dave, who spent a few hours on site armed with a box of wires and a couple of batteries shooting volts into the earth. If this had been done before then all of the recent discussion could have been avoided but then if anyone begins their investigations with the belief that the castle theory was correct, as these lads did, then even a ouija board would have produced the same result.

Just fancy that! Bourne is to be revamped as part of the action plan for re-designing the town centre, a vision for the future. There will be a new town square and market place, surrounded by shops and cafes on derelict land between North Street and Burghley Street and a new library and community centre at the bus station site in North Street. Other ideas include relocating the market to Abbey Road to help revitalise shops and the building of a supermarket near where the bus station currently stands. - front page news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 24th August 2001.

Shop watch: Daffodils grace any home at this time of the year as a sign that spring is well and truly with us. They are also a flower that is grown locally and the delicate fragrance they exude is a delight that can often fill the room, especially if you choose the large trumpet variety. By now, the crops forced under glass have gone and those grown outdoors are currently on sale but beware of what you buy. The bunches we purchased for 99p at Tesco Express in North Road on Saturday seemed to be a bargain with the blooms still closed but looking ready to burst into life in a warm room but they failed to open and we woke on Sunday morning to find those in both vases withered and dying. The suppliers must have known the quality of their product but it is the customer who always suffers.

From the archives: The body of a boy was found in a barley field off North Road, Bourne, at about 2 pm on Wednesday and was identified as that of Charles Pick, aged 15. An old pistol was also found lying nearby which had belonged to a man who had been using it for bird scaring and had left it there during the dinner hour. The boy had found it and, it is supposed, in ramming the charge, the weapon exploded, the contents penetrating his breast. Death was probably almost instantaneous. The body lay face downwards, about 20 yards from the pistol, so that the poor lad had, immediately he met with the accident, apparently run forward in the direction of home. No cry of any kind had been heard and on returning to his work after the dinner hour, the owner of the firearm found the lad dead. He had left the pistol in a tree close by, from where it had been removed. Deceased was a bright and intelligent boy who had been hoeing turnips in an adjoining field. He was the only son of Mr Charles Pick, a roadman employed by the county council. - news item from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 23rd July 1897.

Thought for the week: The old have reminiscences of what never happened. - Hector Hugh Munro (Saki), British writer best known for his sort stories (1870-1916).

Saturday 20^th May 2006

Vivid memories of a massive street market in Bourne continue to be aired but the evidence fails to support descriptions of eighty or more stalls ranged along the kerbside in North Street and West Street and the pavements thronged with shoppers. There was always a busy market in the town but never on the scale of that envisaged by some, the memory playing tricks over time, and we have to look to photographs and first hand accounts to arrive at the truth.

My own knowledge of Bourne goes back 50 years, the latter half of that time as a resident, but I have no impressions of such a large street market and can find no evidence for it, even after checking my extensive photographic archive of past times. Without seeing the stall rental records at council headquarters in Grantham, if they still exist, I suppose we will never know the exact figures, but it is worth considering the opinion of one man who does have inside knowledge and that is Trevor Pool whose father John Pool was the Collector of Tolls at the market for almost a quarter of a century (1921-45).

Trevor, now aged 80, and living in retirement at Halifax in West Yorkshire, often helped his father and he emailed recently to say that there were never the large amount of stalls that has been suggested and he has sent these evocative memories of the market to support his view:

The market had its best years before beginning to decline during the years of the Second World War from 1939-45 and I don't think it ever got back to its former state. The Thursday market had an early morning start and all the stalls were cleared away by early afternoon. There were about sixteen stalls in total on a Thursday, maximum, with two on the north side of West Street, then the household auction goods up the corner, then the pens of rabbits and hens and other small livestock. Then going out into the road was an area for fruit and vegetables and all these goods were auctioned off sometime during the day. At the edge of the auction area and nearly in the middle of the market place was a stall selling seeds of all types to farmers and the general public.

Going along North Street, on the west side, were perhaps three stalls up to the Angel Hotel entrance then a further three stalls up to Ewles the butchers. On the east side of the market place going north from the Bull Hotel entrance to Lloyds Bank was Braime’s fish stall, Briggs the butcher and one other. Going south from the Bull entrance was a stall selling footwear, then a sweet stall and one or two others but a clear gap had to be left so that the fire engine, which was kept underneath the town hall, could get out if needed.

Sometimes there would be what was called a pitcher who would spread a sheet on the floor and sell from that and on some occasions, a flat back wagon would park on the south side of West Street and sell fruit from the back, a “buy two and get one free” style of selling. Saturday was an afternoon and evening market, no auction of goods or livestock or fish stall. There was a different sweet stall [Joe Sharp] which was on the north side of the Angel and I remember that there were fewer stalls on a Saturday than on a Thursday.

So there we have it, a much smaller market than most recall. As I suggested last week, faulty memory syndrome often plays tricks with these cherished recollections of times gone by, never more manifest than in reminiscing about the good old days, which they rarely were, or the long hot summers of our childhood that certainly had their fair share of bad weather. A picture postcard view of a bustling street market with the pavements of the town centre lined with stalls and thronging with people may be the stuff of memory but reality was most probably very different, especially when the population of Bourne was considerably less than it is today (the 1981 census figure was 8,142) and would by no stretch of the imagination support 70 to 100 stalls as has been suggested.

Furthermore, fears that the market on the new purpose-built paved site behind the Town Hall that opened in December 1990 may be failing has not been evident in the past two weeks when there have been between over 20 stalls on each occasion and all were doing brisk business. A proposed relocation to West Street has everything against it, not least the fact that many of the councillors now discussing it were those who supported the move in the first place, following a similar decision at Market Deeping some years before. Furthermore, few of the traders appear to support such an upheaval and are perfectly happy where they are. Stalls at the kerbside are inconvenient for them and leave only a cramped space for shoppers. It can also be hazardous and we should not forget that the final straw which prompted the change of venue fifteen years ago came when a lady shopper was hit by a passing lorry in North Street.

Common sense should prevail, allowing Bourne market to survive at its present and more convenient location despite predictions from the naysayers who want it back on the streets because that is the one place it should not be in the 21st century.

What the local newspapers are saying: Rubbish bins are to be electronically tagged to ensure that householders dispose of their quota, according to a front page report in the Stamford Mercury. South Kesteven District Council claims that the new technology will enable officers monitor which towns, streets and properties are the best and the worst when it comes to recycling waste (May 19th). Not true. For two weeks running, my current recycling bins, one green and one blue issued from the last failed initiative, have been empty when the refuse lorry called and under the new system this would be signalled to Grantham that I was not doing my bit for the green initiative but the real reason is that I have taken my own waste down to the skips or the Pinfold Road tips on two occasions because they were overflowing. Yet under the new system, my house and therefore my street, would be listed as an under achiever whereas the opposite would be the case.

The scheme is typical of the way in which government is trying to control our lives when it would be better served improving the public services we have. To treat the public like naughty schoolchildren who should be pilloried if they do not comply is not the way forward and a straw poll of residents in my street reveals that all are environmentally aware of the need to recycle waste, as illustrated by the bottle and paper banks dotted around the town because they are frequently full to overflowing and waiting for the council to empty them. Perhaps they should be electronically tagged because this is where the real improvements are needed, not on the front doorstep.

There is more alarm from the Abbey Lawn where this much treasured open space is once again threatened by vandals and under-age drinkers. This is a periodic problem and The Local reports that during the latest disturbance on Monday, almost 60 youngsters were forcibly removed from the football pitch where fighting broke out and one of them was taken to hospital (May 19th). The Abbey Lawn is home to six of the town’s sporting organisations and a favourite place for walkers but Terry Bates, chairman of Bourne Town Football Club which is based there, has warned that it is rapidly becoming a most unpleasant place to be, especially at night, and many visitors are being driven away by the intimidating atmosphere that often prevails.

He is seeking the combined help of the local authorities, police, school, parents and the public to safeguard this valuable asset for the future of sport and of the town. “At the present rate, the Abbey Lawn will soon become a dump, a no go area for the law abiding”, he told the newspaper. “The time for talking is over. I and others have had enough. Unless there is a combined effort to save it, the future is indeed bleak.”

Yet another example of the total disregard of public opinion by South Kesteven District Council can be found in the Stamford Mercury which reports that a multi-storey car park is likely to be built in front of Budgens supermarket (May 19th). Opposition has been the most vociferous to any local authority project in recent times and yet the council’s head of planning, Mike Sibthorpe, is quoted as saying that it would be good for Bourne and could solve our parking problems. The reality is that there are no serious parking problems at the moment but there will be when the town centre redevelopment goes ahead because one of our main car parks will be lost and there is no provision for a replacement within the core area. Hence the multi-storey project in a totally unsuitable location with access along Meadowgate that is already choked with traffic at busy periods. Here we have an environmental disaster in the making.

The array of silver trophies collected by BRM and its drivers over the years is now in great demand around the world each time an anniversary comes up. Sixty-three cups, salvers and rose bowls won at international events went on show at the Heritage Centre at Baldock’s Mill in South Street in June 2005, a veritable history of the company that produced the first all-British car to win the world championship in 1962 with the late Graham Hill at the wheel.

Sir Jackie Stewart was among the drivers and on 22nd May 1966 he won the Monaco Grand Prix. He received a magnificent silver cup that now forms part of the Heritage Centre display but it was needed as the centrepiece for his 40th anniversary celebrations and last week the trophy was collected by his chauffer, Gerry Webb, and is now on its way to Monte Carlo for the Formula 1 event on May 28th.

“Gerry is becoming a regular visitor”, said Jim Jones, custodian of the mill. “He often drops buy to borrow one of the cups for this event or that but they are always returned when they are over. We feel privileged to have this magnificent display of silverware in our care because it not only commemorates an important part of the town’s history but also demonstrates to visitors just how successful the BRM team was in its hey-day.”

Stewart won the Monaco Grand Prix again in 1971 and 1973 while Graham Hill was a winner on five occasions, in 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1969, also breaking the lap record in 1964. He was killed in a plane crash in 1975 but his name is remembered by Graham Hill Way, one of the roads on the Cherryholt industrial estate.

When the bluebells have faded in Dole Wood, near Bourne, each spring, the greater stitchwort takes over, changing the colour of the woodland floor from blue to white. It is a ubiquitous plant, slender with flowing stems and with a mass of white flowers, the petals notched to about half their length, and you will find them there between May and June. The thread-like lower part of the stem looks impossibly thin and supports the plant only with the help of its neighbours and so it thrives amid the lush vegetation of the secluded glades. In times past, greater stitchwort (Stellaria holostea) was known for its medicinal uses when the seeds were powdered together with acorns, added to wine and used to alleviate the "stitch" or similar pains in the side, hence the name. All competitors in marathons and other strenuous running races, please note.

Thought for the week: Our memories are card indexes consulted, and then put back in disorder by authorities whom we do not control. - Cyril Connolly, journalist and writer (1903-74).

Saturday 27^th May 2006

Wheelie bins have not yet arrived in Bourne but they already have a bad name. Their reputation elsewhere in the country where they have been in use for some time is one of nuisance and annoyance and even a health hazard.

Few people have space for them and if they are parked in the side passage, two large plastic receptacles of this size are likely to block it completely. Others, as I have seen for myself in the London boroughs, are left permanently in front gardens or at the kerbside, defacing the street scene and creating an environmental eyesore. This may not make much difference in Hoxton or Tower Hamlets but imagine the effect if this situation is repeated in Mill Drove or North Road or, more particularly, those houses with restricted passageways such as terraces in the Austerby, Hereward Street, Elm Street, Burghley Street and St Peter‘s Road.

South Kesteven District Council plans to start issuing wheelie bins in September to replace the black plastic bags and the green and blue boxes issued from previous initiatives. The scheme is costing £2.7 million and each house will get two of them, a silver one for household waste and a green one for garden rubbish. They are quite big and bulky and many old people will find it difficult to move them, even if they are on wheels. Their use will also call for some organisation on the part of the householder, separating organic rubbish from the glass and plastic, although there will be no control of what is actually put into them.

Town councillor Guy Cudmore, who once worked for a spell driving a dustcart emptying wheelie bins in Peterborough, told the Bourne Forum this week that colleagues often talked about the worst things they had found inside and the nasties they listed included an old engine out of a Transit van complete with oil and a dead Alsatian dog. “This is the reality”, he wrote. “These bins generate more rubbish because people think they have to fill them up. There is no control over what is put into them and I have heard about even worse things, including body parts. This is a gross intrusion upon the operatives and is a big reason why councils or their contractors find it impossible to maintain staffing levels.”

The programme is not so much inspired by public need as a requirement by SKDC to reach government targets. The council says that its 55,000 home owners are already recycling more than a quarter of their waste which is well above the official target of 18%. By 2010, local authorities will be expected to increase their efforts to almost one third and officials are confident that the new wheelie bin system will keep the council ahead. Chief executive Duncan Kerr told his cabinet: “The roll out of our twin bins will ultimately give the council a recycling rate of 50% making it one of the leading authorities in the country for recycling.”

The bins are therefore on their way, whether we want them or not, and it appears that most do not because of the inconvenience they are likely to cause. John Morfee, who lives and works in Bristol during the week, told the Bourne Forum this week that some of his neighbours with large families either abandoned their rubbish in the general vicinity of their bins hoping that the refuse collectors would pick it up, or simply used someone else's. "The worst thing about the scheme is that the only place to leave the bins is outside the front door on the pavement", he said, "and the sight of dozens of alternating green and black bins down the street does nothing to enhance the attractiveness of the area. The longer we can keep the wretched things out of Bourne, the better."

There were similar concerns from Peter Sharpe who wrote: "Wheelie bins may be all very well for householders with suitable storage space, a nice convenient driveway at the side of their houses and sufficient occupants to make full use of them, but what will happen in a great many cases is that we will follow the example of Peterborough where the residents already curse them. They will simply sit at the front of people's houses, creating a health hazard and blighting the appearance of entire neighbourhoods. They are also the perfect tool for arsonists who seem to delight in pushing them against people's doorways in the dead of night and setting fire to them."

Despite these misgivings, the wheelie bins will be operating throughout South Kesteven by this time next year. The opinions of those who pay the council tax are of little consequence and to ensure that you do use the bins, they will be electronically tagged in order that the amount of discarded waste can be monitored and those homes and streets that are failing to meet the required targets can be identified, a manifestation of the strict state control envisaged by George Orwell. The project is therefore target driven rather than one of providing a more efficient and satisfactory service and any system that is enforced in the face of such hostility cannot be for the public good as we have discovered in recent months by the increasing intensity of the crisis in the National Health Service.

Perhaps it is those councillors who voted for this proposal that ought to be electronically tagged to ensure that they are monitored to prevent them doing further mischief when at large. We hear that they spent several hours of debate determining the colour of the non-organic bins, voting against black because it would be invisible in the dark and eventually plumping for silver because it would reflect the light on bright mornings.

As with any dreadful idea that is foisted on an unsuspecting society by officialdom with the excuse that it is being introduced for its own good, like a revolting quack medicine to cure all ills, wheelie bins have already become the subject of ridicule and the butt of jokes and they are unlikely to go away.

What the local newspapers are saying: Doorstep confidence tricksters have been busy in Bourne and a front page report in The Local says that the latest victim was Councillor Don Fisher, aged 73. Four men who called at his home in West Road quoted him £1,500 to have his roof cleaned and guttering fixed but disappeared without finishing the job and police have advised him not to pay for any work already done (May 26th). “They were very convincing and I thought the quote sounded reasonable”, said Councillor Fisher. “Now I will be getting a local workman to finish the job and perhaps I should have done that in the first place."

The story also appears in the Stamford Mercury which carries a warning from the police about itinerant workmen calling on the old and the vulnerable (May 26th). “Home owners should never agree to work being carried out by anyone touting for business”, said a spokesman. “They must always be on their guard when strangers call.”

The Mercury also reports a separate incident in which workmen demanded £3,000 for digging up a driveway to lay a new one at a house in Mill Drove which the home owner, a woman of 86, says she did not ask for. Police have since arrested four men aged between 18 and 35 for causing criminal damage who have been released on bail to appear at Spalding police station in a month’s time.

Both incidents come as Councillor Trevor Holmes is recruiting support for his doorstep crime initiative in a bid to safeguard the more vulnerable members of the community, the old and infirm, from unwanted callers out to fleece them. “If criminals have swooped on Bourne then they will do it again”, he told The Local. “We need to make everyone more aware of the dangers they face from bogus workmen.”

The discussion over moving the market back on the streets continues and yet more evidence surfaces proving that it did not consist of a multitude of stalls in times past. It has been suggested that there were often 87 stalls when the market was held in North Street and West Street but this figure is now regarded as highly unlikely.

Last week, I quoted Trevor Pool, whose father John Pool was Collector of Tolls for almost a quarter of a century (1921-45), that there were about sixteen stalls in total on a Thursday and even fewer on a Saturday. His appraisal has been supported by David Tabor, retired shopkeeper and former churchwarden whose family has been associated with the town for 150 years, who has emailed to say:

I can add a few further details to those you have and from Trevor Pool. My maternal grandfather, George Spencer, took over as collector of market tolls and erector of stalls from John Pool. He carried out these duties for about ten years and was employed by the then owners of the market rights, the Marquess of Exeter, and his duties at that time also included the collection of rents from the row of cottages in Burghley Street which the estate owned at that time.

My father carried out these duties after my grandfather retired and when they came under the jurisdiction of the then Bourne Urban District Council. The memories of Trevor Pool about the auction site on the market are similar to my own but I am able to add a little more detail about some of the other stalls. At this time the Bull Hotel (now the Burghley Arms) still retained a wide carriageway where the main entrance door is now. Through this archway, the wooden market stalls were stored at the side of the roadway that led to the cattle market and to the corn merchant's office and an agricultural implement merchant. After the closing of this archway in the refurbishment of the Burghley Arms, the stalls were stored in rooms behind the Town Hall that are now part of South Kesteven District Council’s rear offices.

The stalls I recall on the west side of North Street outside the Midland Bank [now HSBC] were Mr Exton's fish stall followed by two stalls of underwear and clothing run by Mr Baxter who lived in the Austerby. After the Angel Hotel entrance, two stalls where run by Mrs Hall selling dress-making and curtain materials, a fruit stall with Mr Gillings from Surfleet, a mobile shop from Bratley's of Spalding for Calor Gas appliances, an occasional table top stall which took us to the edge of the electricity board showrooms before Wherry's Lane. On the east side was a fish stall run by Braime’s of Boston and the footwear stall run by Mr Matthews who had also a shoe shop in Spalding. My memory is of three stalls on the south side of West Street, roughly centred about the property now occupied by Eckfords, the estate agents. On the north side of West Street, after the auction site of household objects etc, came a large fruit stall manned by Bill Pauley and perhaps five further stalls finishing outside the Crown Hotel before the entrance to Morton's printers, which now is Fovia, the stationers. Occasionally there were an extra two table top stalls beyond that entrance.

So there we have it, a much smaller market than most recall. Faulty memory syndrome often plays tricks with these cherished recollections of times gone by, and it is to be hoped that councillors will take this information into consideration when they again consider the issue of moving the market which has a perfectly satisfactory location behind the Corn Exchange where it has been since being moved off the streets in December 1990.

New town signs will shortly be going up alongside the four entrance roads into Bourne welcoming visitors and reminding them that we are twinned with Doudeville in Normandy, France. The old signs have been in place for almost thirty years and are now showing signs of wear but the smart and colourful replacements keep pace with the changes we are seeing in and around the town through housing development and a redesign of the town centre and so it is right that our public image is enhanced.

The signs are the initiative of the Bourne Town Centre Management Partnership, which is also funding the change, and approved after consultation with the town council. They should be in place this summer in readiness for the East Midlands in Bloom competition which is due to take place in July. Councillor Mrs Jane Kingman Pauley, the deputy mayor, welcomes them. “Our signs at the moment look scruffy and some are peeling”, she said. “I think the new ones are badly needed.”

Ivan Fuller, co-ordinator of the TCMP, tells us that the object of replacing them is to maintain the traditional signage of the town by bringing them up to date and making the entrances to Bourne look smarter. As you will see by a copy of the new sign which now appears on our front page, courtesy the TCMP, this result has been admirably achieved.

Thought for the week: There are some places where wheelie bins make sense but there are many others where they do not. The council recognises that some properties are not suitable for wheelie bins for various reasons including lack of space and steps at the front of the property. If you feel your home is not suitable then you can appeal against having them. - from Focus on Wheelie Bins issued by Haringey Council, London, which is imposing them across the entire borough.

Return to Monthly entries