Bourne Diary - September 2006

Saturday 2^nd September 2006

T E Lawrence with his Brough Superior motor cycle
at Cranwell in 1926-27

Saturday 2^nd September 2006

Seventy years after his death, T E Lawrence, the young army officer who found fame as Lawrence of Arabia after leading the Arab Revolt in the Middle East during the Great War of 1914-18, continues to stimulate interest and discussion and one of his famous feats has been the subject of a lively exchange in the Forum this week.

In 1925, Lawrence joined the Royal Air Force as Aircraftsman Shaw, one of the pseudonyms he adopted during his escape into anonymity after becoming disillusioned with the British Government’s policy over Arab independence, and was based for a time at Cranwell, near Sleaford. After undergoing basic training, he was sent to the Officer Cadet College there and in his book The Mint, published posthumously in 1936 and telling of those experiences, he devotes a five page eulogy to his beloved motor cycle on which he felt free and released. The machine was a Brough Superior, one of a succession of seven that he owned, the fastest available in England, and all given pet names, in this case Boanerges, and he describes an exhilarating race with a low flying light aircraft which he encountered during a journey through the South Lincolnshire countryside.

He was on one of England’s straightest and fastest roads, unidentified in the text but most probably the old Roman road known as Ermine Street, that runs from Colsterworth through Ancaster to Lincoln (now the B6403), when a Bristol Fighter from a neighbouring aerodrome roared overhead, banking sharply round and Lawrence waved a greeting. The pilot pointed down the road towards Lincoln and the motor bike went after him, like a dog after a hare, through the sun drenched stubble fields at more than 100 mph, the plane zooming low among trees and telegraph poles until it finally turned, climbed and headed for home, the pilot waving back as long as he was in sight.

There is evidence that Lawrence may have visited Bourne on his motor cycle several times but his last intended trip failed to materialise. He had become friendly with the Australian writer Frederic Manning, author of the novel Her Privates We, one of the most highly regarded books to emanate from the Great War. It was written mainly at the Bull Hotel in Bourne, now the Burghley Arms, where he stayed for long periods, even calling his hero Private Bourne.

Manning (1882-1935) had originally come to this country from Sydney with his tutor, the Rev Alan Galton, when he was appointed Vicar of Edenham in 1904, and liked the area so much that he often returned after Galton died in 1910, lodging with friends or, more usually, as a long stay guest at the Bull Hotel. His book was not published until 1929 and even then anonymously although the identity of the author was an open secret among literary figures of the day.

When Lawrence obtained a copy, he at once recognised from his earlier works that it had been written by Manning, admiring it perhaps because he saw in him a kindred spirit, a theme springing from a deep sense of isolation, suffering and transience of human lives. Lawrence immediately went to the nearest telephone and called the publisher Peter Davies at his office in London to congratulate him on "this masterpiece" and Davies eventually introduced them and their friendship began, mostly by letter, but there were also several meetings.

But Manning was unwell and while living in Bourne, he had become a patient of Dr John (Alistair) Galletly who ran his surgery from his home in North Road. He became increasingly concerned about Manning's state of health and arranged for him to move to a nursing home at Hampstead in London and actually took him there in his own motor car. Manning died there on 22nd February 1935 at the age of 52 and he was buried in Kensal Green cemetery beside his lifelong friend and literary hostess Mrs Alfred Fowler.

Lawrence, who was then stationed at the Royal Air Force base at Bridlington in Yorkshire, had intended to visit him on his motor cycle around this time but on February 28th, he wrote to Peter Davies: "On Tuesday, I took my discharge from the RAF and started southward by road, meaning to call at Bourne and see Manning. But today I turned eastward instead, hearing that he was dead. How I wish, for my own sake, that he hadn't slipped away in this fashion but how like him. He was too shy to let anyone tell him how good he was."

Sadly, Lawrence himself was to die in a motor cycle accident near his home in Dorset just over two months later. His search for seclusion in the ranks had involved a previous spell with the RAF in 1922 under the name of John Hume Ross but his true identity leaked out and he was forced to leave, subsequently enlisting in the Tank Corps in March 1923 as Private Thomas Edward Shaw. But he was unhappy there and persuaded the War Office enable him return to the RAF in August 1925, again under the name of Shaw.

In 1949, while serving as a regular soldier with the Royal Tank Regiment, the new name for the Tank Corps, I was posted to Bovington Camp in Dorset and found myself in the barrack hut that had been occupied by Lawrence. Curiosity about the man resulted in many visits to Cloud’s Hill, the isolated cottage two miles away that became his home in his final years, and to the spot on the road where he lost his life on 13th May 1935 after returning from a visit on his Brough Superior to the post office at Wool village to send a telegram. He encountered two errand boys on bicycles and swerved to avoid them but was thrown off, suffering serious injuries from which he died in the camp hospital five days later. He is buried in the nearby quiet churchyard at Moreton where a simple headstone marks his grave that has become a place of pilgrimage for many.

Lawrence was a complicated, enigmatic, lonely and ascetic individual of high principles whose life became an inspiration to many young men in future generations and continues to fascinate to this day.

The great wheelie bin debate continues and a new revelation has brought a fresh outburst of indignation. Not only will the two huge containers, one silver and one black, currently being issued by South Kesteven District Council to 55,000 homes, be instrumental in causing a permanent defacement to the street scene but now we have learned that they will be fitted with electronic monitoring tags which many see as a sinister development.

The Stamford Mercury says that the tags will measure how much each resident recycles and how much is domestic waste but the system is one of encouragement rather than punishment, with rewards rather than fines (September 1st). “We want to provide incentives for people to recycle”, said council leader Linda Neal (Bourne West). “We all have a duty to help preserve the planet for future generations to enjoy and the council is committed to protecting the environment and keeping waste out of landfill sites.”

The bugs, as they have become known, certainly seem to have started a national scare with suggestions they are part of a new system under which householders will eventually be charged by weight each time the bins are emptied although many people are worried that they will also be used to check on other activities around the house and in the street.

The German firm Deister Electronic (UK) Ltd, which has a base at Spalding, is one of several companies selling the technology. Their devices, called chip-sensoren or chip sensors, carry a unique serial number which can be scanned when the bin is tipped into a refuse lorry carrying weighing equipment which records how much rubbish is collected and links the information to the appropriate bin. The system used is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology that has also been used to track objects as diverse as animals, vehicles and expensive goods and the company maintains that they are a harmless device and little more than a bar code that will enable the council ensure that refuse collections are carried out in a thorough and efficient manner.

If they are merely bar codes then they are an expensive addition, costing £2 each, a total of £220,000, plus £15,000 per electronically adapted vehicle. But this does not mean that they will be a practical proposition. I checked with relatives in Germany where the sensors were tried some years ago but rejected by most local authorities as being totally unworkable. Recyclable rubbish is collected by bin size according to choice, large, medium or small, although there are serious doubts whether it is ever kept separate from domestic refuse and the widespread belief is that the whole lot ends up at the same tip.

But Germany does have a system that we could well follow and that is in returning packaging to the supermarkets from whence it came while cans and bottles may be exchanged for a small payment per item which can add up over a period. Collection points are available at all retail outlets and overall the system works well and is generally accepted by the public which is half the battle.

The difficulties over the electronic tagging of bins in Bourne is that no one was told about it and so the system has invited suspicion. Communication from SKDC appears to have failed completely and there is also evidence that it was not even approved by our councillors because when asking around, I was met by a bewildered response and so we can assume that either our elected representatives have not been informed and that the decision was taken by officers without their knowledge or its details were hidden away in the small print among the mass of paperwork showered on them daily to confuse and confound.

The bugs are not easy to see on the wheelie bins but contributors to the Forum have been busy playing detective this week because they have discovered that they are only slightly bigger than a penny piece and are located in the moulded void under the lids and can easily be prised out with a small screwdriver, a simple solution that will help anyone bothered by conspiracy theories sleep better at night.

What the local newspapers are also saying: There has been much discussion by Bourne Town Council in recent weeks about the length of time a councillor may be absent before he loses his seat. The subject has been raised because Councillor Derrick Crump (Bourne East) has been spending the past six months with a charity mission in Zambia although he has sent suitable apologies each time he has missed a meeting between January and July. The Local reports that the clerk, Mrs Nelly Jacobs, has checked on the legal position several times and according to advice from the Lincolnshire Association of Local Councils he is eligible to continue serving as a councillor provided his apologies for absence are accepted at each meeting (September 1st).

That would appear to be the end of the affair but it does not satisfy Councillor John Kirkman (Bourne East) who originally raised the issue in July and then sent an email to the meeting on Tuesday (he did not attend) insisting that a further check of the rules be carried out adding: “Whilst on the face of it this may seem to be a trivial matter, it is not. Rules and standards are there to be followed. If we do not then chaos will inevitably be the end result.”

If anyone should know this, then it is Councillor Kirkman. In 1999, while working as a senior meteorological officer, he announced his intention to undertake a six-month tour of duty on Ascension Island, the Royal Air Force's staging post for the Falkland Islands, flying out on April 5th although he planned to stand for both the town and district council elections on May 6th in absentia. Councillor Kirkman saw nothing wrong with this and told the local newspapers: "It is not unusual for a councillor to be away from a council for up to six months. It has occurred in the past and it will occur in the future."

There was widespread criticism of this decision at the time but wiser counsel prevailed because in the event, Councillor Kirkman changed his arrangements and remained at home. Those in public life should consider carefully what they say before commenting on contentious issues because their words have a habit of coming back to haunt them.

Thought for the week: Machines from the Maxim gun to the computer are for the most part means by which a minority can keep free men in subjection. - Kenneth Clark, British art historian (1903-83).

Saturday 9^th September 2006

There was another mishap on the double bend in South Street on Wednesday
when a fuel tanker carrying diesel broke down, holding up traffic in both
directions during the early evening peak period.

The amount of traffic entering and leaving Bourne by the main southern route can best be seen by standing on the bend in South Street at any time of day. There are breaks in the flow of vehicles but at most times, especially at peak periods during the week, it is difficult and even unsafe to cross and traffic is unending in both directions.

Yet the carriageway at one point is less than 23 feet wide, narrower than Meadowgate and well shy of the minimum current regulations allowed by government for road building, and there are three Grade II listed buildings in the immediate vicinity, Baldock’s Mill (1800), Brook Lodge (1776) and a pair of late 18th century red brick cottages, all at risk from vibration, traffic fumes and even direct damage, as has been proven in the past.

The hazard is exacerbated by the double blind bend, once known as Gilpin’s Corner, after Dr John Gilpin (1864-1943), a general practitioner who lived and ran his practice from Brook Lodge. Transport of all shapes and sizes, from small cars and vans to mighty articulated lorries, oil tankers, containers and pantechnicons, regularly pass this way, often not even slowing down to negotiate the bends and passing similarly large vehicles coming in the opposite direction and it is a daily miracle that there are not more accidents, not least head on collisions.

The carriageway is also the main A15 trunk road between Peterborough and Lincoln and this particular stretch was first identified as being dangerous a century ago when an awareness of accident black spots began to develop. The motor car was still a rare sight on the roads and yet in 1909, the newly formed Lincolnshire Automobile Club supplied danger warning signs that were erected in Abbey Road. The double bend in South Street began to cause some disquiet about the same time and yet the local authorities turned down a proposal to purchase land at this point with a view to widening the roadway in 1910.

There were several mishaps on the corner and early in 1917, danger signs were erected after a complaint by a local resident who was involved in an accident not with his car, but with his horse and cart. There were more collisions in subsequent years and in 1928, Kesteven County Council, then the highways authority, was asked to improve the road as a matter of urgency but nothing was done. The problem was exacerbated by the railway that crossed the road a few yards further south and the traffic delays were compounded when the level crossing gates were shut to allow a train to pass. Although this added inconvenience disappeared when the Bourne to Spalding line closed in 1959, the situation has become far worse in the intervening years because of the massive increase in through traffic.

The local authorities missed a second chance to improve the road at this point when a house attached to the smallholding No 35 South Street, known as Mrs Gray’s cottage, was demolished almost thirty years ago. The location of the property was unfortunate because it stood on the west side and looked as though it was leaning forwards into the road at a most unsafe angle, creating a road hazard for the increasing traffic flows of the previous decades, and although scheduled as a Grade II building, it was pulled down in January 1977. This was the perfect opportunity to improve the highway at this point and remove a highly dangerous black spot and yet again, nothing was done. Instead, permission was given to build two new houses on the land that had been made vacant by the demolition although they were sited well back from the road.

There have been many other accidents here since, one of the worst in 1989 when a Royal Mail lorry ploughed into one of the red brick cottages and six years ago a car suffered a similar fate. There have also been fatalities, the most recent in October 1998 when a van driver was killed on the corner as he drove into Bourne.

This spot, overlooked by the Abbey Church, was the scene of yet another bad accident on Wednesday 12th June 2002 when a 38-tonne articulated refuse lorry crashed into the roadside cottage at No 31 South Street, demolishing part of the outside wall and sending rubble crashing down into the street below where schoolchildren had been walking past just moments earlier.

Those responsible for road safety in the Bourne area know that this road is one of the most dangerous in the county. But the double bend remains, a nightmare for motorists during the rush hour periods, especially in the evenings, when queues of traffic tail back as far as the grammar school and even further, and each accident that occurs reminds us of another tragedy lurking just around the corner. There is a need for improvement or replacement as a matter of urgency and yet the local authorities do nothing and a north south-bypass on the A15 for Bourne is not even on the agenda.

What the local newspapers are saying: Apathy is likely to herald the end of one of the town’s prominent business groups, the Bourne Chamber of Trade and Commerce, following a crisis meeting on Monday. Chairman Gordon Cochran told The Local that the organisation had been struggling to survive for many years but poor support had now made closure a distinct possibility and a letter had been circulated to members warning that unless they were prepared to become involved it would shut down (September 8th).

This would be a blow to the social as well as the business life of the town because it is the chamber that organises the highly popular late night shopping event in the run up to Christmas, attracting hundreds of people on to the streets for an open air market, an occasion that has become a permanent fixture of the festive season. But Mr Cochran told the newspaper: “We exist only on the efforts of a few individuals struggling every year to keep certain activities going and many have left through frustration. If the response to our appeal is not good enough then the chamber will fold.”

Grants totalling more than £100,000 have been awarded to deserving causes by the Len Pick Trust since it was founded a year ago to distribute funds from the £4 million bequest made to the town by the late landowner and businessman Len Pick (1909-2004). A variety of organisations in the town that have benefited are listed by The Local newspaper including the Salvation Army, the Outdoor Swimming Pool, Citizens’ Advice Bureau, community midwives and Bourne Grammar School, and more money is being earmarked for grants over the next three years (September 8th). “A lot of work remains to be done but we have solid foundations on which to build”, said Jonathan Foster, chairman of the trustees.

The legacy from Len Pick and subsequent benefit to the town have been a life line for many voluntary and community groups and it is heartening to read of the open approach that has been adopted by the trustees, a policy that enables the public see exactly how the money is being distributed and enabling anyone seek advice as to whether they are eligible for a grant. Our other philanthropic organisation might well take a leaf from their book. Bourne United Charities, which administers a far greater amount of money left to the town over the years, has a similar responsibility to keep the public informed yet all we get from its trustees is total silence.

The season has brought forth an abundance of fruit as trees bow under the weight of their bounty. Back garden orchards have never been so prolific while the hedgerows are bursting with blackberries. There seems little point in Sainsburys selling apples, pears and plums when those who have been blessed with them by the hundredweight are happily giving them away to their friends and neighbours.

Surplus supplies are being sold at the roadside for a pittance while my neighbour regularly hangs a bag of apples from the garden fence for our collection, picked from a relative’s garden, together with the odd punnet of blackberries from the same source. Amanda, a contributor to the Forum, left a message saying that pears were available to anyone that wanted them and we took advantage of the offer while a large boxful of Bramleys was left in the Abbey Church a few days back for visitors to help themselves and we had a bagful of the most delightful Victoria plums I have ever tasted from a friend of a friend who had half a dozen more people on his distribution list.

Enjoy fresh fruit, apple crumble, pears and ice cream and stewed plums while they are so plentiful because it will not be long before the only source is the supermarkets and the prices return to their usual exorbitant level.

Shop watch: Long queues are becoming endemic in the stores and larger shops of Bourne and they invariably form at peak periods, usually the result of low wages resulting in frequent staff shortages. Tesco/Express is a place to avoid at these times when the file of waiting customers regularly stretches past the door and up the newspaper stand while Sainsburys is fast becoming a no-go area for the impatient on Saturday mornings around midday when the crush is like Heathrow Airport after a bomb scare with management totally ignoring the customer crisis by having only half of the available checkouts open.

The latest to join the list is Woolworths where only two of the five tills were staffed at midday on Saturday and as a result the queue reached down into the toy department at the far end. There was some dissatisfaction but no frayed tempers and the two young ladies who were on duty rose to the occasion with good humour and even a smile. When it was my turn, I asked about the delay and the girl ruefully explained that, yes, it was because of dire staff shortages and that she would be there until 6.30 pm but she still had the courtesy to ask me if I had everything I wanted and then wish me a good day. I looked around for the manager to seek further information about the wait but he/she was nowhere to be seen, probably having decamped to the Angel for a quick one to avoid disgruntled customers.

Too much is being thrust upon us without asking and the annoying arrival of junk mail that continues to drop through the letter box at a never-ending rate is among these infringements of our privacy. We must therefore follow the example of the residents of Barry in South Wales and tell the Royal Mail that enough is enough.

They were alerted by their own postman, Roger Annies, aged 48, father of two, who delivered his own leaflet explaining how they could opt out of receiving mail shots by filling out a form. Within days, seventy were sent in and Mr Annies was suspended on full pay pending an inquiry into alleged misconduct. But the official intervention has backfired because homeowners are demanding that he be reinstated while the resulting publicity has prompted thousands more to follow suit and end the practice that may earn the Royal Mail much needed income but is also an annoyance to most recipients as well as being a total waste of both time and paper.

If you wish to avoid these unwanted piles of leaflets, unaddressed promotional items and advertising fliers, then drop a line to Door to Door Opt Outs at Royal Mail Door to Door, Kingsmead House, Oxpens Road, Oxford OX1 1RX, telephone them at 08457 950950 or email as I have done to optout@royalmail.co.uk

The Royal Mail will make it difficult for you to cancel, writing back to warn, even blackmail, that it may result in the loss of important communications from government, local councils and elsewhere, but these automated replies have been condemned as rubbish by the independent consumer organisation Postwatch and their advice is to persist with your application, fill out the form as directed and stop the unwanted deluge of bumph that piles up regularly on the doormat.

Thought for the week: Great hope fell. There was no noise. The ruin was from within. – Emily Dickinson, American poet (1830-86), the bulk of whose 1,700 poems were not published until after her death.

Saturday 16^th September 2006

The fate of the Victorian chapel in the town cemetery is still uncertain because Bourne Town Council which is responsible for the building has made no decisions, despite the fact that it continues to deteriorate with every passing month and as another winter approaches, the fabric is likely to weaken even further.

It has been well chronicled on this web site that the present condition of the chapel is entirely due to the negligence of councillors who have in the past totally ignored what needed to be done to keep it in good order and it has even been suggested that it should be pulled down to avoid escalating maintenance costs, the stone and especially the Collyweston roof tiles being worth a considerable amount of money that would help offset demolition costs.

But despite such extreme remedies, all is not lost. A report from Boston, where a similar situation has developed with the impending collapse of their 150-year-old cemetery chapel for similar reasons, tells us that English Heritage is about to intervene and grant Grade II listed status to the building which will protect it from civic vandals and force the local authority, in this case Boston Borough Council, to do its duty and prevent further decline.

The listing has come about because of pressure from residents and the local press which raised public awareness, despite attempts by councillors to block it, but now, once it goes ahead, they will be forced to budget for the survival of the chapel which has less architectural merit than the one at Bourne.

Desperate situations call for desperate measures and last year, after the state of the cemetery chapel in Bourne was revealed, I made an application to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (formerly the Department of National Heritage) to declare it a listed building, a course of action open to all members of the public by bringing individual threatened properties to their attention. It is then assessed and, if it qualifies, is added to the statutory register, an emergency procedure known as “spot” listing.

This involved a great deal of work because the dossier must include maps, diagrams, photographs and a report on the current situation, but it was a worthwhile project. This is a fine Victorian building in a most attractive setting, consecrated by the Bishop of Lincoln, the Rt Rev John Jackson, on Saturday 26th May 1855. It was built in a similar style to the chapel of rest at Stamford and they are nearly alike in the interior, floored with Minton, Staffordshire, tiles, and with stained deal roofs. For the past 150 years, the chapel at Bourne has been an integral part of the town’s burial ground which won the Cemetery of the Year award in 2002 when it was judged first out of 48 entries in the class for cemeteries of 12 acres and under, the chapel receiving special mention in the adjudication, and there may be a similar award when the results of this year’s competition are announced next month. It is an asset to the town’s architectural heritage and still has a useful life in the future, perhaps in another role.

In the intervening 30 years since the last survey of listed buildings in the parish of Bourne was carried out, the architectural merit of the chapel has increased and as the dating guidelines have also changed, it would almost certainly be included if the same survey were conducted today. An application for a “spot” listing to the Department of National Heritage may be a futile exercise but although the wheels of bureaucracy move exceedingly slow, there is still a chance that it will not end up as so much rubble as some would wish.

Smart cast iron railings have been installed along the pavement at the top end of North Street as part of a series of improvements to the town centre. They have been tastefully designed and painted in black with gilt embellishments to match other street furniture such as seats, litter bins and signage added in recent months by the Town Centre Management Partnership (TCMP) which was formed in February 2001 and whose role is to revitalise that area in the very heart of Bourne.

Ivan Fuller, the partnership co-ordinator, explained that apart from their attractive appearance, the railings would also improve pedestrian safety and were part of the latest additions that would also include extra seats and flower beds. But they have not pleased everyone, particularly taxi drivers who have two kerbside ranks nearby and Mick Gilbert, aged 65, who has been operating in the town for the past 13 years, sees the railings as part of a furtive plan to reduce the number of spaces in the taxi rank.

He also claims that they will create delays when picking up and dropping passengers and he told The Local newspaper: “With the council already letting more taxis operate in Bourne, the new railings are adding insult to injury and it is damaging my business” (8th September 2006).

The dispute has highlighted the current situation with regard to the taxi ranks which are quite clearly in the wrong place. Kerbside spaces in an area of double yellow lines are dangerous and to have them sited within the intersection of two trunk roads, the A15 and A151, has created a pedestrian hazard that can be witnessed on any busy day of the week when the volume of through traffic is at its height.

Perhaps this is an opportune time for the taxi ranks to be moved off the street altogether to reserved spaces in the parking area behind the Town Hall where they will not generate such a potential danger as that created by people getting in and out of taxis on a busy main road. This is a far more convenient location for both vehicles and passengers. It is also worth remembering that the town centre is there for the benefit of all and not merely for taxi operators who provide a service which should fit comfortably into the scheme of things. To disrupt a most useful and attractive street enhancement merely to satisfy one business group is not an acceptable solution.

The town council has lost one of its most experienced members with the resignation of Councillor John Kirkman last weekend. His departure was both surprising and unexpected because during his 27 years as one of the representatives for Bourne East, he has been a guiding force over many issues, particularly financial matters, and in later years has been mentor to newcomers and the less experienced.

Councillor Kirkman, aged 67, a retired meteorological officer, moved to Bourne with his family in 1974 and soon became involved with local affairs, successfully seeking election to Bourne Town Council in 1979, serving as Mayor of Bourne on two occasions, from 1985-86 and again from 2000-01. In 1983, he won his seat on South Kesteven District Council as an independent candidate for Bourne East, becoming chairman in 2005-06, and in 1989 was elected to Lincolnshire County Council for the Bourne Abbey division, thus representing the town at all three levels of local government.

But the work proved to be arduous and the hours long and in the spring of 2005, he decided not to seek re-election for the county council seat. Now he has decided to give up his work for the town council, although he intends to remain a member of SKDC of which he was elected chairman for 2005-06 and he also has a busy schedule with other commitments, notably as chairman of the governors of the Abbey Primary School and as a trustee (and past chairman) of Bourne United Charities.

Councillor Kirkman’s resignation from the town council was officially received on September 8th and so there are 14 days, excluding Saturdays and Sundays, in which anyone in the Bourne East ward may call an election provided they find ten signatures of support. This is therefore an opportune time for younger blood to seek office and help compensate the current membership which has a decidedly geriatric imbalance that does not meet with public favour, but unless this condition is observed by Thursday 28th September, existing councillors will fill the vacancy through co-option and that will not be a satisfactory outcome.

Our streets will soon be full of wheelie bins, ranged along the kerbside every week awaiting collection, and what a dull, drab and untidy sight they will present.

In the meantime, for the latest chapter in this saga of the utterly ridiculous, it is worthwhile reading the council’s wheelie web site which has this entry under the Frequently Asked Questions:

Question: Can I decorate the bin to blend it in with my garden?
Answer: No. The bins cannot be tampered with as they are council property. If you want to hide your bin, many DIY stores sell bin sheds or you can camouflage it behind shrubbery.

Stand by Woolies and Stringers for a boom in sales of brushes and acrylic paints as Bourne goes artistic in pursuit of a more colourful street scene.

One final thought: my neighbour asked this week what we are to do with the two plastic boxes, one green and one blue, issued with such high hopes when they were introduced by SKDC in 2003 at a cost of £500,000, the best idea since sliced bread in the recycling crusade but now totally obsolete, yet another example of the council’s failed initiatives. Simple, I told her. Dump them in the silver wheelie bin, that’s the one for recycling plastic, and with them goes half a million pounds of public money.

What the local newspapers are saying: The forthcoming issue of wheelie bins is likely to cause fly tipping in the countryside, according to a report in the Stamford Mercury. Henry Hawes, who farms at Edenham, near Bourne, told the newspaper that the proposed collections every two weeks were insufficient and once their bins were full, some homeowners were likely to look for suitable places to leave their surplus waste (September 15th). “How does the council think that a big family is going to store all of its rubbish in one bin for a fortnight?”, he asked. “It is inevitable that some will start dumping it elsewhere and that means big problems for farmers.”

Vandalism at the Abbey Lawn in Bourne makes the headlines yet again with The Local reporting another outbreak as community leaders meet in an attempt to deter trouble makers (September 15th). In the latest wave of wilful damage, windows in the football clubhouse were smashed over the weekend, graffiti scrawled on the walls and a lock broken while a few days later there was evidence that the place was being used for illicit drinking because 60 cans and bottles were collected from the stand. The police have made arrests in the past but appear to be largely ineffective and the solution seems to be the installation of closed circuit television, a responsibility of the owners, Bourne United Charities which administers the Abbey Lawn on behalf of the town, and should therefore foot the bill as a matter of urgency and without further debate.

Message from abroad: I do have a solution for the cats in the flower beds problem [Diary August 12th August 2006]. Mix pepper and soap powder (my preferred is Sunlite) together and spread over the beds before the annuals are planted in spring. The cats then sniff the soap powder and pepper causing their noses to foam with no actual harm to the animal and they all make a wide berth of the area. I have used this with success in past years. - email from Peter Sutton, Toronto, Canada, Saturday 9th September 2006.

Thought for the week: Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley, English novelist and essayist (1894-1964).

Saturday 23^rd September 2006

The wheelie bins finally arrived this week amid much banging and clattering outside as a large container lorry accompanied by a crowd of workmen delivered the monsters to homes in our street.

The first reaction is that they are far too big and have already blocked the passageway, both the silver and the black bins being stood sideways against the house wall because they would otherwise not fit, and although collections for each will be fortnightly, we will have to take both out each time they are emptied because there is insufficient room for one to pass the other.

This will be a problem for many because the houses in this street are not exactly small and more modern properties, particularly those on the new estates such as at Elsea Park and Hereward Meadows, will have even less space. It will also mean that more homes than anticipated are unsuitable to accommodate them and will therefore continue with the system of black plastic bags.

Neighbours are already experimenting with the most convenient positions to place the bins, one having chosen the back garden and as he also possesses a green bin for garden waste, three of them are lined up against the fence like soldiers on parade which will not be a pretty sight next time they have friends round for tea on the patio.

Further up the road, one bin has been consigned to the passageway and another at the front near the side gate, while others have been left standing outside while householder decided where to put them, thus confirming fears that they will cause an eyesore, and so while South Kesteven District Council spends millions on this latest recycling initiative, as yet unproven and quite likely to fail, the environment will suffer as the street scene is defaced in many places.

A bumper bundle of instructions came with the wheelies, leaflets of do’s and don’ts, charts and stickers, all likely to end up untouched in the silver bin (for paper) but being an avid reader of everything, even the label on an HP sauce bottle, I spent some time digesting the information and advice on offer and came to the conclusion that the council is guilty of overkill. We are quite happy to be advised what should and should not go into each of the two bins but being told to avoid unnecessary packaging, select only loose fruit and vegetables, use the milkman, boycott disposable products and stop buying bottled water, tissues and disposable nappies, is way outside the remit of a local authority which is there to deliver services and not to tell us how to live our lives.

Nevertheless, wheelie bins are now a fact and although the system is untested and has many pitfalls, we are duty bound to give it a try although I feel that it will founder before very long simply because the bins are too large and unwieldy and home owners will repeatedly make mistakes in what they put into them.

A test run this week revealed that to recycle successfully, two domestic bins are needed in the kitchen to ensure a correct division of waste, a totally impractical proposition. The alternative will therefore be sorting individual items before dumping in the side passage, and as this is an unlikely eventuality, especially for young mothers with large families when the weather is inclement, the result will be confusion in many homes. In addition, because the bins are only a few inches under four feet in height, anyone who is short in stature or rheumatic of limb, and I have in mind many elderly people living alone, will find it impossible to retrieve items they threw in by mistake without turning out the fire brigade and so my guess is that they will leave it where it is.

The council warns against this, claiming that contamination of the silver bin is likely to ruin the entire lorry load but it is difficult to imagine how this ruling can be enforced and it is to be hoped that the authority will not take the legal route, as Exeter Council did in July when it prosecuted a young mother for putting recyclable waste into a green wheelie bin, the first case of its kind in England, but the magistrates found little sympathy with the local authority and she was cleared of all charges.

Most home owners will do their best to make the scheme a success but close scrutiny in these early stages reveals that it is flawed from the start and so is liable to end up on the ever mounting pile of failed initiatives now gathering dust in the basement of the council offices at Grantham. There is also the other, most important unanswered question and that is how can we be certain that, after all of our efforts, the recyclable waste will be sorted and saved and not end up in the landfill sites along with the rest? Not a word of this appears in the mass of documentation that has been distributed this week and so we can only speculate that the millions of pounds being spent on this scheme and the effort required from homeowners to make it work will be worthwhile.

What the local newspapers are saying: South Kesteven District Council has tried to allay “hysteria” about the alleged sinister intention of fitting micro-chips into the bins and has told The Local that they are quite an innocent addition which contain nothing more than a serial number to enable the council record the time and date of the collection (September 22nd). Many people will find this explanation hard to swallow because the log book of the lorry would do that and we have already been informed by the manufacturers of the bugs, Deister Electronic (UK) Ltd of Spalding, that they are in fact sensors using RFID or Radio Frequency Identification to enable the waste be measured and, in some commercial cases, paid for by weight, and although this has not yet been introduced for domestic refuse in this area, the technology is similar and the bugs can already indicate what proportion of waste is being recycled by each household.

Fears over the future use of the bugs have already lead to threats of their removal by some householders but the council says that defacing the bins in this way will be regarded as vandalism and the culprits will not have their bins emptied as a result. This warning has not been a successful deterrent because I have received an email from a protestor who lives at Aslackby, near Bourne, who has extracted the micro-chips from each of his two bins and returned them to the Chief Executive of South Kesteven District Council, Duncan Kerr, with the following message, copy to our Member of Parliament, Quentin Davies:

Please find enclosed my two wheelie bin bugs. As Councillor Trevor Holmes [of Bourne Town Council] says, there is an agenda here to get us eventually to Pay by Weight of rubbish. This would be an attack on low income families. If parliament passes the Pay by Weight legislation, I will comply with it. Until then, here are your bugs. Enjoy! - Brynley Heaven. P S: Enclosed: two bugs.

As we have not actually been officially told that the bins are bugged and not a word about them appears in the special information pack distributed to all homes, it will be difficult to see how SKDC can enforce a boycott on a householder who is paying his council tax which helps finance this service.

Bourne is a blooming success, according to the Stamford Mercury reporting that judges in the East Midlands in Bloom competition that took place during the summer have awarded us second place in the town category with a silver grading, scoring 121 points out of a possible 200 (September 22nd). Oakham in Rutland took top place with the gold award in the competition that attracted dozens of entries from across the region. This is a particularly commendable effort for our first entry in thirty years and one that reflects the hard work of the clerk to the town council, Mrs Nelly Jacobs, who put on so much effort behind the scenes. “Her enthusiasm for the project shone”, said Ivan Fuller, the town centre co-ordinator, “and her commitment was exceptional.”

The Greyhound an imposing building in the market place at Folkingham, near Bourne, a coaching inn from the early days on the road, has been placed on the English Heritage register of buildings at risk for 2006. This means that the Grade II property, dating back to the 17th century, is among the most vulnerable of the nation’s historic buildings through neglect or decay and its future remains uncertain.

The hostelry stands on the main A15 road between Lincoln and Peterborough, eight miles north of Bourne, easily distinguishable when approaching the village from the south by its magnificent façade of mellowed red brick with stone string courses, window heads, sills and corner stones and tiled roof. There were many similar stopping places for the stage coaches on the route but this was by far the most important as well as being the centre of social life for the gentry in the locality.

Built at the time of Queen Anne, it soon became the meeting place for farmers, traders and pedlars, when Folkingham was a small but thriving market town, fully equipped to cater for passengers on the stage coaches which called here regularly. The transformation was due mainly to the investment of Sir Gilbert Heathcote who bought the estate in 1788. He was a Member of Parliament, Lord Mayor of London and Governor of the Bank of England, who also rejuvenated many of the other local inns, including the Green Man, the Red Lion, the Five Bells, the Crown and the New Inn.

But it was the Greyhound to which he paid the most attention and it was practically rebuilt in his enthusiasm to make it the perfect stopping place for stage coach visitors, spending £4,000, an enormous sum in those days, on giving it a new brick frontage and an arched stone entrance through which coaches would drive to the stables behind. The assembly room on the right was used as a courtroom for the Quarter Sessions, having stairs down to a prisoners' cell, and many distinguished travellers lodged here on their journeys and it soon earned a high reputation for its quality of food and service.

The Greyhound was not used as an inn for many years during the late 20th century when the business failed and after standing empty for a period, it had a short revival with a refurbished ballroom, extensive catering facilities and an antiques and crafts centre. When this venture folded, the building again became vacant awaiting a buyer and in 2005 it was badly damaged by fire. The blaze broke out during the early hours of Saturday 9th April but firemen were quickly on the scene and managed to avert a major disaster. Nevertheless, ancient oak timbers were destroyed and part of the roof caved in before they brought the flames under control. The outbreak is believed to have been started by a squatter lighting a fire in one of the first floor rooms which then got out of control although the intruder has not been found.

A green tarpaulin covers the damaged section of the roof and in August 2005 the inn was offered for sale at public auction and although 300 people turned up, it with was withdrawn after failing to reach the guide price of £500,000. This was subsequently reduced to £400,000 and offered for sale by private treaty, possibly for use as a private home or for conversion into flats, but a buyer is still awaited and the ground floor windows have been boarded up to deter further unwanted visitors.

Listing by English Heritage means that the structure is in a very poor condition and is currently unused, making its future uncertain. Inclusion in the register implies no criticism of the owners, many of them actively seeking ways to secure their future. In the meantime, the Greyhound stands empty and forlorn yet the external appearance remains a permanent reminder of its once grand past.

Thought for the week: Man is quite insane. He wouldn’t know how to create a maggot and he creates Gods by the dozen. - Michel de Montaigne, French essayist (1533-92) who started a new literary genre in which he expressed his philosophy of humanism.

Saturday 30^th September 2006

The lives of those who went before are usually recorded in dates and places but it is the personal anecdotes that bring them alive. George Pochin, for instance, was Lord of the Manor of Bourne Abbots for 37 years, from 1761 until he died in 1798. Among his achievements was the building of the Abbey House near the church in 1764, a fine mansion that for some unexplained reason was demolished in 1878 and the stone used to build a new vicarage, now the Cedars retirement home.

He was Colonel of the Leicestershire Regiment of Militia, Deputy Lieutenant and a magistrate in the counties of Leicestershire and Lincolnshire and a plaque in the chancel of the Abbey Church records his life. It says: "In his public capacity, he was deservedly efficient. A good soldier, faithful, upright and active magistrate of inflexible probity and unwearied attention. His benevolence and uniform integrity gained the respect and love and all who knew him. He died May 15th, 1798, aged 66 years."

What it does not say is that George Pochin also liked the occasional tipple, usually a glass or two of good wine. In the grounds of his new house was an Early English blank arcade, probably the south termination of the abbey cloisters, and in the absence of suitable storage facilities he hit upon the perfect solution to keep his bottles at the right temperature. He made a recess in one of these compartments and fitted it with a lock and key to keep it safe were it to be discovered by others.

His secret cellar remained secure for several years but one day, on going for a bottle of this wine to receive a particular friend, to his surprise he found the recess empty, every bottle having been taken away. On the robbery becoming known, the pilferers came forward and acknowledged the offence. They were workmen and while employed in effecting some repairs or alterations to the church, a brick fell from the wall. One of them put his arm into the aperture and brought forth a bottle of wine. It was partaken of by him and his companions and much enjoyed and they at once came to the conclusion that it had been placed there by the monks of the abbey a thousand years before and having made a successful search for more, they took possession of the whole of the hidden treasure and consumed it with some pleasure.

Their fate, unfortunately is unknown, but given the nature of their confession and belief in providence as to the source of their largesse, it is doubtful if any action was taken against them. George Pochin must have sought out another safe place for his wine and perhaps there are many more bottles still intact in a hidden place within the church precincts, having remained undiscovered for more than two centuries after his death.

The wheelie bin debate reached the airwaves on Tuesday morning when Mr Brynley Heaven, of Aslackby, near Bourne, was interviewed for the morning show on Radio Lincolnshire following my revelation last week that he had removed the micro-chips from his bins.

Mr Heaven, aged 53, a former London councillor for the borough of Hackney, had done his homework and left Ms Dawn Temple, the sustainable waste management policy officer for South Kesteven District Council, struggling to find a reason why they had been fitted in the first place implying that the public had been fully informed despite few people having even heard about them until the protests began. She also said that the decision to use the micro-chips had originally been taken in private by members of the council’s inner cabinet and that it was fully discussed in full council but this does not appear to be the case and no councillor has yet come forward to substantiate it. Also, despite her repeated denials, we were left with the distinct impression that pay by weight for refuse is on the way at some time in the near future.

There was also another revelation that will disturb homeowners in that Ms Temple said that anyone who tampered with the micro-chips would not have their bins emptied and may even face heavy fines. This illustrates the growing tendency of local authorities to send in the bailiffs in an attempt to enforce unpopular regulations, a most regrettable policy by organisations that are supposed to be run for the benefit of the public and one that reflects the increasing shift in power away from elected councillors to paid officials. Imposing fines is the duty of the courts and not local authorities who are there to deliver public services and it is to be hoped that anyone who is singled out for financial penalties will challenge them under the law.

With the pending vote over the change in council house ownership, which has already been condemned as undemocratic, and now the surreptitious introduction of these micro-chips, not to mention the dumping of wheelie bins on 55,000 private properties without asking permission, the reputation of SKDC is at a low ebb and the impact of this interview will do little to reassure those who pay the council tax.

These draconian measures do appear to be a case of a sledgehammer trying to crack a nut because instead of this multi-million pound operation, the council could have followed the lead of other local authorities, particularly those in Hampshire, merely by issuing plastic bags of a different colour in addition to the black ones for recyclable materials, thus saving time and huge amounts of public money and also avoiding so much public scorn.

The wheelie bins may serve a useful purpose in the short term until a more satisfactory system is devised but one thing is certain: the introduction of them by SKDC has been a lamentable exercise in public relations and should be the cause of some scrutiny at council headquarters in Grantham, particularly the information sheet that was sent to householders yesterday giving the launch date with dire warnings for transgressors which is little short of a threatening letter.

However, this is our final word on the subject for the time being. Like them or loathe them, they are here to stay until proven by practice not to be the answer to our refuse problems and will most surely end up being recycled themselves, the same fate as the green and blue plastic containers used in the last system that is now being shelved. These too are owned by South Kesteven District Council and we have yet to be told what to do with them.

What the local newspapers are saying: Both of our main local newspapers devote their front pages to wheelie bin rebel Brynley Heaven and the fall out from his radio interview, the Stamford Mercury quoting South Kesteven District Council that he is now liable to a fine of £1,000 (September 29th). This is intimidation at its extreme from a local authority that is clearly rattled by the publicity that has surrounded its new recycling scheme and revealing its shortcomings.

But Mr Heaven is not to be cowed by such threats because he told The Local that he would be prepared to go to court (September 29th). “I hope it does not come to that”, he said. “I think there is an element of bluff here and the real purpose of the micro-chips is to prepare the ground for pay-by-weight collections. This would mean young families paying the most while the high-flying young executive who eats out all the time pays less. It is all wrong.” He added: “This is a council that only a few days ago said that introducing the scheme would be all carrots and no sticks. It must be the fastest U-turn in history and I am surprised by their response.”

The council is clearly worried that a mass removal of the micro-chips might derail the scheme because The Local also carries a message from Councillor Ray Auger, cabinet member of the environment, who explained the get-tough policy. “If the chip is removed, the lorry will not be able to empty the bin because it activates the lifting process“, he said. “Therefore the bin cannot be emptied. The chips will also give us a better idea of whether we are on track to meet stricter government targets to reduce waste going to landfill sites and a failure to do so could result in millions of pounds in fines.”

And he made this appeal to home owners: “Please don’t be encouraged by others to take your micro-chip out. You could be prosecuted if you do.”

A headline in The Local newspaper (September 22nd) said it all: “Market move shelved” over a report that Bourne Town Council had decided not to press ahead with the possibility of moving the stalls back on to the streets. The folly of this proposal was discussed at length when it was mooted last May and it is to be regretted that so much official time has been wasted on what was a flawed suggestion.

A street market has served Bourne well ever since it was first held 700 years ago under a royal charter granted to the Lord of the Manor of Bourne, Baldwin Wake, by King Edward I in 1279. The convenience of the market place, now the town centre, could not be faulted as a meeting place for trade and gossip but the motor car has done for all that, making street trading dangerous and kerbside stalls hazardous except under strictly controlled conditions such as those imposed for the annual Christmas market.

It was the increase in heavy traffic through Bourne that moved the market off the streets in December 1999 to an enclosed and paved area behind the town hall and it has proved to be a resounding success although the concentration of stalls in a central area appears to some to be a smaller number of traders, which is not borne out by the weekly figures. By all means we should remember the old days and a picture postcard idea of a street market does have a nostalgic appeal but it would be quite impractical today and the town council has made the right decision to drop the idea of stalls on the streets which should remain the stuff of memory.

Accounts of pleasurable pursuits in past times are a reminder of the fast pace we live today, not least for our entertainment, and perhaps we have lost that penchant for relaxation so enjoyed by our ancestors. A summer outing in Bourne more than 100 years ago was reported by the Stamford Mercury on Friday 17th August 1888 and it sounds a delightful way of spending the afternoon in pleasurable company in a manner that may have passed us by:

The members of the Bourne Mutual Improvement Society and their friends, about 60 people in all, held a picnic in Bourne Wood on Friday. Permission having been obtained from the owner, the site selected was a pretty opening in the Blind Well riding near Cawthorpe. The weather was delightful. About five o’clock, the company partook of tea al fresco. Various amusements were indulged in until eight o’clock when refreshments were again served, and a hearty vote of thanks to the ladies and gentlemen who had so successfully carried out the arrangements was proposed by the Rev John Woollerton [minister at the Methodist Church in Abbey Road], president, and carried unanimously. The picnic was the outcome of a general desire among the Bourne Mutual to have a friendly gathering before their able and genial president leaves the neighbourhood. Heartfelt hopes were expressed for his new appointment at Market Rasen.

Thought for the week: Despite having a job, the struggle to pay council tax is part of the day-to-day difficulty of making ends meet for many people with more than two million households experiencing problems. - report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Thursday 28th September 2006.

Return to Monthly entries