Bourne Diary - October 2006

Saturday 7^th October 2006

There is hope that the Chamber of Trade will survive after all despite warnings from the chairman, Gordon Cochran, of a shortage of willing hands for ready work, leaving the few to arrange events year after year. Some members, he said, did not even bother to turn up for meetings and unless the situation improved there was a distinct possibility that the organisation would close down.

Mr Cochran has shown boundless enthusiasm since he was elected last year and so he decided to give it one last chance by calling a crisis meeting in an attempt to stem the apathy and avert the inevitable. Forty people turned up and the discussion was so lively that closure has been put on hold. “I was quite pleased with the response”, he said. “I wanted to address the future of Bourne and how we could make improvements and there was 100 per cent support for this sentiment.”

The result was a brainstorming session on important issues facing Bourne with parking high on the agenda. The late night Christmas shopping event held every year in early December has also been saved, which is welcome news because this has become an extremely popular social as well as commercial occasion, and other innovations are being considered such as a summer gala weekend. It is therefore hoped that the renewed vigour evident at the meeting is maintained and that one of Bourne’s most important organisations will not founder on the rocks of indifference.

Voluntary work is the mainstay of any community and without it, society itself would be the poorer. The government provides only the basic structures for living and the rest is up to us and so the person of altruistic motives who offers his services for purely humanitarian and charitable causes enhances not only his own self-esteem but also the organisation with which he becomes associated. The work of the volunteer therefore is the difference between a basic and a sophisticated society, making life more pleasant and amenable for those around him.

Many of the country’s community projects are run by volunteers, men and women who selflessly give their time and often money running clubs and organisations, helping the sick, the elderly and disabled, or merely popping in next door in time of need, all tasks motivated by a love of our fellow man and carried out without thought of reward. Their work is particularly valuable in those activities involving our young people, the scouts and the guides, the youth clubs and junior soccer teams, the parent-teacher committees and a host of others that have become interwoven into the fabric of our lives yet we tend to take them for granted. There are many fine examples of this altruistic work in Bourne with the Outdoor Swimming Pool and the Heritage Centre, both of which exist purely through the work of volunteers, but there are many other organisations that would collapse without selfless service, as we have seen with the Chamber of Trade.

A head count of all volunteers in the town at the moment would reveal that they are predominantly older rather than younger, many of them retired, but few youngsters, especially teenagers, are among their ranks. I am not apportioning blame for this, merely pointing out the way it is. Young people are on record as saying that they are bored and that there is nothing to do in Bourne but an evening or two, and perhaps the odd weekend, of voluntary work with one of our many projects would provide them with the challenge they were looking for if only they were prepared to give it a try. They only have to go along and ask and they would be welcomed with open arms.

Among the unsung heroes of voluntary work in our town are Alison Pettitt and her husband Phillip, who is verger at the Abbey Church. They both put in many hours of hard work for the Children’s Society of which he is the local secretary but Alison has another role, perhaps inspired by the parable of the feeding of the five thousand. Earlier this year she cooked a Sunday lunch of roast beef and apple crumble for 65 people in the church hall, each paying £7.50 a head which went to boost the funds of their favourite charity by £350.

Spurred on by the success of this event, Alison has decided to give up her Christmas Day this year to do a little more cooking, this time a traditional festive dinner for anyone who cares to go along. There are many in this town who live alone and although Alison has an extended family of her own, she is prepared to spend her time giving others who have no immediate relatives the chance to share some festive cheer in good company on this special day. Earlier this year, she was deeply touched while talking to an elderly lady in the town who was dreading the prospect of spending Christmas on her own without seeing anyone and it was this conversation that decided her to make it an event for all those who were in similar circumstances.

The dinner will consist of roast turkey, sausages and bacon rolls, roast and creamed potatoes, selected vegetables including of course Brussels sprouts, followed by plum pudding and mince pies which will be cooked by a parishioner. Another has promised to supply the wine and other offers of items to make the event a success are still coming in.

Alison expects at least thirty people to be there although she is prepared for fifty and the cost has been fixed at £7.50. “Everyone will be welcome“, she said. “If we turn even one person away then the whole object of the exercise will be defeated.”

What the local newspapers are saying: Protestor Brynley Heaven will not be prosecuted after all for removing the micro-chips from his wheelie bins. He told The Local that South Kesteven District Council had climbed down and had sent him a letter saying that he would not be prosecuted which could have landed him with a £1,000 fine (October 6th).“They have decided not to refer this to the police”, he said. “They are all mouth and no trousers”.

The protest however may have cost him his refuse collection because the dustmen refused to empty the wheelie bin from outside his home at Aslackby, near Bourne, this week and he is considering legal action if the authority continues to do so in the future. This would appear to be the beginning of a fresh argument because SKDC can hardly expect payment of the council tax when they are not delivering the promised services and a legal ruling on this would most certainly go against the council, and quite rightly so.

Meanwhile, the wheelie bin controversy has rumbled on all week and has been one of the main subjects of gossip in the shops, streets and at the Thursday market. Mr Heaven appears to have almost complete public support but it takes courage to be a rebel and so they are thin on the ground. The people largely do what they are told, as demonstrated by the black wheelie bins lined up along the streets in Bourne like soldiers on parade as the first collections got underway yesterday although the odd householder, for unknown reasons, left out black plastic bags which were not collected either but then they were warned.

Radio and television programmes have also been discussing the issue with SKDC continuing to insist that the use of micro-chips was fully debated by council and public even though the subject did not surface until the protests began. In addition, a senior district councillor I talked to knew nothing about them and there was no mention of them either in the information pack and letters sent out by the council to 55,000 homes in the district. Paul Bettison, chairman of the Local Government Association's Environment Board, hit the nail on the head when interviewed on Wednesday evening for the BBC TV programme Real Story on the introduction of pay-by-weight wheelie bins. “Any council that has issued chipped bins and has not informed their residents I would say has scored something of an own goal“, he said. “We need to work with the public and it is sad that seemingly some councils did not.”

The planning application to build 121 new homes on the old railway station site in South Street has still not been resolved and although the scheme was rejected in April, the owners, Wherry and Sons Ltd, the old established family firm of seed merchants, is persisting with a second application that is having a tortuous life, having been held up three times without a decision. The Stamford Mercury reports that the latest setback concerns the visual impact such a large development would have on the Red Hall, the Grade II listed 17th century mansion which stands nearby and is likely to be overshadowed by an estate of new homes (October 6th). English Heritage, the official government agency which looks after our historic buildings, has been asked to report on the effect that a housing estate would have on the appearance and setting of the hall and until then, South Kesteven District Council is delaying a decision but town councillor Guy Cudmore echoed the majority view when he told the newspaper: “The effect on the Red Hall would be disastrous. The tranquillity and ambience of this spot would be destroyed by a block of flats which would overlook the building.”

Despite the hiatus over the town centre rebuilding project, one businessman is pressing ahead with plans to improve his shop although it stands within the core development area and could be swallowed up by it. The Local reports that Jessie Bellamy, the ladies’ and gentlemen’s outfitters in North Street owned by Richard Simpson, has applied for planning permission for a new shop front design which was approved by the town council on Tuesday (October 6th). There were no objections and Councillor Trevor Holmes remarked: “Someone has got confidence in the future of Bourne.”

Our applefest continues and although the garden does not contain a single fruit tree, neighbours and friends regularly drop off their unwanted apples from this bounteous season, providing at least four sources of supply. We have tried apple in all of its forms, pie, baked, cobbler, mousse and pureed, but crumble is best, a most wonderful dish that we eat with fresh cream at any time of the day, even at breakfast. My wife has brought it to such perfection that I have suggested she deserves immortality and this could be her epitaph with an inscription on her tombstone saying: “Her apple crumble was second to none” with a tag line underneath advising visitors that they may pick up a recipe at the cemetery lodge when leaving.

Thought for the week: An apple a day keeps the doctor away. - an old English proverb.

Saturday 14^th October 2006

Quietly, and without any public announcement, the town council has pulled down a 30 foot section of an ancient wall in the town cemetery and filled the gap with five sections of garish wooden trellis. This is a most unsatisfactory action, perhaps even vandalism, because the wall is more than 150 years old and would probably be a candidate for Grade II listing were a survey be carried out today by English Heritage.

The demolition was ordered because a sycamore growing nearby has spread its roots and branches, so threatening its stability but instead of felling the tree and planting a replacement in a suitable spot nearby, which was the obvious solution, councillors voted to sacrifice part of this ancient brickwork.

It was not a necessary decision because the tree could easily have been felled but councillors were deterred by the fact that it was protected by a Tree Preservation Order yet a little investigation would have revealed that this was a small obstacle to be overcome. TPOs, as they are known, are merely a guide to the law and good practice and are not written in stone. They may be rescinded in the same way that they are imposed, in the interests of the public, nature conservation and care for the environment. But this course of action was dismissed and instead, councillors recommended that the threatened section of the wall should be removed and the resulting bricks used to build supporting pillars and then a trellis with climbing plants be erected to fill the gap which would serve the dual purpose of looking attractive and stopping people walking through it.

The wall dates back to 1855, a fine example of Victorian craftsmanship, and was built as part of the deal involving the four acres of land purchased by the Bourne Burial Board for use as a new cemetery for £420 from local landowner, Sir Philip Pauncefort Duncombe. He imposed a condition of the sale that the board would erect "a good and substantial wall" round the three sides of the cemetery which were contiguous to other land owned by him and he stipulated that "such wall to be of the height of five feet above the level of the ground, and of a strength in proportion thereto, to the satisfaction of the said Sir Philip Pauncefort Duncombe, his heirs and assigns".

It was sturdily built of red brick and still stands today, having weathered the passing years, and it is mainly in good condition despite frequent incursions by marauding children. The transaction of 1855 was a legal one and demolition of even part of it might be deemed to be unlawful. As it is, the deed is done but not forgotten because it will be recorded in the annals of this town to be read long after those responsible have gone.

Their decision does not auger well for the future of the Victorian chapel, built to coincide with the opening of the cemetery but allowed to deteriorate in recent years through continual neglect. The bill for putting the building back in good order is regarded by the town council to be far too high and although financial expediency is not a comfortable bedfellow with preservation, it is once again on the cards that councillors may well adopt a policy of out of sight, out of mind and vote for its demolition (if they have not already done so) and the resulting rubble of stone and slate sold for scrap to offset the cost. Similar ill advised decisions by councillors in the past, notably several moves to pull down the Red Hall, have been found to be imperfect and history will again judge those now being made by town councillors in our name.

One of the main suspicions about the waste recycling programme currently being introduced by South Kesteven District Council is that this material would end up in landfill sites as in the past because the authority has never fully explained its intentions. All is now revealed by the Stamford Mercury that has given us a complete run down of what will happen after our paper, bottles and plastics have been collected each fortnight from our silver wheelie bins (October 6th).

Their report says that this waste will go to the processing plant at Caythorpe, near Grantham, run by Mid UK Recycling Limited, one of the leading partners for waste management services in the East Midlands, composting, materials recovery and recycling facilities. Here, 15 tonnes are sorted every hour, the capacity of just over two council collection lorries. Paper, cardboard, plastics, cans, aerosols, glass and textiles are sorted along 22 conveyors operating at 180 metres a minute. Magnets separate steel cans from aluminium cans and infra-red sorters scan for polymers found in plastics, identify the items and eject them and the sorted waste is then packed into bales and sent for recycling. The Caythorpe plant can deal with waste from 100,000 households a week (South Kesteven has 55,000 of them) and will process 20 to 25 million plastic bottles and two million cans a year.

After a fortnight of operation, is it now evident that we have been throwing away too much waste that could be recycled and the council’s target of increasing the quantity from the current figure of 26% to 50% by 2008 should be achieved much sooner than expected. The black bin which was emptied after one week was less than quarter full while the silver bin was filled to capacity after a fortnight and at the present rate, additional material will obviously have to be put out on collection day in clear or white carrier bags, cardboard or plastic boxes, in accordance with the council guidelines, until the frequency of emptying is increased.

What the local newspapers are saying: The wind turbines in the fens near Bourne featured in my last Picture of the Week may be having an unintentional effect on one of our garden pests, the moles that burrow underneath the lawn and leave large piles of earth around the place. A report in the Lincolnshire Free Press says that Julian and Jane Davis who live nearby at Tongue End think that the tiny creatures that have plagued their garden for the past 25 years have disappeared this summer and they think the reason may be the operation of the giant propellers that began in June (October 10th). Jane told the newspaper that the use of low frequency vibrations was a well known remedy for deterring moles and those from the turbines may well have done the trick. “It is quite nice to be able to mow a flat lawn free of molehills for once”, she said.

The turbine owners, however, have a less fanciful reason for the disappearance of the garden pests. Trevor Gait, operations manager for Fenland Wind Farms, said: “We have never heard of this before but we have asked around and people who normally have moles reckon that once the hard ground of the summer has softened up, they will be back.”

Disenchantment with Henry Davidson Developers, dismissed in August from their role in redesigning the town centre at Bourne, appears to be complete for South Kesteven District Council which is now about to drop the firm from a second major project, the commercial site in South Road. It is planned to build a petrol station, public house, drive through restaurant and hotel on the three acres of land opposite Elsea Park and although a deal was struck with Henry Davidson last October, The Local now reveals that contracts have not yet been exchanged and the council’s cabinet has lost patience over the lengthy negotiations and voted to break off talks altogether (October 13th). This will mean starting this scheme all over again and involve a reassessment of the site which will now have an increased value before putting it back on the market but this time with a condition that the sale must be completed within a set time scale. One faulty agreement may be a genuine mistake but two will be seen by many as being positively careless and no doubt the council will be taking particular care over their choice of developer for the project next time round.

Anyone who still has doubts about the success of our weekly market at its off-street location behind the Town Hall should have made a visit on Thursday this week, one of the busiest of the year when 26 stalls were operating. Perhaps weather makes a difference, because it was a fine and sunny day, but it was a pleasure to shop there and to stop and talk to familiar faces which is part of the attraction.

A bench seat has also been installed in the middle of the market for anyone who wants to rest their feet, a most welcome innovation because many of those who flock here each week are getting on in years. This large number of oldies is also evident in overheard conversations which tend to refer to doctors and hospitals and by taking a slow walk through the stalls you are likely to eavesdrop unintentionally on a variety of geriatric ailments ranging from arrhythmia and arthritis to knee and hip replacements as well as some alarming experiences at clinic and hospital.

This gathering of pensioners has also resulted in an increasing number of battery cars, their owners propelled slowly from stall to stall, filling the front baskets with their wares as they progress. These small, electrically powered vehicles have become very popular in recent years and may be bought for under £500, a much cheaper alternative to the motor car as I heard one driver telling a stallholder on Thursday.

There are obviously many more potential buyers about because one of the stalls is now rented by Cherry Holt Mobility of Bourne which stocks them and there are already so many of them in use around the town that a small group of owners, which we have fondly called the Battery Car Club, gathers each day in the Burghley Centre outside Budgens supermarket for friendship and conversation under the unofficial chairmanship of Jack Wand MBE, one of our local prominent businessmen, now retired. These old lads have become such a familiar part of the scene every morning that I am surprised one of our local newspapers has not yet found time to interview the intrepid band of Bourne’s senior citizens who have embraced the new technology of electronic transport rather than remain inactive and perhaps even housebound.

Thought for the week: People must not do things for fun. We are not here for fun. There is no reference to fun in any Act of Parliament. - A P (Sir Alan Patrick) Herbert, Member of Parliament, writer and politician (1890-1971).

Saturday 21^st October 2006

Wheelie bins awaiting collection in Mill Drove yesterday
- see "It has now become evident . . . "

For the past four years, town councillors have been wrestling with the problem of how to improve access for the disabled to their meetings in the courtroom on the first floor of the Town Hall and although the solution is obvious, they have not yet grasped the nettle.

It is a pity that such a serious decision needs to be taken to accommodate inconveniences experienced by the very few but that is the way it is in this age of political correctness. The council has an obligation to meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 in order that anyone who is physically impaired may attend. Since the problem surfaced in November 2002, the council has considered a number of solutions, namely (1) having staff on duty to carry people in wheelchairs up and down the stairs, (2) leaving them downstairs and relaying messages backwards and forwards during meetings, (3) installing a two-way speaker system between the meeting rooms and the bottom of the stairs, and (4) moving meetings to a new and more suitable location.

In the intervening years there have been major changes in the town but progress on this point has not proceeded further than the talking shop, a familiar hazard in those organisations where rhetoric often takes precedence over ideas. Now South Kesteven District Council has given an ultimatum that a solution must be found within six months.

The answer is quite plainly a lift and there are three options, all involving some scale of expenditure but in the long run this will not be as costly as moving council meetings to another venue every week. The choices are (1) an Otis type elevator from the front office, (2) a similar unit added at the outside of the building at the back or (3) a more modest Stannah type fitting on the stairs at the rear entrance, although this may involve some structural alteration to meet the health and safety legislative requirements. If councillors have any doubt of the effectiveness of this last choice then they need only pop down the road and see what the parish council has done at the Town Hall in Market Deeping.

Bourne Town Hall was built by public subscription in 1821 but by some bureaucratic sleight of hand the building is now owned by Lincolnshire County Council, even though it is morally the property of the town. It is leased to South Kesteven District Council who in turn lease it for a peppercorn rent for use as a magistrates' court, council chamber and offices and so the town council could quite rightly seek financial assistance from both to help defray the costs.

There has been a suggestion that meetings should be moved to some other location with suitable access for the disabled, Wake House for instance, the Corn Exchange or even the bungalow it owns at the cemetery entrance in South Road, but all of these venues would be both impractical and inconvenient and leave a much loved public building largely unused.

There may be difficulties in installing a lift but it does not take fifteen town councillors to change a light bulb and it should not be beyond their capabilities to sort out this problem rather than allow it is drift because of further procrastination, a course of inaction that could well lead to drastic consequences as we are seeing with the Victorian chapel in the cemetery which is likely to be demolished because of continued indecision and subsequent neglect.

When coming to a final decision, as soon they must, it should be remembered that the Town Hall is a treasured building and the council’s chosen and accepted habitat, the focal point of the community and its administration, and any other venue will demean its authority. That is the way it was in the past and we look to our councillors to ensure that it will remain so in the future.

It has now become evident that South Kesteven District Council has got it wrong over the installation of microchips in our wheelie bins, a decision taken in secret by the inner cabinet without resort to a discussion in full council or appropriate consultation with the people. Stephen Bates, who advises local authorities on environmental policies, is telling those who have fitted them to remove the devices free of charge to head off a householder revolt that is already evident in Bourne through the actions of Mr Brynley Heaven who sent his back to the council only to be punished by a boycott of his refuse collections.

Mr Heaven’s suggestion that they are a prelude to a system of pay-by-weight has now been justified because Mr Bates says that the secretive introduction of tracking devices and fortnightly collections has created a general tide of suspicion, mistrust and disdain and of bringing in a charging system for recyclable waste through the back door.

The public animosity engendered by the scheme will be highlighted when Mr Bates addresses a seminar in Sheffield next month organised by the Chartered Institution of Waste Management which will no doubt be attended by our experts from SKDC. In the meantime, his thoughts on the subject are being formulated. “Recycling has become so bogged down in procedure and a culture of box ticking that the core reason of environmental protection has been lost”, he said. “This leads to a perception of arrogance although a good way to build trust is to offer residents the option of having the chips removed from their bins. This may be seen as a high risk strategy by the council but providing residents are fully informed as to why they are there in the first place, there is a fair chance of them accepting their presence.”

SKDC made no announcement about the fitting of the microchips until forced into issuing a statement by media pressure. Apart from the inner cabinet of six councillors, appointed but not elected, and which has executive powers, the other 50 members were not informed and neither were householders.

There has been some disquiet about the cabinet and leader system since it was introduced by South Kesteven District Council in October 2001, not least among the non-executive councillors themselves who feel alienated from the decision making process. Even those select half a dozen members who have been given portfolios have misgivings because they are invariably blamed whenever unpopular decisions are made, as with the debacle over wheelie bin microchips. Under the previous committee system which had operated since the council's inception in 1974, all councillors were able to have their say on issues that directly affected the wards they represent but now decisions are often made without their knowledge even though they may have first hand experience of the subject in hand. Some feel that the arrangement distances the local government process from the people and at least one senior councillor has become so disenchanted with the current system of cabinet rule that he does not intend to stand for re-election in May.

What the local newspapers are saying: Wheelie bins continue to make the headlines and a letter to the Lincolnshire Free Press reveals yet another anomaly in the recycling policy declarations from South Kesteven District Council in which “Disillusioned ratepayer” of Deeping St James, near Bourne, challenges the assertion in the media by the chief executive, Duncan Kerr, that the microchips are not spies (October 17th). “Conversely, he claims that those of us who abide by their rules will be rewarded”, he writes. “It would be interesting to hear how that latter can happen unless the former is possible.”

Meanwhile, another resident of Deeping St James, John Ozimek, has also challenged the council claiming that data protection laws have been broken by the installation of the microchips. Mr Ozimek, aged 49, has some experience of the subject because he is a business consultant who spent five years working as a data protection officer. He told The Local newspaper that the bugs are an invasion of privacy because they are capable of collecting personal information from individual households and he has asked the Information Commissioner’s Office which polices data protection laws to investigate (October 20th). SKDC denies that it is breaking any laws and so the outcome is awaited with some interest.

Two stories about law enforcement are carried by the Stamford Mercury which indicate that there is need for more vigilance in the streets and public places to curb the activities of petty criminals (October 20th). Eleven new community police officers are being recruited to serve Bourne to supplement the current incident response patrols and the additional cover is welcomed at a time when the population is increasing and there are problems with vandalism and parking. There is particular concern at the Abbey Lawn which is still plagued by acts of criminal damage to the various sports facilities and the newspaper also suggests that part of the grounds may be fenced off as a result.

Enclosing large areas of a public space is not the answer to the problem which would be better tackled by increasing police patrols, especially at night and at weekends, and the installation of closed circuit television cameras, a security necessity that is the responsibility of the owners, Bourne United Charities, to protect the property of their tenants. The Abbey Lawn Action Committee is currently considering the problem that has been with us for several years and if it is to safeguard the future of the site and the six sports clubs that use it then the members must press the landlord to provide this much needed security and financed with the funds the organisation has at its disposal for the benefit of the town.

On Saturday morning, we joined one of the biggest gatherings of oldies this year for our annual flu jab at the Hereward Group Practice clinic in Exeter Street and despite the large number in attendance, it was a swift and simple process and it was also free.

Flu jabs are one of the benefits of the National Health Service, especially for our senior citizens who are at risk if they contract this highly infectious disease that occurs mainly during the winter months and unlike the common cold, its onset is usually sudden and tends to lay one low, with symptoms such as fever, chills, headache, aching muscles and a general feeling of malaise, often with a cough or sore throat into the bargain.

This was the second Saturday walk-in session at the clinic, 500 jabs being administered the previous week between 9 am and 2 pm and around 700 on Saturday, and there will be further sessions in November when more supplies of vaccine arrive. In addition, nurses visit old people’s homes in the district and by the time the service ends for 2006, the Hereward practice expects to have treated some 2,000 men and women.

There is, however, a resistance to this valuable safeguard by some people who prefer to believe in medical myths rather than trusted professional advice. We were talking to an elderly lady in Sainsburys before our visit on Saturday and she was quite determined not to go on the grounds that the injection resulted in a bad dose of infection to help build up resistance to the flu virus and may have made her ill but this is well known urban folklore with no basis in fact and anyone of 65 and over should be vaccinated or risk the consequences. If in doubt, have a chat with your doctor but his advice will almost certainly be to have the jab unless you are prone to certain allergies or are pregnant, a most unlikely eventuality if you are an old age pensioner.

The injection protects against flu for a year but the annual jab may soon be a thing of the past. Scientists are already working on a one-off vaccine whose effects will be permanent and once again we anticipate that eventually this will be one of the benefits of our much maligned National Health Service.

Thought for the week: Michael Reeves, 28, a journalist from Swansea, who was fined £200 for contravening council rules by “contaminating” a recycling sack for bottles with an item of junk mail, has now stopped recycling his rubbish and fears that the case will also discourage others. - news item from BBC Online, Tuesday 17th October 2006.

Saturday 28^th October 2006

Carlby bridge - photo courtesy Stamford Mercury

Relics of the steam age can be found in many places around the country and as Bourne was an important railway centre for more than 100 years, disused stations, bridges, viaducts and sidings remain as a reminder of the popularity of this form of transport for passengers and freight.

Among them is the road bridge over the disused line between Carlby and Greatford, four miles south west of Bourne, built in 1859 as part of the new rail link with Essendine, so connecting with the main east coast line between London and the north.

Bourne station was then located next to the Red Hall and the line ran through Thurlby, Wilshorpe Halt, Braceborough Spa and on to Essendine, all villages which retain distinctive remains of the railway age such as red brick station houses, concrete platforms and whitewashed gatekeepers’ cottages.

The Bourne and Essendine Railway Company was founded to build the line in 1857, headed by such distinguished people as the wealthy landowner John Lely Ostler and the vicar, the Rev Joseph Dodsworth, who between them provided the £48,000 share capital needed to finance the project. A total of 54 acres of land was bought for the track which was to run for a distance of 6¼ miles with no major embanking or cutting work required and when the parliamentary bill for its construction was finally approved by the House of Lords in July that year, the bells of the Abbey Church were rung in celebration and it was announced that work would begin immediately the harvest had been completed when sufficient local labour would be available.

Consignments of bricks and sleepers began arriving before Christmas and were stored at various sites along the route and orders were placed for the iron rails. Mr Charles Eldred of Bourne was appointed contractor but there were delays in raising all of the required capital and work did not actually begin until the middle of 1858 with a prediction that it would be completed in 12 months. But this was an optimistic assessment and it was not until February 1860 that the first train steamed into Bourne station although this was an experimental run by engineers but a sufficient cause for celebration because Mr Dodsworth with his wife, daughter and guests, made an uncomfortable journey on the footplate to Essendine and back, reaching speeds of 40 mph at some points along the route.

A formal check by a government inspector was still required and the vital certificate allowing passengers to be carried did not arrive for several more weeks but services eventually began at 9 am on Wednesday 16th May.

Trains continued to use the line for the next ninety years but by the mid-20th century, rail travel had begun to decline with fewer passengers and less freight and in April 1951, despite objections from Bourne Urban District Council, closure plans were announced. The last train was the 8.51 pm from Essendine to Bourne on Saturday 16th June, packed to capacity with passengers standing shoulder to shoulder, children hanging out of the windows, streamers and flags flying bravely and exploding detonators placed on the line by railway workers sounding the death knell all the way from Essendine to Carlby bridge.

Within weeks, contractors moved in to start dismantling the line and its ancillary buildings and fittings, the sidings in Thurlby station yard being the first to go followed by all redundant stores down to the last sweeping brush and signal lamp. Sections of the now disused track bed were sold off to local farmers and soon the line was little more than a memory.

The Victorian two-arch bridge over the road between Carlby and Greatford is one of the remaining railway relics along the line but there is little indication that the railway ever ran there and sections of the cutting on either side have been used as a rubbish tip. But that too is now doomed.

The bridge has been condemned as unsafe and the hump it created in the roadway a danger to traffic and despite protests from the two parish councils which wanted it preserved as part of our industrial heritage, it is to be demolished later this year. All objections have been overruled by South Kesteven District Council’s planning committee and the British Railways Board which owns it has been given permission to remove it because further maintenance would be uneconomical and so the road at this point will be levelled and the embankment beneath filled in. “We cannot simply maintain structures of this type when they are no longer in use by rail traffic”, said a spokesman.

The decision has angered residents in both villages and has been condemned as an indication of how little power the parish councils now command. South Kesteven district councillor Elizabeth Channell (Independent, Hillsides) who is not a member of the planning committee but lives at Greatford, told the Stamford Mercury: “We are appalled by this decision because our voice has been ignored.” (Friday 6th October 2006). There are also fears that the narrow road, which is already unsuitable for heavy traffic and deemed to be sub standard, will be sufficiently improved by the removal of the bridge hump to encourage increased use and speed at a time when both should be restricted.

What the local newspapers are saying: South Kesteven District Council continues to adopt a nanny approach to its new recycling initiative by advising home owners during the coming festive season to buy less food and fewer presents, not to send Christmas cards and to make other economies in those areas that might generate excess waste and fill the silver wheelie bin too soon. The warning comes in the Grantham Journal which also reveals that there will be no additional collections over the Christmas and New Year holiday (October 20th). Dawn Temple, the sustainable waste management policy officer, told the newspaper that the council was not taking a “Bah, humbug” stance about merrymaking and partying but they did not want to be faced with mountains of discarded food and other materials. “Every year, refuse collectors see their loads doubled as a result of extra packaging, wrapping, Christmas trees, decorations, cards and uneaten meals”, she said. “We are trying to give people food for thought but having an environmentally friendly holiday does not mean you have to be a miser.”

Reading this report, many people will have misgivings about the evident changing role of our local authorities which appear to be intent in influencing the way we live our lives rather than concentrating on their primary role of delivering public services that are being reduced year after year while the burden of their financial muscle is shifted in favour of a higher paid and expanding bureaucracy.

Ms Temple also has coverage in the Lincolnshire Free Press which prints her letter (October 24th) insisting that fitting the now notorious microchips into the wheelie bins is not spying, as suggested the previous week by “Disillusioned ratepayer” of Deeping St James, near Bourne, but monitoring, specifically checking the weight of rubbish, and indeed this explanation would be acceptable had it been given in the first place. But it was not and the presence of the bin bugs was only admitted after media pressure when a resident found them and returned them and even then they were described by officials as little more than a serial number or bar code. If the council had been open about its intentions from the start, these protests would have been groundless.

It is with some regret that our medical and emergency services only seek essential changes in the wake of tragedy and such is the case with the 999 ambulance cover for Bourne that is to have community paramedics on backup standby. Both The Local and the Stamford Mercury report the improvement to be implemented by East Midlands Ambulance Service after the tragic death of a 12-year-old boy following a severe asthma attack at the family home which resulted in his mother complaining that although a fire service responder crew arrived promptly, the ambulance took 21 minutes to reach them when it should have been sent straight away (October 27th).

She took the case up with our local M P, Mr Quentin Davies, and following a meeting this week with him and representatives of the ambulance service, the additional cover has been promised within six months. The use of community paramedics will allow more patients to be treated at home, thus avoiding unnecessary admissions to hospital, but Mr Davies has warned that they will not necessarily be available on a 24-hour basis and that further talks will be needed on this issue.

Coincidentally, the Stamford Mercury reports this week on the ruling of a High Court judge that in future, Lincolnshire firemen will not be forced to attend medical emergencies before the ambulance arrives because it is not part of their contract (October 27th). The case was brought by the Fire Brigades Union and the judgment means that the men at Bourne fire station will not be forced to join the co-responder scheme which will remain optional rather than compulsory as was envisaged by fire chiefs.

A curious case of damage to shop property is also reported by both newspapers which tell the story of a car that was in collision with La Fontana Italian restaurant in North Street on Friday night while people were inside dining. Armed police arrived after reports that the driver had a gun and a man was arrested and interviewed through interpreters but was later released after being cautioned. Chief Inspector Ian Gorst told The Local that firearms officers were stood down once it was established that no gun was involved but at the time of the incident there was sufficient evidence to arrest the man on suspicion of deliberately damaging the front of the premises. He added: “Further inquiries revealed that the man involved had actually been trying to reverse out of a difficult car parking space when he drove into the restaurant front.” The manager, Paulo Esposito, was equally sympathetic and did not want to make a complaint against the man as he did not believe it was a deliberate act. “It was an accident”, he said. “The driver lost control and came through the window.”

An odd occurrence indeed especially as there are no parking spaces on that side of North Street where the kerbside is restricted by double yellow lines.

A contributor to the Bourne Forum has suggested that the worst road in the town is that short stretch between Manning Road and Pinfold Road that motorists use regularly to access the town’s waste recycling centre. The amenity opened in October 2002 after a wait of 26 years but it soon became clear that this access to the site was not up to standard and had a number of large and dangerous potholes.

Unfortunately, this short stretch of road is what is known as unadopted in that it was laid by private developers when the surrounding commercial estate was built some thirty years ago but never formally handed over to the highways authority, in this case Lincolnshire County Council, which now refuses to accept any responsibility for it. There was some media coverage when the waste depot was opened four years ago, mainly from this column and later from the Stamford Mercury which voiced local fears that the hazardous surface was quite likely to cause accidents when unsuspecting drivers began using the route in large numbers as the depot's operation got underway (Friday 27th September 2002).

The criticism resulted in some temporary work being done to alleviate the problem, although it was never reported as to who exactly carried it out, and it now appears that the potholes are back with a vengeance as one contributor to the Bourne Forum pointed out on Wednesday because he wrote: “I have just driven the link road between Manning Road and Pinfold Road. Some roads have potholes. Some roads have cracks. Some roads have worn surfaces. This road takes the prize. Craters in the moon? Bah! Wait until you see this road. The potholes have all joined together in a friendship club.”

The recycling centre is the responsibility of LCC as are all of the roads in this town and, unadopted or not, if householders driving there to dump rubbish continually use it then the answer is to fill in the potholes and although my first hand experience of road mending is limited, even the layman can see that this is a relatively short and simple task for a couple of men with a lorry load of tarmac, otherwise we have the continuing prospect of a very nasty accident.

Thought for the week: Lincolnshire police force has been ranked as one of the worst performing constabularies in the country in figures released by the Home Office this week. The report, which assesses performance for the year up to March 31st, puts Lincolnshire fourth from the bottom, receiving two “good” grades, three “fair” and two “poor”. - news report from the Stamford Herald and Post, Friday 27th October 2006.

Return to Monthly entries