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Saturday 1st March 2008
Browning Court from Hereward Street - see "The high density
housing . . . "
The earthquake in the early hours of Wednesday morning
was a reminder of the feeble grasp we have on events for although this was a
minor occurrence in the litany of geological disasters, it served as a warning
that nature can have a far more devastating effect on our lives than anything
man can inflict.
Perhaps the most frightening aspect of the experience was the complete lack of
control we had over the situation, unable to prevent it happening or predict the
outcome. But it did illustrate our herd instinct when faced with calamity
because in some areas people rushed out into the street to be with neighbours
and share their fears and anxieties while others telephoned relatives and
friends for reassurance.
Unexpected occurrences, especially at night, catch us off guard and we are
unable to react as calmly as we would otherwise do. This seismic shock,
therefore, sent us off around the house checking that all was well, that cracks
had not appeared in the walls or that gas and water had started to leak from
fractured pipes. At the same time, the reality of the disastrous earthquakes in
Japan and Pakistan that have made headline news in recent years suddenly took on
a new meaning and we were humbled by being so concerned at such a slight tremor.
As it turned out, this was the biggest earthquake in England for a quarter of a
century which had shaken homes across many areas but as the British Geological
Survey recorded a magnitude of 5.3 on the Richter scale with an epicentre at
Market Rasen in Lincolnshire, only forty miles away, the effects were quite
evident here in Bourne although little or no harm was done except to our sense
of security and well-being, a widespread symptom which prompted more than 200
distress calls to the county police force.
We were woken around 1 am by a loud rushing noise as though an express train
were thundering past the front window, followed by the walls shuddering,
pictures and ornaments vibrating, and were overcome by the unreality of the
situation which I had not experienced since the bombing raids during World War
Two, but we were unscathed by the experience. Elsewhere in the region, houses
were damaged by cracks and collapsed chimneys and one man was taken to hospital
with leg injuries when brickwork fell through the roof into his bedroom.
When daylight came, we shrugged off the events of the night and laughed
nervously at even being concerned that it had happened, yet anxiously scanning
the news bulletins to find mention of a possible recurrence but happily, we were
told that it was unlikely to happen again for another 25 years, the last major
tremor occurring in 1984 with a magnitude of 5.4 which was also felt here in
Bourne.
In fact, earthquakes are relatively rare in this area although there have been
at least four in past times, two of them serious. The first recorded tremor
occurred soon after midday on Sunday 30th September 1750 and the shock was so
severe that it was felt not only in Bourne and the surrounding area, but also
across the county borders in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.
John Moore, the historian, wrote in his Collections of the Hundred of Aveland in
1809: "The houses tottered, plates and glasses fell from the shelves, and
slates, tiles and some chimneys fell from the houses; but happily, no great
mischief was done. In some churches where services were not over, the people ran
from their devotions in the utmost consternation. The shock was attended with a
rumbling noise." Elsewhere in the town, people who were preparing their Sunday
dinners rushed into the streets believing that they were about to be swallowed
up.
The second tremor occurred on 24th February 1792 and was felt in Bourne
and neighbouring villages but again there was no serious damage. There was a
third tremor in 1896 but this was less severe. The Stamford Mercury
reported on Friday 25th December: "A slight shock of earthquake was felt in
Bourne about half past five on Thursday morning. Many townspeople noticed the
earth tremor and in Bourne Fen, the shock was distinctly felt, several people
being awakened by the rocking of their beds."
A fourth tremor occurred on Friday 14th January 1916 which the Stamford
Mercury described as "a seismic disturbance". Their report said: "For some
seconds, a very distinct shock was felt as windows rattled violently and
furniture and crockery rocked in many homes. At Rippingale, chairs and tables
were moved, pots and pans on shelves danced, doors were opened. In Bourne,
members of the Volunteer Training Corps were in the Congregational schoolroom
for shooting practice when a lamp suspended from an iron rod near the ceiling
danced as though the rod had been shaken. There was also a rumbling noise which
was heard by several people. Youngsters in bed complained of having their beds
moved. Happily, the disturbance was a very mild one and no personal or material
damage was caused."
Earthquakes, therefore, remain occasional disturbances in our lives, along with
thunderstorms, gales and heat waves, which always bear witness to a force far
greater than anything we can control and may become manifest at any time and
without warning and it is there beneath our feet, something we call Mother
Earth.
The high density housing development likely to go ahead for the laundry
site at the corner of Manning Road will almost certainly cause real problems
with adjoining properties if we are to accept Browning Court as an example. This
three-story complex of 43 retirement flats recently completed has already been
the subject of complaints from residents in the surrounding area, notably
Hereward Street, who claim that the building is a grave intrusion to their
privacy. To prove the point, one resident has sent me a photograph taken from
his back yard which suggests that his complaints may be justified.
The latest project by Larkfleet Homes includes 47 homes of varying sizes on 1.7
acres of land currently occupied by Bourne Services, some up to two and a half
storeys and therefore much higher than surrounding properties. South Kesteven
District Council insists that the proposed scale and layout reflects those of
other residential developments in the vicinity but these are mainly council
houses of traditional design and it needs a great deal of imagination to make
any comparison with those properties now planned.
Local authorities have a duty when considering all housing applications to
ensure that the owners of properties in the immediate vicinity are not
inconvenienced in any way or that new developments do not have an adverse impact
on theirs. Yet home owners in Hereward Street now find the once clear skyline on
their eastern aspect obscured by a towering block that threatens their
privacy.
Bourne Town Council appears to be powerless to act when unacceptable building
developments are proposed, despite having a regular input into the planning
process at Grantham. Their warnings over the latest house building in Manning
Road have been loud and clear but apparently no one has been listening.
Councillors therefore claim that they have been totally ignored over the issue
and the strength of feeling has been summed up by one of them, Guy Cudmore
(Bourne East), in a contribution to the Bourne Forum on Wednesday 20th February:
Within ten years time, the quality of life
in this town which we all love and which has induced many of us to stay here
will be gone. The question will be asked, whither? The answer will be that
persistent inner-city housing densities applied to a small market town will have
brought inner-city problems. One cannot cram so many people all so closely
together with no garden and nowhere to park without causing pressure and stress
and conflict. Then we will remember councillors in the nineties and noughties
have not stood up for this town in the face of vulturous speculative developers
of dormitory accommodation aided and abetted in their lupine avarice by local
planning officialdom.
Unfortunately, there are other similar sites around the town
awaiting development and if this is a precursor of things to come, it does not
auger well for the future appearance of Bourne and a decade hence, Councillor
Cudmore’s predictions may well have become reality.
What the local newspapers are saying: Major developments involving this
town usually start with murmurings in the pub or gossip in the street followed
by a letter or two to the newspapers with small news items, perhaps a couple of
paragraphs, which on their own are nothing really significant but soon turn into
rumblings of something going on behind the scenes and although the original
reports are not always correct, they usually contain a grain of truth.
So it has been with the proposed relief road through the edge of Bourne Wood.
After several weeks of speculation, the story is given front page treatment by
The Local revealing that despite past denials, the Forestry Commission is
in talks with a developer to sell off a small slice of woodland to build a
relief road although it would result in a minimum loss of woodland with a
compensatory package (February 29th). The announcement has produced a
groundswell of opposition, from the Mayor, Councillor Jane Kingman Pauley, our M
P, Quentin Davies, the Friends of Bourne Wood and many outraged citizens while
the newspaper itself has launched a campaign with the slogan “Hands off Bourne
Wood” seeking support from readers who are being asked to fill in an objection
slip which will be passed on to South Kesteven District Council, the town’s
planning authority.
The provision of roads in the county is the responsibility of Lincolnshire
County Council, the highways authority, in conjunction with central government
and certainly not the business of a private company. There is therefore
conjecture that the provision of new houses is lurking somewhere in the
background and that the road is merely a sweetener for the planning authority,
what is known as a planning gain or Section 106 agreement. It has already been
suggested that land to the north west of the town has been earmarked for
residential development and the two therefore appear to be connected, thus
taking the urban sprawl to the very edge of Bourne Wood and even beyond. This
would create an alarming and unwanted incursion of tarmac, bricks and mortar
into the green belt.
SKDC insists that no planning application has been received while LCC says that
it has no proposals for a new road but is aware that developers are interested
in building on land in that area. Moves therefore seem to be afoot behind the
scenes to build both the road and new houses in this area but as is usual in
these cases, the public will be the last to be told.
Rumour and gossip are insidious, spreading alarm and discontent that could and
should be avoided. Nothing can be done without planning approval. Officers or
cabinet member councillors from SKDC, perhaps both, must know what is going on. There are
restrictions of confidentiality but these should not affect a public statement
of broad intent. That is what is required now to quash rumour and still
speculation. The authority must not lose sight of the fact that it is a servant
of the people. It employs public relations officers at a high cost to the
council tax payers. Now is the time for them to earn their keep.
Thought for the week: Whoever keeps an open ear for tattlers will be sure
to hear the trumpet of contention. - William Cowper, English poet and
hymnodist who changed the direction of 18th century nature poetry by writing of
everyday life and scenes of the English countryside (1731-1800).
Saturday 8th March 2008
I wrote last week about gossip and rumour preceding major
developments for this town, the assumption being that the people are not to be
trusted with the facts. The route of a possible north-south relief road for
Bourne is now the subject of much speculation and, as usual, we have nothing of
substance from official sources other than the anodyne denials we have come to
expect.
The revelation that a developer is planning to build a relief road in the
vicinity of Bourne Wood, with a large accompaniment of houses, has not pleased
everyone, some regarding the clamour that has ensued in the
newspapers and elsewhere as alarmist and unnecessary, but there does not appear
to be any move to relieve the anxieties of a very worried public which fears
that a slice of a much loved environmental amenity may be at risk.
There was a time when roads were built and paid for solely by the highways
authority, in our case Lincolnshire County Council, in conjunction with central
government, but today funding is largely dependent on developers through the
planning gain and as they chose the most attractive locations where they wish to
build houses, then that is where the new roads are likely to be located.
Until now, it has been assumed that the A15 bypass, when it is eventually built,
should go to the east of the town, as outlined by our MP, Quentin Davies, who
has said so for many years, although it now appears that a western route has not
been ruled out. Indeed, the 1½-mile south-west relief road built at a cost of £1
million by developers of the 2,000-home Elsea Park estate as part of the
planning gain and opened in October 2005, would seem to be suitable, if not
intended, as the southern section of such a road. This would mean that the
suggested scheme for building a road through the woods will eventually reach the
planning stage to complete a much-needed highway which would relieve the town centre
of a large volume of heavy through traffic.
However, sufficient steam has now been generated over the issue
that a final decision is unlikely to be left to South Kesteven District Council,
the local planning authority, and in view of its controversial nature, any
application will almost certainly be called in under Section 77 of the Town and
Country Planning Act of 1990 which would take away its responsibility for
deciding the application and transfer it to the Secretary of State, a power
normally exercised when, as in this case, a proposal raises issues of more than
local importance.
In the meantime, the public is being left to protest in the dark. Government at all levels is notorious for secrecy, treating
public intrusion as an interference, whereas a full and frank statement from
both the councils and developers involved would be a more honest and
satisfactory way forward. There will be differing opinions and argument over
such a controversial objective but it would be better if they were based on
facts rather than conjecture.
What the local newspapers are saying: The furore over the proposed
woodland development continues to make the headlines with the Stamford
Mercury devoting its front page to a report of the latest disclosures with
not one word of support for the scheme. The Forestry Commission has now admitted
that the road is merely an adjunct to the building of houses with the
explanation that “it would raise money for the public purse” which is unlikely
to appease protestors who regard the commission as an environmental organisation
dedicated to the preservation of our ancient woodland and not a provider for the
housing sector.
The commission has also revealed that the existing car park and recreational
facilities off the main entrance in Edenham Road would be closed “to allow
woodland flowers and plants to grow” and a new car park and recreation centre
provided in a field next to the wood, an area that is no doubt part of the 23
hectares to be gained in the deal and which is almost certainly unsuitable for
housing development. But there is a ray of hope in the newspaper report which
says: “Talks are at an early stage and a planning application is unlikely to be
made for five to ten years”. That surely is sufficient time for our local
authorities to decide that England’s ancient woodland is not the best place to
build roads and houses.
There has been a healthy response to the “Hands off Bourne Wood” campaign
launched by The Local last week and many protest letters also appear in
the correspondence columns (March 7th). “We are all aware of the environmental
impact of deforestation”, writes Lorraine Addy, of Tarragon Way, Bourne. “Trees
are essential in minimising the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. Losing part
of the woods, no matter how small, will increase our carbon footprint. The
people need to fight this now before it has any chance of becoming reality.”
Jean Mason, of Beech Avenue, Bourne, was equally scathing. “The acreage involved
is immaterial”, she wrote. “The tranquillity will have gone forever because it
would not just be cars passing through. The main traffic would be heavy goods
vehicles with all the accompanying noise and pollution. This unique amenity
would be cut off from the town completely and lost forever.”
A panel of readers is being set up by The Local to advise on content and
to say what they like best about the newspaper (March 7th). This is an excellent
idea but one that should be treated with caution because the first recruit,
Michael Healey, of Billingborough, criticises the amount of space given to those
who attend funerals although the newspaper would be ill-advised to reduce
coverage of these events because in doing so it will lose readers and
circulation will therefore suffer. I began my journalistic career as a young
reporter more than half a century ago with the warning from my old editor that
no funeral should be missed and that no mourner’s name be omitted because each
was a reader who also bought the newspaper.
In addition, local newspapers are the only chronicle we have of what has been
happening in the towns and villages, the very stuff of social history telling us
of the way it was which is why copies are filed away in the archives of our
public libraries, to be consulted in later years by historians studying life and
conditions of the time and descendents researching their family trees. Hatches,
matches and despatches, the old term for births, marriages and deaths, are the
very lifeblood of a local newspaper, and to find that the death of an ancestor
has not been reported and sent off with due reverence in the company of a large
gathering of family and friends is a serious omission in its duty to the public.
Far from giving less space to these occasions, local newspaper should give more
and reporters who cover them should have £1 of their salary deducted for every
name that has been omitted.
Bourne Wood is best known as a countryside amenity for the enjoyment of
all but there is also a commercial application because it is managed for the
production of timber. In past times, there was an additional but little known
industry known as bark peeling which provided jobs for a large number of men
although their employment conditions appear to be rather severe when compared
with those enforced today by government regulation.
Bark is the protective covering of dried up tissues that can be found on the
outside of tree trunks and its uses are many and various and in those days it
was a raw material for making canoes, shields, baskets and clothing. But the
most valuable discovery was that it is also rich in tannins, particularly that
of the oak tree, and is still in use for tanning hides to make leather, an
industry which thrived here during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Working hours in those days were long and arduous but men needing a regular wage
to feed a wife and family had to put up with whatever conditions their employer
imposed although there were isolated outbreaks of militancy among the labouring
classes, particularly those engaged in agriculture and associated work such as
forestry and it was among these workers that one of the earliest recorded
industrial disputes in Bourne occurred.
In the 19th century, the woods were owned by the Earl of Exeter, then Lord of
the Manor of Bourne, who felled timber for income and also supplied bark to
various firms in the locality. He was employing 40 men on this industry in 1872
but there was a great deal of unrest among them because of the hours they were
required to work and the situation came to a head on the morning of Friday 26th
May when they all walked out on strike. There was no union and pay bargaining
was done by elected representatives. A deputation was therefore sent to the
woodman, the earl's agent on site, with an ultimatum demanding revised working
hours.
There was a lengthy consultation and it was agreed that they would return to
work the following day provided the hours proposed by them were implemented.
Until then, the men worked from 6 am until 6 pm with an hour and a half for
stoppages, a total of 10½ hours. Their daily rates ranged from 2s. 3d. to 3s.,
according to capability [one shilling being 12½ pennies in today's money]. The
men asked that they should have an hour allowed to them for going to work and an
hour for returning and this would mean a starting time of 7 am and finishing at
5 pm with the usual 1½ hours for stoppages. They also asked to leave at 4.30 pm
on Saturdays, a total of 8½ hours work.
The woodman's counter proposals were that they should start work at 6.30 am and
leave at 5.30 pm and could still leave at 4.30 pm on a Saturday but the men
refused to accept this and so the stoppage continued. A week later, additional
labour had been recruited to keep the bark peeling going and one by one the
strikers were drifting back to work although an estimated half of them refused
to return and sought work elsewhere. In the event, the hours remained the same.
The conservation group dedicated to preserving and restoring the 19th
century cemetery chapel has questioned the town council’s approach to the
problem and suggested that other measures might be appropriate.
The Victorian building was listed Grade II by the government last year after the
council tried to demolish it without any form of public consultation and has
since produced an estimate of almost £400,000 for repairs with a warning that
the bill could be added to the annual council tax. A survey of public opinion is
currently underway by means of a questionnaire that has been circulated as an
insert in a local trade magazine but there are reports that not all 7,000 copies
ordered by the council have been delivered. In addition, there has been
criticism that the questions asked are confusing and loaded against retaining
the chapel.
The Save Our Chapel group formed to fight demolition has issued a statement
asking the town council to reconsider on four points:
1. That the survey of residents will not
give a true reflection of opinion since many of the survey leaflets were not
distributed.
2. Quoting the cost of renovation based on one estimate is unacceptable and
further estimates should be obtained.
3. The council has £40,000 in the contingency fund for the chapel that has not
been used for essential maintenance.
4. The council has failed to approach the many charities who offered their
specialist knowledge and possible funding for renovation
In view of the foregoing, we consider that Bourne Town Council, as the legal
owner of the chapel, should seek further estimates and liaise with the charities
that have offered assistance in order to present a more accurate picture on
which to base plans for the renovation.
These concerns have been aired elsewhere and must
therefore be addressed by the town council. Meanwhile, the group is considering
the appointment of trustees who might take over the administration of the
building and their next meeting is due to be held later this month when anyone who is
interested in this project is invited to attend.
Thought for the week: There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be
made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.
-
Bertrand (Earl) Russell, English philosopher, pacifist and ardent campaigner for
nuclear disarmament (1872-1970).
Saturday 15th March 2008
Government and local authorities now appear to have carte
blanche to take money from us wilfully, much as the highwaymen of past centuries
except today they do not wear masks. Since starting this web site almost ten
years ago, the most frequent complaint has been against the police for lack of
presence on the streets and reluctance to turn out to answer complaints and last
October, according to Home Office ratings, Lincolnshire has one of the worst
performing police forces in England and Wales.
Yet my council tax demand which arrived yesterday has gone up by almost £130 a
year mainly to meet the additional income demanded by Lincolnshire Police which
has increased my overall payment by 78.9%. I will pay because I must, otherwise
the council will send in the bailiffs and I could end up in prison, as has
happened elsewhere, a daunting prospect for someone who will be 78 this year.
But it will be extremely difficult to find the extra money, as will thousands of
others in the county who are in a similar position. I therefore have this
message for the Lincolnshire Police Authority.
You were told at grass roots level, particularly by Bourne Town Council, and
from Westminster by our M P, Mr Quentin Davies, that this demand was totally unjustified yet you have
imposed it anyway. The additional money you are extracting from us may
supplement staff salary and pension entitlements but as old age pensioners on a
declining income, this means that we must reduce our food and heating bills.
Shame on you!
The town council has indicated that an effort will now be made to restore
the Victorian chapel in the cemetery which will be welcome news to all who wish
to see this building preserved for future use, rather than remain neglected and
doomed to demolition. The decision was announced at a meeting on Tuesday night
and although the public were allowed to attend they were not given the chance to
speak. Nevertheless, it has transpired that 18 people are prepared to serve as
trustees on a management committee to administer the chapel and so the situation
is not as bleak as in the past.
The survey into the future of the chapel seems to have been something of a dog’s
breakfast with only 443 people or 6.3% completing their questionnaires out of a
total of 7,000 ordered and increasing evidence that many people did not receive
one. No doubt the town council will be checking this out with the distributor.
In addition, it has been suggested that several councillors filled in forms
which many find unacceptable when it is they who will adjudicate on the results.
Did anyone at the meeting declare an interest?
In addition, the questions, as well as the conclusions, could have been much
clearer and, as was expected, a large majority appeared to answer the main one
which asked if they wanted restoration to be financed from the council tax and
indeed, who would with the frightening figures circulated by the authority after
only one estimate of the repair bill (almost £400,000) instead of three as is
usual in these cases which might have produced a more realistic assessment.
Nevertheless, in spite of these anomalies, it has emerged that sufficient people
want to see the building preserved to persuade the council that more time is
needed to explore the possibilities and Councillor Guy Cudmore (Bourne East),
summed up the meeting with a message to the Forum afterwards in which he said:
In the survey, 46% expressed a desire to save the chapel in some form or other.
This is a sufficiently substantial minority for the council to pursue this
option seriously. It might well not be possible in the end but the council will
not be allowed to demolish without doing this preparatory work. It is the
majority view of the council that the chapel should not be saved. However, if a
way can be found to keep it with a useful life ahead and without any burden on
council taxpayers, I think that opinion would change and then we can consult
again to find if that solution is acceptable.
Meanwhile, further research has indicated that the future of the chapel was
uncertain from the start and the decision by the town council to acquire control
32 years ago is revealed to have been ill advised. Ownership from 1855 was
originally with the Bourne Burial Board, passing to Bourne Urban District
Council when it was formed in 1899 and then to South Kesteven District Council
under the reorganisation of local government in 1974. Two years later, the town
council applied to take over the building, despite having a very small budget
totally inappropriate to maintain such an old property, yet members persisted
and permission was granted despite fears that large maintenance bills might
surface in the future and could not be met. These misgivings were dismissed on
the grounds that it could always be pulled down if it became too much of a
financial liability, a prophetic forecast because no major maintenance has been
carried out. Indeed, the highest number of observations in the recent survey
(54) voiced anger at the council for allowing the building to deteriorate and
perhaps this one factor may have won the chapel a reprieve.
A public meeting will now be held at the Corn Exchange on Tuesday 29th April
when those interested in saving the building can present their ideas. The Save
our Chapel campaign is already making plans to set up a charitable trust with
many willing hands ready to serve and so it will no doubt be leading the way.
This is therefore an opportune time for this council to right past wrongs and to
give its wholehearted support, to encourage and assist in formation and fund
raising and to demonstrate that Bourne can act in unity when serious problems
need to be solved.
What the local newspapers are saying: The Stamford Mercury quotes
Councillor Trevor Holmes (Bourne West) as saying that a 6% per cent response to
the cemetery chapel survey is “absolutely magnificent” (March 14th) but with
7,000 questionnaires printed this means that 94% did not reply which is hardly a
cause for rejoicing. We therefore have a silent majority, those who did not vote
and most probably would not vote yet despite their inactivity would give their
support for this cause or that. The phrase was last used here in Bourne to
support the unpopular 2,000-home Elsea Park development which aroused some of
the most passionate protests in our history when South Kesteven District Council
claimed that “they were relatively small and certainly minimal and in any case,
account must be taken of the silent majority.” So it is now, the silent majority
being the 94% per cent who did not fill in questionnaires. What is good for one
argument should be sufficient for another and so we may assume that there are
many hundreds more out there who do support the restoration of the chapel and
certainly sufficient to justify the decision by the town council to give more
time to effect a satisfactory solution.
A rumour has been debated on the Forum this week that Waitrose was planning to
take over the Budgens supermarket store in the Burghley Centre but then someone
filed a contribution saying that a notice had been posted on the door announcing
that it would become effective from April 1st and so the arrival of this
upmarket retail outlet was dismissed as a joke. But, as the old adage says,
there is no smoke without fire and The Local has followed up the story
with a front page report confirming that negotiations are underway for such a
move although there are no details yet of what this will involve in timescale
and jobs (March 14th).
A prestige store such as Waitrose will certainly enhance shopping in Bourne and
put others such as Sainsburys and Tesco on their mettle. Until now Budgens has
not exactly been popular with shoppers but this is likely to change drastically
with an outlet of this calibre because experience elsewhere has proved, notably
with Marks & Spencer’s new food store in Stamford, that people are willing to
pay more for quality. As with the opening of Walkers, the book, newspaper and
confectionery shop in North Street last year, this is what is known as organic growth
and in the absence of any real activity on the £27 million town centre
development where not a brick has been laid since it was first mooted in 2003,
perhaps this is the way forward for Bourne.
Yet another myth bites the dust with the news that the plastic bag has
been unfairly demonised as a result of a blunder by scientists (The Times,
8th March 2008). For the past thirty years, these harmless shopping receptacles
have been blamed for environmental damage which has led to a global campaign to
curb, ban or tax their use but it has now been revealed that the claims were
based on flawed research.
The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has announced his intention to force
supermarkets to charge for plastic bags saying that they were one of the most
visible symptoms of environmental waste and this has been supported by many, not least local authorities and retail organisations and even the
Council for the Protection of Rural England. But now the government has been
criticised for setting a bandwagon rolling based on poor science.
The problem is that disposable plastic bags have a high profile and are
therefore an easy target because they are often seen blowing around the
countryside whenever there is a high wind, dumped on roadside verges or
littering the streets but then this is inevitable when thirteen billion of them
are distributed across the country each year but pro rata, the misuse is
extremely small when
compared with the value they have for other purposes in the home which is the
very essence of recycling. Campaigners
have also protested that they pollute coastlines and waterways, killing or
injuring birds and livestock on land and in oceans, destroying vast numbers of
seabirds, seals, turtles and whales. However, it has now been established that
there is no scientific evidence to show that plastic bags pose a direct threat
to marine animals while they create only a minute proportion of public litter and
far from not being degradable, they are unlikely to survive for longer than
10-20 years although anecdotal evidence suggests that they could deteriorate far
sooner.
Here in Bourne, the Chamber of Trade has launched its own initiative to persuade
shoppers to switch to reusable bags made of cloth while the Stamford Mercury
has announced a similar scheme on its front page giving 1,000 bags away free but
in the light of this new evidence, should these campaigns continue?
Unfortunately, much of this misinformation has bitten deeply into the human
psyche and as with all similar scares in past times, from the abominable snowman
to global warming, it has been given so much media exposure that the public
perception will remain unchanged and the usefulness of the plastic bag likely to
be forever tainted by falsehood. The Chancellor, in this week’s Budget speech,
followed up the Prime Minister’s warning with an indication that legislation
will be introduced by 2009 to tax plastic bags if shops do not do more to change
their use but then government is always ready to cash in on any passing fad, no
matter how spurious, even pandering to wrong headed populism, in order that it
may be used as an excuse to raise yet more taxes.
Thought for the week: It is a myth, not a mandate, a fable not a logic,
and symbol rather than a reason by which men are moved.
- Irwin Edman,
American professor of philosophy and visiting lecturer at Oxford University
(1896-1954).
Saturday 22nd March 2008
A statue of Hereward the Wake to be erected on the large
grass roundabout outside Elsea Park on the southern entrance to Bourne has been
suggested this week by a contributor to the Forum and has received a favourable
response. Why not, indeed? Hereward is a combination of fact and folklore but
then many mythical characters are remembered around England in this way, notably
Robin Hood in Nottingham and Lady Godiva in Coventry, and as with Hereward,
their existence owes more to legend and tradition than historical reality.
Hereward is remembered as the Saxon warrior who opposed the Norman occupation of
England after the conquest of 1066. History is unclear about the role he played
in the events of his time but here in Bourne, we have taken the rebel leader to
our hearts and regard him as our hero. Much of what is believed about him was
written as fiction by Charles Kingsley, the Victorian clergyman and author, who
stayed at Edenham vicarage while completing his popular novel Hereward the Wake
in 1866, a book that owes more to the imagination than historical fact.
Nevertheless, tradition is that Bourne was his home although no evidence can be
found for the popular belief that he was born at Bourne Castle and died fighting
the Normans in Bourne Wood or is buried in the chancel of the Abbey Church, or
according to another legend, Crowland Abbey, after being taken there by boat
along fenland waterways by a party of monks. Once the fiction created by
Victorian writers is stripped away, then his connections with Bourne are flimsy
in the extreme. But a statue would look good, a statement in bronze or stone
demonstrating that this community cares about its past and might even help us
forget recent attempts to tear down one of our few historic buildings because it
had become a financial embarrassment.
Public support therefore would not be lacking but the money to make it
materialise would be difficult to find. Forget our local authorities which are
engulfed in never ending ways to raise more cash for salary and pension
entitlements for burgeoning staffs and so we must look elsewhere, to fund
raising by private individuals, grants from philanthropic organisations and to
donations from developers who have much to gain from keeping this town firmly on
the map in order to sell their houses. Unfortunately, the biggest of these,
Allison Homes, may also be discounted from the equation because it has yet to
fulfil the various amenities promised under the planning gain for the 2,000-home
Elsea Park estate.
The cost for such a project is likely to be expensive because sculptors and
foundries to cast the bronze do not come cheap. The Angel of the North, for
instance, the work of Antony Gormley and erected on the outskirts of Gateshead
in 1998, cost around £1 million but then this is a massive figure of 165 tons
and as Bourne should aim for something less adventurous, a figure of £50,000
might be more realistic. It is, perhaps, merely a pipe dream, a flight of fancy,
at this stage but then some of the best ideas began as wishful thinking and
today have become a fact. We therefore live in hope.
It is disappointing that Hereward is not better commemorated in Bourne
and a statue would fill the void. We do have Hereward Street, Hereward Meadows
and Wake House but something more substantial is required even though we do have
a large model of our hero in the town. It was presented to the Heritage Centre
in March 2004 for permanent exhibition by the Church Farm Museum at Skegness
where it had been on display the previous summer as a representation of Ulrick
Sven who was part of a Viking exhibition and after being moved 40 miles to
Bourne, the seven-foot high image has made the transition from Danish invader to
Saxon rebel.
The model was made by Steve Andrews, aged 37, from polystyrene and then coated
with cement before being hand-painted. It took him five days to complete but
then Steve had a lot of experience in this field because he regularly designed
and built the displays at Christmas and other occasions for the Hildreds
Shopping Centre in Skegness where he worked as deputy manager. Hereward also
speaks to visitors because a voice box has been installed, operated at the push
of a button, when he says: “My name is Hereward. Are you friend or foe? Do you
want to trade or fight?”
Members of the Civic Society who run the Heritage
Centre have created a theme corner for Hereward on the ground floor and so
he can be seen standing in a meadow in olde England about to repel the
Normans, with sword and shield at the ready. Our polystyrene model is about
as shaky as the various myths that surround him but then it is only a bit of
fun.
The Friends of Bourne Wood who have been leading the fight against the
road development through the woodland have published full details of their
proposals on its web site together with diagrams and detailed maps drawn up by
civil engineering consultants on behalf of Larkfleet Homes, the company behind
the controversial residential development for the laundry site in Manning Road.
For the first time, residents can see exactly what the impact will be on the
environment with a carriageway slicing off a large elongated area of trees
behind Beech Avenue and the route clearly marked from the roundabout in West
Road and curving eastwards towards Cawthorpe where it will connect with the A15.
The plans also indicate that the new road would be 1¾ miles long (2,840 metres)
and 24 feet wide (7.3 metres) and would also threaten the future of Diana’s
Glade, an area of twenty small oak trees planted in January 1999 by the Friends
as a tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, who died tragically in 1997. There are
also fears that many other trees will have to be cut back for reasons of safety
with the result that more than the 2½ acres (one hectare) originally proposed
will be destroyed.
The Friends is an organisation of volunteers devoted to the preservation and
enhancement of the woods, organising events throughout the year to raise public
awareness and participating in many conservation projects such as the
installation of bat and bird boxes. Members have been vociferous about the
proposals from the start, making public statements and erecting protest posters
around the affected area and the publication of the detailed plans is a
remarkable coup by this organisation and one that is usually the province of our
local newspapers but campaigning journalism appears to be a thing of the past
and so it is left to private individuals to fight for what they believe in.
The web site claims that the plans were submitted to Lincolnshire County Council
on 19th April 2007, confirmed by the official rubber stamp of receipt, despite
statements by the Forestry Commission that planning was at an early stage yet
the authority, and South Kesteven District Council, have denied all knowledge of
the proposed development. The web site statement says: "The suspected route will
start at the existing roundabout of the southern relief road junction with the
A151. It will cut through ancient woodland close to the Forestry Commission
office and then on through meadow land obliterating the Blind Well, a source of
minerals used in early medicine. At least five footpaths connecting Bourne to
its woodland will be severed, isolating the town from the wood. Direct access to
the wood for people with mobility problems will disappear."
The Friends of Bourne Wood has done a public service to the people of Bourne by
highlighting the inadequacy of the information systems operated by the Forestry
Commission and our local authorities, preferring to keep them in the dark on a
matter of vital public interest and so allowing rumour and gossip to spread
rather than tell the truth. The Internet allows a far greater knowledge of our
affairs to be circulated and this organisation is to be applauded for its
efforts in this affair.
What the local newspapers are saying: As predicted last
week, the revelation that plastic bags have been unfairly demonised by flawed
research has failed to dent public enthusiasm and The Local devotes its
front page to the campaign launched in Bourne to have them banned (March 21st).
The report claims that almost one million fewer bags will be used in the town
this year as signs emerge that shoppers are showing a preference for reusable
containers, particularly those being introduced by the Chamber of Trade, with
the result that Sainsburys particularly have reported a one third drop in usage
and no doubt other retail outlets have a similar experience. There is one point
that the campaigners have missed however. Most homes recycle plastic shopping
bags in the home, for kitchen waste and other domestic tasks, and once they are
no longer available homeowners will no doubt be popping into Sainsburys to buy a
roll of new ones which are on sale in all shapes and sizes to suit every taste
and so we will be back to square one.
There is a misconception that computing and the Internet are the province
of the younger generation but our experience is that this is far from the truth.
Many of our visitors from around the globe are what we call senior citizens,
that is those who have retired from working life yet remain active in many ways,
usually serving the community or merely doing things to keep the more
debilitating effects of old age at bay.
We have regular readers who keep in touch from many far away places who are well
into their eighties, in Israel, Texas, Ontario and Alaska particularly, and
although all are at the mercy of the new technology when it throws a tantrum,
they manage to shine through because they have learned that perseverance can
overcome all, a lesson that often escapes those of less mature years. Perhaps
the oldest of our readers, however is a local man, Jack Wallhead, of Lawrance
Way, Thurlby, near Bourne, who emailed to say that he agreed wholeheartedly with
my Diary item last week about the injustice of the police precept on the council
tax which will unfairly stretch thousands of old age pensioners, yet despite
this iniquity he is as cheerful as ever.
Jack was a Bourne lad who started work in the motor trade when he left school in
1930 but was called up for military service in August 1940, subsequently joining
the Royal Air Force at Duxford, Cambridgeshire, before being posted overseas for
service at Aden, Egypt and the Western Desert, and finally to Italy where he
spent eight months before going home to Stafford until discharged in 1946. He
returned to the motor trade in Bourne, working for Forsyth and Ferrier Ltd for
over 50 years, latterly as a sales representative for new and used cars and
trucks. He has been using a computer for almost 20 years but is a recent convert
to the Internet and now keeps up a regular correspondence with his niece in
Tucson, Arizona, USA, which proves my theory because Jack tells me that he will
be 92 in May. There is probably someone out there who reads us that can beat
that longevity and if so, please let us know.
Thought for the week: Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic. - Sir Arthur C Clarke, English science fiction
writer who died this week at his home in Sri Lanka, aged 90 (1917-2008).
Saturday 29th March 2008
Angel of the North replica - see "My item last week . . . "
Regular readers of the local newspapers and the Bourne
Forum will know one thing from the letters and contributions published, namely
that we like it here and few would want to live anywhere else. Researching
documents and diaries from past centuries reveal a similar love of time and
place, that home is where the heart is and that is Bourne for those who grew up
here or put down roots.
Perhaps the most evocative and emotional attachments came from the lads who
answered Lord Kitchener’s call to arms during the Great War of 1914-18 when many
kept in touch by writing letters home from the trenches of France and the
beaches of Gallipoli. I have recently researched them and they contain evidence
of a deep loyalty to family and friends and the town where they lived which
inspired their patriotism and allegiance to a cause that was often questioned
yet they never wavered.
Many of the soldiers had been pupils at the Boys' Council or Board School in
Star Lane [now the Abbey Primary School in Abbey Road] and before leaving for
overseas they had been persuaded by their old headmaster, Joseph J Davies, to
keep in touch by letter and he replied to every one. In addition, he kept up a
regular correspondence with his own two sons, Victor, serving in Gallipoli, and
Oliver, in France.
Thoughts of home have long produced a fruitful bounty for poets and as spring
arrives, we are reminded of the evocative lines from Robert Browning,
voluntarily exiled in Italy from his homeland in 1846 when he wrote Home
Thoughts from Abroad, contemplating his deep love of the countryside he missed
so much with his evocative opening line “Oh, to be in England, now that April’s
there . . . ” and I am reminded of Browning particularly when reading the
letters home from Oliver Davies. He was master at Edenham village school but
volunteered for the army after his mother, Mrs Elizabeth Davies, had offered to
take over his teaching duties in order to free him for military service. By the
late autumn of 1915, he had been promoted to lance corporal and was serving as a
signaller with the 2nd Battalion, the Lincolnshire Regiment, at the headquarters
of the British Expeditionary Force somewhere in France.
He wrote home frequently and always poetically, and one particular letter sent
on Friday 5th November compared his present surroundings with those of his home
town:
If you want to imagine the kind of country
we are in, take a walk down Bourne Fen as far as Twenty. Put heaps more poplar
trees there; blow down nearly all the houses; grow crops of barbed wire instead
of corn; and, above all, don't forget the mud, mud and more mud! There you have
a fairly good idea of what the country is like. Many of the French people seem
loath to leave their homes which are within shell range. If this were only a
holiday, one could enjoy the country and the conversation of the people
immensely. In some parts we saw truly magnificent scenery, the railways and
villages resembling County Wicklow to a truly remarkable degree.
There are here varied species of mahogany, flat varieties of unwanted coleoptera
[insects, usually beetles or weevils], "things of beauty which nightly do their
beetley best to make you feel for ever, their loveliness increases", and, in
spite of persevering pursuit they "will never pass into nothingness, but still
will keep our bowers lively for us, and a sleep full of sweet (?) dreams". Thus
far Keats! But Keating's [a well-known proprietary brand of flea powder at the
time] is the sovereign remedy for those sleep-slaying irritating aliens. And I
therefore proffer my request for a ton of Keating's wherewith to dose all our
habitable "bowers" and wearable materials. The guns are at it pretty frequently.
Some fairly rattle, like gigantic carpet beaters.
On Thursday 11th November, he was again making comparisons with
home when describing a countryside in the grip of war:
The villages look like ghosts of a bygone
age. Houses are without roofs, some have the rafters standing, making them
appear as gaunt skeletons. Of course, the big houses and the churches suffer
most from shell fire. Just picture Abbey Road and the church in that plight. Not
a house with a wall or roof standing intact; a church without a roof or spire;
just traces of walls showing where it once was. Some of the villages round here
must have been very pretty in peace time. They are so prettily studded with
trees. But now there is nothing but rain and mud. The untilled fields, some of
them with unreaped standing crops in them, form another very melancholy setting
in the countryside.
And again on Wednesday 17th November:
We work in one dugout and sleep in another.
We are not so far back but that stray bullets don't reach our way for they do
whiz harmlessly over the trench or dugout. One must be on the alert every
minute. It is a case of responsibility and plenty of it. Viglia et ora or
Watch and Pray, the old school motto. Kindest regards to all friends at Bourne
and Edenham and to the schoolchildren and the scouts. This place is muddier than
a Lincolnshire fenland dyke. Now it is past midnight. Hark! Boom! Bang! again.
Oliver Davies was only one of several Bourne lads who maintained
a correspondence with their old headmaster and many were killed. This produced a
considerable archive of life in the trenches but only a small part has survived.
If you want to learn more of their thoughts of home and of experiences of
warfare then you may read my account Letters from the Trenches 1914-18 which is
available in the reference section at Bourne public library in South Street.
My item last week about the merits of a statue to
Hereward the Wake at the southern entrance to the town also referred to the
Angel of the North, the work of Antony Gormley erected on the outskirts of
Gateshead in 1998 at a cost of around £1 million, demonstrating what can be
achieved given the will and, of course, the money.
But then this is a massive figure of 165 tons and as Bourne should aim for
something less adventurous, a figure of £50,000 might be more realistic to
remember our Saxon hero. I am however, reminded that we already have a replica
of this famous English landmark which arrived in Bourne earlier this year as a
bonus for entering the 2006 East Midlands in Bloom competition in which our town
won a silver award for the second time, mainly due to the efforts of Nelly
Jacobs, clerk to the town council, and the band of volunteers that she annually
inspires. It measures 14 feet across and six feet high, a scale copy of the
original that has become an icon for the north east since it was erected ten
years ago.
The replica was made from wheat reed and foam by Sarah Walton, a graduate of the
Glasgow School of Art who previously worked as an assistant to Mr Gormley, and
was one of eight similar models used in the British Food Fortnight Exhibition in
October 2007 and offered to all parishes which participated in the Britain in
Bloom competition on a first come first served basis. Mrs Jacobs acted swiftly
by applying within minutes and was given first choice for the replica which was
erected in the new section of the town cemetery in South Road in January 2008
and is expected to last around one year in outdoor conditions. Go and see it
while you have the chance.
What the local newspapers are saying: Lincolnshire Police Authority will
not be allowed to increase its council tax precept after all. The Local
reports that the government has stepped in to protect home owners from a
swingeing rise of almost 80% which would add £200 a year to their bills (March
28th). This is the right decision and it comes after repeated warnings by local
councils, members of Parliament and the public that such an increase is
totally unjustified. The protests fell on deaf ears and the police authority
went ahead anyway only to be faced with an ignominious climb down and the
prospect of a £75,000 bill for the reissue of council tax bills which have
already gone out. The police authority has demonstrated a total disregard for
public opinion and ignorance of government procedure and has run up a large bill
for remedial action in the process. Members who voted for this unacceptable
increase should therefore be considering their position because they have lost
the last vestige of public confidence.
Another matter of real concern to the people of Bourne is the activities of
Bourne United Charities which meets behind closed doors and does not admit the
press or issue statements about its decisions despite being a public registered
charity responsible for large amounts of money left by various philanthropists
for the benefit of this town. Although meetings were once conducted in public,
this climate of secrecy has existed for several years and the Stamford
Mercury reports that the town council is now demanding (March 28th) to know
more about its work, and rightly so. The situation is all the more questionable
because five of the fifteen trustees are nominated by the council and, in this
case, are all members of it, one of them being the current chairman, and so it
should be up to them to initiate a new regime of transparency by BUC in order
that the people be regularly informed of what they do and how our money is being
spent.
The decline in numbers of our native birds has been a frequent topic in
this column over the years and it is sad to report that the results of a survey
announced this week reveals that the trend continues. The Big Garden Birdwatch
took place in January, organised by the Royal Society for the Protection of
Birds to provide a snapshot of the country's bird population and revealing that
overall numbers have dropped by a further 20% in the past four years.
There is little doubt that many species are in drastic decline and whereas the
countryside would once have been full of a wide variety of birds, we now see
them less and numbers appear to decrease annually. The various conservation
organisations have issued repeated warnings about the causes, whether it be cats
or chemicals, but all have been largely ignored and so the reduction in their
numbers continues and very soon those we once took for granted are likely to
become endangered species and sightings even more infrequent.
The situation is seen as acute by those of the older generation who remember
their youth when the woodlands and meadows were alive with birdsong while
gardens full of flowers attracted them close to mankind and so we could observe
them at first hand. The numbers of fifty years ago however have dwindled rapidly
and whereas you could compile a lengthy list of sightings from the kitchen
window on any day of the week, there are times now when few birds even appear,
let alone sing, and sometimes the seed and tasty morsels left out for them lie
untouched for several days.
Nearly 400,000 people counted more than six million birds in the latest survey
which has established that although sightings of finches are at their highest
level for five years, there are fewer of the other popular species that have
become household favourites and the most likely to be seen in the garden where
we provide a regular food supply to attract their company. The number of
sparrows is down by 64% since 1979 and starling numbers have fallen by 77%
whilst there are 39% fewer blackbirds and 28% fewer chaffinches, the causes
mainly being the relentless progress of intensive agriculture which has left
fewer wild places. The increased use of pesticides and herbicides, particularly
powerful selective weed killers, have turned land that was once meadow and field
into highly efficient monocultures whilst miles of hedges that surrounded them
and provided safe havens for a wide variety of flora and fauna have been
uprooted. No one who walks in the countryside or puts out titbits for visiting
birds in their garden can fail to have noticed this unfortunate decline and this
is resulting in a profound change in the English countryside of yesteryear.
Thought for the week: I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It
saves going to heaven. - Emily Dickinson, reclusive and eccentric American
writer who published only a dozen of her 1,800 poems during her lifetime but is
now acknowledged as a major poet (1830-1886).
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