Bourne Diary - June 2008

Saturday 7^th June 2008

“This is really  about tackling the anti-social behaviour that so often comes  with excessive drinking”, said a council spokesman, “and this order will nip in the bud any potential disorder before it happens. It is very much a preventive measure.”

The designated public places have all been identified by the police as areas where drinking and disorder could occur while those found guilty of alcohol related anti-social behaviour face arrest and fines of up to £500 and it is here that the new initiative stumbles. Alcohol restrictive signs have already gone up in the most unlikely places, in residential areas where most of the homeowners are retired and Wincarnis rather than Carlsberg Special is the usual tipple, and even in Church Walk, within the shadow of the Abbey Church where the only strong drink on offer is communion wine, yet there are none around the Abbey Lawn and the Wellhead Gardens where the consumption of the hard stuff is a constant plague and drunks can frequently be seen rolling about the place at the most unlikely hours.

The selection of specific areas where drinking is likely to get out of hand negates the entire operation because no one can predict where and when this can happen and the police have no more intelligence than anyone else. The notices therefore appear to have been posted quite arbitrarily while the new rules seem to be merely a modification of the old to give PCSOs (Police Community Support Officers) more powers to deal with drinking than before although a close reading of their application indicates that they will be equally hard to enforce because officers will only have the power to act “when there is a persistent, repeated nuisance linked to drinking alcohol”, a situation that is quite adequately covered by existing legislation.

Notices outside off-licences and supermarkets which have been accused of selling cheap booze to under-age drinkers might be more appropriate together with public houses because much of the present trouble emanates from these establishments when customers turn out late at night yet there is rarely a policemen in sight when they do.

Anyone with any knowledge of the current legislation knows that it is quite adequate to control drink-related crime and misdemeanours but what is needed is enforcement. The answer is not to add yet a new level of laws, however well intentioned, but to make those we already have work effectively and the only way this can be done is to put more full time policemen back on the beat with a disregard for performance targets and a policy of zero tolerance. Do that and you can chuck the latest notices which are being written off as yet another substitute for direct action and already the butt of much scorn and derision.

A discussion is underway in the Forum about the authenticity of a claim that Castle Bytham may have been the site of the first Norman castle in England, built in 1086 and held by Drew de Beurere, the Lord of Holderness. This is partly true in that the village does claim to have had a castle 1,000 years ago although its origins and owners are obscure.

Castle Bytham is eight miles south west of Bourne and has the attractiveness of all hillside villages, a little stream in the valley, flowing to the River Glen, the houses on one side climbing to the hilltop church, and on the other side the great earthwork which is reputedly the remains of the castle built by Norman lords but long since vanished.

The huge grassy site is still an impressive spectacle and it is not difficult to picture a strong fortress standing here, dating back to the Norman invasion. The Saxon owner of this site was Morcar, a Northumbrian earl who vainly tried to resist William the Conqueror and died in prison while his stronghold was finished by the Conqueror's own half-brother Odo and stood until it was swept away during the Wars of the Roses while today the site is occupied only by sheep.

A castle in past times was the fortified residence of a lord although it is now generally visualised as a huge stone building with towers, battlements, a portcullis and drawbridge. The actual definition is that of a defensive structure which was one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages, deriving from the Latin castellum, a diminutive of castrum which means fortified place. Many were merely residential halls, sometimes enclosed by a defensive wall, which functioned as the home of some important person in the locality such as a chieftain or lord. The word castle (castel) was introduced into English shortly before the Norman Conquest to denote this type of fortress, then new to England, brought in by the Norman knights and traditionally in Britain it has also been used to refer to prehistoric earthworks, many of which survive today and so much confusion exists between the two.

A detailed but speculative appraisal of the castle can be found in The History of Castle Bytham by Richard Foers (1999, updated 2000) and although it is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, he suggests that the listing of three iron forges is indicative of castle building while Lord Drogo, who owned land in the vicinity, was also Lord of the Manor of Holderness in North Lincolnshire thus giving it the Holderness connection.

The Domesday Book may be taken as an authoritative account of what did and what did not exist in the country at that time, forming a remarkable record of the state of England in the mid-1080s and was considered so comprehensive that one description said: "So very thoroughly did William have the enquiry carried out that there was not a single piece of land, not even an ox, cow or pig, which escaped its notice." As a castle is not mentioned at Castle Bytham, even though it was so named at that time, then we may assume that there was not one.

The site is listed as an ancient monument by English Heritage but their description is obscure and even romanticised and suggests a motte and bailey castle of a rare type, having an internal barbican, one of the very few examples in this country, while after extensive research, Richard Foers claims that it was occupied between 1085 and 1554 by which time it may have become a ruin. In the meantime, the castle was destroyed in 1221 by Henry III but rebuilt in 1370 and last occupied in 1412 although there is no documentary proof of this. It was burned down during the Wars of the Roses in 1455-1485 and as late as 1542, the antiquarian John Leland (1502-1550), during his six-year tour of England identifying ancient monuments on behalf of Henry VIII, wrote: “I saw Castelle Bitham wher yet remayne great Waulles of building.”

There are no records to suggest either occupancy or ownership of a castle after 1554 which is much the way of many similar castles that have now disappeared. There is also the question of the type of structure it may have been because the first stone fortresses in this country were built by the Normans and as this one is reputed to have been started by Morcar, it is more likely to have been a wooden fortified manor house similar to Bourne Castle rather than the massive battlemented construction we have come to associate with Hollywood films. Believe, therefore, what you will.

We went to claim our bus passes on Monday, the new plastic cards being issued to senior citizens by South Kesteven District Council, and it turned out to be one of those delightful and amusing experiences that went smoothly and efficiently, largely due to the charming lady behind the counter at the offices in the Town Hall at Bourne who dealt with our application with such warmth and enthusiasm.

Until now, we have been issued with vouchers for use on taxis and buses but these were confined to local firms and have been discontinued in favour of the new concessionary travel scheme available since April 1st with a much wider scope, providing free journeys nationally for anyone over 60 or disabled on local buses between 9.30 am and 11 pm which therefore opens up new and remarkable opportunities for the aged footloose.

Naturally enough, there are requirements when applying, such as proof of identity and date of birth, but we turned up with the necessary documentation and presented ourselves at the counter where our applications were treated with the utmost courtesy and, best of all, good humour. A photograph is necessary for the new bus pass but modern technology is up to the challenge and despite the intrusion of technicians busy rewiring the telephone and IT system, our images were captured on computer by a small camera on the counter and within a few minutes the entire process had been completed.

The local newspapers have reported that there have been teething troubles with the new bus pass system but these have been largely ironed out and our experience is that it will work well for the future despite the odd complaint from professional grouches.

The new technology is becoming apparent in all walks of life and if you are a patient at the Hereward Medical Practice you may now even book an appointment with the doctor or get a repeat prescription for medicines online. Having tried out the new system, I can report that it works perfectly well, saving time and temper all round. Their web site is a model of efficiency, simple and easy to use and making it possible not only to book your appointment but also cancel if your condition is not quite as bad as first thought.

These procedures, at the council offices and the clinic, are the way of the future and although young people take to them easily, mainly because of experience at school or the workplace, the majority of the older generation find computers a foreign territory and prefer to stick to the old way of doing things although many have become silver surfers and refuse to be left behind in the technological revolution. For them, the change in the pace of life is daunting but soon, very soon, the computer will have earned its place in every home, as familiar as the radio once was and the television is now, for that is the way of progress and life will be easier for it.

From the archives: The singing fool: Frederick Walker, of no fixed abode, was parading the streets of Bourne last Friday night, alternately singing and addressing an imaginary crowd. About 10 pm, he came into contact with Police Constable Sawyer, who spoke to Ward concerning his conduct, when the latter became abusive, used obscene language and threatened to strike the constable with a stick. Ward was taken into custody and on Saturday morning was charged before the magistrates charged with being drunk and disorderly. Evidence of his drunken condition was given by Police Constable Sawyer and Inspector Markham, which also included the fact that one shilling was all he had in his possession. Defendant told the magistrates that he had been doing odd jobs in the district. On giving an undertaking that he would leave town, the magistrates discharged him. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 13th September 1929.

Thought for the week: With barely a whimper of protest, Britons are being corralled into the kind of supervised society with all the apparatus of camera surveillance, snooping and bureaucratic controls once seen as the classic instruments of tyranny. - leader in The Times on revelations of spying on private citizens by local council employees, Sunday 31st May 2008.

Saturday 14^th June 2008

Councillors should be heard as well as seen for in that way we know they are doing their job in representing the people but several have hardly uttered a word since taking office and their profile is so low as to be almost invisible. We know they are there because they are on the list, 15 for the town council, six for the district council and two for the county council, although some hold dual office, but those who speak out to let us know what they are up to can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

Silence is seen to be golden and some shelter behind that Victorian belief when in fact they have nothing to say despite the many opportunities they have to present their opinions to a waiting public. Fortunately, not all are so reticent and we have several ladies who have recently become councillors who are adding powerful voices to the debate on serious issues affecting this town and we are thankful to hear outspoken common sense from those who see their role in a different light.

But perhaps the most vociferous is Guy Cudmore who has been a representative of Bourne East on the town council since May 2000 and has become a regular contributor to the Forum and the letters pages of the local newspapers. Few issues escape his notice and although he often tends to cover a subject in more detail than necessary, he is required reading for anyone with an interest in Bourne, articulate, well informed and apparently understanding of what is going on both nationally and locally, although he is not always right and some often find his point of view unacceptable. Nevertheless, his output has become prolific and anyone who has followed his writings will have detected a mounting anger with the cords that bind local councillors and the ineffective role they now fulfil.

After reading a report in The Local that councillors had welcomed the announcement that The Croft in North Road is likely to be developed as a retirement village, his irritation over current planning policy affecting this town exploded with an angry outburst in the letters’ column of that newspaper (June 6th) which echoed the fears of many residents who have become deeply concerned about new buildings springing up in inappropriate places. Bourne has several examples of what is meant by “retirement villages” in the 21st century, he wrote, and added:

The monstrosity in South Street opposite the Darby and Joan hall should not have been allowed. The Browning Court development in Manning Road has aroused comments from nearby residents, not least on account of the height. The high density development of 47 dwellings on the Bourne Services site, recently given planning permission, is the most likely indicator of what is in store for The Croft. They mean “village” as in Greenwich Village rather than Dyke. There are as yet no concrete plans made public but they are unlikely to include fewer dwellings than past plans. One big difference is that last time this came up, Bourne had friends at Grantham, which is why The Croft plan was rejected against the advice of planning officials, bringing about the public inquiry. But no longer. The convention that councils do not impose changes against the will of councillors representing the area concerned has disappeared.

We can expect parking charges as soon as they can arrange it and then the same group which allowed the Bourne Services development against the wishes of Bourne residents will rubber stamp a mega-development at The Croft. What is the point of keeping the house, if that is the intention of the developer, if it is suffused by a Browning Court or two and a Bourne Services development?

The best advice to the nearby residents who will be most affected is that this time it is serious and they ought to sell up and go while the going is still good. The rest of us can look forward to living with another inner city intrusion, which is sure to bring with it inner city problems.

Other councillors have commented forcefully on this and other issues affecting this town and one or two are making a major contribution to the community but too many remain silent and voters wonder where they actually stand. Unfortunately, their track record so far would suggest that we are unlikely to hear from them until the next election by which time the damage will have been done.

We are now well into June and most people who pay their council tax by monthly instalments, either by direct debit, cheque or online transfer, have been faced with the exorbitant 79% increase on behalf of Lincolnshire Police Authority which will result in an additional payment of over £100 a year for most households. Their swingeing demand submitted before the county council’s April budget has been challenged and is currently being investigated by the government which could cap the offenders but this does seem to be an inordinate length of time to settle such a simple issue of right and wrong and we are tempted to suggest that the delaying tactics so beloved of bureaucracy may be at work here and that eventually the public will forget and pay up without a whimper.

Our M P, Quentin Davies, reminds us of the inadequate role currently being pursued by the police and that stopping the occasional motorist during a speed check on a back road on a Saturday afternoon is not exactly the best way to use its resources when the people living in urban areas are crying out for a uniformed presence on the streets at crucial times such as evenings and weekends.

There is a policy, much pursued by government at all levels, that the medicine handed out may leave a nasty taste in the mouth for a month or so but in time the patient becomes used to it and swallows without complaining. As with the local councils and many aspects of national government, we are in fact paying to keep people in jobs rather than provide services and unless this unfair, even iniquitous, increase in our council tax is rescinded during the current discussions, we may therefore assume that Lincolnshire Police will have free reign to impose its financial will over us again next year and ad infinitum to keep pace with its expanding workforce, rising salaries and pensions, while at the same time, its officers squander their time at weekends totting up fines from speed traps in the county’s remote highways and byways.

The efficiency of South Kesteven District Council in issuing the new bus passes for the elderly and disabled which I applauded last week has been overshadowed by the authority’s refusal to extend the facility and allow them to be used before 9.30 am and after 11 pm, a restriction which will exclude many journeys. The set hours for national off-peak travel were fixed by government guidelines with the proviso that councils could extend them if they wished and it is now revealed that South Kesteven is the only one of the seven district authorities in Lincolnshire not offering unconditional free bus travel on the grounds of cost.

The council claims that it cannot afford it and that the additional expenditure, reckoned to be around £30,000, is outside their budget even though the new financial year has hardly started. The result is that 85% of residents in the county will be enjoying off peak travel from July 1st whereas if you live in South Kesteven you will not, a perfect example of the postcode lottery, namely the unequal availability of services in different parts of the country, especially those provided by the state, while at the same time again raising the question of whether our councillors favour the people or the organisations to which they have been given membership on their behalf.

The debate over whether Bourne once had a castle continues and there has been a suggestion that the Channel Four Time Team hosted by Tony Robinson might come and take a look underneath the neatly mown grass of the Wellhead Gardens to determine whether this was indeed the site of a massive stone and battlemented fortification of film and fantasy. Unfortunately, excavations of this magnitude take some time, months rather than the days a television production unit is likely to devote to such a project, and only then when there is a good chance of getting a result. Baldrick will not therefore be visiting Bourne and so we are left with the flimsy evidence we have.

History provides an unsatisfactory answer. The only serious excavations recorded in the past took place in 1861 when a dig was arranged during the summer of that year but it was merely a sideshow, an entertainment laid on for visitors attending the annual meeting of the Lincoln Diocesan Architectural Society and consisted of a few men with shovels who did little more than lift off the surface soil which was replaced when the event ended. A marquee was placed over the site and a brass band played to entertain visitors and although it was an occasion of enjoyment and entertainment it was hardly serious research.

A map showing a romanticised version of a fortified castle was subsequently drawn up by a local artist and has since been reproduced over the years to perpetuate the legend of Bourne Castle, most famously by Joseph J Davies in his Historic Bourne (1909), still surprisingly quoted as a factual source even though he insists that the castle was once home of the saintly Lady Godiva who he claims was Hereward’s mother. I wonder what the good burghers of Coventry would make of that.

There has been no serious exploration since and a much publicised electronic investigation with a battery operated box of tricks in 2006 was abruptly called off without any conclusion being reached. No further digs are planned and we are therefore left with the evidence we have, periodically cherry picked by the castle aficionados in an attempt to prove their case without conclusive proof yet deftly avoiding the scepticism of later historians, notably the distinguished J D Birkbeck, former deputy headmaster of Bourne Grammar School and author of A History of Bourne (1970, updated 1976) in which he questions the adequacy of evidence relating to the current castle theory.

A little thought would however help straighten the mind. The Romans were renowned for their strategic knowledge and from an examination of any of the remaining 600 castles which they built, many of them within a week by forced labour and so most were little more than watchtowers, it will be seen that they are mainly on high ground which gives the benefit of surveillance over the surrounding countryside. If there was a castle in Bourne, rather than a fortified manor house which might have existed in the hollow of the present Wellhead Gardens from where you would see nothing, it would be on a knoll or mound. Perhaps any future investigation therefore ought to concentrate on Stamford Hill which would have been a more likely location but would no doubt also be equally fruitless.

Old beliefs are only kept alive by blind faith which is why Christianity survives. They depend on the retelling of stories without knowledge or evidence. The existence of a building in the present Wellhead Gardens has never been contested, only its substance, although the hillocks that have been identified as fortifications look remarkably like spoil heaps from the extension to the river dug to power additional water mills in past times and that is as good a theory as any. It was once reckoned that Hereward's Castle was a wooden construction in Bourne Wood but the only man made structures to be found there today are a few sorry looking attempts at modern sculpture and we might wonder how long it will be before they transmogrify into something everlasting with suitable stories as to their meaning attached to them.

Thought for the week: History must be false. – Sir Robert Walpole, first Earl of Oxford, English statesman, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister, renowned for his skilful management of Parliament and originator of the phrase “the balance of power” (1676-1745).

Saturday 21^st June 2008

The busiest shops in town are undoubtedly those owned by charities because they always seem to be full of customers and their stock is ever changing. It is here that you can invariably find something you might need because the shelves are full of bric-a-brac unwanted by its original owners while the racks are crammed with clothing and as most items have the near-new look, you can imagine them being bought from a superior store but once unpacked at home, discarded because they perhaps lacked that original appeal which prompted the impulse purchase.

There are books aplenty, mostly airport bodice rippers by the likes of Jilly Cooper, DVDs and video tapes with various copies of Friends in abundance, picture frames, pottery and porcelain, glass and metalwork. There was a time when this ever changing stock provided rich pickings for anyone with a working knowledge of antiques but those days have gone because everything brought in is now carefully checked by experts to ensure that a Lalique vase, a Baccarat paperweight or even a rare boxed Dinky toy does not slip through for a few pence. Bargains may be had here but you will not buy something cheap that will later net you a fortune in the auction room or on eBay.

The advantage of running a charity shop is that the stock costs little or nothing because most of it is donated and apart from a salaried manager, the bulk of the staff are voluntary workers, giving their time free for the good of the cause, whether it be Cancer Research UK, Help the Aged or the British Red Cross, the three currently represented in Bourne, the first two in the Burghley Arcade and the other in North Street.

Now we hear that another is to open in the town centre, bringing the total to four as well as indicating an unwelcome economic trend in that the premises to be occupied by the Salvation Army are in West Street where the former tenant was an estate agent, closed as a result of the current downturn in house buying. Is this a sign that public spending is on the ebb and that customers are cutting their cloth to fit their requirements? One needs only to stand outside and watch the comings and goings to realise that this is a phenomenon that has become unstoppable because charity shops which were once given premises free of charge in that interim period between lettings have now become paying tenants in prime locations at the going market rate.

Surely this must be applauded. In an age which urges recycling on a grand scale, what better way to keep goods in circulation than to take them in at one door free of charge and send them out through another at a price while at the same time take a profit for the cause in hand although how much of this actually goes to the charity coal face or is eaten up in the expense of national administration is another matter.

Our discount shops also appear to be busier than the established retail outlets in Bourne but then no one can resist a bargain and the goods on offer are priced way below similar products elsewhere without a drastic loss in quality, often the same brand for half the money. Whether this is a sign of the current cash crisis or a manifestation of the housewife’s hunting instinct for something cheaper is debatable but perhaps this is the right time for Aldi or Lidl to move into Bourne. The supermarket premises recently vacated by Budgens have now been empty for three months and a new tenant is urgently needed. Either would bring with them reduced prices for quality food and it would only be a short time before those who said they would rather be dead than enter their stores would soon be pushing a trolley down the aisles.

Everything is going up and it will be a long time before it goes down, if ever. Living is becoming expensive and is likely to stay that way. In an ideal world we would all be able to carry on shopping as we have in the past but soon that will no longer be possible. Pensioners on fixed incomes who have become street wise have already found a way of surviving by patronising charity and discount outlets and avoiding Sainsburys whenever possible. Lidl would make their day, and maybe yours.

One of our medical centres, the Galletly practice in North Road, has decided to meet patient demands by offering appointments on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings, a progressive decision that will be welcomed by those who may think twice about taking time off work for some nagging complaint that may or may not be serious and can only be determined by expert diagnosis. This must be the way forward for general practice which in recent years has reduced the hours a doctor is available to his patients by restricting times at the surgery which have only been open nine to five (or thereabouts), Monday to Friday, even though ill health does not keep office hours.

In an ideal world, the health service should exist for the benefit of the patients and not for the convenience of the doctors and so most people would ask why it has taken so long to bring back more convenient hours. The Local newspaper tells us that this medical centre has recently earned top marks in an audit by the Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust for the third year running for its range and quality of clinical services (June 13th) and although this may be an admirable in-house achievement, it is the convenience and speed of appointments by which the public judge their family doctors. Why, they ask, is it an innovation for doctors to have weekend appointments when dentists in Bourne work on a Saturday morning as routine? Ian Robinson, the Galletly practice manager, told the newspaper: “These extra times were aimed at providing increased access for patients requiring routine pre-booked access to their doctor outside our normal working hours and are a direct response to patient views expressed in recent surveys.”

When a newspaper reported in November 2002 that our surgeries were “at breaking point”, this column suggested that doctors should work weekends to reduce the backlog of appointments but this produced an unenthusiastic reaction from a member of the Galletly practice who sent me a robust message of disagreement saying that they worked quite enough hours already, thank you, and so the latest decision to put in extra time is a most welcome change of heart.

The problem is that five-day working for general practitioners is a modern phenomenon that has crept up on us year by year whereas in times past, before the arrival of the National Health Service in 1948 and for some time after, the family doctor was always on call and, right or wrong, that is what was expected whereas today you may be taken ill in the evenings or weekends at your peril, a circumstance that is of particular worry to the old and infirm. In an out of hours emergency, the patient is unlikely to find comfort from the bedside manner of a familiar face so common in past times because those who espoused the hands on treatment fictionalised by the excellent Dr Finlay of television fame, and practised in this town by the founders of the Galletly practice, are long dead and the lifeline out of hours are now the ambulance and paramedics although the care they provide in emergencies is beyond reproach.

In 1927, Dr John Alistair Galletly (1899-1993), who had been studying in London, took over from his father, also called John, who had built No 40 North Road, home of the present practice, and thus began a lifelong love of Bourne and its people, swapping the routine of hospital work in the metropolis for a daily round of births and deaths, fractures and bruises, extracting teeth and tonsils, dealing with diseases and infections and even mixing his own medicines. At one time, he delivered more than 50 babies a year, attended road accidents, performed operations on the kitchen table, attended the Butterfield Hospital for consultations and saw patients at his surgery twice a day yet was always on call and still found time for an active public life with many organisations including Bourne Urban District Council of which he became chairman.

His night calls were many, often a hazardous expedition epitomised by his own description of walking or cycling to outlying villages in bad weather to attend emergencies, sometimes even losing his way in the dark, as remembered in his memoirs:

A worse night venture was to a farm on the other side of the Weir Dyke. There was no road across the fields to Twenty so one walked along the bank, crossed over the sluice gates that controlled the Bourne Eau, then gingerly across the Weir Dyke and, approaching the crew yard, you hugged the wall until you saw the welcome light of an oil lamp in the window. But always there was the kindness of one's patients, despite their hard living conditions, with no water laid on, no indoor toilets. You always got a cup of tea after attending a confinement and despite the conditions in which they lived, it was always served on a clean tablecloth with a slice of cake or a piece of pie.

It would be unrealistic to expect the hours that Dr Galletly worked to be emulated today but even he would have criticised the sweeping changes in general practice that have resulted in doctors working fewer hours for more pay because people’s fears in time of illness remain unchanged. Obviously, the present arrangements are better than the old ways and although today’s system is much better and far more efficient than in the past, that does not mean to say that it cannot be improved.

The role of cats in reducing our bird population has been discussed in the Forum this week and many think it quite acceptable to allow their pets stalk and kill indiscriminately. The consensus appears to be that as it is a natural act by the feline predator then we must accept it even though thrushes, robins, wrens and others are all protected species whereas the domestic moggy is not.

Our birds are part of nature but the cat is an intruder, a pampered pet, selfish and quite useless and which kills for pleasure. Furthermore, our wild birds are under threat from intensive farming which reduces their natural habitats and food supplies year after year making it difficult for them to survive whereas a cat needs only mew on the doorstep for a caring owner to open another tin of Felix or Whiskas.

Next time you see your pet stalking birds in the garden, remember that it hunts for pleasure not for food and they are currently making a drastic difference to the wildlife that survives in this country. The most recent figures from the Mammal Society estimate that cats catch up to 275 million prey a year, mainly small animals but of which 55 million are birds such as house sparrows, blue tits, blackbirds and starlings, and that will make a major difference to our native bird population.

There are deterrents, a bell round the neck, ultra-sonic devices and merely keeping them indoors, but cat owners first need an awareness of the danger their pets are posing to nature rather than accept it as inevitable and therefore do nothing about it. That would be a first step to preventing this annual mass slaughter.

Thought for the week: One of the serious obstacles to the improvement of our race is indiscriminate charity. - Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-born immigrant who became a prominent American industrialist, businessman and major philanthropist (1835-1919).

Saturday 28^th June 2008

This has been a great week for protest in Bourne and the perfect illustration that if the people speak loudly enough their voice will be heard. Firstly, the Forestry Commission has withdrawn from discussions with developers over routing a western bypass through Bourne Wood and secondly the town council has agreed to hand over the Victorian chapel in the South Road cemetery to conservationists who plan to restore the building and bring it back into useful life.

The two issues have been the main topics of discussion in the town and on this web site for the past year but in both cases there were people around with sufficient courage and energy to fight proposals which they thought damaging to our environment and heritage.

The possibility of a road through the wood and the subsequent proliferation of new housing in the vicinity mobilised an army of objectors headed by the Friends of Bourne Wood which had published the intended plans on its web site. The wave of protest led to a meeting at the Corn Exchange last week (Thursday 19th June), an unqualified success in the democratic process by bringing together all interested parties to state their case and generally clearing the air of rumour and speculation. It was also a remarkable personal achievement for town councillor Helen Powell (Bourne West) who organised the event and arranged the various speakers, even persuading our M P, Quentin Davies, to dash up from Westminster to take the chair, Paul Hill-Tout, Director of the Forestry Commission to re-arrange his business schedule to speak and Councillor Linda Neal, leader of South Kesteven District Council, who outlined the planning implications of a possible bypass route.

Around 150 people attended a most informative and lively session with impassioned pleas to maintain the tranquillity of the ancient woodland and a call for any relief road to be built to the east rather than the west, supported by interested farmers with land in that area. The Forestry Commission has now indicated that its decision was swayed by the meeting while the developers, Larkfleet Homes, have also abandoned the idea. There was only one sour note for despite the important community issue under debate, there was a poor attendance of our local councillors at town, district and county level, which was little short of disgraceful.

Councillor Powell has also been one of the prime movers in the campaign to save the chapel and now the town council has agreed to hand it over to the newly formed Bourne Preservation Society which will embark on a programme of restoration to enable it be used in the future for chosen purposes. There are still many legalities to be ironed out but the message is that the society is on its way and one of our Grade II listed buildings has been saved from possible demolition which had been intended by the council after years of neglect.

There are many to whom this town must be grateful for taking on these two worthy causes and both campaigns, vigorously fought, are a timely warning that the best way forward is not always decided in the council chamber and a sounding gong is often required to warn our local authorities when they are going wrong.

The exorbitant increase in council tax imposed by Lincolnshire Police has been scrapped by government intervention with the result that bills sent out by South Kesteven District Council and others in the county will now have to be reissued. Local government minister John Healey was unequivocal in explaining the decision to cap the increase. "This is sending a clear message to all authorities that if you set an excessive increase in council tax you can expect tough action from us to protect taxpayers", he said.

The swingeing rise of almost 80% which would have added more than £100 to our bills was roundly condemned from the start, by councillors, local authorities, M Ps and the people, yet the police authority blithely ignored these warnings and pressed ahead in total disregard of public opinion.

The announcement rescinding the increase means that the average household will now pay just £34.21 rather than the £103.77 a year for 2008-09 that the police authority had originally set. It will also have to bear the cost of re-billing every household in the county estimated at around £500,000. Councillor Mark Horn (Independent, Bourne Abbey) said in a statement that the proposed 78.9% increase in the precept was absurd and government intervention was clearly justified. "The seventeen members of the police authority who voted for it are badly out of touch with local people and should resign now", he said. "They have lost the confidence of the people of Lincolnshire."

Most households will already have felt the effects of this increase by paying three monthly instalments of the increased council tax, either by post or direct debit, but fortunately the difference will now be reimbursed. Unless it learns from this experience, there is a danger that the police authority will repeat the exercise again next year by making yet another excessive demand but members should realise that few people are willing to endorse further funds for the police to perpetuate a fiefdom and expect to see tangible evidence of its expenditure through more officers back on the beat and a firmer line taken in law enforcement.

What the local newspapers are saying: There is a popular aphorism that you cannot defend the indefensible yet senior members have been quick to explain why South Kesteven District Council is the only one of seven local authorities in Lincolnshire not to extend the hours for the use of the new bus passes with a variety of excuses, none of which ring true except that they are loath to spend the extra money. Their words fall on stony ground for although old people do have a reputation for claiming all they can get down to the last penny, the refusal to support this particular concession puts them in a postcode minority among those who pay council tax in the county and that cannot be right.

Unfortunately, not all of those councillors who are supposed to serve us, whether elected or returned unopposed, realise that their duty is to the people and not the local authority. There is also evidence that some do not understand their role or that of the council to which they belong. For instance, on the issue of the bus passes, a letter appeared in the correspondence columns of the Stamford Mercury last week (June 20th) suggesting that SKDC was a business and should be run as one even though it is quite clearly a statutory authority elected to provide public services.

The comparison came from Councillor Nick Craft (Conservative, Belmont) who tells us that he is chairman of a group on SKDC which has the remit to generate policy and watch over all aspects of the council’s finances. But if the council were a business then it would have a board of directors who, to carry the analogy to its logical conclusion, would be the councillors even though there are 56 of them which would be top heavy for even the biggest of our organisations let alone a puny one with a budget of under £16 million. More importantly, a business would not send out ever increasing demands for more to its shareholders each year because it could not make ends meet for that would be the route to Carey Street.

There is also the question of liability which affects all directors of businesses when things go amiss. For instance, would a private company allow its chief executive five months off to pedal around Europe and leave his staff to get on with it, spend over £1 million on promoting the sale of council houses only to get the answer that everyone knew they would get, spend £250,000 on fitting micro chips into wheelie bins in readiness for a weigh and pay scheme and then find it totally unworkable, invest thousands in a rural bus scheme which is eventually aborted through lack of passengers or issue laptops to all of its directors even though some were never used because they did not know how to? There have been many other questionable issues of public concern but I am sure you get the drift.

A private business would be run on very different lines, not least a much slimmer staff than the 750 currently on the payroll and jobs with more meaning than those which have been the subject of derision for their apparent futility. The cost of the bus passes would also have been envisaged by future planning far sooner than two months into the financial year in which the expenditure is to be made, as did the other six district councils in Lincolnshire which is why they have granted the concession and SKDC has not.

Shop watch: A weekly trip to Sainsburys has become a necessary evil because we have to eat and the price of petrol has rationed trips to the cheaper outlets at Stamford, especially at weekends. We usually call there around midday on a Saturday and last week, the insult of rising prices, up to 20% on some items, was exacerbated by the inconvenience in the aisles caused by huge galvanised trolleys loaded with boxed goods as staff jostled to replenish the shelves. Trying to buy fruit and vegetables was a particular hazard with frayed tempers as customers vied for space to get past while the dairy section was little better. Morrisons and others stack their shelves at night when there are few or no customers about but to cram the aisles in this way at one of the busiest times of the week is a poor advertisement for such a prestigious retail company and we heard many complaints as we trundled slowly and impatiently past. In view of the size and weight of the supply trolleys being pushed to and fro among shoppers in such a confined space, this might even be a case for the ‘elf and safety inspectors.

Saturday was the summer solstice, the longest day of the year when spring ends and summer begins. The weather was a reflection of that in past weeks, cold and wet, and so no one dare mention global warming which only makes headlines when it is exceptionally hot and the media is short of news, commonly known as the silly season, once a few weeks in high summer but now likely to surface at any time belief is suspended for the sake of filling space.

Thirty thousand people gathered at Stonehenge as dawn broke to watch the sun rise over the ancient stone circle and a cheer went up as its rays shone through from the north east to the slaughter stone and aligned with the central altar and the heel stone, the pillar at the edge of this prehistoric monument. But those who gathered here were not scientifically orientated, being Druids, hippies, sun-worshippers and other weirdoes who were there for the event rather than the occasion and would have been equally at home at Woodstock or Glastonbury.

But what exactly is Stonehenge? Now a protected monument but in recent times a marketable commodity put for sale for £100,000 a century ago because nobody wanted it and the stones certainly tampered with in recent times as a comparison of photographs and drawings from the period will prove. The supposed mystery that surrounds this place and its attended association with astronomy is most probably a myth, the striking of the megalithic henge by the sun’s rays at an exact moment a mere coincidence but sufficient evidence to provide the basis of its origins as a sacred site dating back 5,000 years.

My own theory is that these stones are little more than the site of a market or meeting place of local communities in pre-Christian times when all they wanted to do was get on with their lives and any connection with ancient rites or the sunrise on June 21st are nothing more than coincidence and conjecture.

Thought for the week: An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex. - Aldous Leonard Huxley, English writer, humanist and a leader of modern thought (1894-1963).