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Saturday 5th July 2008
Pile driving along the Bourne Eau - see "Workmen have begun .
. . "
The Battle of
Elsea Park, for that is what the current confrontation between developers and
home owners is being referred to, is now in the open after months of discontent
bubbling away underneath the surface without reaching the local newspapers. Now
many column inches are being devoted to the disagreement while the rest of
Bourne nods knowingly, never having wanted the 2,000 house estate in the first
place.
The restlessness apparently stems from the promises proffered by Allison Homes
when seeking planning permission to build on 300 acres of prime agricultural
land to the south of the town, a project that was greeted with howls of derision
from the public but with open arms by our councillors who tried to persuade the
majority that doubling in size through artificial rather than organic expansion
was the best thing that could happen to Bourne and at the heart of their case
was the S106 agreement between the developers and South Kesteven District
Council, a planning gain of community facilities which they would pay for.
It was this that was used to persuade the people to accept the inevitable,
graphically illustrated at a public exhibition of plans at the Red Hall in
October 1999 and subsequently pushed through by SKDC with a vote of 15-1 in
favour, although doubts persisted in many quarters. This column did not find
Elsea Park an unacceptable intrusion, rather an inevitability in the light of
current urban expansion, but we did sound a note of warning that S106 agreements
were usually sloppily drawn up and invariably difficult to enforce and so it has
proved.
The public was told that the development would take ten to fifteen years to
complete although there is no time schedule for the new facilities that were
included in the plan. Nevertheless, this is what Allison Homes promised:
* A primary school for local
children;
* A multi-purpose community hall;
* Sites available for a doctor's surgery and crèche;
* Cycle, pedestrian and vehicle links and a shuttle bus route through the
development;
* Sports pitches, toddler play area and nature conservation areas;
* Links to Bourne town centre and existing public footpaths to the
surrounding countryside;
* Retention of the majority of existing site features e g hedgerows,
ponds, etc;
* A south west relief road to reduce traffic congestion within Bourne
town centre;
* Measures to protect and enhance the ecology including the protection of Math and Elsea Woods, a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The relief road is the only tangible benefit so far, eventually funded with the
help of a £700,000 loan from SKDC and opened in October 2005 after 18 weeks of
enforced closure by the developers who were in dispute with Lincolnshire County
Council although the terms of the settlement have never been revealed. Now, with
500 houses completed, residents are taking direct action by forming a committee
to speed up the completion of the other facilities and some have threatened to
withhold their community charge of £236 a year in protest over the delay. In
response, the Elsea Park Community Trust, formed in 2001 to manage and maintain
the new amenities, has drawn up a revised timetable for delivery promising three
play areas, green areas and footpaths by the summer, the community centre by
June 2009 and shops by June 2010. The school, however, is unlikely to
materialise after the county council decided that it wanted all vacant places at
Bourne’s two existing primaries to be filled first which, in effect, means never
and perhaps scrapping the school was the settlement reached to get the relief
road opened.
The only winner so far is South Kesteven District Council which negotiated the
planning agreement for Elsea Park and is now reaping the benefit with an
estimated £600,000 in additional council tax payments from the houses that have
already been built although home owners have been left to fight the battle for
the promised amenities themselves. There appears to be some movement forward in
getting them but in view of recent history, the residents’ action committee
would do well to remain on standby and remember the lessons learned when
extensions to the Beech Avenue estate were approved in 1975. At that time, this
was the biggest residential development in Bourne to date and there were
promises from the developers of a new shopping centre and recreational
facilities but you will look in vain for either today.
What the local newspapers are saying:
Sainsburys continues to extend
unsocial delivery times at its supermarket in Exeter Street despite protests
from residents living in the vicinity that the noise of heavy lorries early in
the morning and late at night is ruining their quality of life. The Local
reports (June 27th) that their objections were voiced by Graham Richardson who
lives nearby at a meeting of the town council on Tuesday of last week when he
said that the firm had been periodically adding half an hour on delivery times
ever since it opened. “There needs to be thought given to the fact that this is
a residential area”, he said. “It is time to say enough is enough.”
The store opened in August 1999, coincidentally on Friday the thirteenth
although we suggested then that the management may have been misguided about the
choice of date and it has proved to be most unlucky for home owners in the
vicinity. The premises were greatly expanded in 2003 and throughout this period
there have been assurances that there would be no nuisance from heavy lorries
although that is clearly not the case because the original ten hours agreed for
deliveries have been increased over the years but then, as we have seen with
housing developers, promises made when planning permission is sought have a very
short life span. The company is obviously pursuing agreement for eventual 24
hour deliveries because it is now seeking permission for 18 hours a day, from
5.30 am until 11.30 pm Monday to Saturday and from 8.30 am until 6 pm on Sundays
but the town council refused to accept this and has sent the complaints from
residents to South Kesteven District Council with a recommendation that the
revised times be refused.
Not everyone agreed and one councillor, John Smith (Bourne West), also a member
of the district authority whose endorsement is needed, supported the supermarket
and warned that if the additional hours were not approved, shoppers could
ultimately be forced out of Bourne. “I don’t think that extending by half an
hour is unreasonable”, he said. “If we do not allow it we will find that
Sainsburys is out of stock of some of its goods and it will encourage people to
go out of town.”
Many will think that Councillor Smith’s sympathy ought not be with the store but
with the people who voted for him and who believe that he should be safeguarding
their interests rather than those of a commercial organisation and perhaps if he
lived in Exeter Close rather than out of the way in Gladstone Street where the
noise of container lorries off-loading early and late is totally unknown he
might think differently. Furthermore, if Sainsburys cannot organise shelf stocking to suit its
circumstances then it deserves to lose customers rather than nearby residents
lose their sleep. Rising prices at this supermarket are more likely to drive
shoppers to cheaper outlets out of town rather than the inadequacy of
commodities on offer while alienating the neighbours is not good for business.
A vacancy has arisen on the town council with the resignation of
Councillor Guy Cudmore who has represented the Bourne East ward since May 2000.
Nominations are now being received and it is to be hoped that younger candidates
will seize the opportunity to stand because their voice is sorely needed as
recent events have proved.
At the risk of appearing to be biased, I would also suggest that the ladies who
have joined in recent years have added a richness to the debate and activity as
well as bringing the female touch to the council chamber and the work of
Councillor Helen Powell (Bourne West) has been particularly noteworthy even
though she has held office for barely a year. But whether the winning candidate
is male or female should matter little provided they have the drive and
enthusiasm, and indeed passion, of those who are currently showing the way
things should be done in public life and here I quote the retiring councillor,
Guy Cudmore, in a posting to the Forum on Saturday 28th June: “Helen is doing an
excellent job for the people who voted for her. She may not be 100% right 100%
of the time (as I am sure she will agree) but she is doing exactly what a town
councillor in a progressive rural market town ought to be doing, raising issues
and sounding out public opinion.” Prospective candidates and sitting members
please note.
Workmen have begun repair work on the Bourne Eau behind Baldock’s Mill in
South Street, a project that is long overdue because of the state of the river
along this section. New metal piles are being driven in to strengthen the bank
for a distance of 220 yards (200 metres) and this has necessitated closing the
footpath for two weeks although there is a diversion for walkers through the
Wellhead Gardens.
The project by the Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board has been ordered by
Bourne United Charities which is responsible for the Wellhead and the War
Memorial Gardens and it is to be hoped that the work will also include the
reinstatement of the footpath along the course of the river from South Street to
the meadowland once occupied by the water cress beds and thence to the park
itself. In periods of heavy rain, water has seeped from the river across the
path which has become neglected and overgrown, muddy in wet weather and
dangerous underfoot, and in view of the number of walkers who regularly choose
this route it is surprising that there has not been a nasty accident.
BUC also needs to look at the state of St Peter’s Pool, our ancient spring whose
origins are lost in the mists of time, yet so badly neglected that it has for
many years been the subject of criticism and has become a poor advertisement for
this town. Algae and weed persist year after year and one of the row of weeping
willows on the eastern side which died several years ago has only recently been
felled but the remaining stump needs to be removed and a mature tree of
reasonable height planted in its place. All beauty spots need tender loving care
and the trustees have a duty to the community to ensure that those under their
stewardship are regularly maintained for the enjoyment of the people and as a
memorial to those who provided the money to make it all possible in the first
place.
Thought for the week: The new Chief Constable of Lincolnshire [Richard
Crompton] has a very impressive CV, a degree in politics and economics followed
by being in charge of force-wide community affairs, then a master’s degree in
organisational studies and attending a strategic command course. Since joining
the force as deputy chief constable, he has been responsible for strategic
development, professional standards, legal services and information and
communications technology. All of this sounds rather splendid and no doubt
personally very rewarding, but does he have any actual experience investigating
crime and catching criminals or is this no longer a high priority in today’s
police service? - letter to the Stamford Mercury from A L Stubbs, Saxon Way,
Bourne, Friday 27th June 2008.
Saturday 12th July 2008
The National Health
Service celebrates its 60th birthday this week and only those who knew the
conditions of previous years can really appreciate the benefits it has brought.
Put aside the complaints that surround any institution of this magnitude for
they will always be with us and think for a moment what it was like before the
days of the modern clinic and a largely efficient system of free consultation
and treatment.
For those who do not know what it was like, and this will include the majority
of those who work in the NHS today, doctors, nurses and ancillary staff, here a
is a glimpse of conditions in the 1930s when I was growing up.
Forget the good old days because they were no such thing. These were times of
poverty, hunger and a low awareness of hygiene. We lived in constant dread, not
only coughs and colds, cuts and bruises which were always with us, but of the
very real possibility of contracting one of the more dreadful diseases which
were ever present in large working class communities and which were the subject
of constant discussion among the neighbours gossiping at their front gates,
scabies, impetigo, mumps, measles, diphtheria, chicken pox, scarlet fever,
meningitis, and worst of all, tuberculosis, all of which came into our street
unannounced and claimed their victims.
These were the days of the panel patient system when, for the payment of one
shilling each, the family's names would be added to the doctor's list of those
he would be obliged to attend although subsequent treatment and medicines would
have to be paid for at the time. We were registered with the nearest available
medical practice, a partnership of two doctors which operated from a private
house on the main road into town. Our doctor was the junior of the two, a
bachelor, and as his much older partner was married with a family and had a fine
house near the park, he lived upstairs while the ground floor was used for their
consultations, both having a room as their surgery. There were no other staff. A
sitting room across the hall was used as a joint waiting room, with an
aspidistra in the corner, velvet curtains, upholstered chairs around the wall
and a walnut loo table in the middle strewn with old magazines.
Surgery hours were either in the morning before midday or the evening after 5
pm. There was no organised system of appointments but each patient made a mental
note of who was in the waiting room when they entered and then took their turn
as the doctors tinkled on their respective handbells after the previous patient
had left and everyone who turned up was seen. Our doctor, wearing a crumpled
grey suit and often puffing at his pipe, sat in a swivel chair in front of a
roll top desk from where he diagnosed, dispensed advice and even performed small
operations such as the removal of an ingrowing toe nail or the lancing of a
boil, washing his hands afterwards in an enamel bowl which stood in the corner
of the room, filled periodically from a large pottery ewer. If you needed a
prescription he would disappear into a back room and return after a few moments
with a bottle of jollop or a box of pills. He always seemed to be on call and
would come to the house whenever required and he knew everyone by their first
names, even the children, having delivered most of them in the front bedroom at
home. If a case was destined for hospital, he would arrange it, usually from the
nearest telephone kiosk, and oversee the admission, sometimes taking the patient
there in his car if it was an emergency. It was an intimate and reassuring
relationship with the doctor as a respected member of the community.
This very special association between doctor and patient has largely gone. In
its place, we have a system designed to meet an expanding community with the
accent on prevention rather than cure and it works, with an efficient
arrangement of appointments and treatment. What we have lost is the personal
touch, never knowing whether we will see the same doctor on our next visit or if
we are taken ill, but a new professionalism is evident, distant but basically
dependable, and patients feel safe and secure in the knowledge that they are in
good hands and come the worst, they have the mighty resources of the National
Health Service at their disposal.
It has survived for 60 years but the strain of
continuing to serve an escalating population while at the same time addressing
rising costs is beginning to tell and although successive governments have made
it a priority we are no nearer finding a solution and many believe that the
system is at breaking point. This may be an extreme assumption because the NHS
must and most certainly will survive and we all hope that it will do so without
drastic changes that will deny its original intention of providing medical care
for all from the cradle to the grave.
What the local newspapers are saying: Everyone knows that rubbish bins
smell yet for some strange reason not all councillors agree. They are a nuisance
which gets worse in summer and the problem has been exacerbated since wheelie
bins were introduced by South Kesteven District Council almost two years ago
because they are now emptied only once a fortnight for the first time in a
century.
Lift up the lid of the black wheelie and carry out the nose test on a hot day in
June and the result is undeniable because no matter what precautions are taken,
it pongs and it attracts flies and therefore maggots after a short period of
time. These bins are intended for kitchen waste destined for landfill sites and
that means discarded meat, fish, vegetables and fruit, all of which begin to
decompose immediately and therefore give off an unpleasant odour which increases
in strength as the days go by and the temperatures rise and no amount of plastic
or paper wrapping can contain it. If the bins were left outside food outlets
such as restaurants, cafés and public houses, they would soon invite a visit
from environmental health officers investigating violations of the hygiene
regulations yet domestic premises are expected to keep them unemptied for up to
two weeks.
Discussions in the council chamber over whether they do smell and should
therefore be empted weekly are little more than window dressing because the
decision has been taken by the inner cabinet on the advice of the officers and
it is left to councillors to persuade the public that it is the right one.
Hence, the report in The Local newspaper (July 4th) of a recent meeting
of SKDC when one councillor rightfully suggested that bins should be emptied
weekly during the summer months but Councillor John Smith (Bourne West), a
member of the cabinet, remarked: “I don’t believe that there are problems of
smells provided that waste is put into bags beforehand.” The suggestion was
therefore rejected and no matter what evidence to the contrary the public puts
forward, the official council line is that bins do not smell whereas we all know
that they do which is further proof that George Orwell had it right.
In past times, rubbish was dumped everywhere, in the countryside, alongside
roads, in dykes and drains and particularly in the Bourne Eau, until once a week
rubbish collections were introduced under Disraeli's Public Health Act in 1875
which imposed new standards of sanitation on local authorities in an attempt to
stamp out cholera and other diseases spread by contaminated waste which claimed
large numbers of lives. It took some years for the scheme to be implemented
throughout the country but by the turn of the century weekly collections of
domestic rubbish were being made in Bourne on a sporadic basis until a
regularised scheme was introduced by Bourne Urban District Council in 1911. This
arrangement continued until September 2006 when SKDC brought in the
controversial wheelie bins to be emptied once a fortnight with little or no
liaison with the public, thus overturning the right of householders to have
their refuse collected at least once a week which has been recognised over the
years as being essential to the nation’s health and quality of life.
For most people, the rubbish collection is the only tangible return they have
for being charged £1,200 or more a year in council tax. The regular emptying of
their bins is at the very cutting edge of the authority’s existence and for that
reason alone we should assume that the service is second to none but instead it
falls short of our expectations and in doing so reflects badly on the council’s
reputation.
Can we live with it? Of course, but there are unmistakeable health dangers
especially in those households where there are children who are particularly
vulnerable because they are not aware of the risks while some older people can
be less responsive than they were. Yet the council refuses to revert to weekly
collections, for no other reason than cost. The money needed is not available
because expanding income is being swallowed up by staff salaries, holiday
entitlements and pensions with the result that there is less to spend on their
primary role of providing public services.
There is then no alternative. We are into a climate of paying more and getting
less, the reduction in refuse collections being one example while the cut back
in the South Kesteven dial-a-ride bus service for the elderly and disabled
revealed this week is another. We can expect more similar economies in the
future, the adverse effects of which will be denied by councillors despite
overwhelming evidence from the people who have to put up with them. That is the
face of local and national government today and you may ask where our money is
actually being spent but you will ask in vain.
Carpet layers in past times have a lot to answer for as we have
discovered this week during our refurbishment of the lounge and dining room
which was last given a new fitted floor covering when we moved here 25 years
ago, succumbing to the blandishments of a silver tongued representative about
edging and underlay.
We were perfectly satisfied with the result until last weekend when we had to
remove the lot in readiness for a new carpet only to find that the old one had
been stuck down at the edges with a heavy duty industrial adhesive and had
deteriorated into dust in some places resulting in a day to lift and clean up.
This was not what was promised at the time and if the culprit were in business
today I would readily name and shame him. How many other homes suffered the same
fate in those days when the sale of fitted carpets was cut throat competition
and reps would say anything to close a deal. Are today’s purveyors of carpets
any different or will the stuff we tread on in the coming years also hide
unwanted nasties for the future?
The moral is an unfortunate one in that you may be told anything by anyone
trying to sell something whether snake oil or Axminster and you buy at your
peril. In today’s climate, the customer has become the victim and no matter what
you intend to purchase you are at an immediate disadvantage because you want it
and they dictate the terms and conditions, no matter how they wrap up and
obscure the small print. Caveat emptor has never been more meaningful than it is
today when money comes before service.
Thought for the week: The Daleks of television fame are better known to
the younger generation than our wildlife, ninety per cent of children being able
to identify them but one in three do not know what a magpie looks like and less
than half can recognise a barn owl, according to a survey by the National Trust
as part of a campaign to persuade more families spend time outdoors.
-
reported by BBC Ceefax, Tuesday 8th July 2008.
Saturday 19th July 2008
A little bit
of
Bourne's motor racing history went under the hammer last week with the sale of a 1934 ERA built by Raymond Mays and his team. The A-type prototype single seater racing Voiturette (chassis No R1A) was sold by Bonhams of London during a
major auction of motor cars and memorabilia at the Goodwood Festival of Speed,
held at Chichester, Sussex, on Friday (July 11th).
The auctioneers said that the ERA was a wonderfully evocative and historically
important racing car with a career that has been woven into the very fabric of
British and European road racing lore, celebrated during its 74 years of life as
the first of the iconic English Racing Automobiles, the classical Old English
Upright ERA.
English Racing Automobiles Limited was formed on 6th November 1933 to
manufacture single seater racing cars capable of upholding British prestige in
Continental European road racing. By modern standards, the reason might seem a
little overblown but in the early 1930s the combination of extreme patriotism
and intense frustration had fired the imagination of a wealthy British racing
enthusiast who had been unable to buy a competitive British car in which to go
motor racing internationally.
Humphrey Cook had been competing at amateur level since before the First World
War when he had raced at Brooklands. He had inherited a fortune at the age of 12
when his father had died, leaving him the thriving wholesale drapery firm of
Cook Son & Co, of St Paul’s Churchyard, London. Burly, shy and an intensely
private man, Cook became a confirmed motor racing enthusiast and a leading
competitor in sprint and hill climb events when his main rival on British
circuits was Raymond Mays from Bourne.
Cook had toyed with the idea of creating his own racing car factory and was
immensely impressed by the sheer power and speed of Raymond Mays’s latest hill
climb mount, the White Riley, and so a prototype in readiness for the 1934
racing season was inevitable, built by Mays at the new factory premises in the
old maltings adjoining his home at Eastgate House. Thus the ERA was born.
The R1A has had a distinguished history including the first long distance win in
the 1934 Nuffield Trophy at Donington Park when it was driven by Raymond Mays
and a victory in an International Voiturette race by first owner ex-works, Eugen
Bjornstad, at Turin, Italy, in 1937. A distinguished international racing career
has been followed by more than 50 years of appearances at historic motor racing
events by successive owners and as the auctioneers advertised in their catalogue
“now it can be yours”. What a coup of if had been bought on behalf of Bourne for
display at the Heritage Centre which has an entire floor devoted to the life and
career of Raymond Mays and his involvement with the ERA and BRM. But it was not
to be and the car
was sold instead without reserve for £359,000, inclusive of buyers' premium, to
a racing enthusiast who preferred to remain anonymous.
There is a lot of official talk about new uses for the town hall and
particularly of transferring the library there. What we should suspect is the
intention because ideas such as this are never floated by councils with the
promise of public consultation unless a decision has already been made, thus
making the entire process superfluous.
If changes are to be made with the library then they must be for the better
because this is a most valuable facility and one that has served this town, in
one form or another, for 150 years and to reduce the facilities or the space it
occupies would be a retrograde step for the community.
The first public library opened in Bourne in 1865 when the population was 3,730
(1861 census) and the present much larger premises were opened in South Street
in 1969, by which time the population had doubled to around 6,500 (1971 census
figure). The library was greatly enhanced in 1983 and there have been further
improvements since to what we see today with an excellent reference and
children’s section, a bank of computers and a reading room. At the same time,
the population has risen to around 12,000 and continues to increase at its
fastest rate in history, thus giving the library the greatest readership since
it began. Any change of venue therefore will have to reflect the standard that
has already been achieved with an amenity that matches a larger community and
not just a few bookshelves tucked away in a corner for occasional callers.
This question of space is of vital importance because the town hall is not a
large building and already houses the offices of South Kesteven District Council
and the Town Council. The suggested scheme drawn up by Lincolnshire County
Council, which currently owns the building, will add to the available customer
facilities, thus creating a one-stop centre of council services with the library
and private facility rooms on the ground floor and a lift to the upper floor
which could house a computer suite and a meeting area for the town council. It
is also planned to relocate the registrar of births, marriages and deaths,
currently based in West Street, which would increase the pressure on available
space.
There is also the question of parking for although the car park behind the town
hall is convenient, it is usually full, especially on Thursday market day and
Saturday when motorists compete for spaces, and additional staff at the town
hall would take up even more, whereas the existing library premises in South
Street are perfectly adequate in their present role, having a small area for
parking which will take sufficient cars to meet the steady turnover required
during the day.
I have already heard it suggested that the current discussion is not really
about the future role of the town hall but of the public library in South Street
and, just as importantly, the fire station site next door. It is only a few
months since the entire library service for Bourne was under threat from reduced
hours and staff with some ridiculous survey suggesting that readers would
somehow benefit but fortunately that has been shelved for the moment.
Moving the present library facilities therefore may not be the main motivation
of this particular exercise and the primary objective could well be the closure
of the South Street building and the adjoining fire station, thus leaving the
way open for a lucrative sale of land for private housing in a prime location
immediately adjoining the Red Hall, not much of a prospect at the moment with
the downturn in the property market but that will pass and when the good days
return, so will the profit on land for residential development.
This, of course, is speculation, but when the consultation gets underway in
August, the people should make their voices heard to ensure that any transfer of
location for the library will not entail a reduction in space and facilities for
to do so will indicate that this is nothing more than another cost-cutting
exercise by our local authorities trying to balance budgets beleaguered by
salaries to many overpaid jobsworths and other staffing costs at the expense of
public services.
One of those quaint English customs, the famous Dunmow Flitch trial, took place
on Saturday when visitors flocked to the small Essex town to hear young couples
defending their marital bliss before a judge and jury. Unlike many other such
ceremonies, this one does have some provenance because it is mentioned by
Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales, written during the 14th century, and
it is now an annual event in which six maidens and six bachelors who have been
married for more than a year must successfully testify that they have never had
a quarrel or a cross word or "not wished themselves unmarried again", the prize
for the winner being a flitch, or a side, of bacon.
The custom originated in 1104 and although it has not actually been held every
year since then, it has certainly caught the public imagination after being
featured in a novel, The Custom of the Flitch, by the Victorian writer Harrison
Ainsworth in 1855 and it is he who is credited with reviving it as the civic
event it is today.
Bourne has had its own flitch trial, now practically forgotten, but held in 1934
to raise funds for the Butterfield Hospital and considered to be sufficiently
important to be broadcast on the wireless by the BBC, a rare honour for such
small a town such as this when radio broadcasting was in its infancy. The Corn
Exchange was packed for the occasion on Friday 21st September, most people
curious to see the celebrity who had been engaged to appear as the judge,
Stainless Stephen, a Yorkshire comedian who had achieved nationwide fame, who
was paid eight guineas for the engagement.
Three couples had agreed to plead their marital fidelity and all were
represented by local solicitors who had volunteered to join in the fun together
with a jury consisting of seven spinsters and six bachelors from the town. The
flitch was won by Mr and Mrs Reginald Fritchley of Scunthorpe and was presented
by local businessman, Mr Albert Wherry OBE, vice president of the Butterfield
Hospital which benefited from £40 raised by the event. The humour was naïve and
unsophisticated by today’s standards but it was an evening of good fun and there
could be no one, whether in the audience or at home listening to the radio, who
did not enjoy themselves. Stainless Stephen had obviously done his homework
because his remarks were laced with references to local places and people and as
one newspaper reported afterwards: “He made thousands ache with laughter.
Everyone who saw the trial, quite apart from the thousands who heard it over the
air, agreed that it was a great success.”
Driving is a privilege and not a right and we have a duty to carry it out
carefully and with consideration for other road users at all times. This
convention is taught by instructors and is enshrined in the Highway Code and the
law of the land yet there are those who think that it does not apply to them and
they flaunt it at the peril of the rest.
There is something about the motor car that sparks this aggressive behaviour
because their personality seems to change when they get behind the wheel, as
though the mighty engine under the bonnet has bestowed on them unseen powers,
ready to do their bidding at the touch of a pedal or flick of a switch, whereas
they may be quite ordinary people really. But they regard their car with a high
degree of veneration and believe that they can drive it as they like with little
regard for others on the road, even bullying them if they get in their way.
I encountered one such person on Sunday afternoon around 4.30 pm while
travelling home along the A15 from Peterborough and soon after leaving the
Market Deeping bypass, his car, a dark coloured saloon, appeared on my tail.
From then on until we reached Bourne, he continually harassed me, driving to
within inches of my bumper, sounding his horn and gesticulating through the
windscreen.
The cause of his ire must have been my speed because I am no longer a fast
driver after some 60 years on the road. This is a case of experience and
awareness of present road conditions rather than a lifetime’s habit, because I
am no stranger to high speeds having been a Jaguar owner for 25 years, clocking
up many thousands of miles throughout Britain and the Continent (Brussels to
Ostend in 60 minutes)
but now with my modest family Rover prefer to stick to 50 mph which is why I
avoid motorways. I am happy with that and it is a perfectly legitimate pace but
does not please some.
The aggravation continued through Langtoft, Baston and Thurlby villages where I
slowed each time to observe the 40 mph limit yet he was still there on my tail
urging me on to go faster although for what reason I do not know. Perhaps he had
an appointment, was late home with a nagging wife waiting or some other urgent
reason for his arrogant hostility although there is nothing so important that
can excuse such discourteous and even dangerous behaviour. After the Elsea Park
roundabout, I signalled with much relief and turned right into Cherry Holt Road
and his car sped past into Bourne, his klaxon blaring out a rude message as he
disappeared round the corner at twice the speed limit for that stretch of road.
These pests have been with us ever since cars first made their appearance when conduct designed to annoy and endanger others by wanting
the carriageway to themselves resulted in the term road hog being coined in the
late 19th century. Anyone who has had a similar experience to mine on Sunday must agree that
this is an insult to pigs.
Thought for the week: There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German polymath and writer spanning the fields
of poetry, drama, literature, theology, humanism and science (1749-1832).
Saturday 26th July 2008
This month is the 70th anniversary of the Mallard locomotive setting a
new world speed record for a steam railway engine as it streaked down the east
coast main line in the summer of 1938. This tremendous feat was achieved on a
stretch of track near Little Bytham on the B1176 four miles south west of
Bourne. The station closed in 1969 but the village maintains its
reputation and is a popular haunt of railway enthusiasts, nestling around a
grand Victorian viaduct that carries the line over the road between London and
Scotland.
Even the local public house, a 16th century hostelry once known as the Green
Man, changed its name in 1975 to The Mallard because of the growing interest in
railways and the steam engine record and although it closed in 2002 and is now a
private residence, it has been called Mallard House as a reminder of the famous
event.
It was on this section between Grantham in Lincolnshire and Peterborough that
the record was broken by the Mallard hauling seven coaches weighing 240 tons,
achieving the highest speed ever ratified for a steam locomotive of 126 mph over
a distance of 440 yards. On the footplate were two Doncaster men, Driver Joseph
Duddington at the controls and Fireman Thomas Bray feeding the boiler with coal.
The stretch of track between Grantham and Peterborough was chosen for the record
attempt because high speeds had been attained there before. From Stoke tunnel,
south of Great Ponton station, there is a steady falling gradient and the line
slopes all the way to Little Bytham and after passing through the tunnel, the
train is able to gather speed which reaches its peak near Little Bytham, so
making the next stretch to Essendine the fastest between London and Scotland.
The Mallard had started its journey at Doncaster and passed through Grantham
station at a modest 24 mph. In the next two miles, it accelerated to 59¾ mph,
then 69 mph with Fireman Bray shovelling furiously to keep the fire burning at
its maximum to supply all the steam needed as the engine thundered southwards.
The train swept past the mile posts at the side of the track at an ever
increasing pace, recording speeds of 87½ mph, 96½, 104, 107, 111½, 116, 119 mph
and then, at the ensuing half-miles, 120¾ mph, 122½, 123, 124¼ and finally 126
mph, by which time the 6ft. 8in. driving wheels were doing more than 500
revolutions a minute. The train was clocked passing Little Bytham station at
4.36 pm and reaching Essendine, a little under three miles away, at 4.37 pm. It
had maintained a speed of over 120 mph for more than five miles and had clocked
126 mph over a distance of 440 yards and so the record was secure.
The engine, an A4 LNER Pacific No 4468, now in the National Railway Museum at
York, was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley (1876-1941) who is buried in the
churchyard at Netherseal, Derbyshire, and visitors come from all over the world
to see his grave. Unfortunately, it is badly neglected and although there has
been talk of raising funds to restore it to the high standard his historic
achievement merits, nothing has been done. He deserves better.
What the local newspapers are saying: A substantial contribution from the
town council to help pay for the restoration of the Victorian chapel in the
South Road cemetery may be in doubt, according to the Stamford Mercury
which reports that some councillors are unwilling to recommend financial backing
for the project now being undertaken by the newly formed Bourne Preservation
Society (July 25th).
The council has £40,000 that has accrued in its cemetery development fund and it
was hoped that this would give the new organisation a much needed initial boost
in its efforts to ensure that the building is restored for future use. But when
the issue was discussed at a meeting of the finance and general purposes
committee on Tuesday, there was a 4-3 vote against doing so and this could be a
major blow to those dedicated volunteers who have taken on the preservation
project and indeed, the town in general.
The decision is also morally indefensible because the stewardship of the
cemetery has been in the hands of the town council since it was formed in 1974
and it is the lack of maintenance and repairs since then that has allowed the
building to deteriorate. Liability for its upkeep was virtually abandoned by the
authority while the money destined for its upkeep was salted away. This is
therefore now the right time and the right purpose for it to be spent.
Unfortunately, many of the present councillors have made no secret of their wish
to see it pulled down but the people have spoken on this issue, that they want
it preserved for future use as part of our heritage.
Fortunately, the committee’s decision is not final and will come before the full
council at its meeting on Tuesday 5th August when it is hoped that a fairer and
more reasonable judgment will be made. In the meantime, all councillors need to
remember that the preservation of the chapel is a decision that has been taken
by the people who felt sufficiently aggrieved about its neglect to have it
protected with a Grade II listing by the government and then form a society to
restore it, whereas its demolition is little more than a notion of the few. The
choice therefore is a simple one.
The free newspaper issued by Lincolnshire County Council continues to
arrive with alarming regularity and telling us absolutely nothing of interest
about the affairs of the authority other than adulatory items about councillors
and officials while clocking up thousands of pounds in unnecessary costs, money
which could be spent wisely elsewhere. The latest edition of County News
which is distributed to 320,000 homes free of charge is dated for July/August
with a front page announcement that it is taking a summer break and will return
in September.
The most junior members of the fourth estate will know that any publication that
can afford to be absent for an entire issue is not worth the paper it is printed
on thus proving the point that content is manufactured to fill the space at a
time when the council tax to pay for it rises inexorably, 80% over the past ten
years and a further 120% increase in charges for services such as parking. The
Chancellor, Alistair Darling, put it in a nutshell at the weekend when he said
that taxpayers can bear no more and perhaps now is the time LCC might start
cutting its costs by axing this totally unnecessary publication that has already
eaten up more than £2 million since it was launched in February 2003, money that
would have been better spent on other more important projects such as providing
Bourne with a bypass.
The proposed fencing around the Abbey Lawn does not appear to be moving
forward because Geoff Greatwood, chairman of the trustees of Bourne United
Charities which administers the grounds on behalf of the town, told the
Stamford Mercury that there were no immediate plans to apply for planning
permission, the approval needed from South Kesteven District Council to proceed
with such a project within the town’s conservation area (July 4th).
It will be remembered that iron railings six feet high to enclose this ancient
space in the hope of deterring vandals were originally suggested as long ago as
October 2006 yet all we have seen so far is a test section erected along the
Abbey Road frontage which dispelled fears that it might be obtrusive because it
turned out to be an acceptable design, a metal palisade consisting of closely
constructed pointed railings painted green to match the surrounding trees and
shrubs, but there the project appears to have halted.
There are obviously sympathies with Bourne Town Football Club, the prime movers
for a security fence, because they have been plagued by vandals over the years
although many believe that it will not deter them whereas a stronger police
presence, especially in the evenings and at weekends, would have a far greater
impact but that appears to be an unlikely eventuality.
Perhaps the delay in pursuing the project has something to do with the public
right of way over the land from Coggles Causeway to Abbey Road because under the
Countryside Rights of Way Act 2000 a fence of this nature might be deemed to be
an illegal obstruction. If and when it is erected, it is proposed to lock the
gates at nightfall allowing entry only to those who use the football club
premises and those of other sporting organisations who would be issued with a
key but to shut off the right of way would be an illegal act.
It has been said that no right of way exists because it cannot be found on the
Ordnance Survey maps but this is incorrect. Public rights of way are created
after twenty years if used by the public at large and the only way this can be
avoided is if the owner has publicly shown that he does not want a right of way
created which is not the case here. The path through the Abbey Lawn has been in
use without challenge since the present owners took over in 1934 and most
probably for a century before that and certainly within the lifetime of many of
our senior citizens, including myself. District and county councils are required
to keep copies of definitive maps showing the location and classification of
every public right of way in their area as conclusive evidence that it exists
but because a path is not on the map it does not follow that it is not open to
the public.
If this ancient right of way over the Abbey Lawn is to be tampered with in order
to close the grounds after dark, then BUC would need to make a formal
application to Lincolnshire County Council which has this responsibility
although it should be remembered that rights of way are ancient privileges that
are not easily given up and that either extinguishing or diverting them is
likely to attract the attention of conservation organisations, not least the
Ramblers’ Association, and even result in a public inquiry.
In the light of the recent warning to local councils about the way they
have been using their surveillance powers to investigate petty crime, the
question is whether the motor bike rangers appointed by South Kesteven District
Council last year to pursue and film litter louts, graffiti and dogs that
dirtied the pavement will continue in their role.
Certainly the high profile which heralded their appointment in March 2007 has
not been maintained and the number of people who have seen them in action is
extremely small. This particular project cost £100,000 to launch and the two
enforcement rangers, as they were called, were issued with Honda Transalp 650 cc
motor cycles equipped with video cameras and briefed to patrol streets, paths,
parks and the countryside ready to issue spot fines of £75 to anyone failing to
collect the excrement from their pets. Those who refused to pay would be warned
that footage from surveillance equipment is acceptable as evidence in court
which is empowered to impose a maximum penalty of £1,000.
This surely comes into the category of the over zealous use of surveillance
powers criticised by the Local Government Association and although only one is
now employed in this capacity, a mere 16 spot fines have been issued since the
project was launched which does not seem to be a good way in which to invest
council resources. Perhaps Councillor Nick Craft (Conservative, Belmont) can
justify it. He is chairman of the group which monitors all aspects of the
council’s spending and you may remember that he told the Stamford Mercury
recently (June 20th) that SKDC was a business and run as one despite its role in
providing public services. Few people, however, will know of any private
organisation that would sanction spending of this magnitude on such a
preposterous venture that has now been roundly condemned at national level.
Thought for the week: The government consists of a gang of men exactly
like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the
business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office.
- Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956), better known as H L Mencken, journalist,
satirist, social critic, cynic, and freethinker, often regarded as one of the
most influential American writers of the early 20th century.
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