Bourne Diary - October 2008

Saturday 4^th October 2008

Pupils and the North Street graffiti - see "My picture . . . "

The annual fair that visits Bourne in the autumn has been a problem for many years by commandeering almost 100 spaces in the Burghley Street car park for several days each October, much to the chagrin of shoppers and workers who are deprived of somewhere to leave their cars to enable the showmen make lots of money. Criticism however has been muted in case those who make it are accused of being spoilsports.

This column has always maintained that the event should be moved out of town rather than disrupt life for so many, not least those home owners living in the vicinity who have to put up with hours of cacophonous music and flashing lights. The fair has become an anachronism, the relic of a bygone age, and although its arrival each year is still reminiscent of ancient tradition, the stalls and sideshows of today have little in common with the fairs of yesteryear and councillors need to address the issue for the benefit of the town.

A Royal Charter was granted to Baldwin Wake, Lord of the Manor, by King Edward I in 1279, enabling him hold a weekly market every Saturday and extract tolls from those who came to sell their wares. These rights passed to the Cecil family in 1564 and in recent times were acquired from the Marquess of Exeter by South Kesteven District Council who continue to hold markets on Thursdays and Saturdays but such patronage was never extended to fairs.

Until 1803, the town had a stone butter cross on the west side of the market place, ten feet high with an octagonal shaft and three steps at its base, around which the goods from farms and villages were brought in for sale such as butter, cheese and poultry, and visitors travelled in from miles around to buy their produce. From this sprang the weekly markets and annual fairs but they were quite different from the swings and roundabouts that we know today, being devoted to the sale of produce and livestock, or the hiring of servants and labourers, and any amusements that did take place were merely fringe activities.

Today, the pleasure fair continues on its own and although some may claim the rights of past centuries, this is misplaced because times have changed and our town centres have changed with them. By all means, let the itinerant showmen come as they have done in previous years but to allow them to take over such a vital area over a busy weekend is no longer acceptable and they should be given a field or meadow on the outskirts where our daily life will not be so disrupted.

The problem should have been resolved by councillors long ago but when the late Marjorie Clark (1919-2007), a councillor for over 40 years and twice Mayor of Bourne, raised the issue at a meeting of Bourne Town Council on Tuesday 23rd September 1980, she failed to get the necessary support from her colleagues. Councillor Clark pointed out that the amusement fair which visited annually was taking up badly needed parking spaces and she told the meeting:

I am disturbed that the fair can be held on one of the car parks we have left in Bourne. Surely there are other parts of the town where it could be held without causing such inconvenience. In the past, fairs have been held in Mill Drove and Spalding Road but instead we have them in the town centre on a Friday and Saturday every year when these car parking spaces would normally be heavily used.

That was almost 30 years ago and since then the situation has worsened with traffic numbers doubling and car parking becoming even more difficult but opposition to the fair has again surfaced, this time from traders who fear that their custom will be badly hit at a time when they have enough problems with the current economic crisis. Circumstances have also worsened this year through the introduction of a three-hour restriction at the Burghley Centre car park and a decision by Sainsburys not to allow staff park in its own car park at busy periods such as Fridays and Saturdays, thus putting more pressure on kerbside spaces and the existing free car parks such as Burghley Street and South Street. Jane Good, chairman of the Bourne Chamber of Trade and Commerce, told The Local newspaper (September 26th): “The fair would be better off in a field, somewhere in an open space near the town. We will see more parking on the streets which will cause more chaos than ever. Car parking is getting beyond a joke.”

There have been suggestions that the fair might be sited at the Abbey Lawn, the Wellhead Gardens or the recreation ground and someone has even had the absurd notion of putting it on the streets, closing either North Street or West Street in the process, while South Kesteven District Council is at a loss to provide a suitable response to the complaints by advising that public transport could be used for the duration of the fair, a proposal that demonstrates total ignorance of the bus services in this town. None of these suggestions therefore will solve the current problem and that can only be done by finding an out of town location which should now be a priority for those local authorities concerned with the current dilemma.

The vacancy for the Bourne Abbey seat on Lincolnshire County Council has gone to the Conservative Party with Sue Woolley topping the poll in yesterday‘s by-election called following the resignation of Mark Horn in August. We wish her well but would have preferred to see the independent candidate, Helen Powell rewarded if only for her Trojan efforts for this town in recent months. But despite a vigorous campaign, she was forced into second place which, nevertheless, is a worthy effort for someone without the benefit of the party machine behind her.

As Ms Woolley is largely unknown in Bourne, this is regarded as a political rather than a personal success and demonstrates that the people prefer a party ticket rather than community achievement and may well be an indication that come the next general election, the Conservatives will win by default, Labour having forfeited all credibility as an acceptable government, their current unpopularity indicated by the fact that the British National Party beat their candidate into third place with 239 votes.

In the by-election for the Bourne East seat on the town council, also created by the resignation of Mark Horn, a woman topped the polls with Sandra Wilson recording 616 votes, a most commendable achievement for a newcomer to our local affairs and one who appears determined to make her mark. Her success also reinforces the female majority on the town council, now filling nine of the 15 available seats while also holding all of the responsible positions, from mayor to the committee chairmanships, and so the six male members will need to be on their mettle in the future now that petticoat power reigns supreme.

My picture a few weeks ago (August 23rd) of a spoof notice announcing a graffiti designated area in Church Walk allegedly sponsored by the district council is a reminder that this is not entirely a fictional idea. In 1996, the red brick building at No 32 North Street had been standing empty for some years after being used for more than a century as a clockmaker and jeweller’s shop but its future was in doubt with the result that it soon became an eyesore in the street scene and a blight to the town centre.

Bourne Chamber of Trade and Commerce decided that something must be done. They sought the help from pupils at the then Robert Manning School to improve the appearance of the frontage and under the supervision of Adrian Spinks in the art department, produced 140 small but colourful murals of their own design which were then joined together to make two huge panels to cover the former window space and the young artists can be seen with their work in the photograph above which was taken in December that year.

The finished result looked good but was little more than an attempt to paper over the cracks of a most unsatisfactory situation and was not a lasting success and soon deteriorated because of weather and traffic grime. In 2003, the premises were sold and the following year planning permission was granted to demolish the building and replace it with new retail shop units and although it has since been pulled down, work has not yet begun on the new development and so North Street is left with an empty space which is just as much an eyesore as that which it replaced.

In the meantime, the murals created by the youngsters twelve years ago have long since disappeared and have probably been destroyed but if anyone out there knows otherwise, please let me know. Meanwhile, the hoardings along the street frontage of the site are relatively free of graffiti and we wonder how long this will last.

From the archives: At a little before 1 o'clock Thursday morning the 14th inst., Mr John Bray, coal merchant, of West Street, Bourne, was called up and informed that there was a man in his yard. It appears that Jane Birch, who had not gone to bed, heard some person in Mr Bray's yard and also heard another man tap on Mr Bray's boarded gates (which are next to the street), and say, "Come out". Mr Bray, having been informed of what was going on, immediately went down stairs partly dressed and collared the man as he was passing out of a passage next to his property; both were struggling together on the ground when two constables, who reside just opposite, and who had been alarmed, determined the contest against the stranger. He refused to give any name and denied having any associate. In his pockets were found 26 skeleton keys, several of which had works of a very peculiar construction at both ends, one or other of which it is thought probable few ordinary locks would withstand. On Friday, he was examined and gave the name of William Fettem, of Flempton, near Bury St Edmunds. He was remanded in custody. A heavy bludgeon was found on the premises, which was not there the night before, and other circumstances indicate that the accused must have been in Mr Bray's yard, though he was not caught there. He stands about 5 ft. 9 in. high, rather stout, long light hair, and only little whiskers. The "other man" made his escape. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 22nd June 1855.

Thought for the week: I dislike trouble of any kind. My idea of happiness is a clear horizon. - Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980), iconic and highly influential British filmmaker and producer, who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres both in this country and the United States.

Saturday 11^th October 2008

The Ostler memorial - see "Those who serve this town . . . "

There is evidence from past times that Eastgate has always been regarded as a poor relation of Bourne and whether real or imagined, it does seem even now that the same attention is not being given to this area as for the rest of the town. Certainly the river and its banks at this point are in a dire state and now there are complaints that the roads and footpaths are also in a disgraceful condition and much is needed to be done to bring the entire district up to standard.

Allan Roberts, who lives there, has written a long letter of protest to The Local newspaper (October 4th) remonstrating with the authorities that Eastgate has become an entirely different type of neighbourhood to the rest of Bourne and listing many defects that need attention such as weeds in the street, a broken chain link fence along the river bank which is overgrown with nettles four feet high and the waterway choked with debris.

“The whole place is an absolute disgrace”, he wrote. “It has been left unattended for the whole of the nine years since I moved here and has become a shameful, scruffy area.” He is also concerned about the coming weeks as autumn advances because “soon the leaves will start to drift down the road making it dangerous and the pavements sometimes impassable.”

Mr Roberts has a solution and that is to clear and grass the river bank, thin out the trees to allow light on to the street and make the entire locality pleasing to the eye. Eastgate, he says, is one of the very few places in Bourne where you can walk along the river bank but it needs to be tidied up to make it passable and a few seats installed for residents and senior citizens to sit and rest awhile. “Other parts of Bourne are beautiful”, he wrote. “They are maintained to the highest levels so why not here?”

Everyone will sympathise with Mr Roberts but it is doubtful if our local authorities can be spurred into action. Chris Ablewhite, landlord of the Anchor public house which overlooks the river at the back, has tried and failed. “It is quite disgusting”, he said. “We fish out of the river what rubbish we can and I have tried ringing people for help but you just go round in circles.”

The Local newspaper also took up the fight but with similar results. A reporter put the complaints to South Kesteven District Council who advised that “these specific issues” must be answered by Lincolnshire County Council and in the case of the river itself, the Environment Agency which has said that it will investigate. This is official speak indicating that nothing will be done and perhaps the time has come for residents to take matters into their own hands by forming a voluntary group to do the work themselves. Once organised, with a dozen volunteers, perhaps more, devoting a few hours on a Saturday and Sunday, the entire area around Eastgate could be transformed within weeks and so show the way for disgruntled residents in other parts of the town that may be experiencing similar problems.

This could, in fact, be the start of a new movement in Bourne to maintain and protect our environment and care for those areas threatened with neglect for one thing is certain, that we can no longer depend on our local authorities to do the work for which we pay them and very soon there may possibly be a revolt against the increasing taxes they are demanding despite a decline in the public services they are meant to provide.

What the local newspapers are also saying: An example of why our local authorities are held in such low esteem appears on the front page of the Stamford Mercury with a story that plans by South Kesteven District Council to introduce pay parking in Bourne are back on the agenda (October 3rd). Readers will be totally mystified by this announcement having been promised only last month that the issue had been shelved until completion of the long awaited and continually shelved £27 million town centre redevelopment which is not now expected until 2012. Yet we are now told that the council’s resources policy development group is to consider setting up a working party to review the situation, a revelation that totally reverses the previous decision and again brings the likelihood of parking charges to be introduced as part of the budget for 2009-10.

Just to recap on past events, proposals to introduce car parking charges for Bourne were turned down in 1998, 2001 and notably in 2004 when the scheme was eventually scrapped by SKDC after a public protest campaign raised a petition signed by more than 4,000 people. They were due to be discussed yet again by the highways and planning committee on Tuesday (September 5th) but the item was withdrawn at the last minute and Councillor Linda Neal (Bourne West), who is also leader of the council, said that the decision was the result of hard work by all of the town’s local councillors to ensure that there was no debate and there the matter rested for the time being.

Now we have a different tale and one that may well end up with motorists being charged after all. The people of this town are asking what on earth is going on when we are told one thing by our elected councillors and another by its officers, the council appearing to be a free for all and a hive of indiscipline, and the question is being asked as to who is actually running the show. After all, we are footing the bills and have a right to know exactly who is in charge.

Shop watch: Plastic bags have been removed from general issue by the checkouts at Sainsburys supermarket in Exeter Street and they are now only handed out if shoppers ask for them. This is, ostensibly, part of the war against the plastic bags which are mistakenly being blamed for damaging the planet, the ridiculous movement to allegedly offset the adverse environmental effects of global warming and climate change. The bandwagon against their use is now rolling merrily along and no thought has been given to the clear scientific evidence that they are harmless and have been demonised by faulty science.

To make them no longer freely available to customers will save Sainsburys thousands of pounds each year and it would seem to be an obvious next step to start charging for them, perhaps 5p a bag, as has already been suggested as a level of taxation by central government. As most people use these bags when they get home for recycling their kitchen waste or put them to other useful purposes, the alternative will be to buy a roll of bin liners which, surprise, surprise, Sainsburys have in stock by the shelf full.

Our M P, Quentin Davies, the member for Grantham and Stamford, who has been contributing to the Bourne web site for over five years (since May 2003), has finished writing his regular column from Westminster for the time being. He tells us by email from the Commons that the decision came after a surprise telephone call last Saturday morning from the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, asking him to join the government as Minister for Defence Equipment and Support (formerly known as Minister for Defence Procurement).

Although there is nothing constitutionally wrong with being a minister and writing a column, Mr Davies has decided that opinions expressed in future contributions could be quoted anywhere as committing the government to a particular view and has therefore decided to wind it up.

Our own view is that his column, also repeated in the Grantham Journal where it has appeared for the past 11 years and a further 10 years in the Stamford Mercury before that, has been a valuable method of keeping constituents in touch with the thoughts of our Parliamentary representative and one that should not be scrapped lightly. Mr Davies was originally elected as a Conservative candidate and has already alienated large numbers of his constituents by defecting to the Labour Party in June 2007.

Ministerial appointment is an honour but the office of M P is a duty and one that necessitates keeping in constant touch with constituents but the opportunity of hearing his opinions on a wide variety of topics from the Commons will now be lost and despite his new high profile at Westminster, he is likely to become even more remote from the very people he is supposed to represent.

Those who serve this town, whether councillors or workers for our various voluntary, charitable and religious organisations, will wish to be remembered for their role in society after they have gone. Modesty for effort may be the public face but the vanity which craves recognition is far more potent and so the chosen few get an honour or a plaque in the church or town hall while others are remembered in local histories that can be found in the public library and elsewhere.

But the greater number of our unsung heroes are totally forgotten once they have passed away because the public memory is short and fresh faces are out and about doing the work which once gave them their importance. The names of those who thought themselves of consequence may not survive the years either because the ephemeral nature of fame is such that time erodes reputation and so the movers and shakers of one generation are most likely to be totally unknown to the next.

John Lely Ostler (1811-59) lived here only briefly yet during that time he built schools, gave land and assisted in many worthy educational and charitable projects for the benefit of the less fortunate members of society and his philanthropy was so admired that within months of his death sufficient money had been raised to build a memorial, the biggest and most elaborate for anyone in the history of this town. The water fountain was erected in the market place amid great ceremony in 1860, surviving there for a hundred years until moved to avoid being damaged by passing traffic.

It was dismantled in 1962 and taken stone by stone to the town cemetery in South Road where it was reassembled on its present site but wind and weather have taken their toll and urgent restoration is needed for it to survive, work that seemed unlikely until last year when the monument was listed Grade II by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) but is now on the agenda of Bourne Town Council which is responsible for its upkeep. The council has risen to the challenge, planning refurbishment costing £25,000 and the installation of protective railings to turn it into an attractive feature of the cemetery for the future but work is unlikely to start until the necessary finance is available.

The story of John Ostler’s memorial may therefore be seen as a parable of our time for all those who labour in the vineyards of public service and voluntary effort and who wish to be remembered after they have joined the majority. His monument is the grandest ever accorded to anyone in Bourne yet it also reflects the ebb and flow of public opinion and the changing values of the intervening years because his immortality today is now entirely dependent on the balance sheet of the town council.

Thought for the week: Of those that spin out trifles and die without a memorial, many flatter themselves with high opinions of their own importance, and imagine that they are every day adding some improvement to human life. - Samuel Johnson, British lexicographer and writer (1709-84) whose Dictionary of the English Language appeared in 1755.

Saturday 18^th October 2008

The boat St Peter on a  test run - see "My recent item . . . "

One of the infuriating problems with local government is the inordinate time it takes to get anything done. Speed and simplicity are unknown in the council chambers of England where the motto appears to be that every task must be expanded to the ultimate time available and that which could be done in a day would be better if left for a month or even a year.

Charles Dickens characterised this procrastination in his novel Little Dorrit (1855) with a description of the Circumlocution Office, a satire on the dilatory and red tape bound methods of this most important department of government. No public business of any kind could possibly be done at any time without the acquiescence of the Office and whatever was required to be done it was well ahead of all other departments in the art of perceiving how not to do it. Thus we have local government today, or at least that is the public perception when considering the unexplained delays in procuring a settlement of the simplest of procedures even though the public would benefit from actions of a swifter nature.

For instance, the negotiations over the redevelopment of Bourne town centre, originally announced more than seven years ago (in August 2001), trundle on, a wagon train of indecision that leaves in its wake unsettled shopkeepers, land and property owners, and a dissatisfied populace that has long given up all hope of seeing this ambitious scheme ever coming to fruition. You may well picture officers at South Kesteven District Council poring daily over documents, attending meetings about finance, grants and land deals while councillors try to assuage public curiosity by issuing repeated statements about the progress they are making on the £27 million project, certainly one of the biggest ever handled by the authority in recent years and now involving diverse organisations and people all of whom have to agree on a final proposal which is an almost hopeless task.

But behind all of the official bustle, there is a quiet and unhurried calm, all knowing that the completion date, originally scheduled for 2007 and currently set at 2012, can as in the past, be put off again, and again, and again. We can therefore assume that the design of the new town centre has not even reached the drawing board and that the buying of the 38 properties which are needed before the first brick is even laid has hardly started while raising the money to pay for it all, always an outside possibility and even more so as a result of the current banking crisis, is still a pipe dream. But whatever the project, local government must go on, and so it does, but for its own sake rather than for the good of the public. The welfare of the district council’s 720 salaried employees and 100 casual staff come first and public services second and in the present financial climate, the redevelopment of Bourne town centre recedes even further into the land of make believe.

The cemetery chapel in South Road is also in danger of becoming marooned in a bureaucratic backwater. It was listed Grade II by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in 2007 to prevent the town council from pulling it down and last April, enthusiastic volunteers formed the Bourne Preservation Society with the intention of ending years of neglect and restoring the building for future use but after six months of valiant effort they are still no nearer getting the key to the door.

After lengthy deliberations, the town council agreed to hand over the Victorian chapel in June but the legalities of the lease have provided fresh grounds for vacillation, a working party having been drawn up to iron out the details and as anyone with a first hand knowledge of these committees will know, they are prone to diversion and more time will be wasted on discussing matters of no concern to the niceties of the document rather than passing a final draft while the building continues to deteriorate. Any chance of starting work on the roof, for instance, to prevent further erosion by wind and weather during the winter months, will therefore be lost and with Christmas and New Year looming, there is more opportunity for delaying a final agreement.

The BPS is suitably annoyed and frustrated. “We are very disappointed about the delays and that the town council is not yet prepared and unable to make a decision”, said chairman Jack Slater in a statement to the Stamford Mercury (October 10th). “It is adding to an already lengthy process.”

In local government parlance, the term working party is an oxymoron, a smoke screen to hide inactivity and in this case, conjuring up a vision of councillors burning the midnight oil to draw up a suitable document in order that willing hands might begin the work of saving one of the few historic buildings the town has left. The meetings of this five-member group will be sporadic, held at random, and by no means as industrious in the important endeavours it is meant to pursue, while its final deliberations will need to go first to committee and then to council for further discussion, thus perpetuating the traditions of the Circumlocution Office which Dickens so eloquently described 150 years ago.

The assurance that at least some of our public services are functioning well comes with a visit to the public library in South Street where I have been twice this week in pursuance of local knowledge. This is a quiet haven of study and learning and always busy with an efficient staff that knows its job and does it without fuss.

My researches usually take me into the reference section which also doubles as a computer suite with a range of machines that are always occupied while next door book borrowers browse the shelves and stock up on their reading for another week. I have frequented public libraries for over seventy years and for a small town the size of Bourne, this is as good as it gets, not grand and multi-faceted in its amenities on the scale of Lincoln or Peterborough but well above the wooden hut that served the neighbourhood where I spent many happy hours as a boy seventy years ago.

The South Street premises however are not purpose built, having been originally designed in 1963 as the headquarters for the Civil Defence but the organisation was stood down five years later leaving the building redundant and it was immediately earmarked for conversion into Bourne’s new library which opened in 1969 and has been in continuous use ever since.

Public libraries are one of the great free institutions in this country, invaluable as a source of information and knowledge and operating on the principles espoused by Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), the Scottish-born philanthropist who made his fortune in the American iron and steel industries and gave much of it away on founding and equipping libraries in England, including the first free local authority lending library to be established in Bourne which opened at the old National School in North Street in November 1924 with books donated by the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust.

Libraries need not only books but also space and any moves to relocate the Bourne facility must ensure that the present adequate premises are not exchanged for cramped conditions elsewhere. There is speculation that such a move is afoot to the Town Hall but anyone with knowledge of the early 19th century building will know that it is not suitable for a public library, especially if the available space is to be shared with others, and firm assurances will be needed that not a single square foot will be lost in the process or that the current facilities will not be eroded or curtailed in any way.

What the local newspapers are saying: Councillor Linda Neal, leader of South Kesteven District Council, comes riding to the rescue of bemused motorists with another promise that pay parking for Bourne has been put on the back burner. We reported last week that despite the issue being shelved four times in the past ten years, it was again back on the agenda but thankfully, The Local reports that it is off yet again (October 17th). Just to ensure that we all get the message, Councillor Neal has sent a letter to the newspaper outlining the current situation.

“There is no doubt that many councillors believe that car parking charges are a point of principle, bearing in mind that they have been in existence in Stamford and Grantham for some time”, she writes. “There is also an awareness of the inevitability that they will come to Bourne at some stage. The question is when. The discussion revolved around their possible introduction alongside the redevelopment of the town centre but following a lot of lobbying, common sense prevailed and I sincerely hope it is safe to say that a charging regime is off the agenda for the time being.”

So there, we hope, the matter rests for the time being and with the latest date of 2012 being set for the completion of the new town centre, we can look forward to another four years of free parking. Watch this space.

My recent item about the disgraceful state of St Peter’s Pool (September 27th) has prompted an interested reader to ask what has become of the boat which was presented to Bourne United Charities six years ago to assist staff in the particular task of keeping it clean and removing the debris. This was no ordinary gift in that the craft was built by staff and pupils from the then Robert Manning Technology College at the request of the trustees for the specific purpose of keeping the pool and the Bourne Eau clean and Robert Smith, head of the technology department, was delighted to help. A three strong boat building team was formed, headed by technician Hugh Watson with teacher Peter Lound and Mr Smith himself, assisted by a number of pupils, and a boat kit purchased at great expense which was then constructed as a community project, the task taking two months.

When complete, the boat was christened St Peter and handed over to ground staff at BUC in July 2002 much to their delight because park keeper Andrew Scotney told The Local newspaper (July 5th): “This will allow us to clear all the river around the Wellhead by removing rubbish thrown in and to clean out the nesting boxes for the ducks and swans. We are very pleased with the boat and the trustees are equally indebted to Mr Watson and his team.”

Unfortunately, apart from one outing on the river, pictured by me when intrepid sailor Robert Kitchener, secretary of the Civic Society, took it out to help clear debris from the protective grill around the mill race behind Baldock’s Mill, the boat has hardly been seen on the water since. It languished for some time unused at the staff yard in the Wellhead Gardens but has now disappeared altogether and the reader wants to know what has happened to it and why it is not being used for its intended purpose at a time when so many people in the town are dismayed year after year by the deteriorating condition of the much loved beauty spot which is continually defaced by discarded rubbish such as paper, plastic bottles and beer cans.

Coincidentally, the current chairman of Bourne United Charities is Geoff Greatwood who was head teacher at the college at that time, but retired at the end of the summer term in 2007 after 35 years, and so he is in an excellent position to provide an answer to this mystery and his reply is awaited with interest.

Thought for the week: There is nothing, absolutely nothing, half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. - Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932) British writer most famous for The Wind in the Willows, one of the classics of children's literature.

Saturday 25^th October 2008

A neglected corner of the churchyard - see "As you will see . . . "

The lengthy delay in redeveloping Bourne town centre may be a blessing in disguise. Although the project was announced in 2001, a completion date of 2012 is now being suggested but the laxity of local government coupled with the current banking crisis is likely to push it even further into the future.

Shopping trends are changing. The luxury retail units that have become so popular in the past 20 years could well be a thing of the past as customers turn to other outlets and even return to the traditional small shops of yesteryear. After all, what is the point of bringing in new shops when the old ones are having difficulty in surviving. Many of the white vans that can be seen dashing around our streets most days are owned by couriers delivering goods bought over the Internet from eBay and Amazon while all of the big stores have sophisticated web sites that offer a first class delivery and returns service which those in faraway towns cannot hope to match.

Out of town supermarkets will continue to thrive because the housewife prefers to buy all of her food and domestic products in a foray of one-stop shopping but the small, specialised shops which were a feature of our market towns are likely to enjoy a renaissance as the world slowly comes to its senses after a period of ubiquitous affluence that benefited no one except financial speculators. This would be a return to retail sanity and a redeveloped town centre on the lines that have been suggested is merely shifting our present problems to a different location and likely to become a white elephant.

Organic development is needed, that is a natural growth of shops in a social and economic climate that stimulates individual enterprise rather than corporate greed, but first one factor must be addressed, the solution to a problem that was missing from the grand plan put forward so far for Bourne town centre and that is the removal of heavy lorries and through traffic. Pedestrianisation of North Street, South Street, West Street and the upper reaches of Abbey Road would revitalise this town far more effectively than any second rate shopping precinct while at the same time our streets and shops would be given the chance to breathe. The triangle between Burghley Street, North Street and West Street earmarked for the redevelopment project contains sufficient disused land for additional car parking and such a scheme would cost a great deal less than £27 million, the figure currently being bandied about for the new town centre although everyone knows that, like the cost of the coming Olympics, this is likely to double and even treble before even a single brick is laid.

Traffic flows through Bourne have ruined this town yet councillors have repeatedly ignored the warnings since the first motor cars appeared 100 years ago. Local authorities have done nothing except paper over the cracks of a crumbling road system and now is the time for a drastic change of direction.

The town centre redevelopment scheme should be scrapped and replaced by the construction of two new relief roads, one north to south for the A15 and another east to west for the A151, both of which are achievable within the proposed budget, and so allow this town to grow naturally. Unfortunately, this will mean the involvement of not only South Kesteven District Council but also the highways authority, Lincolnshire County Council, and therein lies the problem. Roads are no longer built without pay back from housing and commercial developers and so private enterprise dictates how our towns will look. We are into a bureaucratic nightmare because the more people involved the longer it will take to reach an agreement. Bourne is therefore likely to remain unchanged for the foreseeable future while our councils will continue, overstaffed, overpaid and largely ineffective in tackling the real problems that beset us.

What the local newspapers are saying: The public toilets in Bourne Wood which were closed last month on the grounds that maintenance was becoming too costly could reopen, according to a report in The Local (October 17th) which prompts us to ask why this amenity was withdrawn in the first place. But then anyone familiar with the devious ways of officialdom will know the answer after hearing that the Forestry Commission which is responsible for the loos is in talks with Bourne Town Council and also due to meet South Kesteven District Council to discuss the same issue very soon. In other words, the lavatories will be restored as long as public money is found to pay for them and suggestions of a consultation to gather opinions merely a red herring because the subject has been so well aired in the local press and the people so vehement about their retention that anyone who does not know which way the wind blows must have been living on Mars.

Bourne Wood is a much loved public amenity and the lavatory block has been in use for the past twenty years without so much as a murmur of complaint yet the commission closed it down without warning leaving visitors to use the undergrowth. The woods are frequented by more than 100,000 people a year and have become an established tourist attraction with car parks, seats, woodland walks and a children’s play area, and are used for a wide variety of community events. One would therefore have thought that the provision of toilets for such a high profile public venue would be a necessity and that the closure of this amenity may even be in breach of the current requirements of the Health and Safety Executive.

This is the 500th edition of my diary that first appeared on Saturday 28th November 1998, so replacing the news section which began when the web site was launched the previous August. So many people from at home and abroad were visiting this site and asking questions about what was going on in the town that I decided to contribute a weekly commentary giving a personal reflection on issues and events, and resisting my wife's suggestion to call it An Old Codger Writes, I decided that it should be known simply as The Bourne Diary.

Apart from odd weeks when we were away, it has been published continuously ever since, always averaging 2,000 words, a total of more than one million, the combined totals of War and Peace and the Bible, a substantial body of work that has created a detailed chronicle embracing much of importance that has been happening in Bourne over the past ten years and every entry is still available on the web site.

The Diary has become one of our most rewarding features and it gives me great pleasure to write it, discussing subjects of topical and historic interest that have been mentioned by friends and neighbours or have been raised in the Forum or the local newspapers. My son Justin suggested that it must be very satisfying to have your own soapbox and indeed it is and although I always strive to be fair and not to give undue offence, my opinions on occasions have not endeared me to some people in the town even though I would like to be read with humour and understanding rather than outrage. But my 50 or more years as a journalist have taught me that whatever you say will not please everyone and there will always be those who regard differing views as a criticism of themselves whereas an open and inquiring mind is intellectually more stimulating. The Diary may only be a small voice in Bourne but the evidence is that we are being read and even influencing opinion and events.

Our watchword has always been common sense, a reflection of what the man in the street is thinking rather than what is being decided by those who run our affairs because the gulf between the two appears to widen with the years rather than establishing the common ground of a Utopian world. Perhaps a Diary without controversy might be welcomed in some quarters but sycophancy is not my style and it would also demonstrate that dissent was dead whereas anyone with a finger on the public pulse will know that there is still immense discontent about how our money is being spent and what is being done in our name. We do not live in an ideal world but the Internet has given the people a new voice that is both loud and immediate and is therefore being heard clearer than ever before and those who choose to ignore it do so at their peril.

I have been in the churchyard seeking to extend my knowledge of Bourne and its people but although the grass has recently been cut, it is in a poor state and maintenance does not do justice to the memory of those who lie here. Burials took place over several centuries but ended in 1855 because there was insufficient room with interments on top of one another, sometimes two and three times, and so the cemetery in South Road was opened and has been used ever since. Disuse tends to breed neglect and so it is with the churchyard, oblivious of the fact that it contains the last remains of those previous inhabitants of this town, who lived and loved here, who ran its affairs and undertook the work to keep it going, married and had children and eventually died, the more prosperous among them being able to afford a tombstone to mark their last resting place.

There is one corner with a particular poignancy and that is below the east window, an area much sought after because it catches the early morning sun and therefore contains some of the grandest memorials in the churchyard, large sarcophagi with elaborate inscriptions intended to remember the great and the good of this town. They departed this life with grand funerals and perhaps a horse-drawn hearse with black frock-coated mourners following on but here they lie, now totally forgotten in one of the most overgrown sections and few who visit have even heard of their names. Ecclesiastes 1 provides an appropriate biblical quotation: "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity."

We watched a play on television at the weekend called The Knowledge, pre-recorded from some weeks previously but originally broadcast by ITV in 1979, so providing a reminder of how much drama has deteriorated in the intervening years. This very entertaining tale of trainee cabbies finding their way around London’s streets and the very lengthy process in obtaining their coveted green badge to become licensed black cab taxi drivers, was written with perception and humour by the late Jack Rosenthal (1931-2004) and a model of what we could find on television in the days before it dumbed down to its current low level.

His dialogue was sharp, observant and very funny, the characterisation of London life superb and the production was notable for the absence of the F word, naked thrashing limbs indulging in prurient sex, violence and people squabbling and fighting, all of which appear to be essential ingredients in the offerings currently being transmitted. You could also understand every word that was said, an impossible task today when the monosyllabic utterances that dominate the modern school of television drama requires the use of subtitles if you want to know what is going on.

This production was entertainment at its best and also a reminder of the portent of thirty years ago when the prospect of wall to wall television from a hundred or more channels began to creep across the Atlantic that quantity would mean forfeiting quality and so it has proved.

Thought for the week: Television is the first truly democratic culture, the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what people do want. - Clive Barnes (1927- ), Oxford-educated writer and broadcaster who achieved prominence as theatre critic for the New York Times with reviews that influenced the success or failure of Broadway productions.

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