Bourne Diary - November 2012

Saturday 3^rd November 2012

The ambulance station at Bourne has been earmarked for closure and an exercise to test public opinion is underway. This is as it should be because consultation is a regulatory process by which our input on matters affecting them is sought, the main objectives being to improve the efficiency, transparency and involvement in large scale projects, laws and policies.

Unfortunately, public consultations at all levels of government do not have a good reputation and are generally seen as a half-hearted attempt to involve the people in the decision making process while at the same time sticking to the resolution that has already been made behind closed doors. There are many examples of this, especially from our local councils which have been a regular subject of discussion in this column, and now the latest comes from the East Midlands Ambulance Service which wants to close 66 ambulance stations across the region and replace them with 131 standby points, hubs and community posts based at police and fire stations or health care premises.

Bourne has had an ambulance service for more than eighty years and the station in South Road, Bourne, which has been operating since 1980, is among those scheduled for closure, to be replaced by standby points at Morton in the north and Market Deeping in the south, both of which will obviously be totally inadequate, consisting only of a place for ambulances to park and wait between calls but without any rest facilities for the crews while the nearest hubs will be situated at Sleaford and Lincoln. This is a most unlikely scenario for the success of future operations despite assurances that the new system will help improve response times, an objective that should not be beyond EMAS because according to The Local newspaper (27th July 2012), the service currently has the poorest record in the country in meeting targets for ambulance arrival times and so even the slightest acceleration would be an improvement.

A public consultation would therefore be beneficial in order that the people can register their protest and there are sure to be many who are afraid that the entire future of the ambulance service will be at risk if these far reaching changes go ahead. But the nearest event was at the George Hotel Business Centre in Stamford for three hours on Wednesday morning, hardly a convenient time for anyone to lodge their opinion and we may be forgiven for thinking that perhaps this was done on purpose to minimise objections.

Few people even knew about it and the inconvenience in getting to Stamford for a mid-week morning meeting was a major deterrent to most, especially the elderly who fear any reduction in the ambulance service at this vulnerable time in their lives when emergencies are a distinct possibility.

Certainly questions were asked about the lack of advance publicity when the meeting was held on Wednesday with around seventy people attending, many of them unhappy about the proposals including several local councillors who spoke out against them but The Local Online reported (October 31st) that there was a distinct scepticism about whether their comments would make any difference. Despite this, the EMAS team headed by commercial director Andrew Spice, sought to reassure the meeting that the comments would be taken on board. “We are listening to this consultation”, he said, “and things will be changed and refined as a result of the feedback today.”

For those who did not make it to the meeting, feedback forms may be downloaded from the EMAS web site and there is the inevitable telephone number but this is Bourne’s own ambulance station that is facing closure and the people of this town should therefore have been given the opportunity to make their protest on home ground.

The consultation runs until December 17th and after that, the proposals will be considered by EMAS in January and if approved, the changes will be implemented by April 2018 but the majority opinion appears to be that the entire scheme is already a done deal, that the ambulance service is not listening and has no intention of doing so.

There is now an opportunity for South Kesteven District Council to change an ill-advised decision made earlier this year not to allow all night trading at the new filling station being built on the A15 to the south of the town, the biggest garage development in the history of Bourne. It will be run by Texaco and is likely to include a sandwich bar and a grocery shop, similar to those filling stations now operating in the larger conurbations around Britain, but when planning permission was granted earlier this year, the council restricted opening hours from 6 am until 11.30 pm because of concerns about the effect of noise on neighbouring homes despite the nearest being some distance away.

The developers are appealing in an attempt to have the decision reversed. Stuart Mitchell, development director for the construction company Lindum Group, told The Local newspaper (October 26th) that they were hoping for round the clock trading and had carried out detailed design, lighting and noise studies to support their application. “We have also ensured that there will be no night deliveries so the project will not impact on the neighbours or Elsea Wood which is nearby”, he said. “Hopefully we have put together a package that can be supported by members of the council. We are all ready to go.”

This is a sensible way forward and there seems to be no reason why councillors should not endorse the latest application. The garage site is not actually in Bourne but in the neighbouring parish of Thurlby and well away from the nearest residential development at Elsea Park. It is also on a major trunk road, the A15 which carries through traffic from the south to Lincoln, Humberside and beyond and will not therefore cater solely for resident motorists. Twenty-four hour trading is fast becoming the norm throughout the country, for supermarkets and stores as well as garages, and councillors should remember this when considering the application.

There is also another important factor, the urgent need for a second garage in Bourne which has been struggling with just one petrol outlet since the autumn of 2005, much to the frustration of local motorists. It would therefore be a pity if this opportunity were lost through pettifogging controls on opening hours which should be a matter for the operators and not local councillors.

The garage is part of a larger development covering 4.2 acres of land near the Elsea Park roundabout, the other phase being a new public house and restaurant next door known as The Sugar Mill and which is due to open before Christmas. Between them the two outlets will create almost 50 new jobs and at this time of economic recession, our local authorities have a particular duty not to jeopardise any development that brings with it such welcome employment opportunities.

The forthcoming election for a new police and crime commissioner for Lincolnshire is likely to be the non-event of the century with a record low turnout on the day. In my sixty years of covering elections at all levels, I have never experienced such a lack of interest and sparse media coverage while the appearance of candidates in our midst to state their case has been sadly lacking although there has been one unconfirmed sighting at Smith’s bar in North Street during the week.

Yet the new appointment has been heralded as one of the most important in the county because the successful candidate will have wide ranging powers over the police force where he will be in charge of budgets and overall strategy and even have the power to hire and fire chief constables.

The election has already been tarnished by the revelation that one candidate, Mervyn Barrett (Independent), was being secretly funded by American neo-conservative lobbyists and companies pushing for police privatisation but soon after this was reported by one of our national newspapers he withdrew his candidacy leaving four others, David Bowles (Campaign to Stop Politicians Running Policing), Richard Davies (Conservative), Paul Gleeson (Labour) and Alan Hardwick (Independent).

The likely failure of this electoral initiative has been exacerbated by a former police chief who has advised the public to boycott the polls because he does not believe that anyone with so little experience should be managing our police forces. Lord Blair, formerly head of the Metropolitan Police, claims that they are too big to be controlled by one person and that the post will become too political with some issues not being investigated in case they lose their jobs.

There is also the suggestion that the poll, which is costing the country £75 million, will attract less than 20% of the electorate and a low turnout is almost certainly on the cards for Lincolnshire. The subject has been discussed by contributors to the Bourne Forum where it has been suggested that the main grievance with the present system is the lack of policemen on the beat and a change in the upper echelons in administration is unlikely to make any difference.

One contributor suggested that there would probably be a turnout of about 16% and the winner may get in by as little as 7% of the votes which would hardly be a democratic mandate. Another posting said: “I don't know anyone who's going to vote and it would seem that most people want to keep the status quo. I think this will probably end up as embarrassing for the government as the regional assembly nonsense was for John Prescott. The fewer people that vote the better then the government might get the message.”

Voting takes place on Thursday 15th November and even the Electoral Reform Society says that the turnout could be as low as 18.5%, a combination of the failure by government to explain why the changes are being made, the lack of high profile candidates and a widespread public apathy.

There has been a week of rain and the countryside around Bourne is soaking wet. But the inclement weather has failed to halt the onset of autumn and the trees are turning into a galaxy of russet shades, red and brown, yellow and golden, and the leaves rustle underfoot as you walk by, a sign that winter is not far off.

The fields outside my study window have been harvested and are now awaiting the plough. In the meantime, the stubble is invaded daily by flocks of birds seeking leftover grain and grubs while the deep ruts left by the wheels of the combines have filled with water yet within the next few weeks, the land will have been turned into neat furrows stretching to the horizon, another sign of the progress of the farming year.

There is also that tell-tale chill in the air to remind us of dark days to come. Soon, the holiday tans will have faded and our light clothing discarded in favour of warm jumpers and jackets. Many people would prefer all year round sun and sand but I consider myself lucky to live in a temperate climate where our lives are regulated by the seasons which are a reminder of our changing times.

Here in rural England, we see these variations at first hand. In these ripe and mellow autumn days, we watch the plough and the harrow preparing to plant new crops of wheat and barley, and soon the frost and the snow will turn our countryside into a winter wonderland overnight, and then comes spring, bursting with new life when the green shoots push through the earth and as the weeks pass they grow taller and soon those golden mid-summer days are here again and the combines will be cutting a swathe through the swaying corn and the farming year begins again.

The changing seasons therefore act as markers in our lives, an indication of knowing where you are in the year and giving an expectancy of something to come and we live in hope that whatever life has in store for us will be welcome.

Thought for the week: Autumn is the time of fulfilment, of repletion, of a pause between the toil and excitement of replenishing the earth and the long struggle to survive those barren days. Yet in the natural world, here is the fact that next year's life is assured long before the death of winter and in the farming world, autumn is almost as important for seed time and for harvest. - Ralph Wightman (1901-1971), Dorset-born countryman and broadcaster, from his book The Seasons (1954).

Saturday 10^th November 2012

The nation mourns its war dead on Sunday with the act of remembrance that will be observed throughout the land, a moving occasion because few families have not been touched by the world conflicts of the last century in which millions lost their lives. Although all of those who died on active service over the years are remembered at this time, our November observance, which is also known as Poppy Day, actually began with the Great War of 1914-18.

Permanent monuments to those who died began to appear in towns and villages across the land soon after Armistice Day although there was not one in Bourne until 40 years later. Services were held for a time in the Abbey Church where a wooden plaque with an inscribed Roll of Honour lists the names of those who fell in action and at the Butterfield Hospital in North Road where an extension was built as a war memorial in 1920.

Remembrance Sunday was also observed for several years by a lone bugler who sounded the last post from the market place, now the town centre. He was Richard Newton Pattison (1879-1959), a local tailor, best known as bandmaster of the last Bourne Town Band which had been founded in 1921. He was a versatile musician, playing many instruments as well as the trumpet, cornet and bugle, although failing sight made it impossible for him to continue the tradition but when the war memorial was built alongside the Bourne Eau in South Street in 1956 it became the central point for the ceremony.

The memorial design is based on the cenotaph in Whitehall, London, and is the work of the architects W E Norman Webster and Son and was unveiled and dedicated on Sunday 16th September. The land, known as Wellhead Fields and Baldock's Paddock, had been purchased from the Marquess of Exeter by Bourne United Charities in 1945 to be preserved as a permanent open space for the town and part was used to remember those who had fallen in the two recent world wars. An appeal fund was opened and the public were asked to contribute with the result that £1,700 had either been donated or promised by 110 subscribers and £200 of this had come from people living outside the parish. In addition, Mr William Castledine bequeathed £500 towards the cost of developing the land and a benefaction under the will of Alderman Thomas Whyment Atkinson JP, of Haconby Hall, who died in 1954, provided the rental income from 142 acres of land towards the project.

The dedication service was attended by relatives of those named on the memorial, civic leaders, councillors, the charity trustees and many ex-servicemen and women, and the band of the 4th/6th Battalion of the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment (TA) provided the music and an escort for the colour party which paraded through the town. Ministers from all denominations took part in the service during which the chairman of Bourne Urban District Council, Councillor Leslie Day, read lines from the war poem For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon. Wreaths were placed at the base of the cenotaph and the day's proceedings ended with the sounding of Retreat.

The poignancy of losing loved ones during the Great War is illustrated by the story of George Hare. When the war ended, many grieving parents refused to believe that missing sons were dead and continued seeking information about them through the newspapers. One of these notices appeared on Friday 24th January 1919 saying: "Private George Hare, No 140820, of the A Company, 34th Machine Gun Company, was taken prisoner on 10th April 1918. Nothing has been heard of him since July 25th last. If anyone can give any information it will be gladly welcomed by his parents at 26, Hereward-street, Bourne."

There was no news and the name of G Hare appears on the war memorial, one of the 97 who are recorded there as having lost their lives in battle. It is not known exactly how many men left the town to join the armed forces and there have been suggestions that the number of fatalities is nearer 140 which means that 40 names are therefore missing. The memorial also includes the names of 32 men who did not return from the conflict of 1939-45 and a further three who died on active service before the century was out.

The Great War ended in 1918 on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month and it is at this time on Remembrance Sunday that we remember the sacrifice that was made with a two minute silence while the red poppies that grew in the disturbed earth around the trenches in the fields of Flanders remain a potent symbol for those who gave their lives in that and later wars.

Up to 400 young men from Bourne are believed to have served in the Great War and the letters they wrote home reveal a rare optimism and strength of spirit as well as a deep love of regiment, of king and country, of home town, school, church and family. These were feelings engendered by the jingoism of the time and used to dramatic effect by recruiting officers drumming up support for Kitchener’s New Army.

But attitudes began to change with the Big Push of July 1916, beginning with the Allied offensive on the River Somme during which severe casualties were inflicted on both sides. It was seen as Britain's first real chance to open up the Western Front and enable French and British troops take the initiative away from Germany. British generals planned to break through the enemy trenches and advance to victory through German territory but the campaign brought little advantage. The success of the artillery was overestimated and the inflexible military strategy meant that plans could not be revised. There was poor communication between the troops on the ground and the officers which also contributed to the death toll of 600,000, the greatest number of casualties in British military history while five months of fighting advanced British lines only eight miles. When dramatic film taken during the Battle of the Somme was given a public showing at the Corn Exchange in December 1916, the audience was stunned into silence and many were moved to tears.

Letters home were perceptive and reflective such as this extract written in November 1915 by Lance Corporal Oliver Davies who was serving as a signaller with the 2nd Battalion, the Lincolnshire Regiment, part of the British Expeditionary Force, somewhere in France. He was the son of Joseph Davies, of North Road, Bourne, headmaster of the Boys’ Council or Board School [now the Abbey Road Primary Academy], and had volunteered for the army after his mother, Mrs Elizabeth Davies, offered to take over his teaching duties at Edenham where he was headmaster of the village school in order to free him for military service. He wrote poetically about their plight and compared their present surroundings with those of his home town:

The men with whom I am working are jolly and cheerful and are an antidote to fits of the blues. This spirit of unconquerable cheerfulness is a great asset to the force out here. The more miserable the conditions the better their spirits. In some places, the trenches are over the knees in mud. Yet our men laugh over it.

If you want to imagine the kind of country we are in, take a walk down Bourne Fen as far as Twenty. Put heaps more poplar trees there; blow down nearly all the houses; grow crops of barbed wire instead of corn; and, above all, don't forget the mud, mud and more mud! There you have a fairly good idea of what the country is like. Many of the French people seem loath to leave their homes which are within shell range.

The villages look like ghosts of a bygone age. Houses are without roofs, some have the rafters standing, making them appear as gaunt skeletons. Of course, the big houses and the churches suffer most from shellfire. Just picture Abbey Road and the church in that plight. Not a house with a wall or roof standing intact; a church without a roof or spire; just traces of walls showing where it once was. Some of the villages round here must have been very pretty in peace time. They are so prettily studded with trees. But now there is nothing but rain and mud. The untilled fields, some of them with unreaped standing crops in them, form another very melancholy setting in the countryside.

Oliver survived the war and returned to teaching. Others also resumed their previous occupations but many were not so lucky and were forced to trudge the streets looking for work and even begging, the medals they wore proudly on their chest a melancholy reminder of a past glory. More than ten million lives were lost on both sides and twice that number were wounded. Those who came home were determined to change the old order and indeed England was never to be the same again yet 21 years later, we were again embroiled in another world war.

The Great War began almost 100 years ago and the centenary will be marked on 28th July 2014 which is not so far away. The date will be observed throughout the world, or at least in those countries that were affected by it, and there are sure to be special events and new memorials to mark the occasion which raises the question of what should be done here in Bourne because the local authorities are sure to want suggestions nearer the date and so perhaps this is the time to once again mention a bandstand for the War Memorial Gardens.

This project already has a fair head of steam, having been first suggested ten months ago by town councillor Helen Powell, now Mayor of Bourne. The idea is obviously a good one, a Victorian style bandstand made of wrought iron and costed at around £20,000, money that would be found by public donations. Pledges from donors for more than half the outlay, £12,000, have already been made together with a great deal of practical help with design, equipment, construction work, materials and legal assistance while support through letters to the local newspapers have endorsed the popularity of the idea.

In fact, few similar schemes in Bourne have ever been given such an enthusiastic reception except by the trustees of Bourne United Charities which administers the site, who said no. Their chairman, Dr Carl Pears, told The Local newspaper (July 6th): "We responded to what we felt the public wanted." They have been asked to think again and now a petition is underway in an attempt to persuade them change their minds for the benefit of the town.

The original idea was to complete the bandstand in time to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee on Tuesday 5th June but it was not to be. There was massive support for the idea, a gift to the town that would not cost one penny of public money and make no demands on the finances of Bourne United Charities but the trustees were quite adamant that the War Memorial Gardens were not a suitable place for it, even though band concerts are held there regularly during the summer months with musicians and visitors sitting on and around the cenotaph walls and steps which is hardly a dignified use of such an reverential setting.

Now a second opportunity has arisen with the chance of having a bandstand erected by the summer of 2014, a reasonable timescale for such a modest project. Nothing could be more suitable for this occasion than a traditional venue for a brass band. The enthusiasm to provide the money and get the work done is there. All that is needed is the goodwill of the charity trustees to support the town in this worthwhile endeavour.

Thought for the week: Music gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything. – Plato (428-348 BC), Greek mathematician, writer and one of the world's great thinkers who helped lay the foundations of Western philosophy.

Saturday 17^th November 2012

The ill-fated SS Persia - see "Our thoughts . . . "

Public indignation over the proposed loss of the ambulance station in Bourne continues to surface and an open meeting has now been called to allow councillors and residents state their case against the changes. This latest move is a direct challenge to the public consultation mounted by the East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) with the nearest meeting being held in Stamford thirteen miles away, a venue condemned as being totally unsatisfactory and so an action group was formed demanding a platform nearer home.

The action group has now been successful and a public meeting will be held at the Corn Exchange on Monday of next week (November 26th), just two weeks before the consultation is due to end, when officers from EMAS will attend to answer questions from people who are concerned about the future of the service. “If we do not act now it will be too late”, said Councillor Brenda Johnson (Bourne East) in an interview with the The Local newspaper (November 9th). “I think there is a real danger that lives will be lost if the proposed scheme goes ahead.”

Response times for EMAS are already the poorest in the country and there are fears that this record will get even worse if the proposals go ahead, involving the closure of 66 ambulance stations to be replaced by standby points and community posts. In the case of Bourne, this would mean shutting the South Road ambulance station which has been operating since 1980 and replace it with standby points at Morton in the north and Market Deeping in the south.

The parish council at Sutton Bridge has already expressed concern about the poor call-out record of the service in their area. Lincolnshire Free Press Online reports that in two recent cases when 999 calls were made for an ambulance, the patients had to wait for several hours while there have been instances in which the police have taken people to hospital because of the delay (November 5th). The newspaper also claims that EMAS has apologised to the family of a man who died after a three-hour wait to be picked up.

There is little doubt that the current proposals are unpopular in South Lincolnshire where they do not appear to be getting any support whatsoever. The public consultation is a legal requirement and so EMAS must go through the motions but despite assurances that all opinions voiced will be taken into consideration, there is no confidence yet that any headway is being made, hence the renewed call to action in Bourne, but even then, this may well turn out to be window dressing.

The proposed reduction in the ambulance service is symptomatic of the effects caused by the latest round of spending cuts. Politicians of all persuasions have condemned this method of solving the current crisis and prefer instead to spend to stimulate growth. Few people understand the subject of macro economics that influence the performance and behaviour of our economy but see no sense in slashing our social, welfare and community infrastructure which is regarded as a short term measure and one we will live to regret.

Over the past few years there has been a slow but steady erosion of public benefits and services, all intended to close the black hole in our economy, alleged by the Conservative Party to have been caused by the outgoing Labour government but widely believed to be the underhand dealings of international bankers and speculators who are tightening their hold over all sources of regular income by the spending public while at the same time refusing to release funds for growth investment.

Few areas of life today have not been affected including the National Health Service, the armed forces, police, schools and local authorities. District and county councils faced with a smaller budget and a freeze on council tax increases turn to the most immediate solution and that is to cut spending by reducing services. As a result we are now losing amenities that have been with us for many years and whose loss threatens the future of the entire system of providing for the public good.

The latest proposals by the East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) to close 66 stations means that the sites will be sold off to raise capital and will probably end up for residential development. Our own ambulance station in South Road is ripe for this because it stands on the last parcel of land left over from the old Bourne Hospital which disappeared in 1999 and is now a new housing estate.

Every council decision is now influenced by the cuts, small excursions into the way we once lived but piling up into a realisation that things will never be the same again. Even our own Town Hall may soon be up for sale and likely to end up as a carpet warehouse. Nothing is sacred any more.

This is an indication of the policies being pursued by our local authorities, to sell off assets to produce immediate income that can only be used for the short term demands in meeting salary and pension entitlements which comes at the expense of public services but it actually means that our politicians have no solution. A prime example is that of Gordon Brown who, when Chancellor of the Exchequer (1999-2007), committed the cardinal sin of selling off our gold reserves at knock-down prices and in doing so cost the British taxpayer billions of pounds and added to the current parlous state of our economy.

To part with what we have indicates that there is no expectation of getting it back because the cost will be prohibitive and the government is therefore signifying that this is what it will be like in the future. Austerity may appear to look good to an accountant checking the books but for a government that has promised faithfully to serve the people it represents, the policy has a hollow ring.

There has been some confusion among old people about the renewal of their free bus pass which is not due until next March although applications are being invited now to avoid any delay that might be caused by a flood of requests in the spring.

Bus passes were originally issued by South Kesteven District Council, a hassle free process provided at the Town Hall where applicants could go along with proof of age and identity and have their photographs taken all at the same time. The bus pass would then arrive by post a few days later. But all of that has now changed. Lincolnshire County Council has become the issuing authority and the procedure has become more complicated as a result. Applicants must now collect a form from the Town Hall, fill it in and then either send it or take it in person to county offices in Lincoln with a photograph and proof of age and identity, such as a passport or birth certificate and then wait for it to be issued.

One pensioner who made the trip to Lincoln had to wait for ninety minutes before his application was processed while others are worried about sending off valuable personal documents by post when all of this information has already been checked when the bus pass was first issued. It has been suggested that the complexity of the process has been increased purposely to deter applications and so save money and certainly some elderly people will find this all too much and just give up on the idea. A more likely explanation is that the inconvenience being caused is another symptom of the inefficient local government bureaucracy that surrounds every decision that emanates from our council offices and we can only hope that improvements are made once the current difficulties have been acknowledged.

The county council claims that although renewal applications are not due until next April, they will have to deal with 80,000 of them and so it would be better to get some of them out of the way now. No reminder letters are being sent out and so unless old people who are eligible read the local newspapers, they will find themselves at a disadvantage. The authority has also failed to explain why those who already have a bus pass and have been through the system by providing a photograph and proof of identity and birth must do it all over again when it should be a matter of merely rubber stamping the previous application.

However, a letter in The Local newspaper from Ms Joyce Stevenson of Obthorpe Lane, Thurlby, near Bourne, (November 9th) indicates that it might be advisable to ignore the county council’s advice to apply early and to wait until the New Year. She has been questioning the county council leader, Martin Hill, on various matters relating to the new Bourne Community Access Point now being built at the Corn Exchange where all of our town, district and county council services will eventually be housed under one roof and she asked him whether the processing and issuing of bus passes would be included to which he replied: “When the new integrated service starts, staff should be able to issue bus passes.”

So there we have it, straight from the horse’s mouth. The opening of the new BCAP has been promised for March 2013 and our senior citizens should therefore hold tight for a few more weeks and then take their application along to the Corn Exchange where they should be dealt with without all of this fuss. At least, that is what has been promised.

Our thoughts on Remembrance Day last weekend were mainly with those who lost their lives in battle and we tend to forget that there were other casualties, especially at sea. One of the more sensational disasters of the Great War was the sinking of the SS Persia, a P & O passenger liner which was torpedoed in the Mediterranean Sea by a German U-boat without warning on 30th December 1915.

The 8,000 ton vessel went down off Crete while the passengers were having lunch, sinking within ten minutes and claiming the lives of 343 of the 519 aboard. The engagement was highly controversial because it was in breach of naval international law which required passengers to be given an opportunity to disembark before combat commenced. A warning shot across the bow should have been given first but instead, the U-boat fired its torpedo without warning.

The Persia was carrying a large quantity of gold and jewels belonging to the Maharaja Jagatjit Singh and among the passengers to survive were John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu although his secretary and mistress, Eleanor Thornton, the model for the Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy mascot by Charles Robinson Sykes, died. Also on board was a local man, Fred Fairchild, from Thurlby, near Bourne, who was serving as a baggage steward. He went down with the ship and his body was never recovered.

Fred, aged 23, was the youngest son of Joseph and Sarah Ann Fairchild, and was well known in the village. He attended Thurlby Board School and was a Sunday school scholar and chorister at St Firmin's Church but left home to become a sailor, later joining the crew of the SS Persia and was aboard when the ship left London bound for Bombay on 18th December 1915.

A moving service of remembrance was held before a packed church on Sunday 16th January 1916 conducted by the Vicar of Thurlby, the Rev John Pettifor who said that he personally felt the loss most acutely because Fred had been well known in the village from childhood, first as a scholar in the Sunday school and later for a number of years as a valuable member of the church choir. He was, said the vicar, one of their most highly respected young parishioners, a young man who was held in the highest esteem by all who knew him.

Today, Fred Fairchild is remembered on the War Memorial in the village church, his name being one of 23 victims of the Great War, most of them young men who included brothers, cousins and friends from schooldays, a reminder that this conflict touched practically every family in the land.

Thought for the week: Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee, for those in peril on the sea. - the Rev William Whiting (1825-78), English poet and hymnist who wrote the words to this naval hymn in 1860 after surviving a fierce storm.

Saturday 24^th November 2012

The worsening state of Wake House is now giving cause for concern as wind and weather continue to take their toll. The 200-year-old building in North Street which stands in the heart of our Conservation Area is currently occupied by Bourne Arts and Community Trust but owned by South Kesteven District Council which has a duty of care because it has been protected with a Grade II listing since 1977. Yet the window sills, doorcase and rendering on the frontage are crumbling and other major work is required to bring it back into good order.

The early 19th century town house has been described as one of Bourne's best buildings, a good example of late Georgian classicism with carefully proportioned fenestration, and should not therefore be left to deteriorate but with another winter approaching the state of the structure can only get worse because no remedial work is in the pipeline.

Wake House was built circa 1800 and was the birthplace of Charles Frederick Worth, son of a local solicitor, who founded the famous Paris fashion house and a blue plaque tells us that he was born here on 13th October 1825. The house was later used as council offices by various local authorities, the last being SKDC which moved out in 1993 and so it remained empty until the trust took over and made the building suitable for its present use.

The current condition of the house is a direct outcome of an impasse between the owners and the trust which has been in occupation since 1997, originally for a peppercorn rent of £5 a year, but this ran out in 2005 and the trustees have since been trying to negotiate a new agreement that would enable them carry out urgent repairs and bring it up to standard.

Their plans were thwarted in October 2010 when the council put the building up for sale by tender as an investment property although the trust was promised security of tenure which is as it should be because Wake House is now home to 40 of our local organisations offering a wide range of educational and cultural activities which meet there regularly.

There has been no movement over the lease since with the result that the trustees are powerless to tackle a programme of refurbishment to bring the building up to standard, costs currently estimated at £200,000 although the figure is likely to be higher when a more detailed survey is carried out. Without a formal agreement of tenure, the trust is unable to bid for the necessary grants to undertake any expensive restoration work and so the structure continues to deteriorate with each passing year. Greg Cejer, trust secretary, said this week: “The current state of the building is that it is watertight and we are maintaining the fabric as best we can with limited resources. But we have no mandate and no cash to undertake anything major.”

In the meantime, the sale sign has been removed and the agents, Hodgson Elkington of Lincoln, who were handling it, confirmed this week that as far as they were concerned, Wake House was now “off the market” although South Kesteven District Council said that the property was not being actively marketed “on the open market” which is a slightly different matter. Their statement continued: “We are currently in discussion and negotiation with Bourne Arts and Community Trust with a view to securing their future in the building. Through our negotiations with them, we are endeavouring to ensure that the necessary repairs and restoration to Wake House are achieved.”

Despite this resumption of negotiations, we understand that the council is still demanding more money from the trust than is considered reasonable and if the latest impasse continues, then it is a fair assumption that the sale of Wake House to a third party cannot be ruled out and so the current feeling of despair is understandable.

As a sale for investment has failed, then perhaps it might be sold for profit in which case housing would be an obvious choice. It stands in 0.4 acres including 29 car parking spaces but more importantly it abuts a large area of land in that segment between Burghley Street and Wherry’s Lane that was included in the ill-fated town centre regeneration but is still an attractive proposition for an enterprising buyer although under the present arrangement, the new owner would need to guarantee the use of the house by the trust.

In 2004, there was a suggestion that Wake House might be demolished as part of the redevelopment, forcing the trust to move elsewhere, but this caused such a public outcry that the council insisted there was a genuine desire to provide it with a new purpose built facility that would enhance its activity and relieve it of all refurbishment and maintenance work although the abandonment of the town centre scheme in 2010 put paid to such pipe dreams.

In a perfect world, the trust would be allowed to take over the building on behalf of the community but the district council has insisted on the market rate. The leader, Councillor Linda Neal (Bourne West), said that there was no possibility of it being handed over for nothing (press release, 9th August 2005) and added: “This is not a council policy. Wake House is a considerable asset that cannot be given away. The council owns a lot of property worth millions of pounds and we have a duty to preserve and protect our assets.”

This attitude also reflects the changing role of our local authorities. Where once the main aim was to serve the people, their eyes are now set on the business opportunity that will make a profit to help maintain staff salaries and pensions rather than delivering services which is why so many are being closed or cut. But even in these straightened times, councils have a duty to assist and encourage community endeavour because it is the people who pay their council tax to keep them in business and without it, voluntary effort is likely to founder and with it the Big Society once loudly trumpeted by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, but now less evident as the early enthusiasm for the policy has begun to wane.

While the current situation continues, the future remains uncertain both for Wake House and the organisations that use the building as a meeting place but we would do well to remember that without them, the social and cultural life of this town will be the poorer and so everything should be done to ensure that they succeed, not least by our local authorities.

Santa’s siren call sounds forever nearer, Jingle Bells can be heard in the shops and soon the tills will be ringing to signal a boost in turnover as we part with our cash for another spell of Christmas cheer.

The date has been announced for the annual switch-on of the Christmas lights, Saturday 1st December, almost three weeks away from the big day and as this is also the beginning of what has become known as the annual shopping event organised by Bourne Business Chamber, the expectation is that we will devote the intervening period to a spending marathon. This is indeed a rosy picture for our traders but a very different one for cash-strapped customers who will be finding this festive season a far more difficult one to cope with financially than any other in their lifetime.

But the illuminations will be there to persuade us to buy, continually twinkling their message of commercial goodwill from dusk to late night, a reminder that this is our shopping centre and that Christmas is descending upon us for another year. The light fittings are already going up in North Street ready for the switch-on ceremony next weekend and although this event was introduced comparatively recently, it seems to have been with us forever, having become an integral part of the festive season along with turkey, plum pudding and crackers.

Christmas past in Bourne had a distinctly Dickensian flavour, the shops full of festive fare, particularly for the table, and most butchers hung their meat and poultry on the front of their premises to attract customers while other traders gaily decorated their windows with groceries, sweetmeats, drapery, millinery and other goods to entice the housewives shopping for the festive season. But the anticipation did not start quite so early as it does now and lasted no more than a few days and today many believe that Christmas has become more commercial and certainly modern innovations have given shops and other retail outlets a higher profile, not least through the introduction of street illuminations.

Shops in the early 19th century had no safe means of lighting their windows at night and street lamps did not arrive in the town until 1878 when they were installed by the Bourne Gas Light and Coke Company. By 1885, Bourne had the reputation of a well-lit town with 56 public incandescent gas lamps at various points along the four main streets and in 1898, the parish council which then controlled local affairs and had footed the bill for street lighting, asked the gas company to ensure that the lamps were turned on every dark evening and that they were burning all night on Saturdays and Sundays and over the Christmas period.

From 1900, the increasing availability and popularity of electricity enabled a far more extensive public use but the Christmas lights we know today are comparatively new, dating back to the middle of the last century. They arrived in the years following the Second World War of 1939-45 when efforts were being made throughout the country to revive its drab appearance brought on by enforced rationing and austerity.

Probably the most famous are the Regent Street illuminations which began in 1954, prompted by a letter in the Daily Telegraph complaining how drab London looked at Christmas, and soon they became one of the capital’s major tourist attractions, renowned worldwide and attracting huge numbers of visitors each year. Oxford Street followed suit in 1959 and today the displays are so bright that they can be seen from outer space. Towns and villages soon latched on to the idea and within a few years the street lights became part of the Christmas season for every community.

The first Christmas illuminations were switched on in Bourne as a trial in 1967 with a ceremony outside the Town Hall and they remained on between dusk and midnight each evening until New Year's Day. Although only the market place [now the town centre] and part of North Street were lit up with little more than strings of fairy lights, the experiment by Bourne Urban District Council and the Chamber of Trade proved to be so successful that it was repeated the following December when the council chairman, Councillor Ted Kelby, told the assembled crowd: "It is gratifying to see so many people here for the second year of this venture. It is also pleasing to know that towns from all over Lincolnshire have asked for particulars of our arrangements. This lighting system has started something Bourne can be proud of. In five years, we hope to have lights all along the shopping centre."

The scope and quality of the illuminations increased over the years but the old system was soon in need of replacement and by this time, Bourne Town Council was responsible. By 1998, there had been some criticism of the quality of the illuminations and so new ones were purchased with the task of erecting them each year being carried out by volunteers from the Bourne Lions organisation, a system that worked well but there were concerns over health and safety and the authority therefore decided that professional help was needed.

In June 2001, the town council announced that they would be solving the problem by spending £40,000 on new Christmas lights that would be erected and dismantled each year by a commercial company and the new scheme was introduced the following December. Bourne Chamber of Trade and Commerce, as it was then, was invited to contribute towards the cost but shopkeepers refused, even though much of the benefit was theirs. The money was subsequently borrowed from South Kesteven District Council over a five-year period at an agreed interest rate of 5.5%, a controversial decision because it meant an increase in the council tax precept, although the loan has since been repaid.

The new lights were launched on Saturday 1st December 2001 amid general approval although there were some complaints that the bulbs were all the same colour, namely natural, with a distinct absence of reds, yellows, blues and greens, but the consensus was that the ultimate effect was a great improvement on the previous year. Further enhancements have been made since and Bourne‘s Christmas lights now compare favourably with those of any other English market town of the same size.

Thought for the week: To perceive Christmas through its wrapping becomes more difficult with every year. – Elwyn Brooks White, American journalist and writer (1899-1985).

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