Bourne Diary - January 2014

Saturday 4^th January 2014

One of those official wheezes so beloved of local government is the use of the word “only” when pushing through yet another tax increase to persuade everyone that the amount is so small they will not miss it, a strategy currently being deployed by South Kesteven District Council.

The government has quite clearly stated that because the public is bearing much of the brunt of the current austerity measures there should be no increase in the council tax for the coming financial year but SKDC is planning to defy the freeze and demand more from home owners.

No matter that the council would collect a grant of £64,000 if it toed the line, it is claimed that even more cash is needed to keep the wheels of the bureaucratic machine turning and squeezing the electorate is considered to be a far better way of getting it because increasing council tax by “only 1.75 per cent” would bring in double this amount, generating £112,000.

How the council can defend its argument that it needs more money at this time is difficult to understand when it has just bought a substantial public house in Trent Road, Grantham, for an undisclosed sum without any specific plans for its future and so it could end up as part of another abortive development similar to the town regeneration scheme at Bourne which was abandoned in 2010 after nine years of planning without a single brick being laid. Surely speculative purchases such as this could wait until economic conditions present a more promising prospect.

It is also obvious that the council is restricting its demand to 1.75% knowing that any increase above 2% would require a referendum, the result of which would not be in any doubt and will therefore be avoided at all cost and so a smaller increase and a public consultation can easily be ushered in through the back door with much less fuss.

Lincolnshire County Council, which takes the bulk of what we pay, is managing to maintain the freeze and despite having a budget seventy times bigger is not proposing to increase its share of the council tax for the fourth year running and so many will be asking why SKDC is not following suit. Those who are taking this decision appear to ignore the fact that many of those being asked to pay more are already into fuel poverty because of the soaring price of gas and electricity which means that they cannot afford to heat their homes adequately at reasonable cost, given their income, usually reckoned to be 10%. In fact, many have a disposable annual income of less than £10,000 and so are also into council tax poverty yet here they are being asked to pay more in the coming year.

Councillor Linda Neal (Bourne West), leader of the council, told The Local newspaper (December 20th): “We know times are tough but a small increase in the amount of council tax we levy, along with the savings we have already made, will help us to find the extra funding we need to maintain our quality frontline services.”

The council tells us that proposed increase equates to around £2.22 per year or 4p per week for a band D household and that may be so but add on all the other “onlys” that have also come along, not to mention the horrendous increases now being enforced by the gas and electricity companies, and we have a very different picture. Councillors should ponder on the old Arabic proverb about the straw that broke the camel’s back which more correctly reflects the effects of small increases engulfing our home owners, particularly the aged who are struggling along with what they have and no hope whatsoever of increasing their income. Where on earth are they expected to find the money for this latest “only”, the last one from the council being “only £25 a year” to have their green waste collected?

The problem is that the council appears to have little knowledge of the real world in which even those people that are working have not had a pay increase for many years and those that are face a new workplace ethos of the minimum wage, zero hours and husband and wife out to work to make ends meet, households where the next “only” could mean the difference between eating and heating, an appalling situation already reflected by the number of food banks now operating in the council’s own area and Wonga cannot be far behind.

The government has made an adequate offer to maintain the freeze on council tax and a stronger administration than the one we have would enforce it which would not only protect the public but also their own monetary policy. By allowing individual councils decide in favour of additional tax on home owners rather than take their grant is a sign of its current weakness and it is we the people who must once again suffer for it.

The council no doubt feels justified in foisting another increase on us by seeking our views through a public consultation. This is a procedure required by law but is in fact totally ineffective because the original decisions are invariably enforced and the results never revealed. In this case, home owners are being cowed into submission because “the council needs to maintain its quality front line services” yet apart from having our rubbish collected few people even know exactly what SKDC does provide apart from generous pay, holiday and pension entitlements to its 640 staff. Before asking home owners to cough up perhaps the council can tell us whether they will be getting more in their pay packets in the coming year.

One thing is certain, that local authorities should not become property speculators which appears to be what SKDC is doing in Bourne by building shops to let and flats for sale to private investors and now in Grantham where they have added a run down public house to their property portfolio. We are entitled to ask what either of these expensive projects have to do with maintaining front line services which is their declared priority and the main plank in their latest plea for more money from those who pay the council tax.

The art of the politician is to make us all feel better when taking the medicine, to think that what they are doing really is beneficial when in fact it is merely expediency that is motivating their plans rather than our convenience. Councillor Martin Hill may therefore be excused for being over enthusiastic about the new public library for Bourne that has been opened as part of the Community Access Point in the Corn Exchange because he is leader of Lincolnshire County Council which helped engineer the transition.

His article for The Local newspaper (December 20th) was headed “A fresh approach to making library services efficient” will therefore have a hollow ring for those communities such as the Deepings which are about to lose theirs altogether after many years of useful service and especially here in Bourne where many deplore the closure of a well-used amenity in South Road where the premises had been in useful service since 1969 in return for much smaller, even cramped premises, with fewer books and the loss of the reference library and reading area, two of the busiest places for the past forty years.

Even the staff have been heard complaining about the lack of space around the new customer service desk while browsing among the book shelves for suitable reading matter is no longer the comfortable cruise experienced at the old roomy South Street premises but a quick dip in and out to avoid being jostled by other borrowers.

Then there is the problem of where to park when visiting the library. Councillor Hill claims that the new location “has better parking making it easier to visit” which does not demonstrate a working knowledge of parking arrangements outside the Corn Exchange where most of the spaces are filled by 9 am with cars owned by staff from the CAP, shop and office workers and visitors to town while the adjoining car park attached to the Co-operative Food supermarket is even busier with a time limit on waiting into the bargain.

The old South Street library had eight of its own parking spaces which filled and emptied with the flow of borrowers who rarely had to wait for more than a few moments for a space but the CAP car park is always full and on Thursday and Saturday market days spaces are unavailable because the entire area is taken up by traders’ stalls.

All of these fears were aired during the so-called public consultation period when the new CAP was being planned but to no avail. The county council and South Kesteven District Council pressed on with the scheme regardless, the original estimate of £200,000 rocketing threefold to £600,000, and neither of them once acknowledging that it was far from perfect. We therefore have what we have and no matter how much sugar there is on the pill, the fact is that the new library is too small and car parking totally inadequate.

From the archives – 144 years ago: On Sunday afternoon last, Mrs Elfleet, senior, aged eighty-two, fell upon the causeway in Star-lane [now Abbey Road] and broke a thigh. The slippery state of the roads and paths during the last few days has caused a great number of accidents from falls. The very reprehensible practice of boys sliding upon the causeways is too prevalent in Bourne and ought to be put a stop to in some way or other. - news item from the Grantham Journal, Saturday 1st January 1870.

The debate over whether Rippingale was actually the village inspiration for the long running radio serial The Archers continues with a no nonsense letter to The Local newspaper (December 20th) from George Stubley of Osbournby, near Bourne, who was born there in 1922.

The current discussion is based on claims by local Archers enthusiast Jim Latham who insists that Henry Burtt, a farmer from nearby Dowsby, took the BBC radio producer Godfrey Basely to Rippingale in 1946 when the programme was being discussed and they also visited the Bull Inn which prompted them to use the name for the local in Ambridge, the fictional village which features in the series.

The theory, however, founders through age because village pubs in those days were not what they are today as Mr Stubley has pointed out. “Mother was born in Rippingale”, he writes. “Grandfather Whitney had a cobbler’s shop, fourteen children, eight girls, six boys. The youngest boy, Stephen P Whitney, was landlord of the Bull Inn from the early 1930s until the late 1940s. The Bull Inn was a meeting place for pub games by the locals and I went most nights from 1938 until 1956. Neither Henry Burtt nor Godfrey Baseley visited the Bull Inn when I was there. No meals were served, the toilets were down the yard and there were no ladies’ toilets.”

Hardly a place for a gentleman farmer and a visiting BBC radio producer on expenses. Mr Stubley’s evidence not only rules out Rippingale but reinforces the case that they visited the Bull Inn then situated in the market place at Bourne [the Burghley Arms since 1955] which was a very popular inn with a most welcoming social atmosphere and also served a very good lunch.

This would have provided the perfect opportunity to learn about the locality because this hostelry was then a favoured meeting place for farmers, businessmen and country folk, particularly on market days, discussing the very issues that have since occupied the plot lines of this popular radio series, and would also have been well known to Henry Burtt because many of the local agricultural organisations also used it for their regular meetings and annual dinners.

The evidence is still not conclusive but certainly throws some doubt on Rippingale’s current claim. Over to you Jim.

Thought for the week: History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon. - Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), military and political leader who became emperor of France and one of the most influential figures in European history.

Saturday 11^th January 2014
 

Each time the weather turns extreme there is a clamour in the media about climate change and global warming being the cause whereas we are witnessing fluctuating meteorological patterns that have been with us since time immemorial. It is fortunate that the flooding reported in England since before Christmas has had little effect in the Bourne area but then we have had our share in past times when inundations have taken lives and robbed many of their homes and livelihoods.

Flooding is one of our major natural disasters and recent events have demonstrated how it can dramatically change our lives and many instances could be quoted to illustrate exactly how Bourne has suffered in the past. This area has always been an agricultural community and flooding was a frequent occurrence before the fens were drained, the most serious recorded instance being on 5th November 1571 when Lincolnshire was struck by one of the worst storms in history.

The roads into the town were turned into rushing torrents and the market place soon became a vast lake. The 16th century English chronicler Raphael Holinshed recorded that the flood water in Bourne rose "to midway of the height of the church walls" during a tempest which affected many houses and buildings on the eastern side of the town and thousands of sheep in nearby fields were drowned.

The worst cases of flooding in our recent history have all been caused by rivers bursting their banks during periods of heavy rain. There were four such occurrences during the late 19th century, in November 1852 when the north bank of the Bourne Eau broke between two and three miles from Bourne and in April 1872, December 1876 and October 1880, when the north bank of the River Glen gave way near Tongue End. The last incident was by far the worst with torrential rain falling for 24 hours, also flooding houses in North Street and around the Queen’s Bridge, while on the main Bourne to Stamford Road at Toft, a man driving a horse and cart was washed away and drowned.

The flooding became known as "The Bourne Fen Inundation" and on Friday 26th November 1880, it engulfed the entire South Fen, an area of about 3,000 acres of land, much of it containing newly cut corn which floated out of the fields while a variety of farm implements were washed away. The land was submerged to the depth of up to seven feet, corn stacks, buildings and houses surrounded by one vast expanse of water. Looting was rife and cash rewards were offered for the apprehension of the culprits. A gang of 50 to 60 men were employed and large quantities of timber, thousands of sacks filled with earth, and consignments of stone were used on repair work although three feet of water remained on the land for several weeks.

Flooding in the fens in various degrees continued into the 20th century and in the winter of 1910, the River Glen again burst its banks at Tongue End, inundating the South Fen near Bourne and covering the main Spalding road towards Twenty with flood water.

This disaster, occurring during the first week of December, subsequently became known as "The Great Flood of 1910" (pictured above) and for more than a month, the entire fen was one vast sea of floodwater. Emergency repairs continued day and night as attempts were made to repair the damage with workers filling the breached bank with sandbags but despite labouring for long hours, they had little success and farmers were forced to wait until the water subsided naturally although it was four weeks before it drained away and a complete picture of the damage emerged.

The Marquess of Exeter, one of the principal landowners, returned half a year's rent to each of his tenants while churches and chapels organised collections and in the weeks that followed, concerts and whist drives were arranged to boost the fund. The relief work continued for several months but it was to be more than a year before the land returned to its usual productivity and many of the smaller farmers never recovered from the financial loss.

On 12th January 1911, farmers and landowners gathered at the Corn Exchange to assess the damage and to set up a distress fund. Compensation claims from farmers tenanting 1,500 acres of land totalled almost £10,000, over £1 million at today's values. Subscriptions began immediately with £100 from the Earl of Ancaster with other amounts ranging from £50 to 2s. 6d. from wealthy landowners, businessmen and ordinary people in the locality and a committee was set up to distribute grants to the more deserving cases.

There has been serious flooding in recent years but nothing to equal the disaster of 1910, mainly because of improved sewerage and drainage services. In August 1912, a downpour flooded the road outside the police station, then in North Street. In October 1960, three inches of rain fell in ninety minutes and most streets in the town were soon under water, with cars stranded at the kerbside. Bourne Grammar School was holding its annual Speech Day at the Corn Exchange and as guests left to go home, they found floodwater swirling around the entrance. Senior pupils volunteered to wade through it and carry some of the elderly people to dry ground while hundreds more waited inside for the water to subside.

There was further flooding in 1968, 1980 and in 2002 when, after a month long dry spell, rain fell on Tuesday 15th October and the downpour lasted for more than 18 hours, accompanied by high winds. The paved area behind the Town Hall where the weekly markets are held was flooded to a depth of several inches but fortunately, it had subsided by the time the Thursday stallholders had arrived.

In 2004, torrential rain also caused widespread flooding, closing shops and streets which were several inches under water within an hour. The town centre was badly affected and firemen were called out to pump water from premises in North Street and West Street. A spokesman at the Meteorological Office suggested that the town had been hit by a tornado while Lincolnshire fire brigade reported 200 calls for help.

We have no control over the weather and heavy rain serves as a warning that the threat of flooding is always with us, especially in such low lying areas as the terrain around Bourne, but we count ourselves lucky not to experience the meteorological extremes of many other countries and indeed some parts of England that are still recovering from the continual downpour of recent weeks.

From the archives - 44 years ago: A flu epidemic has been sweeping through the town and the outbreak has been so serious that all visitors to Bourne Hospital have been banned except for those patients who were seriously ill. The outbreak began towards the end of December and has continued into the New Year. Local doctors have been working flat out to cope with the epidemic although some have been taken ill themselves. They are just succeeding in keeping it under control. The pressure on the medical profession is intense and there is no slackening in the numbers of those affected but the medical authorities have given assurances that no one has been neglected. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 2nd January 1970.

The burden of care for the 12th century Abbey Church falls mainly on the congregation and it is a constant battle to make ends meet because maintenance of the fabric is extremely costly and there is always another bill round the corner waiting to be paid.  

Fund raising has been an essential ingredient of church life down the centuries and few months go by without a coffee morning, whist drive, garden fete or concert to bring in those extra pounds that are needed to keep the church going. Major alterations continue to cause a headache for the parochial church council yet despite the size of the bill it always somehow gets settled in the end.

One of the biggest such problems faced the church 170 years ago when major restoration work was undertaken resulting in a bill for £800. This was over £70,000 by today’s values (2013) and a staggering burden for Bourne when the population was under 3,500 yet parishioners rose to the challenge and the task was given the go-ahead. This was the first recorded restoration scheme of recent times, the alterations being carried out during September and October 1839 when new box-style pews were installed, the ceiling and walls stuccoed and the whole interior repaired and beautified. The church was closed for two months to allow the work proceed and services were held at the Town Hall.

The church eventually reopened on 27th October 1839 with a peal of bells followed by three celebration services at which three clergymen noted for their piety and eloquence preached and the choir of St Mary’s Church at Stamford lead the singing. Among them was the Rev Joseph Dodsworth, the curate (later vicar), who called on a packed congregation, and indeed everyone in the town, to support the restoration with voluntary and free will offerings as proof of the interest they had in the temporal and eternal welfare of the parish. His appeal did not fall on stony ground because collections at the three services totalled £42 [£3,700].

Further collections and subscriptions were made over the next eighteen months to defray the cost but the bill was not finally settled until 1841. As the balance was slowly whittled down, a church bazaar was held over two days on Wednesday and Thursday 3rd and 4th March that year to finally liquidate the debt.

This was a grand affair held at the Town Hall and organised by a ladies committee under the patronage of the Marchioness of Exeter and other dignitaries who donated valuable items for sale including drawings, fancy work and confectionery, to attract buyers while the public were charged a one shilling admission fee, children half price.

Visitors thronged the Town Hall on both days including most of the titled and landed gentry from the neighbourhood as well as wealthy businessmen and tradesmen and their wives and we have a description of the scene because the Stamford Mercury reported on Friday 12th March: “The stalls, which were tastefully decorated with flowers, presented a most animated appearance and it seemed as if the ladies engaged in the cause had vied with each other in their efforts to attract public attention. The doors were opened at twelve o’clock and immediately after, the room began to fill and ultimately it became so crowded that it was with difficulty that the goods on display could be examined by the visitors.”

In fact, the event attracted so much attention and excitement that many visitors handed over donations without buying a thing and this contributed to its undoubted success. The newspaper reported that the bazaar had attracted "all the respectable families in the neighbourhood who were very liberal purchasers", raising almost £300 and so enabling the debt to be cleared.

The restoration work, however, did not please everyone and one critic wrote to the newspaper to complain. “The old pews are cleared away”, he said, “and we could almost wish that the new ones were to be dispensed with and the old Catholic plan adopted of each person who requires a seat taking one with him. It is only in the absence of these obstructions that you discover the harmony of the architectural design of some of our old churches to which modern innovation has given a sombre appearance. “

Ironically, the new box-style pews lasted less only fifty years and were replaced with the present ones during another major restoration scheme in 1892, thus ending the system of private sittings, a practice whereby important and wealthy people from the parish could, for a small contribution to church funds, reserve their own place for services, the majority of worshippers favouring the principle of all seating being free and available to everyone without drawing invidious distinctions and this system was duly adopted.

Thought for the week: Between January and mid-March, the rain never stopped. No one could remember anything like it. Serious floods began in the second week of February when high tides meant that rivers could not empty into the sea. Fords became useless, river banks disappeared, fields, bridges, mills, all vanished. - Matthew Paris (1200-59), Benedictine monk and chronicler, writing about the weather in 1236.

Saturday 18^th January 2014

There is a great deal of talk these days about a police presence to reassure the public that they are safe in their beds yet it is only 170 years that Bourne has had uniformed officers to protect them and keep the peace. Admittedly, few are to be seen in the streets today although we do catch the odd glimpse of a patrol car driving through but imagine what it was like in past times before you could dial 999 for help.

Until the early 19th century, maintaining law and order was difficult because crime, especially theft, was rampant, and bands of miscreants roamed the countryside stealing whatever they could lay their hands on, usually food because hunger was widespread.

Before the establishment of an organised police force the pursuit and capture of criminals was largely in the hands of the public, usually encouraged by the offer of a cash reward which was paid on conviction. But the victim of the crime had to meet all the costs of bringing a felon to justice and so leading citizens banded together to protect themselves from lawbreakers and most towns and villages had an association or society for the prosecution of felons which was dedicated to bringing offenders before the magistrates.

There was such an organisation in Bourne which by 1836 had 60 paying members from the town and surrounding villages but they were to be replaced by official police forces with the passing of the County Police Act in 1839. As a result, the first policeman for the parish of Bourne was appointed in 1843 and although there was much grumbling that he was being financed by the poor rate levied on property owners, forerunner of the council tax, the officer was soon being commended for keeping a strict watch on prowling vagrants.

Further legislation, the County and Borough Police Act of 1856, brought together the Lincolnshire divisions of Lindsey, Holland and Kesteven, that included Bourne, and a meeting of magistrates appointed the first chief constable, Captain Philip Blundell Bicknell, who was selected from 102 applicants. Although there was only one chief constable, each of the three divisions was to have its own police force but overall, it was known from the start as the Lincolnshire Constabulary.

The Bourne contingent was in place by the following May when the Stamford Mercury reported: “This long looked for force arrived in Bourne last week and we are gratified in being able to state that already a considerable improvement may be noticed. This was fully apparent on Monday last when the loiterers at the corners were much surprised at the order to ‘move on’ which they also found would be to their advantage promptly to obey. No less than six or eight cases of petty larcenies have occurred and parties have been apprehended upon suspicion from the neighbouring villages. The town itself is supplied with one superintending officer and two men. Of course, the liberty of the subject will not be necessarily interfered with in the discharge of the duties of the new officers.”

In fact, the police presence appears to have had its effect in many areas, notably the annual May Statute Fair which was held a few days later and was normally marred by drunkenness and fighting and frequented by tricksters and pickpockets. The Stamford Mercury reported on Friday 22nd May: "We are glad to notice a decided improvement in the manners and appearance of those who attended. Not a single case of disorderly conduct took place that required the interference of the police who were very alert all day."

At this time, the population of Bourne was 3,720 (1851 census figure) but the police strength increased as the town expanded and by 1861 a permanent police headquarters had been established at the corner of Burghley Street and North Street complete with offices, cells and hostel accommodation for officers so enabling them to be available on 24-hour call. There were then 16 officers but this had increased to 19 by 1875 and the coming of a regular police force brought a considerable decrease in crime and general lawlessness.

From 1857 onwards, policemen on foot patrol day and night were a familiar and comforting sight and during the early years of the 20th century when the motor car was becoming popular, uniformed officers could be seen regularly on point duty to keep vehicles moving in the increasingly busy town centre, especially on market days when stalls erected at the kerbside reduced the amount of road left for passing vehicles. But when the first traffic lights were introduced in 1973, they were no longer necessary and so began the reduction in the police presence on the streets.

The police station in North Street continued in use until 1960 when it was replaced by a new building in West Street while the old premises were demolished to make way for a block of old people’s maisonettes. The new facility, however, was downgraded to office status in 2000 and open only five days a week (closed for lunch) and an indeterminate staffing level for duties in the town. Yet by 2013, Lincolnshire Police had 1,100 sworn officers, 149 community support officers, a new breed of police men and women although with limited powers, 415 civilian support staff with 232 special constables, 80 police volunteers and 118 cadets working on a voluntary basis, and an annual spending budget of £114 million. These grand statistics are paraded to persuade the public that they are fully protected but it is debatable whether we in Bourne feel any safer that they did in 1843 when there was just one officer on the beat.

In the past 170 years, modern policing methods have changed dramatically through the introduction of mobile patrols, new technology, shorter working hours and fewer points of personal contact, with the result that Dixon of Dock Green, an early television image of the friendly neighbourhood constable, has all but disappeared. There is undoubtedly increased efficiency but public concern persists in some communities, particularly among the elderly who feel unsafe because petty crime frequently goes unchecked and that their environment and well-being is threatened by litter, graffiti, vandalism, yobs on the street corner and other anti-social behaviour that is not investigated. As a result, there is a frequent cry for a permanent return of the bobby on the beat who was such a familiar and reassuring sight in past times but the indications are that this is unlikely to happen.

From the archives – 123 years ago: About four o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, George Coales, butcher, Market Place, Bourne, missed a loin of mutton that had been exposed for sale in his shop. He at once gave information to the police. At first, no clue whatsoever could be obtained as to the delinquent as no one had been seen about this time in the locality. Police Constable Fowler, who is well known throughout the district as an astute detective, speedily instituted a searching examination. At twenty minutes past four, he entered the Royal Oak inn in North Street and noticed four navvies busily engaged roasting a fine joint of mutton. By cautious inquiries, his suspicion fell upon one of them. Indeed, the chain of evidence was so complete that Constable Fowler charged him with the theft. The navvy frankly admitted it, saying it was no use denying his guilt as he had been fairly tracked down. At 4.30 pm, the prisoner was received into custody at the Bourne police station. The case deserves record as a smart piece of police work. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 17th July 1891.

It has been known for some years that many names of those men from Bourne who lost their lives during the First World War were missing from the War Memorial in South Street. A bronze plaque on the south side records 97 servicemen but we now have information that a further 37 should have been included, so bringing the total to 134. This has been the result of many years of painstaking research by local military historian Tony Stubbs who has scoured military archives and old newspapers and visited many of the war cemeteries in northern France to compile a list of the missing names that is now more or less complete.

These omissions came about because access to the archives that we have today was not available in 1956 when the stone cenotaph was erected by Bourne United Charities who administered the land where it is sited, now part of the Wellhead Gardens. Most of the war memorials in the country were erected in the years immediately following the armistice in 1918 but Bourne was late in joining them and so once the decision to build one had been taken by the trustees there came the problem of identifying those who should be named on it, a difficult task because the war had ended almost forty years before and so it was inevitable that some would be missed.

“There are numerous other reasons why men were left off and the problem is not unique to Bourne”, said Tony. “Young widows with children had more than enough to deal with than worry about a name on a memorial and many were so fed up with the war wanted nothing more to do with it. Many relatives had also moved away from the town and of course the memorial was not erected until 1956 which was a long time after the war had ended.”

In the event, an appeal was made through the local newspapers and the local branch of the British Legion and eventually a list of almost 100 names was compiled and it is these that we see today on the memorial.

Tony, himself an ex-serviceman, has now made a considerable addition to that list and perhaps there will be an opportunity in the future to remedy that omission on the cenotaph itself, especially as the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 will be marked across the land later this year. The trustees of Bourne United Charities have already embarked on a worthy enhancement to the War Memorial with plans to add stone tablets bearing the service and regimental crests around the cenotaph and perhaps a way might also be found to commemorate a further 37 servicemen whose names should not be forgotten. In the words of the Ode of Remembrance, taken from Laurence Binyon’s poem For the Fallen, “At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them” and that is the way it should be.

The character of a town may be judged by the shops that are in business along the high street and in times past they reflected our daily needs, the butcher, the baker and yes, even the candlestick maker. There was also the grocer, the saddler, the hatter and the draper, the hardware shop and the chemist, all of the trades that provided useful items for an expanding population with little space for luxuries apart from a few cards and gifts for birthdays and anniversaries.

The 20th century brought with it an affluence that caused a dramatic change to our retail outlets and soon the entire appearance of our town centres had undergone a major transformation while supermarkets on the outskirts provided everything the housewife needed in a one-stop weekly shop. The small specialist outlets that had served the town could not compete with these retail giants and the Internet finally sounded their death knell by offering low prices and speedy delivery with which they could not compete and one by one they have been closing although we are still lucky enough to have our old established and much valued electrical and white goods store owned by the Wand family and the hardware emporium run by Harrison & Dunn.

Even our valued bookshop has gone although others dealing in bric a brac and fancy goods remain while one or two with courageous owners prepared to risk their capital open up hoping to buck the trend but the drift appears to be unstoppable and the only ones that are really doing the brisk business of yesteryear are the charity shops whose stock is mainly donated, their staff voluntary and the business rate much reduced, and so they can weather the economic storm in which their neighbours founder.

The main streets of our market towns today bear little resemblance to the halcyon shopping days of yesteryear. Here in Bourne, for instance, estate agents predominate, with building societies, insurance companies, travel agents, cafes and snack bars, jewellers, beauty salons, nail bars, and hairdressers, all reflecting Britain today as one big service industry. Now we have a tattooist, a pawnbroker and two betting shops, the latest, William Hill which advertises itself as “the home of betting”, having taken over the old Paper Chain shop in a prime North Street location where credit is offered to passing punters. It cannot be long now before Bourne finally throws in the towel as a traditional market town and Wonga opens up.

Thought for the week: To open a shop is easy, to keep it open is an art. - old Chinese proverb.

Saturday 25^th January 2014

The Hereward Group practice - a wait of two to three
weeks to see the doctor.

There has been a public debate in recent months about the lengthy delay in getting to see the doctor after research revealed that 14% of patients had to wait more than a week for an appointment. As a result, one third of more than 2,000 people interviewed were put off by the delay and never went at all.

Northern Ireland and south-east England were the worst areas with a waiting time of more than seven days but Lincolnshire was not mentioned although the current waiting time for some patients in Bourne is now two to three weeks which means that if you need to see a doctor now you will have to wait until next month, the earliest appointment available at the Hereward Group Practice clinic at the time of writing, for instance, being Thursday 13th February.

The scenario is even more bleak when you add additional referral times to the equation which means that if you wait a fortnight to get an appointment and are given treatment which is ineffective and have to go back or the doctor needs to check on your progress, this extends the period to six weeks, perhaps even longer when holidays are taken into consideration, thus making the time between outbreak and outcome a grave liability to our health and well-being. This is a particularly serious situation when prescribed medication produces an allergic reaction because the accompanying leaflet specifically states that you must see your doctor immediately if complications ensue yet this is impossible under the present regime.

Surely this was not the intention of the National Health Service when it was introduced in 1948 to give everyone medical care from the cradle to the grave. Even before that, when the panel system with family doctors operated and appointments were unknown, illness meant a visit to the doctor’s surgery to take your turn, usually in the front room of his own home, knowing full well that you would be seen before you left whether it was morning or evening, and sometimes he was still seeing patients at eight and nine o’clock at night, often carrying out minor surgery and dispensing pills and potions as he went along.

He usually had a stethoscope hanging round his neck and the first thing he did was to look at your tongue, check your breathing and take your temperature whereas today there is rarely one of these instruments in sight. Instead, our doctors sit before a computer screen ticking boxes and you are lucky to get a ten minute consultation, usually without a physical examination other than a blood pressure reading.

This is not a criticism of our doctors but of the system under which they are required to work, one which has changed in perception from treating the sick to maintaining the healthy, a worthy principle but not if it jeopardises those who really do require attention. Instead, those who need to see a doctor must take their turn in the queue with those who do not but are there for a routine check-up or medication review.

In the absence of an appointment, therefore, they often face a reception desk with an ethos of obstruction and a policy of zero tolerance which discourages complaints and so many who are deeply worried about their condition seek help elsewhere such as scanning the Internet for a diagnosis and possible remedies or even driving to the nearest hospital and this puts pressure on an already overworked accident and emergency service.

Successive governments have tried to address the problem but without success, coming up instead with anodyne solutions that appear good in sound bites but have no substance in practice and as the population increases so the problem intensifies. The one remedy they have not tried is, of course, the obvious one and that is to change the working practice of our family doctors which is usually confined to nine to five, five days a week, whereas illness does not keep office hours and healing the sick is widely regarded as a vocation rather than just a job.

The resumption of regular surgeries during the evenings and on Saturday mornings would help, not token appointments by reshuffling working hours but as part of a regular weekly schedule. The six-monthly medical check for patients currently designed to keep the waiting rooms full yet shut out those who need to see a doctor that day might be changed to perhaps nine-monthly or even annually, thus making a dramatic increase in the number of available appointment slots.

County councillor Sue Woolley (Bourne Abbey) who has special responsibility for health matters in Lincolnshire, is now aware of the problem over delays in obtaining an appointment and has speedily intervened in an attempt to allay the fears of patients by advising them to complain directly to their practice, either through their web sites or by obtaining a form from the reception desks. Anyone who does not get a suitable response can contact Lincolnshire Healthwatch or the Patient Advice and Liaison Service. “It is essential for anyone with concerns to make them known through the appropriate channels because without hard evidence it could then be difficult to prove the need for extra resources, whatever the issue may be”, she said.

The problem with this procedure is that forms are anathema to most people who do not like to make official complaints and some elderly patients are even afraid to, believing that they might even be banned from the clinic if they do. They grumble among themselves and protest to each other in the streets and the pubs rather than resort to bureaucratic channels for recording grievances which are generally regarded with suspicion and are often a waste of time anyway. In any case, this unfortunate situation exists with or without complaints and is known to both doctors and staff who work in the clinics as well as by those who use them.

Certainly, the current situation must not be allowed to continue. Ill health is usually sudden and debilitating with an urgent need to see a doctor within hours, an appointment that should be made by the clock rather than the calendar. Delay forces patients to make panic decisions for alternative treatment from the Internet, A & E or even by calling an ambulance, and that cannot be right when their own clinic is so close by.

Big Macs are finally on the way for Bourne. McDonald’s appears to be unstoppable in its drive for domination of the world’s fast food market and now even Bourne will not be exempt. Love them or leave them, their burgers have become an icon of modern life and the distinctive yellow and red logo of the world's largest chain of hamburger food restaurants has become a familiar sight serving around 68 million customers daily in 119 countries.

The company already has 1,200 restaurants in the UK attracting three million customers every day and employing around 87,500 people while the names of many of their specialities have passed into the language and now their latest outlet is planned for a site next to the new Texaco filling station off South Road. The good news is that the new Bourne outlet which was approved by South Kesteven District Council on Tuesday will employ 65 people, 35 full time and the rest part time, and although the vacancies will be McJobs as they have become known, current slang for the tedious, low paying, low prestige, dead end jobs that require few skills, most of them are likely to be recruited locally where new employment is badly needed. In addition, the company policy is to be part of the community by supporting a range of activities from litter picks to charity events and local football matches.

The Big Mac has become the company’s most popular fast food dish after being introduced in Pittsburgh, USA, in 1967, a double-decker hamburger consisting of two 1.6 oz. 100 per cent beef patties, American cheese with a special sauce, iceberg lettuce, pickles and onions and served in a three-part sesame seed bun.

The South Road location just off the Elsea Park roundabout has been chosen by the company for the 98-seat restaurant and drive-thru because it is well placed to serve residents, commuters and passing traffic on the main A15 Lincoln to Peterborough road. “The proposals seek to achieve a high quality development which will make a positive visual contribution to the local area”, says the company in its submission with the planning application. “The proposed restaurant design is considered to be appropriate to the function of the development and the site context.”

It is, however, unlikely to please everyone, and critical voices have already been raised about possible problems with litter from fast food packaging and leftovers that will prove hazardous to the variety of wildlife that can be found nearby including the local ponds and Elsea Wood. Extra traffic will also be created at a time when speeding vehicles are already causing a nuisance along Raymond Mays Way and the new outlet is also likely to take custom from existing town centre businesses. Then there is the smell. “The odour emitted is unpleasant and largely unpreventable and this will be accentuated under certain weather conditions”, wrote on objector in a letter to the local newspaper.

Everyone is entitled to have their say and 31 objections to the development were lodged with South Kesteven District Council through their web site and at the new Community Access Point at the Corn Exchange. Most were concerned about the effects of light, smell and litter, the visual impact of the development on the main southern entrance to Bourne that might give a bad impression of the town, presumably forgetting that we already have a plethora of fast food outlets with such exotic names as Donor Kebab, Hot & Spicy, Ramo’s Kebabs & Burgers, Top Spot Pizza Kebabs, Zorba Kebab and UK 1 Pizzas & Kebabs.

The fact is that McDonald’s may be bright and bold in appearance but their restaurants are a model of cleanliness, the food they serve has passed the highest quality standards and they appear to be a five star eatery compared with some of those currently operating in the district. Litter and smell do not seem to be a problem either and before anyone complains about this they ought to take a trip around Bourne town centre late on a Saturday night or early Sunday morning to see a real problem with so many outlets churning out fast food and the resulting mess left by their customers yet all of these were given planning permission by SKDC.

Inviting objections in this way has been an enlightening exercise by the council even though it is merely doing its required duty but we should remember that a handful of protest letters is by no means representative because people do not generally take the trouble to complain in writing. Nevertheless, this is the consultation procedure at work although many do not value this system of testing public opinion and anyway, with such a big contribution to the business rate at stake, as with other similar applications, it is unlikely to have made the slightest bit of difference in stopping it going through which was probably a foregone conclusion. What we must not forget is that the planning application has apparently passed through the stringent scrutiny of South Kesteven District Council and finally approved as being good for Bourne and so if there is a problem in the years to come we know who to blame.

Thought for the week: The burden of the general practitioner has been lightened very much but is he still as much a member of the community as he used to be? Does he still have to wonder what is meant by 'the vapours' or dissuade a patient from the use of bread as a poultice or even goose grease? And will he find a nice cup of tea and a piece of cake for him after attending a confinement? - Dr John (Alistair) Galletly (1899-1993) a highly qualified and well-liked family doctor who practised in Bourne for more than forty years.

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