Bourne Diary - July 2014

Saturday 5^th July 2014

One of the major drawbacks of the Wherry’s Lane redevelopment that has just opened in Bourne is the closure of fourteen spaces in the adjoining Burghley Street car park which have been earmarked for buyers of the new flats that have been incorporated in the scheme.

The spaces were fenced off prematurely last summer while building work was underway and before any buyers had been found, first with cones and then with wire barriers, although there was such an outcry that they were re-opened after six months until buyers could be found. Now the flats are being sold they have again been sealed off for public use, this time permanently with the installation of individual security metal posts to make them inaccessible to all but the owners and the anger from motorists this week has been evident. This is particularly galling because the flats are being sold off to individual and investment buyers and these public car parking spaces are being offered as an inducement to make a sale. In other words, private enterprise is taking precedence over the public service which the council is supposed to deliver to those who pay the council tax on which their existence depends.

The removal of fourteen public spaces comes at a time when parking in Bourne is reaching crisis proportions and several visits to the Burghley Street car park this week found many motorists in an angry mood at being unable to find a space, even for a brief shopping expedition or a visit to the dentist or solicitor. There are now only 81 spaces available in this car park for public use and most are occupied by owners who leave their vehicles there all day while they go to work, a situation that also exists at the South Street car park where there are 66 spaces with a further 53 in Abbey Road. The car park in the Burghley Centre has 166 spaces but here waiting time is restricted to two hours and so it is usually possible to find somewhere to park even on market days.

The problem therefore is those who hog car parking spaces all day to the detriment of visitors and it is this that now needs addressing by South Kesteven District Council for unless something is done, the seven new shops just completed in Wherry’s Lane will get very little passing trade once they are occupied because this thoroughfare is the route used by motorists to reach the town centre and if there is no turnover of spaces in the Burghley Street car park then there will be fewer pedestrians going that way.

It is a difficult proposition to accept but parking restrictions are now the only answer. There have been several attempts by the council to introduce a pay system in the past that have been thwarted by vigorous prevention campaigns and would probably be so again. But some form of restriction is necessary in all of our main car parks to ensure a greater availability and deter motorists from leaving their vehicles there all day and so perhaps a short stay system with a two-hour limit similar to that in force in the car park in the Burghley Centre would be the best solution.

This town has a population of around 15,000 people with 500 public car parking spaces within the town centre area, either in designated parks or at the kerbside. Yet parking is becoming more difficult because motorists insist on hogging places all day long to the detriment of shoppers and other occasional visitors, a situation that is destined to become worse now that SKDC is handing over what we have to private individuals.

The town centre is meant for trade, not to provide a permanent car parking space for workers, and busy shops require a constant turnover of visitors throughout the day. That will increase now that Wherry’s Lane and its arcade of new retail outlets has been added to the equation but they can only be regulated through a system of restricted parking which would induce a greater turnover of spaces that would benefit the entire town including both traders and shoppers.

It may seem fanciful but none the less true that steamer trips between Bourne and Boston were introduced as long ago as 1850.

Steamships came into practical use in the early 19th century, sea travel until then being under sail, but mechanical propulsion had begun in Scotland in 1803 and continuous development produced the first Atlantic crossing in 1819.

River trade was not new to Bourne but it was mainly commercial with coal and wood coming in from the east coast ports by sail driven cargo boats which returned with their holds full of skins and hides but the arrival of the steamers brought with them the possibility of faster journeys over shorter distances that would appeal to fare-paying passengers and the Haute Huntre was specially designed for that purpose. The vessel built at Boston in 1850 was given the old name for Holland Fen and after a series of trials in October that year it was reported that the craft “had realised the expectations of her proprietors”.

It was intended that the boat would ply a daily trade along the South Forty Foot Drain from Black Sluice at Boston with various stops en route, the final destination being Guthrum Gowt with carriages and wagons to take passengers and freight on the five mile journey to and from Bourne. This waterway, also known as the Black Sluice Navigation, is the main channel for land drainage in the Lincolnshire fens, running between the Black Sluice pumping station on The Haven at Boston and Guthram Gowt at the southern upstream end. It dates from the early 17th century during the early days of fen drainage and has been steadily improved since then, remaining navigable until 1971 although it is currently being upgraded as part of the Fens Waterways Link.

The first steamer trip was planned for Wednesday 20th November 1850 but was cancelled at the last moment. “The proprietors are sorry to inform the public that though they have used every exertion, they find it impossible to start the steamer voyages and the necessary alterations will be immediately commenced and proceeded with as fast as possible”, said a public notice. 

Engineers later discovered that they had underestimated the power required to drive the boat and the boiler was not large enough to ensure the necessary speed for the journey but after a replacement was installed, the sailings began the following year and in April 1851 the company announced: “The steamer now runs regularly between Boston and Guthram. The new boiler and machinery answer exceedingly well; the speed attained being quite as great as the drainage commissioners will permit.”

From then on, the Haute Huntre became a regular attraction for the people of Bourne, providing what the owners described as “cheap and expeditious travelling” for those on business as well as pleasure and even for those who wished to reach other parts of the country because sailing times of departure and arrival had been arranged to coincide with the railway timetable. Trips between Boston and Guthram Gowt were available every Tuesday and Friday and from Guthram to Boston every Monday and Thursday although return day trips were also available with an early start at 5 am from Guthram returning from Boston the same day at 3.30 pm.

The steamer also made regular calls en route at Casswell’s Bridge, Nesslam Bridge, Donington Bridge, Swineshead Bridge and Clay Dyke with first and second class fares ranging from 4d. for the second class fare to the first stop en route to 2s. for the first class fare to Boston, with reduced fares for children. There were also special rates for market day in Boston but as this was a popular outing, all fares were 25% higher. Arrival time at Boston was scheduled to coincide with trains leaving for York, Lincoln and Hull and the return journey was also arranged to begin after the arrival of trains from these places.

By 1851, a horse drawn omnibus was being used to take people from outlying areas to catch the steamer at Guthram, notably from the villages north of Bourne such as Billingborough although the journey meant a 6 am start from outside the Fortescue Arms.

The steamer was also used for day trips to bring the crowds from Bourne and district into Boston for big events such as Boston Fair which was held every May and in August 1853 many visitors joined the thousands who attended a big temperance gala and demonstration in the town which attracted almost 3,000 visitors who, according to the Stamford Mercury, got there by “rail, van, cart and all other available conveyances and a good load from Horbling and Billingborough by the Haute Huntre steamer”.

But the enterprise was not to last. Passenger numbers dwindled and profits fell, prompting some shareholders to sell their holdings and by 1854 the only trips still running were between the Black Sluice and Donington Bridge but that was also doomed and on November 15th the steamer had stopped running altogether and the company was trying to discharge its debts while the once grand Haute Huntre lay idle awaiting a buyer at its moorings in the shipyard at Boston.

Life in England two centuries ago must have been harsh if a teenage girl found it so insufferable that she would prefer to undergo the ordeal of being transported to the colonies but that was the choice of 18-year-old Ann Smith.

We know little of her circumstances other than she lived in Bourne and in desperation of her circumstances, on 3rd May 1848 she set fire to a wheat stack in a yard off North Road owned by Mr Joseph Gentle. “The exertions of a young man named Moisey were most commendable”, reported the Stamford Mercury, “because notwithstanding the fire and smoke, he fearlessly mounted the burning stack and effected a saving of a portion of it. Another stack of wheat and a haystack were saved, the wind being very still”.

Ann Smith made no secret of the crime and confessed her actions at the scene saying that she had done it because she “wished to see another country”, meaning transportation, a sentence frequently handed out in the courts where crimes of property were involved. The punishment meant a long and dangerous voyage to one of our penal settlements in the colonies such as Australia, Tasmania, Bermuda or Canada, in overcrowded ships with little to eat and no fresh food and the constant threat of contracting disease and on arrival the prospect of serving your sentence in a strange land.

However, Ann Smith did not to get her wish although her punishment was equally severe. She subsequently appeared at Lincoln Crown Court on Thursday 20th July when she pleaded guilty to wilfully and maliciously setting fire to the wheat stack but in passing sentence, the judge, Mr Justice Patteson, said: "You appear to have made no secret that you committed this wicked act but you told everyone that you had done it, and done it that you might get transported and that if you did not get transported you would do something that should get you transported. The firing of stacks is not so bad as setting fire to buildings, which may cause the sacrifice of human life, and therefore I shall take that into consideration, and you will be disappointed, for if you want to be transported, I will not indulge you.” Instead, he sentenced her to 18 months in prison with hard labour and added: “I hope that will bring you to your proper senses and to a knowledge of your duty."

Message from abroad: I read your diary of Bourne regularly and know more about your town than about my kibbutz. - email from Ester Ronen, aged 93, Ein Dor, Israel, Thursday 3rd July 2014.

Thought for the week: Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. - Marie Curie (1867-1934), French physicist and chemist who became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and a professor at the University of Paris.

Saturday 12^th July 2014

Many people now believe that the entire concept of offering private spaces in a public car park to buyers of the new flats in Wherry’s Lane is doomed to failure.

Fourteen spaces have been earmarked for this purpose in the Burghley Street car park with the installation of individual metal posts making them inaccessible to all but the key holders. At least that is the theory but in practice the situation is proving to be quite different for motorists desperate for somewhere to park because several with small vehicles have been spotted driving between the posts and one went so far as to leave his car across two spaces, thus making them both inaccessible . Others are parking across and even over the white lines, all of which indicates an angry reaction to the precedence given by the council to a chosen few.

None of the flat owners appear to be in residence yet but if this practice continues, then the prevalence of road rage suggests that a breach of the peace cannot be ruled out once they do arrive. The question is why did not South Kesteven District Council foresee this when they allocated spaces to private owners in a public car park which is surely one of the most provocative acts imaginable in a town where car parking has reached crisis proportions because so many spaces are hogged all day long by town centre workers and commuters? The situation also highlights a major fault in the layout of the Wherry’s Lane development that has gone ahead without serious consideration of the traffic likely to be generated by customers once the seven new shops start trading.

The building line to the south of the development suggests that further properties should have been acquired before proceeding, notably the two cottages and the warehouse complex which border the Wherry’s Lane development. If these had been purchased and demolished, sufficient space would have been provided for a new parking area that would not only accommodate vehicles of the 14 flat owners but also provide additional public parking spaces that are so badly needed in the town.

As it is, the entire scheme appears to have been cobbled together to accommodate those properties which the council had already bought for the abortive town centre regeneration scheme but needed to do something with them when it fell through four years ago and this is the result. There is still time to right this wrong if the council is prepared to go back to the drawing board and spend some of the money they will be getting from the private treaty sales of the flats for the benefit of the public, otherwise shoppers and other visitors to the town centre will continue to face the aggravation of where to park each time they drive in.

It would be churlish of us to suggest that South Kesteven District Council wishes to forget this development but that is exactly what they have done in the latest town retailers’ map published last month and designed to show all of the 130 shops and services available in Bourne under the slogan “Your council working for you”. Some 5,500 copies must have been printed to ensure that every home and business got one before staff at Grantham realised that someone had blundered and the flagship £2.2 million project with its established traders and arcade of seven new shops had been left off.

The omission was pointed out by shopkeepers in the lane who have already been put to a great deal of inconvenience over the past 18 months while building work proceeded, preventing traffic from reaching them and deterring some of their passing trade and so the map was withdrawn and amended only to discover that Crown Walk and Angel Precinct had also been left off, two small avenues each with a number of busy retail outlets.

Traders affected by the omissions have been understandably miffed about being so ignored. “The council spent a lot of money on printing out these maps”, said Mrs Margaret Stevenson, co-owner of Bourne Interior Furnishings in Wherry’s Lane in an interview with The Local newspaper (July 11th). “Businesses have been expected to hand them out to customers but if they cannot find us it seems like a waste of money.” Similar concern came from Stephanie Romaine who runs the florist’s shop in Crown Walk. “If anyone wanted to find us it was not going to happen”, she told the newspaper.

The map has now been withdrawn and another version with the three missing shopping areas included has been published online, no doubt to avoid further printing costs. The council’s service manager for economic development and investment, David Mather, was suitably contrite. “We thank retailers for continuing to work with us to ensure that the map is as accurate as possible”, he said. “We work in partnership with Bourne Business Chamber and the town council to continually revise the maps and make amendments when required and future printed versions will feature these retail areas.”

Traffic accidents may appear to be a modern phenomenon confined to the involvement of motorised vehicles but the roads were a hazard long before they were invented when wheeled transport could be equally dangerous for the unwary. One such victim was an itinerant pedlar who lost his life under the wheels of the Lincoln Express stagecoach as it was entering Bourne early one winter’s morning almost 200 years ago. There was some speculation over whether he had deliberately laid in the path of the coach or was trying to climb aboard but the outcome was fatal and he died a few minutes after being run over.

The accident occurred at eight o’clock in the morning on Sunday 15th February 1829 and a report of the incident said that the coach was fully laden and travelling at about eight miles an hour when it received a considerable shock by going over the body. “One of the wheels passed over his shoulder”, said the Stamford Mercury. “The sufferer moaned once or twice but died in a few minutes after being laid on the top of the coach. The deceased is known to have been subject to fits and might possibly have been lying in the road in that state. Some of the passengers through he had probably been attempting to climb on the coach and the more so as the horses did not turn out of their track in the least, as is almost always the case if a man is lying in their way.”

The body was removed to the workhouse where it was identified as that of a travelling pedlar known only by the name of John. An inquest was held the following day when the jury returned a verdict that death had been caused in part by the injury sustained from the coach and partly from a natural cause, the deceased being known to have been for a long time in a very diseased state. The driver of the stagecoach, was exonerated from all blame.

One of the lesser known projects undertaken by the Rotary Club of Bourne is to encourage improvements to our environment by offering an annual award for the most notable effort during the year.

This takes the form of a magnificent silver rose bowl that is awarded at the end of the Rotary year in June. The recipient keeps the trophy for a year before handing it on, the first to receive it 35 years ago being Freemans Limited, the mail order company, which then had premises in the town. Others include South Kesteven District Council, the outdoor swimming pool, local schools, the printers Warners (Midlands) plc and the Civic Society who have all made their mark in helping to improve the quality of life in Bourne.

The award this year has gone to Andrew Scotney and his colleague Hayley Pateman who comprise the parks team of Bourne United Charities and are responsible for the upkeep of the Abbey Lawn, the Wellhead Gardens and the War Memorial Gardens which have all been greatly improved during the past twelve months. Their recent notable achievements have included the establishment of a wild flower meadow planted on land adjoining the Wellhead Gardens to mark the Queen’s Golden Jubilee and the planting of 11,000 daffodil bulbs to bring a touch of spring colours to the banks of the Bourne Eau where it runs through the War Memorial Gardens in South Street.

The rose bowl was presented by Rotary president Steve Buffery to Andy and Hayley who are the 29th nominees to receive it since 1979.

The leader of Lincolnshire County Council, Martin Hill, sings the praises of our volunteers, those people who are prepared to give their time to help the community and to make their town or village a better place to live.

Their dedicated work ranges from fund-raising to assisting in a variety of good causes and many of those who have participated were recently given one of the new Good Citizen Awards by the authority, a scheme designed to recognise such dedicated effort. “There is a rich tradition of volunteering in Lincolnshire”, said Councillor Hill in his article for The Local newspaper (July 4th), “and we are fortunate to have many groups and individuals who are prepared to give their time to help others and without them communities would be so much poorer.”

This scheme is to be commended in recognising exceptional voluntary effort but ironically it is also the local authorities such as Lincolnshire County Council who stand in the way of community initiative by refusing tangible and practical support and in doing so curb the very enthusiasm they are anxious to cultivate.

The biggest such injustice in Bourne at the moment is the procrastination by the town council in handing over of the Victorian chapel in the South Street cemetery. The future of this building has been uncertain ever since councillors voted to pull it down but were thwarted in this vandalism when the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) gave it a Grade II listing in April 2007 to protect it for the future.

Conservationists wanting to restore the building for community use formed the Bourne Preservation Society which was promised control but after nearly six years of obfuscation and delay they have still not been given the key of the door even though most obstacles have been slowly overcome. Instead, the issue is still being debated by committee and there is a distinct feeling abroad that the town council now wants to keep the building for its own purposes which is contrary to what everyone has been led to believe in the past.

Then we have Wake House, another Grade II listed building but now looking in a most parlous state through lack of maintenance while the owners, South Kesteven District Council, drag their heels over granting a lease to the Bourne Arts and Community Trust, occupants since 1997 with some forty organisations dependent on them for space to hold their meetings and activities. Negotiations have been going on for more than ten years without success and there are now real fears that the council will sell the property and leave the trust homeless.

Now we have a similar situation over the Town Hall, a Grade II listed building that has been at the centre of civic life for almost 200 years but is now surplus to requirements after council services at town, district and county level were transferred to the new Community Access point established at the Corn Exchange last year. Lincolnshire County Council claims ownership despite it being built by public subscription and so the building is now likely to be sold off and the money used to bolster their finances which never seem to be enough despite a spending budget of £1,050 million (2012-13).

Once again, volunteers from Bourne Preservation Society have stepped forward to take over the building for community use and talks have already begun with the county council but although the outcome is reported to be “very positive” we will have to wait and see whether Councillor Hill’s fulsome praise for voluntary effort will be a sufficient guarantee to ensure a successful conclusion to their undertaking.

Thought for the week: The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. - Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), political and spiritual leader of India during the independence movement and pioneer of non-violent resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience.

Saturday 19^th July 2014

The closure of the day centre for people with learning difficulties which has been based in Abbey Road, Bourne, for the past ten years was inevitable following a gradual reduction in the number of people who has been using it.

Its future has been in the balance for some years and although a public campaign and petition with 850 signatures prevented closure in February 2012, Lincolnshire County Council has finally decided that it is no longer viable. There have been no referrals in the past 18 months and currently no attendance at all and so the authority which has run the centre in conjunction with the Stamford and Bourne Learning Disability Service is taking the obvious decision which will save them around £90,000 a year although seven staff will be made redundant, despite opposition from their union, Unison.

The reasons for this decline in usage are unclear although Councillor Patricia Bradwell told The Local newspaper (July 4th) that changing times could be blamed and people were now able to access facilities elsewhere to meet their needs. “It is clearly no longer viable or financially sensible to keep it open”, she said.

The stone building in Abbey Road was previously occupied by a popular television and radio dealer, John Ullyatt, but converted for its present use following the closure of the Social Educational Centre in Spalding Road, one of the greatest white elephants in the history of Bourne.

The centre, pictured above, became operational in January 1988 and was officially opened on 8th April of that year. The project was a joint venture between South Lincolnshire Health Authority and Lincolnshire County Council's social services department and cost £¾ million. The aim was to provide an environment in which people with learning disabilities could be given the opportunity to participate in specially planned activities in order to acquire the skills required to take their place in the community. There was space for 77 students from a 15-mile radius and 55 were soon attending on a daily basis, the facilities including a fully equipped training flat to enable students learn how to live independently, a mobility room and art studio and a range of supporting facilities including speech therapy and physiotherapy.

The official opening was performed by the local M P, Quentin Davies, then member for the Stamford and Spalding constituency, who unveiled a commemorative plaque. "Many would say that a joint venture of this nature would be impossible but what we have all seen today proved what a success it is”, he said. “This is a tremendous amenity for South Lincolnshire. Britain leads the way in community care and has done since the White Paper [government review] in 1980. Bourne should be the envy of everywhere in the western world with the equipment, facilities and dedication of the staff at this wonderful centre. The results will most surely be seen in the years to come. It has certainly been an historic afternoon for Bourne."

His words came back to haunt us because thirteen years later, the centre had closed down. The authorities decided that the building had been a mistake from the outset, sited in the wrong place on the edge of an industrial estate at the corner of Pinfold Road and the busy main A151, badly designed and needing major alterations within a short time of its opening. Local councillors said that they were disappointed that such a well-meaning project had failed so soon and that £750,000 of public money should be wasted after such a short time. Town council member and former mayor, Mrs Marjorie Clark, made the understatement of the year when she described the situation as "a terrible shame". 

The building soon became an eyesore, closed and neglected, the windows boarded up, the grounds overgrown with weeds and littered with rubbish. A tattered official notice on the broken down perimeter fence announced that planning permission had been granted for the premises to be used for general industrial purposes, storage and distribution, once a buyer could be found, and that seems to be the case because the building is now back in use but for commercial rather than social purposes.

There is a saying among servicemen that old soldiers never die but only fade away and such a description was a fitting epitaph for John Robinson who ended his life in obscurity at an indeterminate age almost 200 years ago after a remarkable military career.

He spent his final years in poverty, an inmate of the poor house at Morton, near Bourne, a village too small to have an established workhouse and so those without means would have been looked after by the parish in a cottage or some other basic accommodation allocated for that purpose and totally dependent on charity for his survival.

John had been born in the highlands of Scotland during the mid-18th century but joined the army as a lad and we have a detailed account of his military history because during his final years at Morton he had talked of his life to someone educated enough to take it down in writing, the schoolmaster perhaps, or the vicar, and it is these scanty notes that were passed on to the local newspaper when he died.

He enlisted in the celebrated 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot, also known as the Black Watch, shortly before the American Revolutionary War and sailed for the New World to begin his active service when the British forces were attacked by the peasantry at Lexington in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, on 19th April 1775, a battle which, together with a similar confrontation at Concord, marked the outbreak of open armed conflict between Great Britain and thirteen of its colonies on the mainland of British America.

He was present at the memorable battle of Bunker Hill two months later on June 17th when the British suffered heavy losses with over 800 wounded and 226 killed, and then took part in several other conflicts until the final capitulation at York Town, Virginia, when the Americans and their allied troops led by General George Washington scored a decisive victory over the British army.

The regiment returned to Britain for a short spell and then left for the Middle East to share in the distinguished victory over the French on the sands of Egypt in 1801 where after a successful assault landing, the 42nd fought with great distinction at the Battle of Alexandria, capturing the colours of Napoleon's supposedly invincible legion.

Still on active service on 30th July 1809, he was among a British armed force of 39,000 men who landed on Walcheren, a former island in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands at the mouth of the Scheldt estuary, with a view to assisting the Austrians in their war against Napoleon, and attacking the French fleet moored at Flushing. But the expedition was a disaster and the British troops were withdrawn the following December.

Throughout these dangerous campaigns John was never wounded but on leaving the army was granted a military pension on account of his long and meritorious service in three quarters of the globe although he did not enjoy the army’s generosity for long. As the revolutionary struggles continued in America, the government needed more men and called upon their old soldiers, invalids and all, to re-join the ranks for garrison duties but by then the veteran felt himself unequal to the exigencies of military life and declined with the result that his pension was subsequently forfeited.

He took casual jobs around the country to earn a crust and soon found the fens to his liking, subsisting comfortably by manual labour and often sleeping rough but reckoned without the elements and during a period of unexampled severity in the winter of 1814 he was found almost starved to death in a ditch on the northern outskirts of Morton where kindly villagers took him in and gave him food and shelter and where he remained as a casual pauper.

There is no record of John Robinson’s exact age but he was believed to be in his early seventies. His death on Saturday 6th August 1831 was mourned throughout the village and the Stamford Mercury paid him a fond tribute in their columns when they recalled his adventurous career on behalf of king and country.

“Though his life was preserved by the humane action of the parish”, said the report, “his limbs were so contracted and his corporal strength so impaired by the frost, that he was never after able to pass the limits of the workhouse, nor to move even into the air without the aid of crutches, but his mental faculties continued unimpaired to the last. It is fair to infer, from the uniform tenor of his conduct throughout 17 years of residence, that he was a most excellent man from the beginning of a life exposed continually to perilous exertion. So respectfully did he demean himself towards all, so kindly to the inmates, so tenderly to the children, that he obtained the appellation of ‘the good old gentleman’.”

Further enhancement of the War Memorial in South Street is now underway to mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War One on 4th August 1914.

Ten memorial stones bearing the regimental and service crests of those who died in the conflict have already been installed alongside the main path leading to the stone cenotaph and another ten are now planned. One of these will be dedicated to the Parachute Regiment which has a special connection with Bourne because 550 officers and men from the 1st Battalion were stationed in and around the town for several weeks prior to the Battle of Arnhem in 1944 and a second to commemorate the work of civilian units who played such an important role during two world wars.

Each of the twenty stones will have a wooden cross placed behind them bearing a wreath with a regimental or service crest to match that on the memorial stones and the surrounding area will be landscaped. Bourne United Charities who administer the War Memorial Gardens on behalf of the public are also considering installing low level railings around the steps of the cenotaph which would allow the poppy wreaths placed there during the Remembrance Day service every November to remain in situ for much longer than in the past.

A service of dedication will be held at the War Memorial once all of the stones are in place and the improvements completed, most probably in late September. Trustee John Kirkman, who has been supervising the changes on behalf of Bourne United Charities, said that the improvements would be a fitting acknowledgement to the sacrifice made by so many men and women from Bourne who served their country in the armed forces and civilian units. “The gardens are a tribute to them and will remain so without any embellishment”, he said, an indication perhaps that the public campaign now underway to erect a bandstand does not meet with everyone’s approval although we will have to wait for a final decision from the trustees once the petition of support has been completed and delivered.

Thought for the week: "The county council stuck their heads in the sand. They should have listened to the people of Lincolnshire and particularly the people of the Deepings where half of the people signed the petition and they still refused to listen. They should hang their heads in shame. They should immediately restore our libraries to what they were previously by using some of the £41 million they under-spent in the past year.” - county councillor Phil Dilks, speaking this week after the High Court in London upheld a challenge by the Save Lincolnshire Libraries campaign group over the authority’s decision to withdraw funding from 32 of its 47 libraries.

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