A Boston Borough Councillor has submitted a motion to be heard at an upcoming Full Council meeting for the introduction of a newly established Town Council in preparation for the ending of the borough council as we know it.
Conservative Councillor James Cantwell, Borough Councillor for Five Villages, which incorporates Sutterton, Fosdyke, Algarkirk, Bicker and Wigtoft, proposed the motion and encourages fellow councillors to vote in favour of the proposal.
The submitted motion reads as follows:
- The Government on 16th December has made clear its intentions to abolish two-tier local councils by the end of this Parliament, with bids for alternative arrangements expected in the Autumn of 2025 and new Councils taking office in 2027 or 2028. Whatever we feel about this, the Ministerial statement-of-intent is clear and firm. Whether we like it or not, the Boston Borough Council as a ‘District Council’ will cease to exist within the next two to four years.
- There may well be much debate as to what the future shape of local government in Lincolnshire will look like- whether that is a single unitary covering the current LCC area, or whether it is two or three smaller units instead. Either way, the town of Boston will find itself a part of a much bigger Council than it has been privileged to enjoy since 1974.
Council believes that:
- Local Government Re-organisation is happening so all of the previous assumptions against a Town Council for Boston undermining or duplicating the work of the current Borough Council are erased. Indeed, a successor Town Council would have to be established to give proper local democratic representation once the Borough ‘District Council’ is abolished.
- All of the Charters and the Borough Status must be preserved and arrangements put in place to ensure that they may transfer to a successor Town Council and avoid the tragedy of Rochester which lost its ancient City Status through errors during reorganisation.
- It is far easier to make the right decisions and transfer all which belongs to Boston while the Borough Council exists and has full power to implement such transfers; it is far easier to do this if there is a Town Council set up and running and in a position to receive these at its very beginning. Should all these assets go to a Council based in Lincoln or Sleaford or Spalding, getting them back again for the ‘Town and People’ of Boston will be so much more complicated.
- For these reasons, a Town Council should be created with all speed, and vested with all that it should be while there is still the time and chance to do it. Boston Borough Council cannot stop Local Government Re-organisation, but it can, while it still has full power, make sure that whatever comes afterwards it has left a legacy of which all Members can be rightly proud, and done right by the Town and People of Boston which will echo down the generations to come.
Council resolves:
- The Council instructs the Chief Executive to expedite a Community Governance Review for the Unparished area of Boston (the BTAC area), with a view to creating a new Town Council for Boston to take office at the earliest possible juncture.
- This Council instructs the Chief Executive, in consultation with Cabinet, Audit & Governance, and Scrutiny Committees, to identify and list those Assets (including any Charter Rights and the Borough status) currently belonging to Boston Borough Council which, by rights or tradition belong to the Town and People of Boston, and which must be transferred to that Town Council before Local Government Re-organisation processes alienate them from our town to another, distant, Unitary authority.
Questions from Members of the Council and the public must be received by 5 p.m. two clear working days prior to the day of the meeting – the deadline for this meeting is 5 p.m. on Wednesday 15th January 2025.
