The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) write to the Lincolnshire Echo - 08 April 2006

DAVID DAY
Chairman Wash Branch

Plight of a town denied its vital new roadway

Question: Where does the sun set in the east? Answer: Over Boston.

Since 1998, the county council has claimed that ‘removing road traffic from communities’ is a ‘main area for action’ and, indeed, has made this a priority. Not, unfortunately, for Boston, whose sorry plight led to a journalist (Peter Levy of BBC TV’s Look North) to comment: “Boston will die without a bypass to ease congestion.”

A sorry end to a fine town which was in medieval times the greatest port in Britain and played a significant role in the Second World War.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) lobbied ceaselessly alongside the Boston Bypass Group to encourage inclusion of a bypass in the 2nd Local Transport Plan since its (disappointingly) surprising omission from the 1st Local Transport Plan.

Once again, it has been omitted.

Responses have been forthcoming from MPs, the Transport Secretary, emda, GOEM and Boston Borough Council who have been similarly committed, as part of the regeneration of the East Midlands, to securing the future of its only major sea port. Indeed, emda had attracted European funding for the south-eastern corridor highway improvement, in partnership with the county and borough councils to this end. What has become apparent is that the county council’s blame of central Government’s policies is a smokescreen for its refusal to recognise the key role of Boston in Lincolnshire’s economy.

From county council leader Martin Hill, the silence of his response to us is deafening. And while the sun continues to rise to its zenith over Lincoln, it will set on Boston.

DAVID DAY
Chairman Wash Branch
Federation of Small Businesses
08 Apr 2006