I attended the parish council-organised meeting – thank you HPC – about the Boston Road sinkhole on Tuesday.
The problem – there were several things that struck me.
This is a three-year-old running farce. Both the county council and Anglian Water seemed rather vague about exactly what happened immediately after the hole first opened, though at the time they each tried to claim the other was responsible. They appeared to have no idea what to do. Briefly, they have so far attempted to solve the problem by (figuratively) filling the hole with some half a million £1 coins of our money. All to deal with a damaged 9in cast iron pipe, we were told. So far, it is not yet resolved.
In my opinion the root cause of this and other issues with water supply and drainage is not just some flowing silt which has always been there.
Rather, that we are trying to support a large town with huge new developments on the crumbling infrastructure of the former small market town we were 50 years or more ago.
Acres of concrete now cover areas that used to sop up water, more toilets flush and tap water demand has increased, all straining pipework.
The weight and frequency of new traffic, some of it very heavy vehicles, adds to the problem.
There have been water main leakages in several other places, including Market Hill and with the Battlefields area being hit quite often. Residents in Boston Road have suffered considerable inconvenience, including noise, vibrations and claimed damage to their houses.
Of course there are also many other infrastructure problem that come with over development and too rapid growth. We all know what they are.
How to put it right – stop new building of large developments until we’ve improved all our infrastructure.
Use the cash generated by increased households paying rates and buying water service from Anglian Water to do this.
Insist that our elected representatives, councillors, scream loudly, often, and use every trick in the book to stop inappropriate developments.
There are ways to stop or delay new building.
I have to admit that John Hayes, speaking at the meeting, clearly sees this problem.
Not the councillors though, who have largely remained quiet for years and usually vote to pass all such applications. Sometimes you have to make yourselves unpopular with colleagues to achieve results.
Get on with it ladies and gentlemen or you will be replaced.
Paul Foyster
Holbeach agent
South Holland Independents
