Every three months or so, I share my thoughts on local area progress with you as residents as your Big Local Rep and with the central team managing the national programme. Your comments and thoughts are always welcome. 

Looking back

Running things

The partnership is working well as a team as it gets stuck into delivery of its new plan.

Three of the partnership took part in the Big Local Connects event in Nottingham, sharing of their experience and expertise and learning from other areas. Richard Tory (chair) gave a detailed and constructive contribution to one workshop looking at learning from failure, drawing on the setbacks of the early years and how these were turned round.

The partnership continues to meet monthly with strong support from the Local Trusted Organisation, Age UK Lincoln & South Lincolnshire. Finances are reviewed each month and headline figures displayed on the spend barometer on the home page of the website. The partnership is diligent in its accountability to residents, with plans, partner agreements and quarterly reports all posted on the website. These provide the evidence of outcomes and impact through stories of action and change posted on the website and in newsletters delivered to every household.

Doing things

Activities over the summer included the Beach event, the 1940s event and Bike Night. The latest autumn newsletter has been delivered to every household and shows the great success of the expanded summer beach event, as well as a useful summary guide to other Boston Big Local investments through the community chest and events funding pots. “The way BBL has set itself up is to facilitate events and community activities and not to run them. This ensures we act as an enabler. With this in mind, such a popular event would not be possible without the partnership with Boston Borough Council.”

Looking ahead

The work on the Pirate Ship playground is progressing with an ambitious launch date of October half term. The Christmas Market is taking place on 21 November. New ideas and innovative projects are being considered, including the possibility of a Boston-opoly game. Much work needs yet to be done, but it is an intriguing idea the partnership is looking into. The partnership had a presentation from LCVS and is mindful to support the funding of an environment volunteer co-ordinator. A new proposal may need to be submitted and considered by Local Trust. Two new partnerships are also growing with the Townscape Heritage Initiative and Shodfriars theatre.