February 2025

Well, February seems to have been and gone in a flash!

It has been a busy month of meetings, decision-making and representing the Borough.

Here you can find a copy of my Leader's diary Leader's calendar - February 2025 (PDF, 60 KB) and below you will see the number of hours I've spent in meetings as well as the number of emails sent and received.

I thought Boston Brilliance was just brilliant! It was great to see this free event bring lots of families and thousands of visitors into the town centre and I'd like to commend Cllr Sarah Sharpe who worked tirelessly to ensure the event was a big success.  Boston Borough Council supported Boston College with the event, using funds that we have been allocated  from Arts Council England. The town's historic landmarks were really brought to life in a beautiful way that has never been seen before with so much brightness and colour

The street theatre which accompanied the event added to the vibrancy of the event and overall it was a fantastic way to commemorate Boston's heritage and history. The seagulls were great fun and when taking a picture I learned that 'we don't say "cheese" we say "tuna!" I was thoroughly impressed with the students from Boston College who were involved and they should be extremely proud of their efforts. Boston Guildhall also benefitted from increased footfall thanks to the event, with many visitors saying how much they enjoyed visiting the museum for the first time in many years. If you haven't been for a while, I would like to invite you to visit the Guildhall again - it's completely free of charge - and you may discover something new.

While we are celebrating the achievements of young people in our community, I have thoroughly enjoyed supporting a young  woman who was interested to learn more about my role as a Council Leader. Arina Nogali, a Boston High School student, joined the Council on work experience in the Autum and this week she returned to shadow me for the day in my role as Leader. Arina is passionate about politics and has three conditional offers for university to pursue her career.

She had a very busy day! Arina observed a planning committee meeting in action, then attended a meeting on the Rosegarth Square project, sat in a briefing to discuss the agenda for Full Council as well as a Quarter 3 Performance report briefing. She was also involved in a community safety meeting to discuss additional CCTV cameras and our plans for new community safety officers. It was a real pleasure to have Arina at the council and before the day was out, I was grateful that Lord Porter was able to help me arrange for Arina to interview Baroness Taylor, as part of her 6^th form Extended Project Qualification. I am certain Arina has a very bright future ahead of her and I will watch her progress with interest.

Another fantastic event I attended was Celebrate Boston at St Botolph's Church. I love events like this which capture the positivity and pride of the Borough. As well as being a celebration of our heritage, it also celebrated the many groups and volunteers who are the backbone of our community. On one of the stands, were the lovely Jurate Matulioniene and Giedra Kazlauskiene who were both in traditional Lithuanian dress.

I was pleased to be invited to speak at the Regional Independent Group's annual conference at the White Hart Hotel in Lincoln earlier this month. It was a great opportunity to connect with fellow Independent councillors from across the region and it helped to promote the excellent work of our organisation. My talk was about running an Independent council, with a particular focus on introducing new policies which benefit our residents and improving the culture of the organisation. I was grateful to be given the opportunity to share my insights on how my administration has improved Boston Borough Council.

During February, I also travelled to London to meet with Richard Tice MP to discuss issues relating to Boston Borough, and our topics included the impact of the Internal Drainage Board Special Levy and Local Government Reorganisation. I was there on the same day as the farmer's protest about inheritance tax in Westminster, and I was proud to stand in solidarity with them in the time between my meetings.

I hope you have enjoyed this month's update. Please do remember, you can contact your councillor any time and their contact details are here 

Thank you for reading and take care.

Photo captions

Cllr Anne Dorrian at the Boston Brilliance Event with street theatre artists at St Botolph's Church.

Cllr Anne Dorrian with Boston High School student, Ariana Nogali.

Cllr Anne Dorrian pictured with Jurate Matulioniene and Giedra Kazlauskiene at the Celebrate Boston event.

Cllr Anne Dorrian pictured at the Regional Independent Group annual Conference, with Cllr Jo Beavis from Baintree District Council, Cllr Marianne Overton from Lincolnshire County Council and North Kesteven District Council, Cllr Ann Hooks from Baintree District Council and Cllr Ru Yarsley from East Lindsey District Council.

The Farmers' protest at Westminster