Boston Heritage Strategy

Heritage Lincolnshire were commissioned at short notice to complete Boston Borough Council’s Heritage Strategy which was required as part of an element of the Heritage Lottery Funded Townscape Heritage Initiative. Working to a predefined brief, one of our senior staff scoped out the requirements of the brief, undertook research and consulted with key stakeholders before providing a draft strategy at the end of February 2017 and within the two-week deadline requirement.

The document considers the key strengths of Boston’s natural and historic environment, before reviewing a range of successfully funded capital and public realm projects including the restoration of the town’s historic market place, the installation of the new town footbridge and the Historic England funded ‘Partnership Schemes in Conservation Areas’ (PSiCA) which saw sixteen historic property exteriors sensitively refurbished. The document then drew together some recent challenges but also considered future opportunities before outlining a proposed strategic direction for the next five years. This was summarised in a series of realistic and achievable shortand long-term objectives.

The draft strategy was circulated internally at the council and to key external stakeholders (such as Historic England), before wider external consultation took place across the borough and with the Boston Heritage Forum. The final strategy was adopted by Boston Borough Council in June 2017. To compliment this work, Heritage Lincolnshire were also commissioned to write the Boston Town Centre Conservation Area Management Plan.