A local newspaper has launched a campaign to put pride back in its community after its town received a battering from the national press and TV.

Boston in Lincolnshire has hit the national headlines for all the wrong reasons in recent weeks but now the Boston Target newspaper is hitting back.

Over recent months the town, a magnet for migrant workers, has been held up as an example of racial disharmony.

Last month it was also labelled the “fattest town in the UK” and another survey claimed the town had one of the highest rates of infant mortality in the country.

But Target editor Glyn Belsher (pictured) says the coverage has been grossly unfair.

He said: “Boston is no different to any other town or city with high numbers of migrant workers yet certain sections of the national press love to use our town as an example of a hotbed of racial tension.

“Then we were accused of being the fattest town by one survey, yet another reputable survey, only published in the Target, actually put us as the 60th fattest town.

“If that wasn’t bad enough we were accused of having one of the highest mortality rates in the UK, but that turned out to be a statistical anomaly.”

The weekly paper has now published a “top ten” of the best things about Boston, and is asking readers to add their own.

Among the things the Target says the town has to be proud about are affordable house prices, its varied market, its traditional May Fair, Witham County Park – and its newspaper!

It is also home to The Stump, England’s oldest parish church.

Glyn said: “The constant negative publicity is quite depressing so now we have launched a campaign, backed by the local MP and prominent members of the community, to cheer our readers up by reminding them what is good about our great little town and inviting them to give us their views.”

The Target has a reputation for its campaigning and pro-active journalism. Last year it was given a Boston Civic Trust award for launching a campaign for a much-needed bypass and earlier this year its readers helped save the town’s hospital from massive cuts by filling in protest coupons published in the newspaper.

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