REPORT TO:
DATE:
B O S T O N
B O R O U G H C O U N C I L
FULL COUNCIL
2 MARCH 2015
AGENDA ITEM NO: 6
SUBJECT: MEMBERSHIP OF ‘DIE HANSE’ (THE MODERN
DAY HANSEATIC LEAGUE)
PORTFOLIO HOLDER: COUNCILLOR YVONNE GUNTER – GROUNDS
AND OPEN SPACES
REPORT AUTHOR: HEAD OF BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND
DEVELOPMENT
EXEMPT REPORT? NO
SUMMARY
This report is an exploration into the merits and opportunities offered by
Boston becoming a member of a modern alliance of the medieval trade association the Hanseatic League of which it was once allied.
The modern Hanseatic League, revived in 1980 in Zwolle ,
‘set itself the task of keeping alive the spirit of the League as a social and cultural alliance. By cultivating traditions and encouraging a vibrant exchange between its members, the Hanseatic League aims to bring about closer economic, cultural, social and national ties across Europe‘. www.hanse.org
Boston’s importance, wealth and vibrancy as an internationally important port during the medieval period have much to do with the trading activity and relationship with the Hanseatic League. Through this well recorded history we are able, as a town, to consider membership of the modern day Hanse, a prerequisite of membership being an historical association with the Hanseatic
League.
RECOMMENDATIONS
That an application be made for Boston to become a member of Die
Hanse, with the Council to fund the initial two years’ membership of the
Hanse Business Sub Group, if the Boston Hanse Group so wishes, and for Council officers to facilitate the initial series of meetings of the
Boston Hanse Group to ensure membership proceeds well.

REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS
To establish direction and next steps in terms of a decision to join
‘Die Hanse’.
ALTERNATIVES CONSIDERED
Not to join ‘Die Hanse’.
REPORT
1 Introduction
1.1 This report has been written at the request of the meeting of full
Council on Monday 29 th
September which agreed that a report be considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Corporate and Community
Committee and a recommendation to be subsequently made to Cabinet and then full Council.
1.2 This report brings forward similar information to that presented at
Scrutiny Committee on 4 th
December 2014 and Cabinet on 21 January
2015 which is essentially an exploration into the merits and opportunities offered by Boston becoming a member of a modern alliance of the medieval trade association the Hanseatic League of which it was once part.
1.3 The modern Hanseatic League, revived in 1980 in Zwolle ,
‘set itself the task of keeping alive the spirit of the League as a social and cultural alliance. By cultivating traditions and encouraging a vibrant exchange between its members, the Hanseatic League aims to bring about closer economic, cultural, social and national ties across Europe .‘ www.hanse.org
1.4
Boston’s importance, wealth and vibrancy as an internationally important port during the medieval period have much to do with the trading activity and relationship with the Hanseatic League. The
Hanseatic League or the ‘Hanse’ was an alliance of traders and merchants from Northern Germany, the Baltic States, Lowland Europe and elsewhere who were core to the well-developed trading networks of the period.
1.5 Boston was a ‘Kontore’, a trading post, in the medieval Hanse and the
Hanseatic merchants held a ‘house’ and an area to conduct trade, a
‘steelyard’, in the town. The presence of the Hanse in Boston and other ports including King’s Lynn and Hull was agreed by grant of permission of the Crown.

1.6 The increased mercantile activity brought to the town, its trade in wool and corn and the richness of its fairs and marts of luxury goods poised
Boston amongst the most important and wealthiest port towns in
England. Its position on the edge of the Wash and at the mouth of the
Witham which linked it to the medieval city of Lincoln which held an exclusive right to trade in wool, called the wool staple, gave a perfect means to enable this international trade and access prized goods such as the fleeces of the Yorkshire monastic flocks.
1.7
Much work has been done on exploring Boston’s Hanseatic roots and recently Dr Pamela Cawthorne, a Boston based academic, has produced a comprehensive overview of those well-developed connections which has been able to inform discussion with local groups in pursuing exploration of membership of the modern day Hanse.
1.8 Through this well recorded history we are able, as a town, to consider membership of the modern day Hanse, a prerequisite of membership being an historical association with the Hanseatic League.
2 Die Hanse and potential opportunities to membership
2.1 The modern Hanseatic League is composed of 183 member towns and cities across 16 countries all sharing a common heritage. The other
English members of this group are King’s Lynn, with whom Boston shares a strong similarity with its Hanseatic past being one of the twin
Wash ports, the other being Kingston upon Hull.
King’s Lynn have been members since 2005 and have described how they have found much benefit in membership, particularly in promotion of the areas of arts, culture and heritage to positively impact tourism and the visitor economy.
2.2 There is the ability for Boston to increase awareness of itself as a visitor destination on a national and international scale by electing to join the Hanse and benefit too from the impact on the visitor economy.
By being part of the Hanse not only can the arts and cultural heritage be explored and celebrated for the benefit of the local economies, it may well enable links for local business to embrace and develop through the networks that are available within it. K ing’s Lynn have shared that they have approximately 10 local businesses in the
‘Business Hanse’ which explore supply chains and other business routes with foreign counterparts within the group. The ‘Business Hanse’ has only been very recently formed in the last year or so and is a smaller sub-group within Die Hanse and set up to explore common business interests.
2.3 It would be perhaps prudent to explore joint promotional activities of this shared heritage with those other members who geographically occupy a relatively tight proximity and promote the area ‘from the

Humber to the Wash’. Not only does this have the potential to moderate costs through some level of partner working but to also build the relationship alongside the opportunities of each member, i.e. the national and international profile that Hull will receive as European City of Culture in 2017, King’s Lynn’s experience and status with the Hanse, and Boston’s own opportunities in 2020 and the 400 th
anniversary of the Pilgrim Fathers reaching America.
2.4 There are a number of areas membership of Die Hanse could impact on that have been identified through work to date.

Promotion and awareness of
Boston’s Cultural Heritage and
Historic Offer to residents and visitors on a national and international scale

Understanding of sense of place and development of civic pride

The vibrancy of the visitor economy in Boston

The placement of Boston within Lincolnshire as a destination as having this unique association

Development of educational resources and themes to engage children with their local history

Aid public realm improvement through developmental activity, e.g.
King’s Lynn Waterfront improvements and also through interpretative and possible artistic interventions

Opportunity to join the Business Hanse
3
2.5 It is worth noting that the exploration of membership of Die Hanse is also one of the strands of activity in the action plan of the Boston
Destination Management Plan 2014 to 2020 which was been agreed by a wide range of stakeholders giving evidence of wider general endorsement for this initiative.
Membership, management and sustainability
3.1 Application for membership of the modern Hanse can only be made by the Local Authority. The council recognises that to have sufficient resource and capacity to most fully engage and participate with this organisation that strong partner working will be required and that the
Council itself is unable to take on a co-ordinating or management role in this.
3.2
King’s Lynn shared the experience of having a strong ‘Hanse Club’ which is independent of the council and which advocated membership to the authority initially. The club has a significant contribution to the partnership of the Hanse and appears instrumental in developing certain events i.e. a History and Archaeology activity, Trails and other elements as well as supporting Lynn’s annual Hanse Festival.

3.3 In Boston a number of partners and stakeholders have been identified to date and it is envisioned that a lead group of those individuals and groups take forward membership, build relationships and develop and deliver projects to promote our association with the Hanse. Members and/or officers of the council will help facilitate membership, initiatives and projects and could have a presence within the lead group as well as helping develop strategy and undertaking civic responsibilities as necessary.
3.4 The opportunity to join the Hanse has been recognised both within the authority and with those partners and stakeholders. These groups include:-

The History of Boston Project

Boston Preservation Trust

Boston Area Partnership (BAP)

Boston Big Local

Boston Visitor Economy Partnership (BVEP)

Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce, including local membership

Members & officers of Boston Borough Council
3.5 It is from these groups that we would expect a Hanse ‘working group’ to evolve and agree to take forward membership in partnership with the authority. For a sustainable future all groups involved would need to commit regular development meetings and it might be useful to have the project closely allied to an extant group such as the Local Chamber of Commerce, the Town Team or BVEP. The council would ideally need to be assured of the commitment and structure of the group before it could fully endorse an application to join Die Hanse.
3.6 There is no cost or annual; subscription for joining the Hanse (subject to acceptance) but to join the Business sub-group would entail a modest cost of approximately £350 p.a which comprises a joining fee of £200 which becomes an annual subscription thereafter and £150 contribution towards website costs. Being relatively modest these could possibly also accommodated within extant budgets within the authority.
An application would be timed for it to be considered by an assembly of
Hanse delegates due to meet between 4 th
& 7 th
June this year in
Viljandi in eastern Estonia. The application requires to be lodged no later than 31 st
March 2015.
3.7 There will be opportunity to embrace wider initiatives such as the annual conventions and Hanse days and participate in promotional activities and initiatives; these too will have cost associated with them which will have to be explored as they occur with partners, external funders and other funding sources in the private sector.

3.8
King’s Lynn participate in these wider activities, attending the annual convention which is hosted in a different member city or town each year taking promotional material, both tourism-based and businessrelated, to the events. This incurs some level of cost for member and officer time, travel, accommodation and renting of stands etc, though should Boston choose to join there could be the opportunity to share resource with
King’s Lynn or Hull and mitigate some costs. They also make a significant contribution of £25,000 annually towards a Hanse festival which falls on the 3 rd
Saturday in May each year, this is the date that all members of the Hanse share a celebration. It should be noted that this date falls directly after Boston’s annual Mayfair, which actually grew from the medieval trade fairs or ‘marts’. Should some level of celebration be desired, and funds found to meet costs, we would have to be conscious of the organisational ability to help facilitate another event so close to the closure of another, though there may be merit in this scheduling.
3.9
King’s Lynn appears to have made a success out of membership and opportunities for Boston to do this are clearly there. The success of
King’s Lynn appears to be underpinned by having a strong, independent group ‘The Hanse Club’ helping develop activity in combination with local authority support. The further success of their membership is in the authority’s willingness to financially commit to invest in the endeavour rather than being a silent member with basic membership. We are advised that the Boston History Project group would be willing to set up a Boston Hanse Club or Society and to provide a forum for all those interested in promoting Boston’s Hansiatic connections. The Club could also potentially affiliate with King’s Lynn’s own Hanse Club
4 Recommendations from Corporate and Community Committee and Cabinet
4.1 A similar report to this was considered by the Corporate and
Community Committee on 4 th
December 2014. The Committee resolved:
“That it be wholeheartedly recommended to Cabinet and Full Council that application be made for Boston to become a member of Die
Hanse, with the Counci l to fund the initial two years’ membership of the
Hanse Business Subgroup, if the Boston Hanse Group so wishes, and for the Council’s officers to facilitate the initial series of meetings of the
Boston Hanse Group to ensure membership proceeds well.”
4.2 At the meeting of the Cabinet held on 21 January 2014, it was agreed to support the recommendations of the Corporate and Community
Committee and refer to full Council for approval.

CONCLUSION
Boston is well positioned to and has all the necessary attributes to make an application to join the modern Hanseatic League ‘Die Hanse’.
A number of partners, stakeholders and interested parties have demonstrated ambition and willingness to become members and this ambition has been identified within the Destination Management Plan for Boston 2014 to 2020.
There are definite opportunities in membership as are noted in the report and as are evidenced in
King’s Lynn’s experience of participation in Die Hanse.
The success of membership and in taking advantage of opportunities is best facilitated by a formal group of stakeholders and partners, independent of the council, able to drive and assist in giving vibrancy and vitality to initiatives that can be aided and facilitated by the authority. There are indications that there is a will within the Boston community to establish such a group. Greater and wider benefits are only really possible however with larger financial investment in terms of visits, promotional work and events.
Membership of Die Hanse could hold many advantages and possibilities to benefit Boston, its visitor economy, its businesses and its profile but it is dependent upon the capacity, resource, drive and ambition of its wider partners and stakeholders working with the council to achieve this.
At its meeting on 4 th
December 2014, the Corporate and Community
Committee unanimously agreed to recommend to Cabinet, who subsequently referred to Full Council, that Boston joins Die Hanse.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
Membership is free for successful applicants but to join the Business subgroup would entail an annual cost of approximately £350.
Dependant on the desired level of involvement and participation in initiatives of Die Hanse a wide sliding scale of cost can be associated with membership with Festival development being at the high end of this.
LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
None explored
ANY OTHER IMPLICATIONS
None explored

CONSULTATION
No direct or formal consultation on membership of Die Hanse has been undertaken.
Consultation has taken place in the development of the Boston Destination
Management Plan which identifies exploring membership as an action.
Fact finding and presentations have been made at various levels both within
Boston and King’s Lynn to interested parties, officers and members.
APPENDICES
None
BACKGROUND PAPERS
No background papers as defined in Section 100D of the Local Government
Act 1972 were used in the production of this report.
CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THIS REPORT
Corporate and Community Committee 4 th
December 2014
Cabinet 21 st
January 2015