For the Doncaster Mayor has had them well and truly boxed by MP and Minister Caroline Flint in the r
ow over Bawtry's unadopted road Spring Gardens.
The last Newsletter had reported how, at a recent Bawtry Town Council meeting, Mr Winter told angry residents, who said they had been assured by Ms Flint that the road was a priority for adoption five years ago: "I don't know why you were told that you would be first...
"Politics may come in to play here. If people want votes, they say things like that."
But Ms Flint has lashed back, saying: "I did not make anything up. When the council first drew up a list of roads for adoption it had a list of six roads.
"I was advised by the council, in writing, that Spring Gardens was near the top of the list and would be one of the first to be adopted. I passed that information to residents in good faith."
And she supplied the Newsletter with a copy of a letter to her from Coun John Hoare, then the Cabinet Member for Economic Development, dated June 2003, and headed "unadopted roads".
It says: "Spring Gardens, Bawtry, came out amongst the top group of streets for adoption.
"Residents have been informed of this and I am confident that Spring Gardens will be one of the first groups, once all the arrangements are in place..."
Frustrations for Spring Gardens residents began when Doncaster Council extended its adoption list to 17 roads, and relegated the road to seventeenth place, with work now scheduled for 2011.
Said Ms Flint: "Coun Hoare was overseeing the programme on behalf of the Mayor.
"He is a person of integrity and provided a factual letter in 2003 which sadly was overturned by the council's re-assessment at a later date.
"I am pleased for the few roads in my constituency that have been adopted – it has ended the blight in some roads.
"But Mayor Winter has simply not been accurate in his comments to Bawtry residents. As it is Christmas, I will put this down to a memory lapse on the part of Mayor Winter."
Bawtry Town Council Clerk Jennifer Worthington added: "Anyone who knows Caroline will be aware that she takes up issues and keeps residents informed. Caroline works extremely hard on behalf of her constituents."
In 1997 Ms Flint held a debate in the Commons to highlight the plight of residents in unadopted roads. She told the Newsletter: "A lady from Highfield Road, Conisbrough came to one of my first MP's surgeries. Her road was so bad that a funeral hearse could not pass down it.
"It was heartbreaking and set me on the path to press to have these roads adopted.
"My one regret is that Mayor Winter's plans were not more ambitious."
