AGE CONCERN

VICKY FERRES, Chief executive of the charity Age Concern in Doncaster, has enjoyed remarkable success in the Beacon of Sleaze, taking her organisation in a few years from a single shop selling second-hand clothes to bring the largest voluntary sector care provider in the borough with an income close to £2m and more than 300 employees.

In his annual audit letter, district auditor David Brumhead refers to payments totaling £500,000 received by Age Concern in the year 2000-2001. He highlights £50,000 provided by the council for a pilot scheme in which Age Concern undertook to organise shopping for local oldies. Alas only 204 shopping visits were completed in 18 months - at a cost of some £245 per trip. Brumhead blames "inadequate checking of expenditure reimbursed by the council".

Questioned by opposition councillors, Donny Social Services chief Mervyn Thomas was forced to declare an interest - Ms Ferres happens to be his WIFE.

Private Eye No.1048 22nd February 2002

WINTERWONDERLAND

MARTIN WINTER, the Leader of Doncaster Council and the Labour Party's recently-selected candidate to be the Town's Mayor, is a man with big plans, dedicated to the regeneration of one of the most run down parts of Britain.

His favourite project is, the Twelve Million Pounds Glass Park, which will transform a former Pilkington Glass factory site outside Doncaster into a 'Community' organic farm, enterprise centre, craft workshops, cafe, composting scheme, riding stables, garden, microbrewery/pub... and fish farm.

So far, however, the transformation is all in Cllr Winter's head. The site currently consists of a stagnant pond full of old tyres and milk crates next to the factory's former dump, where glass pokes through the thin soil.

Back in June 2000 a company called Bramall & Ogden Ltd., and its agent, John M. Hunt, sought to build more than 100 houses on land off Sandall Lane, Doncaster, across the road from the Glass Park. The site was not designated for residential use in the District Plan, but B. & O's application had an imaginative solution. In exchange for redesignation, it proposed to give One Hundred and Twenty Thousand Pounds to the Glass Park Development Company (GPDC) in a so called "106" agreement. It referred admiringly to the Glass Park's 'Ambitious Plans', which had been explained to Hunt by Cllr Winter. The application was eventually passed this January.

When GPDC was registered at Companies House, on 2nd August 2000, the Company Secretary was Martin Jon Winter and the named Director was Elizabeth Jeffries, Winters fellow Ward Councillor. The current Secretary however is Carolyne Hunter - Mrs. Martin Winter.

B & O, aka Bramall Construction, is part of the Keepmoat Group(Eyes Passim), the developer named in a 1997 District Auditor's Report for lavishing gifts and hospitality on Doncaster Councillors. B & O's agent, John Hunt, is a former Doncaster Planner who left to set up his own consultancy after complaints about his relationships with developers. The Council Officer who acts as 'Gatekeeper' on most of the Glass Park's fund-raising efforts is Keith Miller. Miller once received a Five Hundred Pounds Wedding Present from Keepmoat and was a guest at the Company's Box at Hillsborough Football Ground.

So why, after all that has happened in Doncaster, would a prominent Councillor be daft enough to sit down with a representative of a development company already criticised for its conduct of business with the most corrupt council in the country?

We would have asked Cllr Winter, but as he wrote to the Eye last year; 'I do not intend to enter into an ongoing dialogue with you on these matters. I feel you are simply seeking to make mischief. My energies are used more productively leading Doncaster Council on an extremely demanding regeneration agenda.'

Private Eye No.1049 21st March 2002