First for his staunch support of the motor industry, “from Doncaster mayor Martin Winter, who maintains standards in the Beacon of Sleaze by driving around in a £26,000 Mercedes emblazoned with advertising for a local car dealer”.

Next "Thespian of the year": Martin Winter, mayor of Doncaster, who signed up for a course at Rada in order to more convincingly bullshit on behalf of the Beacon of Sleaze”.

Private Eye No.1096 26th December 2003

EYE EARNER

Nothing succeeds in Doncaster like a mention in the Eye, it seems, for upping your council salary.

Mayor Martin Winter, whom readers will recall recently took delivery of a £25,000 Mercedes courtesy of local car dealer (Eye 1093), is to receive an almost 50 percent rise taking his wages from £41,808 to £62,608. (Deputy mayor Aidan Rave gets a £10,000 upgrade to £36,608 and both rises will be backdated to April 2003.)

Thirty-six percent increases have been doled out to senior officers, taking their pay from £85,000 to £105,000. Among those Eye favorites who will benefit are former local Labour party apparatchik Keith Miller, the drinks carrier on many of Donnygate's infamous foreign junkets. (He once took his mistress on a trip to Portugal; and on another occasion pocketed £500 "wedding gift" from an admiring local developer.)

Miller also wrote the report advocating the funding of Kerbside Collection, a hideously expensive but floundering environmental scheme which, as Eye 1058 pointed out, employed both Winter's wife and one of his many companies. So far £1.4 m has been thrown at this project.

Another officer to benefit will be social service chief Mervyn Thomas, whose department funds Doncaster Age Concern to the tune of £500,000 a year. Eye 1048 reported how, over an 18 month period, some 204 assisted shopping visits had been undertaken for oldies - at a cost of £245 per trip. The local director of Age Concern is Vicky Ferres, aka Mrs Mervyn Thomas.

Private Eye No.1099 6th February 2004