Surprise at endorsement

Sir, Further to recent letters concerning the Anston and Woodsetts Labour Party ward newsletter.

For the vast majority of residents who will not have received this newsletter, I can confirm that Cllr Darren Hughes' defection to Labour has finally been mentioned in a direct communication, albeit under another councillor's name.

I have to say that I was surprised to read the effusive endorsement of his defection and the praise for his "excellent work in the ward since May 2008" especially as he has spent much of this time criticising local councillors and the Labour Party.

An early example of this criticism came in 2007 when he stated, prior to his election the following year, that: "Rotherham's Labour-controlled council has under invested and wasted council tax money by not maintaining our public roads properly."

Yet now in this newsletter, he and his Labour colleagues are taking the credit for the partial resurfacing of Lakeland Drive.

I suspect that had it not been for local residents regularly contacting council officers about the matter even this limited amount of work would still not have been carried out. Clive Jepson, Rydal Close, Dinnington.