Town Council chair has a plan, not an empty promise for ‘neglected Dinnington’

Dave Smith, a former miner living in a terraced house in one of the most deprived areas in the ward, is a well-known figure in Dinnington – he has been involved with the town council for almost a decade now.

He is now standing as an independent candidate in the by-election next month – and he has a plan, he told the Local Democracy Service.

However, he has already stood to become a councillor in Rotherham four times and lost four times.

He said: “I put out there the truth and the real problems that Dinnington faces. If I don’t get elected, I’d still carry on fighting for them people – for things I believe in.

“It doesn’t stop me. If they (the other candidates) don’t get elected, they go back into their little corners.

“Since the last election, Labour has disappeared. No one has heard of them until suddenly Labour’s now contesting Rother Valley (the parliamentary seat).

“All of a sudden all of these people keep coming out of the woodwork. When the election is over, they go back to the woodwork.

“I don’t. I’m still here.”

But what are his plans? Mr Smith claimed Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC) has “neglected Dinnington for too long now and all the parties have let us down” as they don’t address the real problems.

He added: “I’ve lived for over 40 years. I worked at Dinnington Pit, I live close to one of the most deprived areas – Victoria Street, Leicester Road, Scarsdale Street, Doe Quarry Lane – in the country so I know exactly what people face every day.

“All they are talking (bragging) about is that they’ve got this £12m for the high street. That’s brilliant, that’s great, it’s going to get part of the high street developed, I’m not knocking that.

“But we need a lot more investment than that – in areas in Dinnington that have been left behind.”

Mr Smith said the town council had two plots of land and they (the town council) were working “really hard” to get at least 50 social houses in Dinnington “for specifically Dinnington people”.