They started complaining seven years ago and have carried on airing their grievances ever since, but residents of Devonshire East have found that not all squeaky wheels necessarily get the grease.

Five Works Ministers have had their ears bent by families frustrated by the closure of half of Devon Spring Road due to a crumbling retaining wall back in 2003.

But despite a succession of promises that repairs are imminent, an unpopular "Road Closed Ahead" sign remains a permanent fixture at the entrance of the route linking Mid Atlantic Wellness Institute [MWI] to South Road.

Hold-ups have stemmed from confusion over who owns the land, and disagreements over exactly what needs doing to make it safe.

Local MP Bob Richards insists it's pretty obvious what's required: fix the retaining wall, get rid of the offending traffic cones and make everyone's lives a bit easier by reopening the whole of Devon Spring Road once more.

When Up Your Street visited Devonshire East, one resident told The Royal Gazette: "We've all made noise about this but nothing seems to be getting done. It's time that someone finally addresses the problem and gets that road open.

"It's an inconvenience to the people who live on that side of the road. We pay our taxes. That road should be open.

"Because it's shut, I have to go past my entrance, turn up onto the other road [Devon Spring Lane] come all the way back around past [MWI], and back down.

"And a lot of times we have issues with people who hang on the roadside. It's not very nice for tenants."

This newspaper's archives show that, when the road closed in 2003, then-Minister Terry Lister made assurances to then-local MP Michael Dunkley that work would start straight away on repairing the wall.

A year later, Mr. Lister's replacement Ashfield DeVent stated: "Closing the roads is not something we want to do, but we must make sure that the walls do not come down and injure a member of the public. We are working through the liability issues as quickly as we can so work can begin."

Yet before those liability issues had been resolved Mr. DeVent was kicked out of Cabinet, with David Burch, Dennis Lister and now Derrick Burgess each taking a turn with the reins since then. At no point during any of those reins has work begun.

Residents believe something would have happened by now if Constituency 11 wasn't a United Bermuda Party patch, with one saying: "If they knew I was going to support them, they would probably be on my doorstep the next day, getting this done. Because I don't vote for them, it's a dead issue."

Shadow Finance Minister Mr. Richards said the initial delay came because Government didn't want to fix the road as it was deemed private property.

"The road has been shut for years, but it's not lessened the vitriol from the neighbours," said Mr. Richards.

"I decided that instead of arguing with the Government, we would pass the hat around and attempt to build a retaining wall anyway. But it's been in Planning for 18 months now.

"They referred it to Works and Engineering, who said the design we had put in, by a licensed engineer, was insufficient. They wanted the wall to be thicker, with more steel.

"Now we are trying to get a redesign and have it resubmitted. It's clearly a more expensive wall than originally planned.

"We haven't even got on first base yet. Works and Engineering want a Great Wall of Devonshire."

Next week, Up Your Street features Southampton East Central. Constituents who want to raise any local issues should e-mail tsmith@royalgazette.bm.