AN unadopted Cradley road which has been driving residents mad for 47 years has finally been resurfaced.

The conclusion of the Foredraft Street saga ends one of the strangest and long-running disputes in Black Country history.

Resident Alan Morris, who has battled Dudley Council for 13 years, said: "This is a victory for the human spirit, we just never gave in, and won in the end against all the odds."

In 1969 seven houses were built and each owner gave Halesowen District Council £100 each to pay for the road to be adopted and resurfaced.

However, a proposed bypass held up the resurfacing for over a decade and ever since residents have been demanding Dudley Council, which replaced Halesowen Council in 1974, to adopt the road and end their "nightmare" of living on a dirt track.

Embittered residents enlisted councillors, MPs and even the Government to fight their corner over the years, all to no avail.

However, this week the persistence of resident Alan Morris, who made it his life's work to get the road resurfaced, finally paid off.

Champagne was toasted on Tuesday when the road was officially opened witnessed by residents and councillors.

Alan Morris, aged 48, said: "This is a special day and I just wish all the people who have lived here over the years could be here to see it."

The key to the road finally being resurfaced was the £700 the original residents paid, after 47 years gaining interest the sum had multiplied to £6,000 and Dudley Council agreed to hand it over.

Mr Morris, who once dumped chippings from the road at the feet of Halesowen councillors in a public meeting, said: "We kept on demanding the money, and kept on being told no. In the end they gave it us, and after the current residents donated money and we got a generous donation by Ruskin Properties, who own a few of the houses, we could get it resurfaced for £13,000."

Seeing the shiny new black surface brought tears to Mr Morris' eyes.

He said: "It was like driving on Silverstone for me, this is a story of never giving in, we were in the right all these years but the establishment would not budge, but they have now.

"I have fought for 13 years for this, and I took the baton from residents like Barry and Rose Rose who lived here for 40 years but moved before this historic day.

"My wife deserves a medal for putting up with me going on about it for all these years."

Dudley Council's environmental services supremo Councillor Hilary Bills sanctioned the money being handed back to the residents.

She said: "Ever since I became a cabinet member I made sure Foredraft Street was top of my agendas, it took a lot of work but it was worth it in the end."

Cradley Councillor Richard Body, who along with cllrs Gaye Partridge and Tim Crumpton, kept the pressure on the council for years.

He said: "I never thought this day would come. It should have been done years ago but as ever with Cradley, things take longer because Dudley Council always overlooks its problems, I'm just glad a Labour controlled council finally made it right."