Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster


The Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster is a metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire in Yorkshire and the Humber Region of England.
The largest towns in the borough are Doncaster, Thorne and Moorends, Hatfield and Mexborough, and it additionally covers the towns of Conisbrough, Bentley, Stainforth, Bawtry, Askern, Edlington and Tickhill.
The borough was created on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, as a merger of the former county borough of Doncaster along with the urban districts of Adwick le Street, Bentley with Arksey, Conisbrough, Mexborough, Tickhill along with Doncaster Rural District and Thorne Rural District, the parish of Finningley from East Retford Rural District and small parts of the parish of Harworth from Worksop Rural District from Nottinghamshire.

Population statistics

According to the 2011 census, the estimated population of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster is 302,400.
Verified population statistics per Ward from the 2001 census are shown as
WardPopulationHouseholds
Adwick16,1426,220
Armthorpe16,9776,495
Askern11,4144,293
Balby14,3365,514
Bentley Central12,1684,665
Bentley North Road11,6064,728
Bessacarr13,6525,425
Central11,4815,144
Conisbrough14,8945,837
Edlington & Warmsworth12,2914,641
Hatfield15,0485,630
Intake10,9944,417
Mexborough15,2826,281
Richmond13,4715,308
Rossington12,6474,705
South East16,8806,247
Southern Parks14,4395,520
Stainforth15,4475,825
Thorne17,0576,380
Town Field11,1314,587
Wheatley11,4974,877
Doncaster Total288,854112,739

Elected mayor

A referendum was held in 2001 to decide if a directly elected mayor should be appointed. The first mayor, Martin Winter, representing the Labour Party, was elected in 2002 and successfully defended his post in 2005.
In 2009 the English Democrat candidate, Peter Davies, won the election for mayor. In January 2013 Davies left the English Democrats citing "a big influx of new members joining from the British National Party". In the May 2013 mayoral election he was defeated by Labour's Ros Jones.

Borough council

The council as a whole has been dominated by the Labour Party traditionally, but in the 2004 local elections, they lost overall control of the council. Labour regained overall control at the 2010 local elections.

2010 Audit Commission report and central government intervention

In January 2010 the Audit Commission initiated a corporate governance inspection of Doncaster Council. This followed the sudden resignation of the Chief executive leading to a conflict between the mayor and council over the appointment of a successor. The Commission felt that this, along with evidence that the council had not been well run for 15 years, was leading to a loss of public confidence.
The Commission's report was issued in April 2010. It found that Doncaster was a dysfunctional authority and that there were three factors preventing the council from providing good governance:
On the recommendations of the commission, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, John Denham, used powers to appoint an acting chief executive and an advisory board to oversee the council. A Doncaster Recovery Board, comprising four appointed commissioners and seven other members including the mayor and chief executive held its first quarterly meeting on 10 September 2010.

Places

Settlements in the Borough of Doncaster include:
Radio stations that can be received in Doncaster are Sine FM 102.6, TMCR 95.3, Trax FM, Capital Yorkshire, Hallam FM and BBC Radio Sheffield, although both Viking FM and BBC Radio Humberside overlap into this area. Although the above stations can be received within various areas of Doncaster, the only stations actually owned by Doncaster-based companies are Sine FM 102.6 and TMCR 95.3.
The borough is also the base of Nova Productions who produce the syndicated TV series Walks Around Britain.

Freedom of the Borough

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Doncaster.

Individuals