Agenda item

The Mayor of Doncaster, Ros Jones, made the following announcements:-

“I am sure most of you are already aware, but Doncaster is to be granted City Status as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. 

To become one of the UK’s newest Cities underlines our firmly held belief that we think, act and feel like a City.  I have said for a long time that we are a City in all but name and now we can proudly say that Doncaster has achieved City status.

We are one of eight recipients to win the Royal honour, the furthest North, in England, and the only one in Yorkshire.

This Royal Seal of approval will mean we can continue with our vision to drive our Borough forward and realise our aspirations.  Being a City will help boost the profile of Doncaster on many different levels from attracting new and growing business, underlining Doncaster as a tourist destination, upping our role on the national stage and giving us a stronger voice.

I would like to personally thank Dan Fell, the Chief Executive of Doncaster Chamber, for his leadership of this bid, and all our Team Doncaster partners for their passion and promotion of our City Status bid.  Being granted City Status is proof of what we can achieve when we work together across the Team Doncaster partnership.

Thank you to everyone who has supported our bid across Doncaster and who, like us in Team Doncaster, want Doncaster to be recognised for how far we have come and our exciting future ahead.  Congratulations too from Doncaster to all of the other City Status winners.  I hope you are as delighted as I am.  We will be celebrating as part of our already planned Jubilee events and will make the occasion even more special.

As many of you will already be aware, this week we welcomed a team of experienced Officers and members from other Local Authorities to the Council, to carry out an LGA Corporate Peer Challenge.  A Peer Challenge is an opportunity to take stock and reflect on how to further improve outcomes for local residents.

During their four day visit to the Council, the Peer Challenge Team gathered information and views from more than 35 meetings and spoke to around 120 people, including a range of Council staff together with Members and external stakeholders, in addition to carrying out further research.

We have now received the initial feedback from the Peer Challenge Team and I am delighted to report that this is very positive indeed with one of the overall observations being ‘Doncaster is on a journey of continuous improvement with many good features and if continued, will be an exemplar Council’.

They also observed that the Council has a compelling vision and clear priorities to deliver its ambitions for Doncaster, and that there is pride and a strong sense of place and identity amongst Members and staff.  The team highlighted the strong leadership and partner relationships too, with partners well engaged and aligned to the Council’s ambitions and priorities.

There was also recognition that Doncaster is a ‘Place of Places’ consisting of areas with different needs which increasingly the Council is focused on as well.  The Team also highlighted our Localities journey and the opportunities arising from this, and acknowledged that we are focusing on delivering across the Borough.  They also highlighted that there is an excellent record of attracting external funding and civic entrepreneurship for example Town Deal, Levelling Up funding and private sector investments.

In terms of governance and culture, they recognised us as a well-run Council with strong, robust and transparent governance and decision making arrangements in place, and Member and Officer relationships being strong, supportive and productive.

There was further acknowledgement that the Council is financially secure and has largely delivered its efficiency savings with a proactive and anticipatory approach to financial planning that is backed up with good governance arrangements.

I would like to say a huge thank you to those of you who took part in the Peer Challenge which is very much appreciated.  The full report will be available in the next few weeks so we will share this with you when it is available.

So that is two brilliant pieces of news that I have shared with you today.  All we need now is for Doncaster to become the home of Great British Railways and we will have the hat-trick.”