11 complaints lodged against City of Doncaster councillors in last year, report shows
Only one complaint led to a councillor being sanctioned, with two dropped after those involved agreed to apologise.
11 complaints have been lodged against city councillors in Doncaster in the last 12 months, according to an annual report.
It is more than double the total number of complaints the year prior, which was just five. Complaints over the course of 2025/26 relate to “racist posts” on social media, bullying, “bringing the council into disrepute”, and “failure to maintain confidentiality”.
The report detailing the complaints, produced by the the City of Doncaster Council’s monitoring officer, Scott Fawcus, every year, states only one councillor was sanctioned in relation to complaints made this year.
The report does not identify the councillors implicated in each complaint.
Councillor Mark Broadhurst, an independent councillor representing Hatfield ward, was sanctioned in September 2025, over “clearly racist, islamophobic, anti-semitic and highly offensive” social media posts.
Broadhurst was elected as a Reform UK councillor in May 2025, but was booted from the party weeks later, after a number of controversial posts on his Facebook page were highlighted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
A subsequent investigation by the deputy monitoring officer, Neil Concannon, and a meeting of the audit hearings sub-committee, led to Broadhurst being sanctioned by a panel of his councillor colleagues.
Two other complaints, one relating to social media posts and the other relating to “comments made about [a] parish councillor in an email to [the] parish clerk” ended with “no further action” after the councillors involved agreed to apologise.
Another two complaints regarding “islamaphobic posts on social media” resulted in no further action because they fell “outside of the scope” of the Code of Conduct.
The report reveals there are three ongoing investigations surrounding complaints made by an officer on March 3, 2026.
Allegations in these complaints include “bullying”; failing to treat people with respect; bringing the council into disrepute; and “failure to maintain confidentiality”.
The council is also responsible for investigating complaints against parish and town councillors across Doncaster as well, even if those councillors do not hold city council positions.
On top of the 11 complaints about city councillors, the report reveals there were a further 11 complaints against town and parish councillors.
It reveals that six of those complaints related to one town council, which the LDRS understands to be Hatfield Town Council.
One of the most bizarre complaints in the report, which related to a parish or town councillor, accused a member of “dumping [a] shopping trolley on [a] garden” – determined to not be a breach of the Code of Conduct.
Members of Doncaster Council’s audit committee will be asked to review and note the report in a meeting on April 23, 2026.