49 of 55 Doncaster councillors allocate entire £3,000 ward budgets to local community groups
Councillors were each given £3,000 to spend with community groups and local initiatives.
More than £161,000 has been invested by city councillors in Doncaster into local wards, as nearly all elected members invested a full £3,000 into their communities.
Elected councillors on the City of Doncaster Council are each given a £3,000 ward budget every financial year, which they can give to “voluntary and not for profit groups to support activities and initiatives that will improve their local area”.
It means councillors could give a total of £165,000 every year to local causes. In 2025/26, councillors handed out a total of £161,393.85 across the borough.
A number of local causes benefitted from ward budget funding in the last financial year.
This included money to the CAST theatre at Christmas time, which funded pantomime tickets for families living in poverty.
16 councillors donated to the Doncaster Hygiene Bank, the Civic Mayor Cllr Tim Needham’s charity of the year, as part of a long-standing tradition.
Some members gave the entirety of their £3,000 budgets to one cause, including Cllr David Carroll, who represents Bessacarr for Reform UK, who donated his entire budget to the 58th Doncaster Scouts for a new CCTV system.
49 of the 55 councillors gave out the full £3,000 of their budgets, however, three councillors had significant chunks unspent.
This included Edenthorpe and Kirk Sandall Councillor Alexander Jones, who was Reform UK’s candidate for Mayor of Doncaster in 2025.
Cllr Jones spent £800 of his £3,000 budget – leaving £2,200 unallocated and not spent with local community groups and initiatives.
Unallocated ward budget money is not lost, but is “transferred” to Doncaster Council’s Local Assistance Scheme (LAS), which helps vulnerable residents moving on from supported, temporary or unsettled accommodation and who need some support with daily living costs and essential items.
However, the LAS is funded separately by the council. All £3,000 in ward budgets are intended to be used by ward members for its expressed purpose.
Cllr David Knight, who represents Thorne and Moorends for Reform UK, left £900 unspent, whilst Advance UK’s Cllr Nicola Brown, who represents Adwick and Carcroft, had £477.29 unallocated.
The three other councillors who didn’t spend all their ward budgets left only very small amounts, including one who had just 42p unallocated.
Full details of how ward members spent their budgets can be found on the City of Doncaster Council website.
The elected Mayor of Doncaster does not receive a ward budget.