Doncaster elections 2025: Nick Fletcher says he has the “experience”, “passion” & “knowledge” to be mayor

The LDRS has offered one-to-one interviews with every single candidate for Doncaster mayor – offering them the opportunity to sell themselves and their parties to voters and getting them to answer important questions.

Mr Fletcher, who is the Conservative Party candidate for mayor and former MP for Don Valley, said: “I have been able to observe what’s happened and what needs to change to put it right.

“We’ve got to sort the city centre out. I believe… that unless we sort that out now and nip it in the bud, that rot, that decline will end up spreading out across Doncaster and it will end up affecting the leafy suburbs and we cannot afford to let that happen.”

He said it was important to get people speaking well of Doncaster.

“I know that will turn into investment,” he said, “that will turn into prosperity, opportunity and everything that we want for our next generation.”

He accused Labour and incumbent mayor Ros Jones of “taking the vote for granted” and said they’d put their “careers and positions before the people of Doncaster”.

“I am the mayor who will make the best decisions regardless of party politics”, he said, pledging to “make Doncaster safe again” and to “make Doncaster great again”.

The Conservatives are running candidates for council in many wards across the borough, who Mr Fletcher urged people to vote for in May.

He said: “I have experienced colleagues around me with the existing cohort of elected Conservative councillors. We have a huge amount of experience there, but experience that’s been wasted over the last decade because of party politics.

“It’s disgraceful. [People in Doncaster] must vote for the good Conservative councillors that are already in place and some of the new ones too.”

The Conservatives have given Doncaster some “excellent councillors”, he said, adding they were people with “life experience”, who “understand business”.

“There’s a huge capacity there to take advantage of and to make sure I can concentrate on the big picture of making Doncaster great and they can focus on their wards,” he told the LDRS.

Mr Fletcher’s mayoral campaign has received some criticism for the similarities it has to the messages of Donald Trump – particularly with the campaign slogan ‘Make Doncaster Great Again’.

The LDRS asked him if he admired the US President.

He said: “I think we have got ourselves in a position now where if you agree with somebody on one thing, then you agree with them on everything and I think that is a poor way to look at different political leaders.”

He said he remembered when “Doncaster was great”, adding: “I understand people may throw concerns about the slogan but it sits with so many people.

“People realise it can be great again, so I’m proud of the slogan Make Doncaster Great Again because that’s what I will do.”

In his manifesto, Mr Fletcher promised to bring business investment and tech companies to Doncaster, something a number of current projects in the city centre are aimed to do.

The LDRS asked if he would give credit to mayor Ros Jones for starting work on one of his election promises.

Mr Fletcher said he’d first need to “see what they’ve achieved”, adding they “talk a lot of talk”.

He said: “I will take stock and I will make it work.”

Asked whether he plans to increase council tax, borrowing or make cuts to fund his manifesto commitments, Mr Fletcher said: “The main pledge that was in there was the free parking.

“We’ve had that costed by council officials at about £1m. When I was a member of parliament, I got the then-housing minister to give us £2m-a-year for 10 years.

“That was for sprucing up the high streets and doing everything that we can in our towns and cities to get them busy again. Unfortunately, a lot of that money can be wasted by just putting down flower beds that drunks and beggars sit on and people take drugs.”

He said his pledge to get buses to terminate in other parts of the city centre “won’t cost anything” and his 30 things strategy, designed to get people involved, “costs nothing”.

He added: “It’s not empty promises. That is a way that people, our residents of Doncaster, can actually get involved in being part of this journey to make Doncaster great again.”