Mayor Ros Jones says fourth bid at getting city status for Doncaster will 'help with inward investment'

Borough business chief Dan Fell announced Doncaster will bid again for city status at a conference last month.

Mayor Jones is fully behind a prospective bid and said Doncaster ‘is already delivering on a city level’.

She said other council’s ‘look on in awe’ at Doncaster because it has ‘grown unbelievably’ in a short space of time.

City status in the United Kingdom is granted by the ruling monarch – usually on special occasions such as the Queen’s jubilee.

This will be the fourth time the borough will bid for city status.

In 2000, Doncaster lost out to Brighton, Inverness and Wolverhampton and again in 2002 for the Queen’s Jubilee when Preston, Stirling, Newport, and Northern Ireland's Lisburn and Newry were selected.

Doncaster tried again in 2012 but Chelmsford, St Asaph in Wales and Perth in Scotland were chosen instead.

Chamber of commerce chief Dan Fell said in a video he would ‘lead the charge’ in securing city status as a ‘fitting legacy’ to outgoing council chief executive Jo Miller.

But many on social media responding to the announcement were against it.

On Twitter, John Hayes said: “Doncaster is not a city. We were a market town, I say 'were' due to the fact there isn't much left of the market now.

"You want to see a city visit Sheffield, Leeds etc and you will see an entirely different infrastructure. Every poll I have see shows a resounding 'NO' for city.”

Dawn Glover added: “No – it will cost the town thousands and who is going to pay for it all and what would we gain? At the moment, cities are no better off than towns.”

Erika Mason said: “No. We're not anywhere near deserving city status and extra expenses that would incur. There's a lot to sort out in the town and suburbs.... concentrate on that first.”

But Mayor Jones said Doncaster is right to bid again and the council is laying the groundwork for when the opportunity arises in future.

"I think economically it does assist having city status when you look for inward investment but it doesn't stop us either way trying to bring that in,” she said.

"We're delivering everything at a city level already - I think we've already proven that has grown unbelievably in the last five years economically.

"We are looked on in awe at times now from other councils from where we started and you'll see we are growing unbelievably but there is still more to do.

"We want to see more people in high skilled, high paid jobs, houses that are fit for the 21st century and people that want to come live, work and play here.

"We'll definitely put the bid in because we want to grow our borough and it does assist economically."