Labour must still defer to Mayor

IN DONCASTER, Labour took seven seats from the Alliance of Independent Members, the Community Group and the Liberal Democrats to increase its number of councillors to 43.

By The Newsroom

Published 7th May 2011, 00:27 BST

However, although the Labour party now holds more than two thirds of seats in the council chamber, elected English Democrat mayor Peter Davies still runs the authority.

Mayor Davies was yesterday faced with having to reshuffle his cabinet after losing two key members – cabinet member for children’s services Andrea Milner, who didn’t stand for re-election and saw her Rossington seat go to Labour, and cabinet member for housing Patrick Wilson, who lost his Town Moor seat to another Labour candidate.

The mayor’s English Democrat party, whose slogan is “Putting England First” failed to win any more seats yesterday, despite fielding candidates in 12 of Doncaster’s 21 wards.

Doncaster also saw the election of its youngest councillor yet – 23-year-old Rachel Hodson, who took the Thorne seat for Labour with a majority of 745 votes.