Maverick mayor unseated as Labour celebrates victory after recounts

CONTROVERSIAL elected mayor Peter Davies was unseated by a narrow margin yesterday as Labour regained control of Doncaster after four years.
Votes are counted in the North Yorkshire County Council elections at the Selby Civic Centre.Votes are counted in the North Yorkshire County Council elections at the Selby Civic Centre.
Votes are counted in the North Yorkshire County Council elections at the Selby Civic Centre.

The party’s victory came as the Conservatives comfortably retained control of North Yorkshire County Council with the net loss of just a single seat, while Ukip secured its first two councillors on the authority.

Two recounts were ordered at Doncaster Racecourse, with new Labour mayor Ros Jones just 590 votes ahead when the first result was declared.

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Eight other candidates were eliminated after the first result, with Mrs Jones, a Doncaster councillor, going into a run-off with Mr Davies in which second- preference votes were counted.

In the first round, Mrs Jones won 21,996 votes while Mr Davies grabbed 21,406, but the Labour victory was confirmed after the second-preference count which gave Mrs Jones a 639 majority. Speaking after the eight-hour wait to be declared Yorkshire’s only elected mayor, she said: “I feel delighted and humbled. I’m Doncaster born and bred and I want to take the town forward.”

Talking about how she would help Doncaster out of its current problems, including sorting out its under-fire children’s services, she said: “I am going to get a team around me who will get their sleeves rolled up.

“Our kids are the most vital things to us and we have got to do everything we can to ensure our children are safeguarded.”

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Mr Davies, who won the mayor’s seat in a shock narrow victory in 2009, was an English Democrat, but resigned from the party weeks before Thursday’s poll, saying he had concerns over its far-right links.

Reacting to his defeat, he told the Yorkshire Post: “We lost out to them by 600 votes.

“I would rather have won, but there’s no point bellyaching about the result. That’s democracy.

“I haven’t got a clue what the future holds for Doncaster under Labour. I would hope that she doesn’t reverse some of the policies towards local government,

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“I have made it clear that not all politicians are in it for their own benefit with their noses in the trough and that was the idea of cutting the salary and getting rid of the car and that sort of thing.”

Mrs Jones, an accountant, said the biggest challenge the council faced was another £100m in Government-imposed cuts.

“You need somebody who knows what they are doing regarding financial services. I do,” she added.

“This is about leadership now, leadership and teamwork and that’s what I intend to deliver for Doncaster. We have got to start bringing industry back to our town and bring work back.”

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Mrs Jones said she would not take the full £70,000 salary on offer to the mayor and would instead follow the example of Mr Davies who was paid around £30,000 a year.

Six of the 10 candidates, including Liberal Democrat John Brown, lost their deposit after failing to poll five per cent of the vote, while the turnout was just 28 per cent.

Returning officer and Doncaster Council chief executive Jo Miller confirmed that of 223,608 people eligible to vote in the election, just 62,138 had actually taken part in the poll.