King Charles III Visits Doncaster to Confer City Status

We are pleased to report that Doncaster has officially been made a city today, following a royal visit from His Majesty King Charles III.

Alongside the Queen Consort, our nation’s monarch embarked on a two-day tour of Yorkshire this week, stopping by at places like Bradford, Leeds and York. As a final engagement, he then came to the Doncaster mansion house (at Wednesday lunchtime) in order to award us city status.

As a quick recap, Doncaster entered a special City Status competition earlier this year that was being run for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee. A record-breaking 38 places across the UK entered this contest — which was open to any locality not already deemed a city — and each of them made a compelling case for why they ought to be granted the civic honour.

The demanding application process required a staggering amount of effort from local partners, who had to evidence things like Doncaster’s unique identity, our interesting heritage, our vibrant culture, our associations with royalty, and our flourishing business community.

Having put in so much hard work, the bidding team was overjoyed on Friday 20th May, when it was announced that eight of the competition entrants were being named as cities and that we were among them.

To make it official, the King visited Doncaster today, where he was met by the Lord-Lieutenant of South Yorkshire, our civic mayor, various representatives from the bid team and a crowd of enthusiastic bystanders. At the prestigious ceremony, he presented a letters patent scroll which formally conferred the city status honour.

Having taken a leadership role with the bid, Doncaster Chamber was obviously present at this event. Reflecting on the experience, our Chief Exec, Dan Fell, said: “For many years, those who have lived and worked in Doncaster have known that it was essentially a city in all-but-name. With a bustling leisure sector, thriving business community, diverse education offering and rich history, we had more than earned our spot on the map.

“It is extremely vindicating then, after all these years of tireless campaigning, to finally see this being recognised on a national stage. While we found out about our successful bid nearly six months ago, getting to see the King himself bestow City Status upon Doncaster made the achievement feel all the more significant.

“This was a momentous day for myself, for Doncaster and for everybody in the local community who can now proudly say that they live in a city.

"As Chair of the bid team, I would also like to thank everyone - including my talented colleagues at the Chamber - who worked hard to make Doncaster’s city bid a success. Lots of dedicated people worked hard on this project behind the scenes and away from the limelight. Their tenacity and hard work should be celebrated too today.”

Glyn Butcher, Director of the People Focussed Group, a peer support organisation in Doncaster, was also heavily involved in the bid. Reflecting on today’s ceremony, he said:

“This was a life changing, inspirational moment. I love Doncaster and getting to see it flourish like this, with partners all coming together to be rewarded for their hard work, was truly amazing.

“This achievement was a testament to the solidarity of Team Doncaster and how everybody came together for a shared cause. I will never day this moment for the rest of my life.”