The Elections and Democratic Structures Committee was scheduled to meet to discuss election activity, registration activity and the temporary appointment of members to Moss and District Parish Council.

Temporary Appointment of Members to Moss and District Parish Council

The Elections and Democratic Structures Committee were scheduled to consider a report regarding the temporary appointment of ward councillors to Moss and District Parish Council to establish a quorum and enable the Parish Council to make the necessary appointments to its membership.

At the Parish Council elections held in May, only two parish councillors out of a possible seven were elected. As a result, the Parish Council was inquorate and unable to meet to fill the outstanding vacancies by co-opting new members. The report stated that a number of individuals in the parish had expressed an interest in being co-opted onto the Parish Council, and the Parish Council had requested assistance from Doncaster Council to enable it to hold a formal meeting to make the required co-options.

The report stated that legislation and the council's constitution allows Doncaster Council to appoint members on a temporary basis to the Parish Council to enable it to carry out its business.

The report recommended that Councillor Francis Jackson, Councillor Vicky Lawson and Councillor Gerald Squire from the Norton and Askern Ward be appointed to the Parish Council for this purpose.

The report outlined two options:

• Option 1 - To do nothing (not recommended), which would mean the Parish Council would not be able to function effectively and represent local residents.
• Option 2 - To make the relevant appointment to the Parish Council by appointing local ward councillors (the preferred option).

Elections Activity

The Elections and Democratic Structures Committee were scheduled to receive an update on current election activity, upcoming changes, by-elections and neighbourhood planning referendums.

The report included a detailed update on the results of the Mayoral, Local Government Ward Councillor and Town and Parish Councillor Elections held on Thursday 1 May 2025, and preparations for any upcoming by-elections.

According to the report, since 2015 Doncaster has had all-out Local Government Elections, combined with the Mayor for Doncaster election in 2017, and with all-out Town/Parish Councils in 2021; this is now the cycle every four years. In total, there were 360 seats up for election at the same time: one City of Doncaster Council Elected Mayor, 55 City of Doncaster Council Councillors for all 21 wards, and 304 Town/Parish Councillors for all 37 Town/Parish Councils with 55 wards. There were 495 valid candidates across all three elections for the 360 vacancies.

The report stated that the Mayoral election had 12 candidates and a total electorate of 227,496. 55,868 electors were issued with a postal vote, and 33,966 were returned, giving a postal vote return rate of 60.80%. On polling day, 39,440 (22.98%) electors cast their vote in the 167 polling stations across the City, giving a combined total of 73,406 ballot papers verified and a total turnout of 32.27%. Ros Jones of the Labour Party was elected Mayor for Doncaster.

In total, there were 216 candidates across the 21 wards and 55 Local Ward Councillor vacancies.

There are 37 Town and Parish Councils in Doncaster with 55 Parish wards and a total of 304 seats. Out of the 55 Parish wards, 47 wards were uncontested as not more nominations than vacancies were received, and those 199 candidates were automatically elected without a contest. The remaining 8 wards were contested with a total of 68 candidates. There were 18 polling stations out of the 167 which issued Town/Parish ballot papers for these wards. Across the 8 wards, 6,647 postal votes were issued, and 50 were rejected due to personal identifiers not matching those held on file.

The report also provided an update on the Hickleton Parish Council election held on 12 June 2025. As there were no nominations for the 1 May 2025 Election, the election was re-run to try to fill the five vacancies within 35 working days of the original election date. At the close of nominations, five valid candidates were received for the five vacancies, meaning the election was uncontested, and all five candidates were automatically elected to the Parish Council.

The report stated that due to a councillor not taking up office from the 1 May election, a vacancy occurred for a Hatfield Town Council councillor for the Dunscroft ward. An election is set to take place on Thursday 24 July 2025. At the close of nominations, three valid candidates were received for the one vacancy.

Registration Activity

The Elections and Democratic Structures Committee were scheduled to receive an update on key work streams being undertaken by the Electoral Services Team in relation to the Register of Electors and preparations for the Annual Canvass¹.

Each year, the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) has a duty to carry out a full annual review of the Electoral Register by contacting all residential addresses to establish if the information currently held is complete and accurate. A revised version of the electoral register must be published by 1 December each year, following the conclusion of the annual canvass.

With the introduction of the canvass reforms in 2020, only properties where all the electors cannot be matched against national and/or local data are required to respond to the council.

The ERO will follow one of three routes for each property:

• Route 1 - the matched properties route, used for properties where the data indicates no change in household composition.
• Route 2 - the unmatched properties route, used for properties where data matching has highlighted that there may be a change to the information the ERO currently holds for the property, or the property is empty.
• Route 3 - properties defined as Care Homes or Homes of Multiple Occupancy (HMO), all of which are required to provide an update on their current occupants.

The report stated that the council is in the very early stages of the annual canvass, as the national data matching process must take place between 2 June and 29 August 2025. As of 17 June 2025, there were 224,233 registered electors and 147,592 properties in Doncaster, and 104,169 (70.58%) properties successfully matched from the initial national data matching download for Route 1. A total of 43,375 properties appeared to have changed or are empty and are defined under Route 2.

Since the data match took place, Electoral Services are continuing to carry out a data mining exercise to try to match any further properties and electors using the council's local datasets such as Council Tax and Customer Services etc to move them into Route 1. So far, they have managed to match a further 11,168 properties, now giving a total of 115,337 (78.15%) properties for Route 1 and 32,207 properties for Route 2.

The report also provided an update on the Elections Act 2022 – Postal Vote Reapplication. The Elections Act 2022 limits the maximum period a person can hold an absent vote to three years. As a result, electors will need to reapply for a postal vote by 31 January 2026. Currently, there are 51,210 electors who need to renew their postal vote applications by this date.