Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster /

The Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster is a metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire in Yorkshire and the Humber Region of England. In addition to the town of Doncaster, the borough covers Mexborough, Conisbrough, Thorne and Finningley. The borough was created on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, as a merger of the former county borough of Doncaster along with the urban districts of Adwick le Street, Bentley with Arksey, Conisbrough, Mexborough, Tickhill along with Doncaster Rural District and Thorne Rural District, the parish of Finningley from East Retford Rural District and small parts of the parish of Harworth from Worksop Rural District from Nottinghamshire. It is widely thought that a political scandal popularly known as Donnygate, leading to the conviction of 21 Labour councillors for fraud and the jailing of one councillor and a property developer, was a major factor behind the residents of the area voting for the establishment of a directly elected mayor in 2001. The first mayor, Martin Winter, representing the Labour Party, was elected in 2002 and successfully defended his post in 2005. In 2009 the English Democrat candidate, Peter Davies, won the election