25-year vision approved for North’s newest city

Senior councillors at City of Doncaster Council have approved the creation of a new city centre masterplan and the submission of proposals to Government for the first three years of Long-Term Plan for Towns (LTPT) funding.
The strategy, which is due to be completed by the end of 2024 and will outline plans for the city centre until 2050, also includes the planned use of existing and potential funding opportunities, including the LTPT funding and Levelling Up Partnership (LUP) funding.
Mayor of Doncaster, Ros Jones, said: “As the North’s newest city, and with the national challenges over the past few years, it became obvious that we needed to review the direction of the city centre and we now have the opportunity with funding, to tackle this head on.
“As part of this, we launched the ‘Big City Conversation’, a consultation survey aimed at residents and businesses to understand their views of the city centre and what they would like the city to offer.
“I want to thank over 8,000 people who took part as this has presented findings which will be fundamental to the creation and delivery of the strategy.
“We have heard your views and will take everything on board when creating this new strategy. It is vitally important that the city centre offers both variety and safety and this will form a large part of the masterplan.
“Our residents and businesses need to promote the incredible opportunities within Doncaster, to encourage people to use and visit the city centre more.
“We must all tackle the negative perceptions so I would encourage people to come in and use the city centre and see for themselves the improvements we are making to make visiting Doncaster a unique and enjoyable experience, and a city centre that people want to keep coming back to visit.
“It is important that we have a thriving city centre that benefits the city as a whole and can help to drive forward Doncaster as the hub in conjunction with our principle town centres.”
Cabinet have approved the LTPT submission to include a focus on safety and cleanliness of the city centre, with the whole first year allocation supporting this priority.
The new city centre masterplan will be launched at the start of 2025, with the hope that it will guide the vision for the city centre over the next 25-years.