The Greater Bentley area of North Doncaster is made up largely of urban Bentley and more extensive rural and semi-rural neighbourhoods including Arksey, Scawthorpe and Toll Bar & Almholme. With 8,338 households these neighbourhoods have a combined population of 19,745, which is 6.9% of the total population of the Borough, and represents 39% of the population of the North of Doncaster. Covering a geographic area of 22.4 km2, Greater Bentley is by far the smaller of the three north neighbourhoods, but is significantly more densely populated at 881 people per km2.
Greater Bentley also has a large Gypsy and Traveller community with a privately managed site. As previously advised an accurate population count has never been achieved.
Geographically Bentley forms part of the Doncaster urban area. It lies immediately to the North West of the River Don and is linked to Doncaster town centre by the New St. George’s Bridge and the North Bridge (access for buses and cycles only). The whole of Bentley lies within 4 miles of a motorway junction and it has its own railway station and, in this respect it has good road and rail links with the wider region.
Of the 88 communities within Doncaster, Bentley and Toll Bar & Almholme fall within the 20 most deprived, and Bentley Central is ranked 70 (top 1% of the most deprived Wards) out of a total of 8620 Wards in England.
