Doncaster Sheffield Airport: Council leaders urged to unanimously back £160m reopening plan
South Yorkshire’s council leaders have been urged to unanimously back the £160m plan to reopen Doncaster Sheffield Airport under public ownership at a crunch meeting next week.
Business organisation Doncaster Chamber has made the call ahead of next Tuesday’s meeting of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) board in which Mayor Oliver Coppard and the council leaders of Doncaster, Sheffield, Rotherham and Barnsley are due to vote on the release of devolution funding for the project.
The Chamber said a unanimous vote at the meeting, which will be held in the airport, would “send strongest possible signal to investors, airlines, and Government that this is truly a regional project with wide-ranging benefits”.
Doncaster Council intends to reopen the airport, which closed in 2022, via a council-owned company after attempts to find a private investor failed. But it requires funding from SYMCA to be released to go ahead.
The decision can be passed by majority decision and appears certain to go ahead, with SYMCA officers making a formal recommendation that the funding should be approved and Mr Coppard confirming earlier this week he will be voting in favour.
With Doncaster Council mayor Ros Jones also receiving a vote, the decision would need to be rejected by all of her fellow Labour counterparts from Sheffield, Rotherham and Barnsley not to happen.
Rotherham and Barnsley leaders Chris Read and Sir Steve Houghton previously campaigned against the closure of the airport when it was under private ownership, while Sheffield Council leader Tom Hunt has spoken supportively about the attempts to reopen it.
A final decision on whether to release the funding has been delayed for months as Mr Coppard’s office commissioned further analysis of the business case.
It found that the economic benefits of reopening were lower than had originally been estimated by Doncaster Council but said it could still generate £2 for every £1 spent.
It is intended that the airport’s reopening will be the catalyst for wider development work, potentially creating thousands of jobs.
Mr Coppard said earlier this week that funding the reopening should be viewed as an “investment in the future of South Yorkshire”.
Sian Booth, Head of Policy and Partnerships at Doncaster Chamber, said: “Mayor Coppard’s announcement is hugely encouraging and a decisive step towards the airport reopening.
"We thank Mayor Coppard for his commitment to due diligence and for explicitly confirming his intention to back this critical project.
"This is the clear signal that the private sector and investors have been waiting for.
"We want to thank our membership and business community for continuing to advocate and champion the Airport City project, and we recognise the continued leadership shown by Doncaster City Council in driving it forward.
"This campaign has always been about more than just Doncaster – this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the economic landscape of South Yorkshire.
"A unanimous decision across all four councils will show the world that our region is united and ready to deliver.”
The £160m funding is in addition to £16m already committed by the mayor’s office to the project, while a further £210m of spending on infrastructure work locally may also be required in future.