Doncaster Sheffield Airport: Sheffield, Rotherham and Barnsley 'should split reopening costs' with Doncaster

But the Labour-run council’s auditor Grant Thornton has raised concerns about the risks of the plan while a recent council report has put the reopening costs at over £145m. The council argue that reopening the airport will be the catalyst for regeneration work around the site which would create 5,000 direct jobs, support a further 6,500 jobs indirectly and generate £9 of economic value for every £1 spent. It is calling the wider project South Yorkshire Airport City.

Councillor Jane Cox, who represents the Finningley ward where the airport is based and previously ran the constituency office of Nick Fletcher when he was the Don Valley MP, told The Yorkshire Post that the three other areas of South Yorkshire – Sheffield, Rotherham and Barnsley – should be contributing towards the costs of the project.

She said: “It keeps being stated that this will be the jewel in the crown of South Yorkshire and it is Team Doncaster and Team South Yorkshire.

"But why is Doncaster taking the whole hit for it? Why are we risking all our Gainshare on something none of us know the outcome of? If it is Team South Yorkshire, why aren’t Sheffield, Rotherham and Barnsley putting their 25 per cent in?

"Why aren’t we splitting the risk? That is a worry to me. We had a list of things we wanted to do across Doncaster with this money and now we are not going to be able to do it.”

She said the current situation contrasts with how taxpayers across South Yorkshire funded the building of Sheffield’s Supertram network in the 1990s while £110m of £570m of transport funding for South Yorkshire in 2022 went towards Supertram before the remaining money was divided between the four areas inside the county.

The separate Gainshare funding from Government is overseen by South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard, who is due to take a decision this summer on whether to fund the council’s airport plan.

When asked about Councillor Cox’s suggestion, a spokesperson for the mayoral combined authority said Doncaster Council had proposed using its share towards the project and did not want other parts of South Yorkshire to contribute.

The spokesperson said: “City of Doncaster Council have proposed to use their allocation to support investment into the South Yorkshire Airport City project, as Doncaster’s priority aspiration.

“CDC have been clear throughout the process that they would not request that other local areas displace their local priorities to support this project.”

Councillor Cox said she was surprised that Doncaster’s Labour mayor Ros Jones had not attempted to seek the financial backing of other South Yorkshire councils for the airport.

She said: “We find it astonishing to find out the mayor has not approached the other authorities for help to mitigate the risk Doncaster residents.

"We have continually heard from the mayor about it being the ‘jewel in the crown of South Yorkshire’ and the wider economic benefits to the whole region of reopening the airport.”

The issue was also raised last week in a council scrutiny meeting by Labour councillor Leanne Hempshall, who asked: “Why is Doncaster Council providing the Gainshare money if the project is to benefit the whole of South Yorkshire?”

Deborah Hogg, executive director of corporate resources for the council who is also a director of FlyDoncaster, said in response that the use of Doncaster Council’s Gainshare funding was a “Plan B” if the authority was unable to secure private investment towards the airport’s reopening costs.

She said earlier in the meeting that while private funding from commercial banks could have been secured, “it would have cost us more” due to higher rates of interest being involved.

City of Doncaster Council was contacted for comment.