'No regrets': Council boss defends 'binary decision' on signing controversial Doncaster Sheffield Airport lease

However no operator could be secured - leading to the plan for the council to reopen the site itself via a council-owned company called FlyDoncaster.

In early 2025, the office of South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard said it would not sign off on funding that plan until further due diligence work was conducted and said the lease, whose specific terms were not made public, had “restricted private sector appetite” in the project.

It eventually backed the release of £160m funding in September 2025 - but only on the condition that some terms of the lease were renegotiated.

Particular concerns were raised about break clauses on passenger numbers.

The renegotiation process is still ongoing but in January this year, The Yorkshire Post was leaked a copy of the lease.

It revealed the existence of a clause allowing Peel to terminate the lease if it did not get planning approval for more than 1,000 houses on land by the airport or if annual passenger numbers of 2.3m were not hit by March 2036 - a figure higher than even the most optimistic estimates for what will be achieved.

An earlier clause for passenger numbers needing to reach one million by March 2031 is also stipulated.

The agreement also states that 20 per cent of future turnover in excess of the annual base rent would be paid to Peel, with taxpayer-funded grants from local and national government among the areas liable to this. Income from airport operators, landing fees and car parking fees are also subject to potential turnover rent payments.

The annual base rent is £3.3m a year up until 2029, when it will increase to £5m a year and become subject to inflation calculations from that point.

Publication of the details have caused a political storm in Doncaster, with calls for Mayor Ros Jones to resign from opposition councillors and an extraordinary meeting set to take place next Friday.

She has said that after Peel refused an offer to buy the site, its offer of a lease “effectively killed off” the prospect of a successful compulsory order and with the condition of the terminal and runway deteriorating, the council faced the “stark decision” of either signing the lease or accepting the airport would never reopen.

When asked by The Yorkshire Post if he regretted the signing of the lease deal, Mr Allen said: “No. It was a binary decision that needed to be taken. Any commercial organisation will press its commercial advantage. At that point in time, the commercial position was they were bound to want to put in more commercially-aggressive clauses.

“We had a choice. That choice was exercised based on the technical, legal, financial advice we got.

“There was no other option to acquire or route via CPO. The only option commercially is ‘lease or no lease’. Some elements of that, as in any lease, will be negotiated in preference to the tenant or to the operator.

“What you have to do is deal pragmatically with the challenges of decision-making at the time they occur.

“Every lease contains clauses for renegotiation. We knew at the time that the development would progress and we would have an opportunity to renegotiate. We are in a different place than we were then.”

Mr Allen said the council would have preferred to avoid the inclusion of the clause relating to planning permission for housing.

But he said legal advice was taken on its inclusion and members of the planning committee were able to make an independent decision as they were not aware of the clause.

“We operate a quasi-judicial process which has a separation of duties. If it was up to us back in 2024, would we want it in? Obviously we wouldn’t want it in. But what we’ve done is take appropriate advice, we’ve operated within the Local Plan, we’ve sought the consequences of decisions that might take place if they were referred to a planning inspector and it was a legal clause to put in.

“We might not have preferred it but has it fettered us - no. That was the key piece of legal advice we sought because there’s legal precedent in regards to a perceived risk… around independence. We don’t make those decisions, the planning committee does.”

Mr Allen said renegotiations have been progressing well.

“What we can say is it is going very positively and we have progressed. In the near future, we’re confident that we’ll have a positive outcome.”

He wouldn’t be drawn on what is likely to be changing

“There are a number of clauses in there that will have fallen into the negotiations. I’m not going to describe what those are because they are subject to negotiation at the moment.

“We’re in the final stages of the renegotiation. It has been positive and productive. We’ve built a positive business relationship with Peel. There will be mutual benefits and a different risk profile as a result of where we are now compared to where we were in 2024 when the lease was agreed.”

He said the in-principle agreement of £160m of funding for the airport has changed the position and Peel will benefit from the airport’s reopening by boosting its ability to invest in land it owns around the site.

“There is certainty of funding. For the landowner, that gives you a projection of future benefit. That shifts commercial perspective.

“If that then unlocks land you’ve got, this changes the potential. It gives you a better business case for infrastructure investment to open up the site for development.”

FlyDoncaster director Christian Foster said there are many aspects of the lease which represent a good deal for the council, including the amount they are paying for the area of land.

The lease includes permission for ancillary employment and operations uses including a new aircraft Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) campus and advanced manufacturing research centre, as well as new air cargo transit sheds and aircraft hangars.

“From an airport point of view, having 126 acres outline planning permission for development of MROs, manufacturing, hangar facilities is unprecedented,” he said. “There’s a real national shortage of MRO facilities. It is a good deal for Peel but I look at it and it is a good deal for us as well.

“Peel have got [neighbouring site] Gateway East and have had it for 20 years. With this opportunity for the airport and that catalyst of economic growth, we are talking about an investment zone the size of Sheffield city centre, which is unparalleled anywhere in the UK in terms of size of opportunity.

“This presents huge opportunities for us to really start driving economic growth in a northern city.”