"Up a gum tree": Doncaster Sheffield Airport council spending will go beyond £193m, Tories warn
Tory councillors in Doncaster have raised concerns about plans to reopen the city’s airport – with one warning the currently estimated £193m cost to the local authority from the project is likely to rise further.
Councillor Nick Allen told a meeting on Monday that City of Doncaster Council now finds itself “up a gum tree” as it is unable to afford the estimated £50m cost of cancelling the Doncaster Sheffield Airport project but also likely to face rising costs should it continue with the project.
Reform councillors had threatened to rescind a previously-agreed £57m loan for the DSA project at the meeting but opted instead to put in a new series of scrutiny measures for the reopening scheme. It came after council officers had warned cancelling the loan would end the reopening project and leave the council facing costs of £48.6m due to already-committed spending.
Coun Allen said while such a scenario would be a “disaster waiting to happen”, he also expects the currently forecast £193m cost of the project to the council to increase.
He said: “If we just contine as we are, actually eventually in the long run we are going to get ourselves in a position we can’t avoid where we are going to have to borrow more.
"The £193m figure actually could well increase over time, I don’t think that’s avoidable.”
But he added that he disagreed with Reform’s original plan to cancel the previously-approved borrowing, despite Conservative group members voting against the loan when it was first agreed in November.
Coun Allen said: "There should have been no debate about rescinding totally because that would have meant effectively accepting almost £50m worth of losses. How could anybody, regardless of party, from Karl Marx to Margaret Thatcher, have accepted such a loss as that? It would have made us look wholly incompetent.
"The cumulative impact just highlights the totally inept way we make decisions in this town.”
He said the council is now in a position where continuing with the DSA reopening means “borrowing lots more money” while cancelling it would have led to “losing lots of money”.
Coun Allen said he now fears the council could face a similar situation to the Government’s bailout of car firm British Leyland in the 1970s, which ended up costing hundreds of millions.
"Either way, whatever we do, we’re up a gum tree and we didn’t need to be there had we made a better decision in November. You’re going to have to justify somewhere along the line the amount we have lost. If we don’t see a return on this investment, we could end up with a British Leyland situation, a Doncaster Leyland if you like.”
Fellow Conservative councillor Cynthia Ransome told the meeting she does not believe the council should be in charge of reopening the airport.
"I’m not against the opening of the airport, but not run by a Labour council. Councils are for services. This council has a lack of expertise and a poor track record; housing stock, leisure facilities, the market, old people’s homes.
"I still maintain this council needs intervention from the Secretary of State.”
The currently-projected £193m cost of the project is largely due to be covered by devolution funding controlled by the office of South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard. However this money will not be released until the current airport lease is renegotiated with landowner Peel. The £57m loan is a way of frontloading spending on the project in advance of the devolution funding being delivered in annual instalments.
Labour Mayor Ros Jones said there is substantial interest from commercial airlines and freight operators in using a reopened Doncaster Sheffield Airport and insisted the project will be a success.
"I would like to say thank you to the public and business community who have stuck with the project and provided their backing during this turbulent time. Together, we will flourish, we will fly and I will deliver,” she said.