New call to stop the bulldozers at former airport

The regional branch of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) yesterday urged the South Yorkshire business community to join it in lobbying for Sheffield City Airport to be re-opened.

The site, close to the A630 Sheffield Parkway, did operate as an airport for a short period more than a decade ago, but it closed after plans for Doncaster’s Robin Hood Airport were unveiled.

Since then, a number of campaigns have been mounted to save it or have it re-opened, but the attempts ended in failure when the site’s owners won planning permission to turn it into a business park.

However, the FSB yesterday launched a last ditch attempt to stop the runway being built over with business units by calling on the Business Secretary Vince Cable to step in and stop work.

The regional chairman of the FSB, Gordon Millward, said: “We believe that, far from a lesser need for a city airport in Sheffield, the need is greater now than when the airport first opened.

“Its supposed replacement, Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield, has focused its operating strategy solely on international leisure tourism and delivers none of the benefits so vital to the growing high-tech business community.

“Even a cursory glance at its destination lists confirms that none of the major European centres of commerce and technology are served.”

Mr Millward said the site’s use as a future facility for commercial aviation should be given “further consideration” in light of the nearby Advanced Manufacturing Park and other high-tech businesses. He also pointed out that the airport could help serve the newly-created Local Enterprise Zone, which has been set up by the Government to attract major international firms to the region.

The FSB said the airport was built to “emulate the highly-successful London City Airport which is presently handling around three million passengers a year”.

Mr Millward added: “The former Sheffield City Airport is about to be ‘redeveloped’ and its runway ripped up.

“Once this happens, all hope of a facility in Sheffield for reaching the major European centres, giving access to the key customers, suppliers and partners of western Europe, will be lost.

“We have therefore written to the Business Minister Vince Cable to exhort him to ensure that any redevelopment of the Sheffield City Airport site including further destruction of its infrastructure is proscribed.

“An independent public inquiry is needed to look into the public interest elements surrounding the airport’s closure and its potential for future use as a facility for commercial aviation.”

Previous campaigns on the airport’s future have been led by a pressure group known as the Sheffield City Airport Movement (SCAM) and Conservative Yorkshire MEP Timothy Kirkhope.

Accusations have been made that Peel Airports, which ran both Sheffield City Airport and Robin Hood Airport, deliberately ran down the Sheffield site in favour of its new project. The company has repeatedly denied the accusations.

Doncaster Council recently announced that it was to start work on a new link road to Robin Hood Airport, which will give passengers a direct link to the terminal from junction three of the M18.

The Finningley and Rossington Regeneration Route Scheme - or FARRRS - was given planning permission in June and work is expected to start shortly.

It is thought the road will reduce journey times to Sheffield by 20 minutes.