Scrap HS2 and use spare cash to save Doncaster Sheffield Airport: Yorkshire Post Letters

There is no way that the Government, Opposition and local leaders should allow Peel Holdings to close Doncaster Sheffield Airport.

Ros Jones and her council, Dan Fell and the Chamber of Trade and the many thousands, not just in the Doncaster Region but throughout Yorkshire and the North have been supporting this airport and longing for the day when more flights become available.

As has been stated over the years, Doncaster Airport is ideally positioned to be the Road, Rail Airport hub for all of Yorkshire and added to Leeds, Bradford and Humberside Airports should, in time, equal the dominance of Manchester/ Liverpool airports, west of the Pennines.

It is within easy reach of the major Motorways crossing the County from all directions. It is also close to the East Coast Main Line and promised links from there to the airport for freight as well as passengers and on to Sheffield City Centre and Humber Ports is an added benefit.

The possibility – which should be a probability - of the GBR Headquarters being sited close to the Training and Repair shops and Rail College just South of the City centre, should be a further plus for saving the airport.

Over the last few years many large companies like Amazon have built large Warehouses along the M18, with easy access to A1, M62, M18, M180 for the ever-increasing freight using the Airport and ECML.

Plans are in place for a direct line from the airport linking Doncaster and Sheffield to the airport and the Humber Express is already established between the Container Ports at Humberside to the railport at Doncaster and on to South Yorkshire facilitating Imports/Exports through Immingham.

The inland port of Goole, particularly with the start of construction of carriages for the London Underground by Siemens all adds to the importance of the combined road, rail, airport at Doncaster, where the airport has the second longest runway in the UK and there is room for expansion.

So, what actions should MPS both in Westminster and throughout the North be doing to replace Peel?

Too much time and money has already been spent on HS2 to the North, particularly the Eastern Route to Leeds. Leeds to King’s Cross via ECML now takes 2 hours, Sheffield to Leeds could be improved further.

This vanity project should be stopped and the further billions it plans to require should be used instead to CPO Peel and make speedy progress on developing Doncaster into the main Transport Hub of the North Midlands and all Yorkshire that it should be.

Please give this project your full support.

David Blackburn, Ilkley.

In regards to the announcement from Peel Group that they plan to proceed with the initially announced closure of Doncaster Sheffield Airport. Should we be surprised?

Am I being cynical to suggest that Peel Group could see a proposal round the corner to maintain the site as an airport that would disrupt their plans to develop the land for a multitude of property uses? They are primarily a property development company.