The City of Doncaster Council spent nearly £29million on the reopening of Doncaster Sheffield Airport so far, the Mayor of Doncaster has revealed.

Mayor Ros Jones was asked to share how much the council had spent on the project to the current day by Reform UK’s Councillor Dan Dawson, after political leaders at the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) agreed to potentially purchase the freehold for the airport.

Ms Jones said: “Total costs incurred to date are just under £29million.

“These costs relate to the period from March 2024 to the end of September 2026 and have been funded through grants received via SYMCA and previously approved council resources.

“The costs of renegotiating the lease were not recorded separately. They sit within the legal and advisory totals, and they are a small part of them.”

It reveals Doncaster Council had indeed nearly ‘run out of money’ before the deal for the SYMCA purchase of the airport was discussed, with available funding for the reopening to that point totalling £30million.

Local councillors in Doncaster were briefed in June 2026 that the project could ‘run out of money’ by September, a possibility the Mayor of Doncaster, her team and the council refused to be drawn into questions on.

Multiple councillors corroborated that they were told that if the lease between Doncaster Council and Peel for the airport was not successfully renegotiated then the reopening would be ‘over’.

SYMCA board papers revealed that prior to discussions starting on the freehold purchase, negotiations over the lease had ‘faltered’ with a solution to the controversial ‘turnover rent’ clause unable to be agreed.