STATEMENT FROM SOUTH YORKSHIRE'S MAYOR OLIVER COPPARD ON DSA

Published 25 August 2022 at 1:05pm

South Yorkshire’s Mayor Oliver Coppard said: A thriving, commercially-led Doncaster Sheffield Airport is a central, vital part of the economic strategy for Gateway East, Doncaster and South Yorkshire, and I am committed to working with both private and public sector partners to achieve that aim.

Under my leadership, South Yorkshire is a region which welcomes those individuals, organisations and companies who wish to unlock innovation, grow jobs and create wealth. However, potential returns from commercial investment are matched by both risks and responsibilities. Those responsibilities include a duty to invest, to take risks, to bear losses and to act with a duty of care to employees and the wider community of which they are a part.

As South Yorkshire’s Mayor, I expect companies with whom we are working in partnership to act as responsible stakeholders in our community.

In my view, announcing a review of DSA with less than 24 hours’ notice, creating an artificially short timetable for that review, remaining unclear about future intentions for DSA and wilfully draining the confidence of employees and investors, is not the behaviour of a responsible partner.

I am joined in that opinion by Doncaster Council, Doncaster’s local MPs, the Minister for Aviation, the front runner to be our next Prime Minister, and thousands upon thousands of people from across the communities of South Yorkshire and beyond.

Peel remain unclear about their intentions for DSA, while expecting partners to put forward ideas that ‘address the underlying lack of viability of the aviation operations’. As the owners of the airport, it is their responsibility to make clear the options they would be prepared to consider – including whether they would be prepared to explore options for the airport’s sale, a question we have asked them repeatedly – and allow a reasonable period of time for those options to be explored.

I am increasingly concerned they are now seeking to undermine confidence in the airport as a pretence for its closure, limiting commercial interest in a possible sale, all with a view to forcing a change of use and attempting to open up the site to commercial land development.

Alongside partners in the region and beyond I continue to call on Peel to change their approach, extend the review period and work with us in collaboration to safeguard the future of DSA. Under those circumstances I remain committed to working with them and partners on the wider Gateway East development, and other opportunities across South Yorkshire.