Doncaster Sheffield Airport: South Yorkshire Chambers and businesses write to Transport Secretary to protect site

CEOs of Doncaster, Sheffield, Barnsley and Rotherham Chambers alongside other prominent organisations wrote a letter to the Secretary of State for Transport, Mark Harper MP, calling for the site’s status to be preserved.

Doncaster Sheffield Airport shut down last November after owners Peel Group announced it was no longer financially viable to run.

Since, local politicians and organisations have made attempts to protect the site for a future buyer to allow it to reopen.

The letter calls for the site’s airspace to be kept at its current “Class D” designation, which means that pilots will need to request permission from controllers to fly in the zone.

This helps to maintain the site’s protections as a designated airport space and makes it easier to reopen in the future.

Alongside the region’s chambers, the letter was signed by Sheffield Property Association, representatives from the Manufacturing Forum, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Private Sector Board LEP.

All of the organisations involved in the letter represent 17,000 businesses which employ 2,420,000 workers.

The Civil Aviation Authority has already begun the process of downgrading the site’s airspace to the lowest possible “uncontrolled” level.

Calling on the Transport Secretary to intervene, the letter reads:

“The recent closure of Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) by The Peel Group is a significant event for our economy. If permanent, it would represent a loss of 2,700 jobs.

“Re-opening the airport is being pursued, with the potential to generate around £1.56bn in GVA annually, and 35,650 net full-time equivalent jobs across the region through its catalytic effect on development sites and related industry activity.

“Our members want to see DSA re-open, with all efforts made to protect the site for use as an airport. As negotiations between the airport owner and City of Doncaster Council are ongoing, and the public acquisition of the airport by Compulsory Purchase Order remains a possibility, we believe it’s essential for the airspace above DSA not to be reallocated. Any changes to current airspace arrangements could jeopardise the process and efforts to protect the region’s economy.

“There is no urgent safety need to reallocate the airspace while its future is still being settled. Doing so would create a number of issues including financial costs, uncertainty for local communities, and delays in re-opening the airport. As such, we strongly support the calls by our local government partners to preserve the current airspace designations through a 12-month temporary suspension of the arrangements that were in place while DSA was operational.”

Doncaster Mayor Ros Jones has also called to protect the site’s airspace status, following the announcement that the Civil Aviation Authority had begun a consultation with shareholders on the matter.

The consultation, which closes on 17 February, will determine whether the airport’s airspace gets downgraded.

Doncaster Council has also begun the process of a Compulsory Purchase Order, which would take the site into the hands of the local authority.