South Yorkshire Investment Zone: Doncaster ‘opportunity sites’ are passed by regional authority

During a board meeting last Monday, the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) agreed upon the sites that are set to benefit from the trailblazing Investment Zone scheme.

It was announced in July that the region would become the UK’s first Investment Zone, creating an estimated £1.2 billion of private investment by 2030.

The scheme will be launched with an £80 million project creating sustainable structures for aircraft, based in Sheffield.

Sheffield and Rotherham city centres have been approved as the scheme’s ‘innovation assets’, with several projects set to take place there.

During the meeting, Deputy Mayor Councillor Glyn Jones said: “I welcome this investment into South Yorkshire and clearly we are the frontrunners on this Investment Zone scheme. The caveat that I would add to that is that South Yorkshire and all of South Yorkshire should have some benefit from this.

“I appreciate that its been placed where current development and investment zones are, but there is a wider need for this to be rippled out further than rotherham town centre.”

Four ‘opportunity sites’ in Doncaster were identified for potential investment and approved during the meeting.

These are Doncaster City Centre, Thorne North, the Unity development and Gateway East.

Each was selected due to having permission and available land for companies to create supply chains in the area.

The City Centre corridor comprises of the Waterfront, the station gateway, the former NCATI site, Marshgate and Balby Carr bank.

Unity is an ongoing development which will comprise of housing, retail and a new town centre once completed.