South Yorkshire infrastructure inquiry erupts into Doncaster Sheffield Airport row

On Wednesday (January 3) the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) held two public meetings in Doncaster and Sheffield to discuss saving infrastructure in the region.

The meetings form part of the South Yorkshire Infrastructure Inquiry, which aims to prevent the closure of major infrastructure.

It comes in the wake of the closure of Doncaster Sheffield Airport in 2022.

Reasons for the airport’s closure are not examined in the inquiry however, which aims to create recommendations for wider infrastructure.

Doncaster’s meeting at Auckley Parish Centre was led by property lawyer Martin McKervey, independent chair of the inquiry.

Criticisms were voiced ahead of the meeting by Don Valley MP Nick Fletcher, who shared a letter he had written to South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard.

He requested for the date of the meeting to be changed to allow for greater notice and for the venue to be changed to a more central, larger location.

The MP was unable to secure one of the limited tickets to the event, however attended anyway, along with Finningley councillors Steve Cox and Jane Cox.

Questions were raised during the meeting over why the event was listed as sold out despite many empty seats being available.

Mr Fletcher began by raising these criticisms with Mr McKervey as well as asking whether he is being led by Mayor Coppard rather than chairing the inquiry independently.

Mr McKervey said: “I’ve been asked by the mayor to lead this inquiry, I’ve set aside my own time over a number of months to do so, I don’t accept that I might not be independent.

“These are not my recommendations, not my report, I’m simply independent chair giving up my time with the help of not only the mayor but the combined authority and the community.”

A discussion later began about the possibility of central government having powers to take control of assets such as airports if operators choose to shut them down.

Mr Fletcher responded: “I think if you start putting state control on things completely then in an awful lot of cases it’s not valuable to taxpayers’ money.

"Unfortunately we see councils and combined authorities investing in things that they really shouldn’t and that’s your taxes gone.

“The problem is if you ask anybody do you want more power locally, everybody puts their hands up and says yeah, we want power.

“The majority of people in South Yorkshire want a combined authority and want devolution, the problem is that you give power to local people and then every time it goes right it’s their success, and every time it goes wrong it’s government.

“Government’s giving away all the money and all the power but still getting all the blame.”

Discussions then moved on entirely to the closure of Doncaster Sheffield Airport.

Coun Steve Cox said: “We’ve been kept out of all discussions, if there’s been no political bias in any of this event why have we been kept out of everything?

"Why have we not had information from Oliver? I’ve emailed Oliver, I’ve had one response back.

"I was on the airport consultative committee, I have had and still sometimes have conversations with people from Peel.

“Obviously as local members there’s a great stretch of land that’s still owned by Peel that needs to be maintained. Lights need to be turned on, the roads need to be cleaned, the bins need to be emptied, I contact Peel.

“We made sure that any development that went on in that area, Gateway East, had to be aviation related. That was us, we did that in consultation with the Local Plan. But still nobody wanted to speak to us. Why?

"We have been closed out, and the only people that’s closed us out is the MCA.”

Mr McKervey responded: “I can’t help you with any communication you’re having with the mayor, that’s way out of side with the work I’ve been asked to do as an independent chair of this inquiry.

“I’m not leading an inquiry into the rights and wrongs of DSA, what I am interested in is what role do local communities have in protecting infrastructure.”

Coun Jane Cox added: “The thing is you keep saying we can’t look backwards but in order to learn what’s gone wrong we have to look backwards to move forwards, because until we understand exactly what has gone on with the mayoral authority and the local council.

“Any private company will only knock on their door so many times before they go, you know what, if you’re not interested, we’re not interested and that’s where we got to unfortunately.”

A member of the public asked: “Where can I find the terms of reference for this inquiry? When this inquiry was announced the mayor said the terms of reference would be published shortly, and that was in February last year.

“You say the inquiry isn’t looking into why the airport closed, but nobody knows what this inquiry is about.

“You’re taking evidence for an inquiry who has established terms of reference that don’t exist, so this is a bit of a charade really, and I think the whole thing should be scrapped and started again.”

Mr McKervey said: “I respect your right to address your position on the terms of reference, I wouldn’t describe it as a charade, if I thought it was I wouldn’t be here.

"I’m here because I think there’s a genuine legitimate issue to address around infrastructure in the UK.”

On terms of reference, an attendee added: “One of the main terms of reference should be looking at assets. We divulged all our assets over the last 40 years through privatisation.

“We gave a massive asset away [DSA], I still don’t know how much Peel paid for it but I bet they didn’t pay a lot.

"We gave that away and now we’re blaming a poor man at the back because he’s not doing anything about it 20 years later. It’s not his fault that we gave the asset away.”

Another attendee suggested that an independent auditor should be established who can return devolved powers to central government if regional authorities are not meeting a set standard.

Mayor Coppard addressed attendees during the end of the meeting, sparking a further row.

Coun Jane Cox reiterated: “Do you know where the terms of reference are?”

Mayor Coppard responded: “Councillor, you have a different view to me, you have a political opinion, that’s absolutely fine.

“I think this is a really important piece of work, because when Peel closed down the airport, we did not have the powers or control, it seems.

"You can take a different view, but we did not clearly have the powers in the system to be able to stop them doing, and I think that’s clear.

“So, look, I appreciate you being here, and please do share your view online with Martin and the inquiry. You can share through the Save DSA Facebook group.”

This raised further questions around the neutrality of the largest online campaign group led by Mark Chadwick, which has over 23,000 members.

Mr Chadwick has responded that he runs the group alone and condemned what he referred to as the “political blame game” surrounding the airport.

Mr McKervey then drew the meeting to a close, stating that further meetings could be arranged in the future.