Doncaster Sheffield Airport: Mayor presses button on legal action
Legal action has been started by Doncaster Council to prevent the removal of assets at Doncaster Sheffield Airport ahead of its proposed closure.
The Mayor, Ros Jones, said she has told the city’s council to begin proceedings against the airport’s owners the Peel Group.
Last month, Peel said operations would wind down at the airport from the end of October as it was not financially viable.
Peel says that it has met with every party that the local authority has made an introduction to who have been willing to meet but that “no credible proposal regarding the ownership of, or addressing the lack of financial viability of, DSA has yet been provided.”
Meanwhile Jones has criticised the lack of government support on the issue, and the “unreasonable actions” and “ridiculous timeframe” from Peel Group which announced in September it was closing the airport.
She claims that Peel Group has repeatedly rejected offers of public money to keep the airport running until October next year.
Around 800 jobs are at risk, with a further 1,800 in the supply chain.
The last flight from the airport is scheduled for November 4.
In a statement yesterday, Jones said: “I listened with interest to the debates in UK Parliament yesterday regarding Doncaster Sheffield Airport and what can be done to help save it. A number of the suggestions last night were either not feasible or not practical, especially within such a short timescale.
“As I have said before, DSA is a significant asset for not only our city, but the wider Yorkshire and Humber region and the nation given the Ministry of Defence and blue light operations that operate from the airport.
“I have been pushing for Peel to be reasonable and let others who believe the site has a future step in and buy it.”
Jones had warned that if there is was collaborative arrangement for the airport’s future due to their (Peel’s) “unreasonable closure timescale”, the council would initiate the process for Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) and investigate plans for a judicial review of Peels decision.
However, a CPO would not save the airport as it would take roughly two years and would only buy the land.
