'Not sign a bad deal': Oliver Coppard gives Doncaster Sheffield Airport negotiation update
Around £160m worth of devolution funding was formally earmarked for the project last September but will only be released by Oliver Coppard if the current lease agreement is altered.
South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard has said he will “not sign a bad deal” when it comes to renegotiating the lease for the Doncaster Sheffield Airport site, with talks now ongoing for more than a year.
The Labour Mayor of Doncaster Ros Jones has pledged that passenger flights will be taking off from the airport once again in 2028.
The council’s arms-length body Fly Doncaster has begun preparations for this, by hiring staff, including air-traffic controllers, refurbishing the terminal and redrawing the airspace.
However, hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer funding for the project is still up in the air, almost a year after the announcement that DSA was reopening.
Around £160m worth of devolution funding was formally earmarked for the project last September but will only be released by Mr Coppard if the current lease agreement between City of Doncaster Council (CDC) and landowner Peel is altered.
A planned £57m loan to frontload project spending is not due to be drawn until next year and is also dependent on the successful renegotiation of the lease.
The Yorkshire Post revealed that under the current terms of the lease Peel would receive 20 per cent of the airport’s annual income above the rent payments for land.
A CDC report in May confirmed that this is a sticking point in negotiations, amid reports that funding could be close to running out last month if the loan and devolution funding is not available.
Mr Coppard told The Yorkshire Post: “I’ve never said September was going to be the date by which we would have got that lease over the line.
“It hasn’t stopped the progress with which we’ve made.
“City of Doncaster Council, Fly Doncaster have hired a significant number of people, lots of progress with the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) and other things besides.
“We are not going to sign a bad deal, I am determined on that. So if it takes a bit more time, it takes a bit more time.
“We are working on all sorts of different options behind the scenes. It’s not going to stop the progress.”
In an intervention last month, Ms Jones said that she understood “how frustrated and impatient” residents are “not to see a more substantive progress report”.
But she pledged “the next update is well worth waiting for and I look forward to sharing further details in due course”.
Meanwhile, speaking from Reform’s First 100 Days event in Doncaster this week, deputy leader Richard Tice said his party’s position remained to try and compulsory purchase the site: “We continue to push people that would be the smartest, best arrangement.”
While Ms Jones is the directly-elected Labour mayor, Reform has a majority on CDC and has pushed for greater safeguards around the £57m loan.
On DSA, Mr Tice added: “We've always been supportive of it but not unreasonably we want it to be properly governed, properly managed and not to waste money.
“We've been critical of the terms of the lease that was agreed, the sort of blank cheque.
"Our input is already having an impact. We're massive fans of regional aviation.
“It is a very important growth opportunity but no one wants to have money wasted and bluntly, to be ripped off.”