Oliver Coppard backs decision to spend £160m to reopen Doncaster Sheffield Airport
His backing comes after a turbulent week in which the airport’s future appeared uncertain
South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard has announced his support for a recommendation to release £160 million in public funds to fully reopen Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA).
His backing comes after a turbulent week in which the airport’s future appeared uncertain — at one point, Mr Coppard himself admitted he couldn’t guarantee the reopening would go ahead. Now, however, the mayor has formally endorsed the funding proposal.
Speaking at a press conference held yesterday (September 1) at the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) headquarters, Mr Coppard confirmed he would support the release of the funds at an upcoming board meeting next week.
He said: “I’m really pleased to be able to say that next Tuesday the MCA board will be taking the final decision about funding the Doncaster Sheffield Airport project and the wider South Yorkshire Airport City project, and deciding whether or not to commit up to £160m funding to that project.
“I will be voting in favour of that funding decision based on the information that has been given to me and the advice that I’ve been given.”
He also noted that board members will have three options: to vote in favour, to withdraw, or to defer the decision. The board is made up of five members.
Just last week, Mr Coppard had said there were still challenges to overcome and he couldn’t say for certain whether the airport would reopen. When asked what had changed, he pointed to the cumulative progress made in recent months.
He explained that there has been a “huge amount of work” to reach this stage and that he believed there had always been “an accumulating amount of evidence” that supported the funding decision.
Mr Coppard now says he is confident in backing the funding request from Doncaster Council.
He added: “I’ve always had two challenges to balance: protecting taxpayers’ money but also doing what I wanted to do which is restore and save DSA.
“What the evidence is now showing me is that we can confidently move forward in the direction of reopening DSA with that funding ask.”
As reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), the mayor also acknowledged that Doncaster Sheffield Airport is unlikely to offer commercial passenger flights until 2028.