A new airport.... South Yorkshire Airport City?

[pug]

The Machanic is a complete clown…..Just read his spin and his is now claiming Peel are building all the new houses in the area to support all those who will be working at the airport 😂. Do his disciples really buy into that stuff……The more he spouts the more of a fool he looks….. Just how many employees does he think an airport with 16 flights a day needs😂

I think the interesting thing was that the post he put up gave the impression, intentionally or otherwise, that he was at the event. It was only when someone asked him whether he’d asked questions of Peel that he said he wasn’t there.

They buy into the confirmation bias, I’ve seen one or two more level headed supporters getting hounded out for asking questions, questions that are perhaps inconvenient for the campaign narrative. I’ve no doubt there’ll be an update of sorts next week, certainly on Tuesday where Coppard will try to pacify everyone by downplaying the situation as just a box ticking exercise. Who knows, maybe he has some genuine progress to report? But the ambiguous ‘external assurance’ might drag on into October or November which would push a decision way past the Raytheon exit clause.

I think those smiles will turn again to nervous grins before too long if there’s no meaningful update.

 

[Guppy]

Ross Jones FB page update today “
Doncaster Sheffield Airport Update

I have just provided a brief statement at todays Board meeting at South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.

I want to emphasise the positive progress that has been made in recent months in relation to Doncaster Sheffield Airport through negotiations with the landowner.

However, a number of residents and businesses in Doncaster have expressed to me how frustrated and impatient they are to not see a more substantive progress reported, this is understandable, and indeed I share some of their perspective. As politicians we are naturally impatient for change and delivery. What I can say is that the next update is well worth waiting for and I look forward to sharing further details in due course.

Works are continuing on site to fully reopen Doncaster Sheffield Airport and to complete the necessary safety and licensing & certification requirements with the Airspace Change Process in conjunction with the Civil Aviation Authority, all of which is progressing well and to plan with passenger flights expected to take off in spring 2028”

Well we can see that passenger flights are put back again, now spring 2028, rather than 2027.

The “next update is well worth waiting for” sounds bullish to me, and hints at the lease…then again it could be that a Cessna is due to land, and it’s got new livery stating “make Doncaster great again”, and Ross Jones is going to get a photo for the Doncaster Free Press!! 😁 the Doncaster chambers will then start lobbying to get Doncaster on all future globe maps (hey if Trump can make changes, why can’t Doncaster Chambers).

 

[pug]

Ross Jones FB page update today “
Doncaster Sheffield Airport Update

I have just provided a brief statement at todays Board meeting at South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.

I want to emphasise the positive progress that has been made in recent months in relation to Doncaster Sheffield Airport through negotiations with the landowner.

However, a number of residents and businesses in Doncaster have expressed to me how frustrated and impatient they are to not see a more substantive progress reported, this is understandable, and indeed I share some of their perspective. As politicians we are naturally impatient for change and delivery. What I can say is that the next update is well worth waiting for and I look forward to sharing further details in due course.

Works are continuing on site to fully reopen Doncaster Sheffield Airport and to complete the necessary safety and licensing & certification requirements with the Airspace Change Process in conjunction with the Civil Aviation Authority, all of which is progressing well and to plan with passenger flights expected to take off in spring 2028”

Well we can see that passenger flights are put back again, now spring 2028, rather than 2027.

The “next update is well worth waiting for” sounds bullish to me, and hints at the lease…then again it could be that a Cessna is due to land, and it’s got new livery stating “make Doncaster great again”, and Ross Jones is going to get a photo for the Doncaster Free Press!! 😁 the Doncaster chambers will then start lobbying to get Doncaster on all future globe maps (hey if Trump can make changes, why can’t Doncaster Chambers).

Ross Jones FB page update today “
Doncaster Sheffield Airport Update

I have just provided a brief statement at todays Board meeting at South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.

I want to emphasise the positive progress that has been made in recent months in relation to Doncaster Sheffield Airport through negotiations with the landowner.

However, a number of residents and businesses in Doncaster have expressed to me how frustrated and impatient they are to not see a more substantive progress reported, this is understandable, and indeed I share some of their perspective. As politicians we are naturally impatient for change and delivery. What I can say is that the next update is well worth waiting for and I look forward to sharing further details in due course.

Works are continuing on site to fully reopen Doncaster Sheffield Airport and to complete the necessary safety and licensing & certification requirements with the Airspace Change Process in conjunction with the Civil Aviation Authority, all of which is progressing well and to plan with passenger flights expected to take off in spring 2028”

Well we can see that passenger flights are put back again, now spring 2028, rather than 2027.

The “next update is well worth waiting for” sounds bullish to me, and hints at the lease…then again it could be that a Cessna is due to land, and it’s got new livery stating “make Doncaster great again”, and Ross Jones is going to get a photo for the Doncaster Free Press!! 😁 the Doncaster chambers will then start lobbying to get Doncaster on all future globe maps (hey if Trump can make changes, why can’t Doncaster Chambers).

It’s another bunch of meaningless words. She read out an ‘update’ at SYMCA board meeting today and this ‘look forward to making the mist exciting announcement yet’ was pure optics, they’ve been saying stuff line this for years. It’s too much of a coincidence that the questions are being asked and white tellingly when Ros Jones finishes struggling her way through the pre written update Coppard didn’t even acknowledge it, he reiterated the amount of money the MCA are receiving being quite unprecedented and listed the various projects that have benefitted. Coppard clearly didn’t want to be caught in the narrative, he appearers to have cooled again.

30th September the Raytheon exit clause ends, I’m of the understanding that they cannot legally commit whilst funding is up in the air so either the funding needs to be approved in 15 days or they better get renegotiating that exit clause, and if they do I expect the timeline to handover will be delayed as a result.

 

[Eusebius]

Ros Jones is a tragically amusing combination of Monty Python's Black Knight and Comical Ali. If someone nuked Doncaster she'd have her picture taken, beaming amongst the rubble, declaring that this was precisely the outcome she'd been working towards all along. It's like trying to construe having your house burned down as a fantastic opportunity to choose a different coloured carpet.

So, Peel has not dropped the 20% turnover clause, FlyDoncaster Ltd has not hired the required Project Management Officer, ergo she has not been able to announce the release of the £160m. Which means they're out of money and the project is dead.

 

[pug]

Ros Jones is a tragically amusing combination of Monty Python's Black Knight and Comical Ali. If someone nuked Doncaster she'd have her picture taken, beaming amongst the rubble, declaring that this was precisely the outcome she'd been working towards all along. It's like trying to construe having your house burned down as a fantastic opportunity to choose a different coloured carpet.

So, Peel has not dropped the 20% turnover clause, FlyDoncaster Ltd has not hired the required Project Management Officer, ergo she has not been able to announce the release of the £160m. Which means they're out of money and the project is dead.

I don’t think it’s dead yet, it’s just in procedural no man’s land. I do wonder why they’ve not appointed a PMO yet, cost perhaps? They also won’t be drawn on how much money they do have left for the project but again we can’t be surprised about the lack of transparency by this point.

It will rumble on, they can’t let it die. Ros Jones clearly felt like she was being hung out to dry yesterday. All this alluding to jam tomorrow is just a way of drawing her line in the sand and defending her stance. They must be wishing they’d worked more closely with peel when they had a chance rather than assuming they were calling bluff on the whole ‘airport is struggling please help’ line.

All could have been sorted with £20 million and a bit of joined up thinking with regards the Sheffield uni MOU, an inconvenient truth to Coppard I think.

 

[Eusebius]

I don’t think it’s dead yet, it’s just in procedural no man’s land. I do wonder why they’ve not appointed a PMO yet, cost perhaps? They also won’t be drawn on how much money they do have left for the project but again we can’t be surprised about the lack of transparency by this point.

It will rumble on, they can’t let it die. Ros Jones clearly felt like she was being hung out to dry yesterday. All this alluding to jam tomorrow is just a way of drawing her line in the sand and defending her stance. They must be wishing they’d worked more closely with peel when they had a chance rather than assuming they were calling bluff on the whole ‘airport is struggling please help’ line.

All could have been sorted with £20 million and a bit of joined up thinking with regards the Sheffield uni MOU, an inconvenient truth to Coppard I think.

Rumble on how? It'll be costing millions a year just to have the site on their hands. Coppard is obviously sticking to his guns on the conditions for releasing the gainshare funding... how much money has CDC got down the back of the sofa? That they can legally keep spaffing up the wall on a dead vanity project.

It'll be interesting to see if the radar contract is quietly cancelled before the end of the month, because as far as I can tell, it's unfunded.

 

[pug]

Rumble on how? It'll be costing millions a year just to have the site on their hands. Coppard is obviously sticking to his guns on the conditions for releasing the gainshare funding... how much money has CDC got down the back of the sofa? That they can legally keep spaffing up the wall on a dead vanity project.

It'll be interesting to see if the radar contract is quietly cancelled before the end of the month, because as far as I can tell, it's unfunded.

Well it does appear to be unfunded. LDRS reporter Harry Harrison has put out a video saying he caught up with Coppard after the meeting yesterday, apparently Coppard ‘hinted at some exciting update’ but again that’s exactly what Jones said. He apparently said that his comms strategy has been to be silent whilst the officers graft away in the background.

No idea what to make of this, but it’s interesting that he chose not to echo any of this on official record. I’ve no doubt there’ll be some big announcement, perhaps an extraordinary board meeting called prior to September 30th that they’re saving everything for. Maybe he’s just offering political alignment. Who knows.

 

[Eusebius]

So, the council is skint - "a recent financial report for quarter one of 2026/27, which projects Doncaster Council will overspend its budget by £7million by year-end."

Council ‘expecting’ to make cuts to services amid budget pressures

“I think we are expecting that we’ll need to look at savings.”

www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk

Now, why does that figure of £7m sound familiar?!

At the same time, there appears to be a plan to connect Sheffield to Manchester Airport via a "fast train":

Direct train services between Sheffield and Manchester Airport could return

Direct services between South Yorkshire and Manchester Airport could return as part of Northern Powerhouse Rail, senior officials have said.

www.yorkshirepost.co.uk

Let's join the dots!

 

[Snackbar]

See that clown of a mechanic as decided to pinch the support LBA logo and use it for his own purposes - still at least he’s promoting LBA in doing so 🤣🤣🤣

 

[Guppy]

Reform has posted a FB video today by Irwen Martin (ex counsellor?), stating as the lease has not been negotiated, the only option left, and indeed the councils exciting news, is that they are going to purchase or have an auction?to buy the freehold.

I don’t know if there is any substance behind it…but an interesting thought


FB post

 

[pug]

Reform has posted a FB video today by Irwen Martin (ex counsellor?), stating as the lease has not been negotiated, the only option left, and indeed the councils exciting news, is that they are going to purchase or have an auction?to buy the freehold.

I don’t know if there is any substance behind it…but an interesting thought


FB post

I think he was just offering his opinion on where things stand in the absence of any real update being offered. He’s just hypothesising.

Not a clue what this exciting announcement carrot dangling exercise refers to, but there’s less than 5 days left of the current exit clause with Raytheon, and they’re now starting to recruit for fire fighters which will add a further £3million to the operating overheads. The question needs asking is where is the money coming from to pay for this? I suspect from council tax.

 

[pug]

So just days after the council announce yet another procurement program to purchase new fire equipment, Coppard today has reiterated that he won’t sign a bad deal, and that it’ll take as long as it takes. Meanwhile Grant Thornton appear to have doubled down on their red rating citing ongoing concerns over governance (since the board restructure!) and the fact that the finances aren’t financing. The numbers don’t stack up.

I saw a very well written comment on LinkedIn (now since deleted by Chadwick) by a bloke who has extensive experience working on large scale infrastructure projects. He basically said it’s easy to buy fire engines, they’re not so expensive in the grand scheme of things. But when using the purchase as a ‘positive news’ press release it is a huge red flag. I since seem Chadwick go on the attack against Vince Hodders latest comments. The wheels are coming off.

 

[Finger66]

Think it's been fairly obvious to most of us for a long time that the wheels were getting looser and looser and them eventually starting to actually come off was always a matter of when, not if

 

[Eusebius]

So just days after the council announce yet another procurement program to purchase new fire equipment, Coppard today has reiterated that he won’t sign a bad deal, and that it’ll take as long as it takes. Meanwhile Grant Thornton appear to have doubled down on their red rating citing ongoing concerns over governance (since the board restructure!) and the fact that the finances aren’t financing. The numbers don’t stack up.

I saw a very well written comment on LinkedIn (now since deleted by Chadwick) by a bloke who has extensive experience working on large scale infrastructure projects. He basically said it’s easy to buy fire engines, they’re not so expensive in the grand scheme of things. But when using the purchase as a ‘positive news’ press release it is a huge red flag. I since seem Chadwick go on the attack against Vince Hodders latest comments. The wheels are coming off.

The fire engines can always be sold on to another airport, so a cheap way to buy some 'good news' and give the appearance of progress. Although I'm not sure why they're still bothering, it's clear to a pig that the project is dead.

It would be interesting to know whether the Raytheon contract has been cancelled...

 

[pug]

The fire engines can always be sold on to another airport, so a cheap way to buy some 'good news' and give the appearance of progress. Although I'm not sure why they're still bothering, it's clear to a pig that the project is dead.

It would be interesting to know whether the Raytheon contract has been cancelled...

With the Raytheon contract I admit I missed a glaring point in the document. They only had the right to break prior to the signing of the contract. The contract was signed 5th August which means the council are now tied in to paying for it, which will be paid in stages over various milestones. They’ve done this with council tax money, without the funding to reopen the airport. There is a belief that they MAY be walking into serious trouble, certainly the external auditors are unlikely to be happy with this. The fire equipment can be sold on the ATCOs (probably the only positive thing to come from this) can simply fo to another airport, the radar I doubt will be worth much to anyone else.

Problem is projects like this can become stalled indefinitely. Is it possible we see the airport reopen in a limited capacity purely so that 2Excel can move back in?

It’s interesting to note, given comments made by Christian Foster quite recently, that an unnamed defence contractor has apparently successfully bid to purchase the former RAF Scampton. People have been told, correctly or otherwise, that this mysterious bidder intends to use the runway. For what I’m not sure, but they evidently arent interested in Finningley!

 

[White Heather]

I concluded DSA2 was dead for sure last week when The Sun published an item saying it would be open soon. Whatever that paper says, the opposite is more likely to be true IMHO.

 

[Guppy]

Peel group have been appointed to the board of harworth group after its £630m takeover. Why I think this is interesting to this thread, is that harworth was born out of old coal mine land etc, of which Doncaster and its surrounding region has lots of. This puts Peel in an even stronger position as a land owner in the region, therefore important to SYCA.