AIRPORT - SOME FACTS
1. Oliver Coppard (Mayor of South Yorkshire) has £900m in Gainshare money to use. This is money given by Government to a Combined Authority when a Mayor is put in place. Ours is 30 years at £30m but we can borrow against this with immediate effect. He’s had it all the time the airport was open and since it has been closed.
2. If the airport opens then the £30m mentioned in the Mirror article that I campaigned for will be used to start with the rail link.
3. Gainshare money is the £900m given to the Labour Mayor for economic growth.
4. Doncaster Sheffield Airport benefits all of South Yorkshire. The Sheffield trams do not. This is now (albeit belatedly) publicly acknowledged by the Labour leaders of Barnsley and Doncaster.
5. If the Labour mayor can topslice money off his Gainshare allowance for Sheffield trams prior to sharing the money across the four boroughs, surely he can do the same for DSA? As I say DSA benefits all the region that his trams do not.
6. There is a proven precedent for using Gainshare money in Teesside. The Conservative Mayor Ben Houchen used Gainshare money to buy Teeside airport.
7. Playing games with Doncaster’s future is not what any Mayor of South Yorkshire should be doing. Yet that is exactly what the Mirror article was about.
8. Oliver Coppard has deliberately created a media storm by taking this to the national papers. This does not bode well for any future operator. I asked yesterday for him to take this offline so the world doesn’t see the charade he has created. Sadly he chose not too. Further evidence he cares little about DSA and more about his own forthcoming election in May this year.
9. He is now seemingly encouraging wannabe Labour MPs to pop up on my page and other local MP pages to gain traction on their Facebook pages. This includes using petitions to collect your data. Despicable behaviour but expected from Labour politicians as they care little about anything other than trying to get into power.
10. The Save DSA page is run by an admin that has been captured by the local Labour politicians and will now be used to help their local election campaign.
11. I cannot comment on that page so please visit mine for the facts and any rebuttal to their nonsense.
12. To conclude, never forget that Labour politicians never wanted the airport. It never fitted with their green agenda which is why all the way through my campaign to keep the airport open, Ed Miliband had his book pinned to his Facebook page and not the airport. It only came down when I raised this in Parliament.
There will be much much more over the coming months. Lots of nasty politics which is quite ironic coming from a Labour council who have just spent yet more of your money on a #bekind campaign.
Nick
