AIRPORT - THE TRUTH
It’s important that the truth is known and that we have a proper inquiry into why the airport closed.
I believe that lessons have to be learned. I will continue to press the two mayors to do the right thing and not repeat the mistakes of the past. Reopening the airport is so important.
I will however not tolerate being called a liar. So now I have to set the record straight.
I explain below why I believe the two mayors of Doncaster Council and South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority were to blame for the closure of our airport. Why their actions and failure to act will cost us all not just in terms of the damage to the economy but also in regard to the airport itself.
Let me begin with an analogy.
If your house is on fire you would call the Fire Brigade. How would you feel if they came and and had a look and then drove away with the water needed to save your house? Your house then burned to the ground. Who would you blame? The one who started the fire or the fire brigade or both?
That’s what happened to Doncaster Sheffield Airport. Peel asked the Council and SYMCA for help. The two mayors have a green agenda which takes the stance that we have a climate emergency. Forget 2050. They want 2030. Airports do not fit with any radical green agenda. Let me explain how and why their dogged adherence to their Green agenda that caused the Airport’s closure announcement in July 2022.
Each day of this week I will give you information on the following:
1. Why the £20m airport loan was to be given only if it suited the Net Zero Plan of the two mayors. 2030.
2. How the £20m airport loan quietly disappeared.
3. The fact that the airport would still be open now had they been given the airport loan.
4. The financial smokescreen.
5. How the two mayors' Green Ideology ensured our airport being closed.
I will be pulling all these strands together on Friday this week and you can then judge for yourself who’s telling the truth.
Is the requirement for the airport to be “sustainable” a get out clause for the two mayors? They have not abandoned their green agenda. In fact they have doubled down on it with a “Citizens Assembly for the Climate Emergency” being created.
I have led the campaign for the airport from Day 1. Speeches. Supporting the Petition along with so many others. Parliamentary debates. Literally hundreds and hundreds of articles, letters, meetings and social media posts over the last 19 months.
I didn’t declare a “Climate Emergency”. I don’t have a green agenda threading through every policy I support. I have visited the airport regularly and championed the airport at every opportunity since my election. I don’t recall either of the two mayors even visiting the airport since The Mayor’s climate emergency declaration.
I don’t have anything to hide. All I want is the airport open and when it does the new operator will have my full support.
Judge me on my actions. Judge the two mayors on their actions.
AIRPORT - GETTING TO THE FACTS - 1
As stated in my earlier post: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=801691148437179&id=100057889036632
I will be posting a series of posts relating to the airport showing why the decisions made by the two mayors in following their Green Agenda seemingly caused the closure of the airport.
Peel came to the inevitable and only conclusion that they had no buy in financially or in spirit from Doncaster Council and South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority in July 2022. There are earlier incidents but this is as good a place to start as any.
These are the minutes from 12.01.22 relating to the £20 million loan sought by the airport following refusal of them taking shares in the airport for £20 million as it went against their Green Agenda.
MCA - BUSINESS RECOVERY AND GROWTH BOARD
MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON:
WEDNESDAY, 12 JANUARY 2022 AT 4.00 PM
VIRTUAL MEETING
“A paper was considered which outlined a proposed business investment in the form of a capital loan to a local company for a total of £20m, to be drawn down from Gainshare against capital projects for business growth at the company.
The Board highlighted a number of conditions that may be recommended by the Board.
Due to the level of investment, the Board noted that the decision to provide a capital loan to the company would reside with the MCA Board and would be considered at their meeting on 21 March 2022.
Following discussion the Board supported the proposed financial structure for the capital loan as set out in the paper.
In addition, the Board:
* Requested that the company's Sustainable Growth Roadmap be made available in full at the March MCA Board meeting to assist the Board in making a decision on funding.
* Queried if the company had action plans in place to address local air quality and air pollution.
* Asked if the company's target date to achieve Net Zero Carbon by 31 December 2040 could be brought forward to 2030, in line with Sheffield City Council, who had declared a Climate Emergency and set a target for the city to be Zero Carbon by 2030.
* Queried if external partners would be working with the company to help achieve its Net Zero Carbon Plans.
* Asked if emissions produced by aircraft during take off and landing were also included in the Company’s Net Zero Carbon Plans.
* Considered that it would be beneficial for the MCA/LEP to develop a position statement in support of the company named in the paper.
RESOLVED - That the Board considered and endorsed progression of the proposed capital loan investment to project "D0024", subject to the conditions set out in the paper.
This minute can be found here: https://governance.southyorkshire-ca.gov.uk/.../Printed...
Were these conditions for an airport loan reasonable? Where else is such an airport?
AIRPORT - GETTING TO THE FACTS - 2
£20 MILLION LOAN DISAPPEARS. WHY?
In my Airport Facts 1 post link: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=801752365097724&id=100057889036632 yesterday, I spoke of the minutes of the SYMCA meeting on 12 January 2022 attended by the Mayor of Doncaster.
The £20m loan sought by the airport was to be in the Board’s agenda for approval on 21st March 2022. See pic in the comments below.
The agenda for the Board meeting on 21.03.2022 can be found here: https://governance.southyorkshire-ca.gov.uk/ieListDocumen...
Look as hard as you can but the agenda has no mention of the £20m loan whatsoever. Why?
Look at the 14 pages of minutes. (Same link as above). Not once did the Mayor of Doncaster query why this loan was not in the agenda. Why?
Tomorrow we look at what Peel have said on the record. Then the day after that, I will shine the spotlight on the financial smokescreen raised by the two mayors regarding the airport.
AIRPORT - GETTING TO THE FACTS - 3
PEEL WOULD NOT HAVE CLOSED THE AIRPORT
The sad fact is that had Peel been given the £20m loan by the two mayors, they would not have closed it down.
Yesterday I showed you how the two mayors moved away from their demand that Doncaster Sheffield Airport be operated on a Net Zero basis by 2040. A tough ask of any airport. However they then ramped it up by wanting this by 2030.
It is a matter of record that had the £20M loan been given to the airport it would not have been closed down by Peel. On 25th September 2022 The Conservative Group Leader Cllr Steve Cox of Finningley Ward asked the Airport’s Managing Director David Grant this question:
“Councillor Cox asked if the £20m loan from the Mayoral Combined Authority would have changed Peel's position if it had been offered. In addition, he asked if the 'Green Agenda' had contributed to the decision to close DSA. David Grant (Airport MD) replied that, if the loan had been offered at the time it had been requested, then it would have been accepted by Peel.”
The weblink to the minutes of 25.09.2022 (Page 4 halfway down) are here:
https://syjagu.moderngov.co.uk/.../Printed%20minutes...
The airport was still open at this point. Had the loan been made it would still be open now.
Be in no doubt. We lost our airport because of the failure to act by the two mayors. Be under no illusions about that.
The two mayors had devolved powers. They had the funds that went with them. One of the funds was £900 million in Gainshare. They refused to use them then. 19 months later on Tuesday last week they decided to use them and agreed to use £138 million of Gainshare money.
Why did the two mayors wait 19 months to act?
Why did the two mayors choose to allow the airport to close?
Why did the two mayors choose to allow 800 people lose their jobs?
Why did the two mayors choose to allow our economy to be hit with a £1 billion loss from our regional economy?
More tomorrow on the financial smokescreen.
IMPORTANT FOOTNOTE - PLEASE READ
Let me make it perfectly clear that in no way do I ever want to detract from the excellent work that the council officers are doing in their work on the airport. However it must be right that the elected leaders are held to account for their actions and their failure to act.
It is a fact that the financial burden will cost 100s of £million whether the airport reopens or not. The damage to the economy is far reaching and was entirely avoidable.
I thank the officers for their continuing work and hope that the lease with Peel can be completed as quickly as possible.
Any new operator will obviously have my full support. I have always championed the airport and will continue to do so once we get it reopened.
Once I have concluded these posts which are shining a light on the facts which are not widely known or reported, I will then move forward in my usual positive manner.
I have fought tooth and nail every day to drag the two mayors to where we are now. To use their powers and their funds. We are making positive progress now which is encouraging. This has been a sorry saga indeed.
AIRPORT - GETTING TO THE FACTS - 4
FINANCIAL SMOKESCREEN
Finances have been extensively discussed ever since the airport closure announcement which was made on 13 July 2022.
One condition imposed for any loan from a public body is for them to be satisfied as to solvency. Peel have fixed assets worth £1.471 billion and £339 million in liquid assets. This is in excess of £1,800,000,000.
There can be no issue regarding the solvency of Peel and the likelihood of any loan being repaid. This is reinforced by the Council wanting to take a lease from Peel. Talk of Peel refusing to open their books holds no water.
This is of course the same company who paid millions of pounds for the £56m Great Yorkshire Way to be opened. The Peel Group, Verdion and Harworth Estates contributed £34million to the scheme to add to £18million of Regional Growth Funding with the balance met by Doncaster Council.
Yet at the same time as this excess of caution with Peel’s finances, we have also seen £7m being given by South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority to Lontra a company which went bust in short order.
Another smokescreen issue but from Peel this time. Peel said that the airport was not financially viable. The Council have commissioned two reports by EY consultants into this. The Mayor has said that both confirm the airport is financially viable.
Why would a massively wealthy company want a loan for £20m? As I have said before, Peel would want a buy in from the two mayors especially given their Declarations of Climate Emergency.
What does all this mean?
AIRPORT - GETTING TO THE FACTS - 5
I was devastated when Peel announced the closure of the airport. I was even more devastated when I discovered that the two mayors were making out that they didn’t have the powers and funds needed to save the airport.
In 2022 the two mayors held devolved powers and had £900 million in Gainshare funds. I even asked them to hand them back to Government so they would use them.
It took 19 months before the two mayors started using them but now £138 million has been allocated from Gainshare funds. In 2024. A scandal that has cost 100s of jobs. Massive damage to the economy. All avoidable.
We now need to ensure that the £138 million is top sliced so that it does not just come out of Doncaster’s pot. That’s what the two mayors did with the £100 million for Sheffield Supertrams.
I will continue pressing the two mayors as I know you all will. Without our campaign I truly believe that the terminal buildings would have been bulldozed by now and warehouses being built.
I have showed you this week in some detail why it’s the case that the airport was neglected by the two mayors. No support of any meaningful nature. Peel decided to pull the plug but it was the two mayors who had created a hostile environment.
If any apologies are to be given they should come from our Mayors.
However I only hope positive posts going forward. Facebook live tonight at 7 pm.
Onwards and upwards!
Keep the faith.
I am on it.
Nick
