The issues facing Doncaster as city prepares for mayoral election
I'd just pressed record – to film a shot of Doncaster Markets – when I spotted that the "Doncaster" sign actually said "O CASTER".Somewhere along the line DN had lost its D and N – and for people living within that postcode, Thursday will mark a chance for them to deliver their own letter; an X next to the name of the person they want to be the new mayor.But what will the new mayor have to do?Their brief ranges from the big decisions that are getting all the attention and the other big decisions that don't get as much coverage.
Often a big shiny thing dominates an election campaign and as I write this I am looking at one.The sun is bouncing off the terminal at Doncaster Sheffield Airport, catching the wave design on its roof. There is no need to fly anywhere today. Finningley is warmer than Fuerteventura – but of course you can't go anywhere from here anyway.The modular terminal opened in 2005 with room and plans for more of them either side if things went well. Seventeen years later, the site is quiet.
Peel closed the airport in 2022 and said it wasn't viable anymore. 800 jobs were lost, and that's just the ones directly at the airport.In the booklets sent out to all voters here, not one of the 12 candidates comes out as against the airport's planned reopening.It is a huge decision and potentially a huge gamble. £100m of public money has been put up to try and get flights out of here again. The promise of jobs is also up against environmental concerns about opening a new airport.It's a plan that will be decided on in the summer – a big moment for a mayor.Perhaps the airport is easier to talk about because it's such a big thing. It would be a tangible success story for a mayor to reopen – but it would also be a key point of scrutiny for them. Are the public getting value for money?Some of the other issues a mayor needs to address are arguably bigger – but perhaps are harder to quantify and sell to the public.
20% of people in Doncaster don't have any qualifications, the second highest rate in the country.That might make you think education would be big topic for candidates, but there are scant mentions of it in their material.Wages are lower here and there are more people out of work than on average. There are issues to sort out like there are in any northern city, but it doesn't feel like the candidates are talking about it much, if at all.I was at Radio Sheffield's debate last week. Of the seven candidates invited only three turned up.It feels like there has been low engagement so far from candidates. What will that means for voters where turnout has not broken past 30% in the last two polls?Having a mayor in Doncaster was part experiment, part solution. Directly elected mayors were a Labour idea, faster decisions made by one person rather than by committee.
Worries about too much power in one person's hands were assuaged by the bruising the town took during Donnygate, a scandal in which 20 former councillors were found guilty of expenses fraud.Electing a mayor was meant to draw a line under that but it didn't stop the council making mistakes.Lots of fallings out between mayors, councillors and chief executives were overshadowed by a failing of the town's children's services. Seven deaths of vulnerable children saw the government step in to run the council. Three of the cases found that social workers had missed chances to intervene.Doncaster has had a mayor in charge of its council for 23 years. It's now a city that has three mayors; civic, city and South Yorkshire.Some places that went with the idea of directly elected mayors two decades ago have ditched it over the last few years.Doncaster will elect another one on Thursday and whatever they focus on, it is an enormous job.
Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
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On Friday, 37 Reform councillors will take their seats in the Doncaster Council chamber for the first time. Their new majority comes at a pivotal time for the city, where Labour mayor Ros Jones was re-elected on a ticket of promises to reopen Doncaster Sheffield Airport. Reform came from nowhere to become the council's biggest party, yet they don't control the council because the city's mayoral system means Jones still wields considerable recent election, which saw Labour slump from 40 councillors to 12, leaves a lot of questions. Why did people vote differently for the mayor and their councillors? Will the authority grind to a 'bureaucratic halt'? Will the airport actually open again?Reform's influence will be curtailed by the presence of the Labour mayor, who declined to invite their members to be part of her cabinet. 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It was the biggest talking point during the was, arguably, the only thing that got Jones across the line again – what had already been done to reopen the airport and her promises to make it clear many people in Doncaster were voting broadly for Reform as their councillors, but for a mayor they picked the person who had already been driving the airport the airport now becomes 'the big thing' for Jones – it got her elected and it will also be the thing that she will be held accountable has already gone so far down the runway, is there any real chance that they can change their minds about the project's value for money and decide not to take off after all?She'll need to convince an unconvinced Reform – but also her Labour colleague and Mayor of South Yorkshire, Oliver will ultimately decide whether the money can be spent because it would be coming from the county's devolution settlement, which his office says the deal "has to make sense" to be granted his not just politicians Jones needs to work on. Doncaster Council's own auditors also have "serious concerns" about the effective use of resources. Professional services firm Grant Thornton told the council in November that not being able to secure outside investment for the airport "would be a significant escalation in the project's risk profile and the council's financial exposure". Some businesses – as much as they want the airport to reopen – want to make sure it is done in the right Mason's office at Redline Assured Security looks out on to the empty terminal at what was once RAF Finningley, a key Cold War-era base before its conversion into a commercial airport 20 years company helped train security staff there and hopes to do it again if it he says legislation on scanners has changed even since the airport closed. They'd need new 3D-scanners and training needs to happen now if locals want the jobs that could be created."We do run the risk, unless it's well managed, of bringing people in from outside of the region and that would be a huge travesty. We'd like to see those jobs returned to the local community," he explains."There is a huge lead time to opening up an airport, particularly one that's been closed for a while. There is a lot of skill that needs to be brought in. We really need to think about training people now rather than having to bring people from outside of the region and taking jobs away from people in Doncaster." 'Lack of open conversation' One person quietly putting his hand up in the corner of this debate is Richard Sulley from the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures at the University of told me there are plenty of promises being made by politicians – but not enough questions asked."It's hard to justify reopening an airport in a time of a climate emergency. There do seem to be very few voices politically against the reopening of the airport and you can see why. "What's concerned us has there's not been much open conversation about the downsides of the airport."I think there are strong arguments that this is not a good use of public money even within the context of reopening an airport - let alone when you factor in the carbon emissions that will be generated by that airport." Doncaster Council has established a wholly-owned subsidiary called Fly Doncaster and secured Munich Airport International as its strategic partner to support the re-establishment of operations there over a number of years. The site would be leased from region needs the jobs that the airport could provide but what would the cost be, both financially and environmentally?That's a huge decision to take for Doncaster. And the city will be doing it at a time when the council is, perhaps, at its most mayoral system that Doncaster uses is meant to be getting scrapped by the government in the next few years. By then though, these decisions will be made. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
BBC News
30-04-2025
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The issues facing Doncaster as city prepares for mayoral election
I'd just pressed record – to film a shot of Doncaster Markets – when I spotted that the "Doncaster" sign actually said "O CASTER".Somewhere along the line DN had lost its D and N – and for people living within that postcode, Thursday will mark a chance for them to deliver their own letter; an X next to the name of the person they want to be the new what will the new mayor have to do?Their brief ranges from the big decisions that are getting all the attention and the other big decisions that don't get as much coverage. Often a big shiny thing dominates an election campaign and as I write this I am looking at sun is bouncing off the terminal at Doncaster Sheffield Airport, catching the wave design on its roof. There is no need to fly anywhere today. Finningley is warmer than Fuerteventura – but of course you can't go anywhere from here modular terminal opened in 2005 with room and plans for more of them either side if things went well. Seventeen years later, the site is quiet. Peel closed the airport in 2022 and said it wasn't viable anymore. 800 jobs were lost, and that's just the ones directly at the the booklets sent out to all voters here, not one of the 12 candidates comes out as against the airport's planned is a huge decision and potentially a huge gamble. £100m of public money has been put up to try and get flights out of here again. The promise of jobs is also up against environmental concerns about opening a new a plan that will be decided on in the summer – a big moment for a the airport is easier to talk about because it's such a big thing. It would be a tangible success story for a mayor to reopen – but it would also be a key point of scrutiny for them. Are the public getting value for money?Some of the other issues a mayor needs to address are arguably bigger – but perhaps are harder to quantify and sell to the public. 20% of people in Doncaster don't have any qualifications, the second highest rate in the might make you think education would be big topic for candidates, but there are scant mentions of it in their are lower here and there are more people out of work than on average. There are issues to sort out like there are in any northern city, but it doesn't feel like the candidates are talking about it much, if at all.I was at Radio Sheffield's debate last week. Of the seven candidates invited only three turned feels like there has been low engagement so far from candidates. What will that means for voters where turnout has not broken past 30% in the last two polls?Having a mayor in Doncaster was part experiment, part solution. Directly elected mayors were a Labour idea, faster decisions made by one person rather than by committee. Worries about too much power in one person's hands were assuaged by the bruising the town took during Donnygate, a scandal in which 20 former councillors were found guilty of expenses a mayor was meant to draw a line under that but it didn't stop the council making of fallings out between mayors, councillors and chief executives were overshadowed by a failing of the town's children's services. Seven deaths of vulnerable children saw the government step in to run the council. Three of the cases found that social workers had missed chances to has had a mayor in charge of its council for 23 years. It's now a city that has three mayors; civic, city and South places that went with the idea of directly elected mayors two decades ago have ditched it over the last few will elect another one on Thursday and whatever they focus on, it is an enormous job. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
Scottish Sun
24-04-2025
- Scottish Sun
Closed UK airport reveals new reopening plans with first direct train station for passengers
Plus, the other recent announcements about the airport UP & AWAY Closed UK airport reveals new reopening plans with first direct train station for passengers Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A MAJOR new UK airport reopening next year has released plans for new rail links connecting the north and Midlands to the airport. Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) was forced to close in 2022 over financial concerns. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 Doncaster Sheffield Airport has revealed plans for rail links to the airport Credit: Doncaster Free Press 4 The proposed rail links will connect Lincoln and the Midlands to the airport Credit: Wikipedia 4 The airport has been closed since 2022 Credit: Getty However, the airport recently got the green light to reopen in 2026 following £30million in investment. The City of Doncaster Council mayor, Ros Jones has announced the masterplan for Doncaster Sheffield Airport, with proposals for a rail link. Taking to social media, the mayor said: "We are working on an updated masterplan for what the airport alongside Gateway East could look like once fully developed. "[T]his also includes land allocated for a rail link and station to connect with both the Lincoln Line and East Coast Mainline (ECML), which would dramatically increase access for the region and beyond to our airport." The council is currently in conversation with the UK government and SYMCA around future transport investment. This includes plans for DSA rail link to both the Lincoln Line and ECML, as well as other schemes across Doncaster. Ros added: "The first step is of course to reopen our airport, then we can invest to improve connectivity and deliver the successful international airport that we know DSA can be!" In 2022, under the previous government, £30million of City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) funding was announced for a rail link to the Lincoln Line. In total, a rail link to both the Lincoln Line and ECML is estimated to cost £1billion. Earlier this month, the government backed plans to reopen Doncaster Sheffield Airport with £30million in funding. I went to the world's best airport with a huge new terminal - and found tropical gardens & even an indoor swimming pool The airport is predicted to boost the economy by £5billion and contribute £2billion to wider benefits, by 2050. It has sat unused since 2022, which is when it closed. One airline that could relaunch flights from the airport is TUI, as it operated the last flight from Doncaster Sheffield Airport. A spokesperson for the airline said: "TUI has always supported Doncaster Sheffield Airport, proudly flying customers from the region and were disappointed when the airport closed." They added that they were "excited about actively engaging with stakeholders about a potential re-opening". The airport also used to fly to destination like Berlin, Dubrovnik, Paris, Alicante, and Majorca. The airport has also revealed plans for five airlines to launch flights ahead of reopening next year. And it could relaunch popular and cheap routes.
