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8.1
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It was moved by Councillor Robert Murphy, and
seconded by Councillor Douglas Johnson, that this Council:-
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(a)
notes that the Mayor of Sheffield City Region has submitted
proposals to build a £250 million East Coast Main Line
railway station at Doncaster/Sheffield Airport;
(b)
notes that the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority has
recently part funded the £66.5 million new road between the
M18 and Doncaster/Sheffield Airport;
(c) notes that the
second phase of the road, which in effect is an access road for a
private business, cost £10.55 million and included £9.1
million from Sheffield City Region with the balance paid by
Doncaster Council;
(d)
notes The Peel Group obtained the freehold of the Sheffield City
Airport site for the price of £1, and then closed the airport
and built a business park;
(e)
notes that the Doncaster/Sheffield Airport site also benefits from
Government tax incentives through its Enterprise Zone and has
already benefitted from millions of pounds in grants;
(f) notes the
criticism made by the then Chair of the Public Accounts Committee,
the Rt. Hon. Dame Margaret Hodge MP, who said "The most profitable
parts of the Peel Group are managing to pay no UK corporation
tax” and that “They do not pay their fair share of
tax.”;
(g)
believes the main beneficiaries of these investments are property
developers in the area, including Harworth Group and the owners of
Doncaster/Sheffield Airport (Peel Airports Ltd., part of The Peel
Group);
(h)
believes that the priority for rail passengers in Sheffield, the
surrounding area, and travellers on our congested transport
networks, is improvements to current services and investment in
local routes;
(i) believes
numerous local improvements offer more direct benefits to regional
travellers than a new link to the airport, for example, the
reopening of stations such as Heeley, Millhouses and lines such as Sheffield Victoria to
Stocksbridge; a direct connection
between Doncaster and Barnsley; and improvements to cross-Pennine
routes;
(j) believes
any further investment in links to Doncaster/Sheffield Airport
should be made by the private sector; and
(k) requests that a copy of this motion be forwarded to
the Sheffield City Region Mayor and the Minister of State for
Transport.
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8.2
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Whereupon, it was moved by Councillor Jack
Scott, seconded by Councillor Mohammad Maroof, as an amendment,
that the Motion now submitted be amended by the deletion of all the
words after the words “That this Council” and the
addition of the following words:-
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(a) welcomes the recent
news that Doncaster Sheffield Airport has been named the best in
the UK following a survey of passengers;
(b) believes the
development and future growth of the Airport represents an economic
opportunity for the region and could lead to the development of
significant job and business growth and improved local and national
transport connectivity;
(c) notes that
phase two of the Finningley and
Rossington Regeneration Route Scheme
will play a significant role in supporting the development of the
Airport as well as supporting other economic opportunities in the
area such as the inventive and job creating iPort;
(d) welcomes that phase
one has been a catalyst for business expansion of the Airport with
55% passenger growth over the past two years, making it one of the
fasting growing airports in the UK;
(e) notes that the Great
Yorkshire Way has helped to create over 400 new jobs at the Airport
itself and many more with over 100 businesses occupying another
half a million square feet of space there;
(f) notes that the
road scheme has also opened the door to major housing projects and
the wider regeneration of the local community;
(g) welcomes the comments from the Mayor of Doncaster:
“We always said Great Yorkshire Way was the route to jobs and
growth. The pace and scale of private sector development delivered
as a result of this new road in just two years is quite remarkable.
We must remember that none of this existed a couple of years ago. The impact on our
economy and the wider region is simply startling. Hundreds of
millions of pounds worth of private sector investment has come into
Doncaster, over 1,400 new jobs have so far been created and
hundreds of new homes have been built”;
(h) notes the
overwhelming evidence illustrating the disparity in transport
spending between the north and the south of England and supports
the growing campaign across the north of England to get a fairer
transport settlement for the North of England;
(i) is
astounded that, instead of campaigning for a fairer settlement for
the north of England, the Green Party are calling on the removal of
economic development projects in the region, such as HS2, and
believes it should not be an ‘either/or’ situation in
improving transport infrastructure and connections for Doncaster
Sheffield Airport or funding the development of an improved local
transport network in the region;
(j) welcomes
that the people of South Yorkshire overwhelmingly rejected what
this Council regards as the anti-jobs Green Party candidate in the
recent Sheffield City Region mayoral election and instead elected
Mayor Dan Jarvis to secure the transport investment and economic
growth the region needs, including supporting the implementation of
the 2015 Sheffield City Region deal; and
(k) believes that all companies should pay their fair
share of tax and believes that a more effective means of tackling
tax avoidance would be pursued under a Labour government than under
the current government and previous coalition government.
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8.2.1
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(NOTE: With the
agreement of the Council and at the request of the mover of the
amendment (Councillor Jack Scott), the amendment as
circulated at the meeting was altered by the insertion of
the words “such as HS2”between the words “in the
region” and “and believes” in paragraph
(i).)
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8.3
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It was then moved by Councillor Ian Auckland,
seconded by Councillor Mohammed Mahroof, as an amendment, that the
Motion now submitted be amended by the deletion of all the words
after the words “That this Council” and the addition of
the following words:-
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(a) notes the ongoing
development of Doncaster/Sheffield Airport, a great example of
“swords into ploughshares” giving Sheffield, South
Yorkshire and the wider City Region an airport with world class
potential, and offering Sheffielders
easy access to a range of popular holiday destinations;
(b) congratulates the Airport on being voted as the
‘UKs Favourite Airport’ in a customer satisfaction
survey by Saga and ‘Best UK Airport’ for the second
time running in a survey by Which? magazine;
(c) further notes Which? Magazine comments “that
with its ambitions to expand, Doncaster Sheffield could soon become
the go-to airport for holidaymakers in the North if it can maintain
its high standard.”;
(d) notes that long term
infrastructure improvements have timescales which often well exceed
political and administrative cycles;
(e) notes and deplores
the fact that the UK remains an overcentralized state, especially
so in England, and so, irrespective of political differences, local
government, including Sheffield, often must adopt a pragmatic
approach to secure the delivery of much needed improvements to the
local economy;
(f) believes that
Sheffield needs to be better connected, within local communities in
Sheffield, within the City Region, and more widely, including
internationally by air transportation;
(g) notes that the real
issue of concern is the long term transport funding injustice
between London and the South East, and the “North”;
(h) re-affirms concern
at the failure of the Labour Leaders in South Yorkshire and the
Labour administration of this Council to unlock long-term funding
of £30 million per annum over 30 years (£900 million in
total), by means of the City Region Devolution deal, in contrast to
the support given to the development of the Airport; and
(i)
requests that a copy of this motion be
forwarded to the Sheffield City Region Mayor and the Minister of
State for Transport.
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8.4
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It was then formally moved by Councillor
Douglas Johnson, and seconded by Councillor Alison Teal, as an
amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by the addition
of new paragraphs (l) to (o) as follows:-
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(l) notes
that the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority Transport
Committee was wound up and has not met since 8th May 2017;
(m) notes that this Committee
was previously cross party, held meetings in public and was
webcast;
(n) believes it is
important that major decisions, such as support for the proposed
airport link, are transparent and open to effective scrutiny in
public; and
(o) asks for the Leader of the Council to use her place
on the Combined Authority to push for greater transparency and
scrutiny through the revival of the Transport Committee.
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8.5
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It was then moved by Councillor John Booker,
and formally seconded by Councillor Keith Davis, as an amendment,
that the Motion now submitted be amended by the addition of new
paragraphs (l) to (v) as follows:-
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(l) believes that
a commercially viable, fully operational airport in Sheffield would
be an enormous asset for the city;
(m) notes that Sheffield City
Airport was built as a CAP168 code 2C airport as per the agreement
between The Sheffield Development Corporation (SDC), Glenlivet Ltd and Tinsley Park Ltd, dated 27th
October 1995 and subsequent lease of August 1997; and that the
definition of "Airport" for the purposes of the agreement is laid
out in Article 106 of the Air Navigation Order of 1989 and is
consistent with the definition as originally laid out in clause
1.17 of the agreement between SDC and British Steel
Corporation;
(n) further notes that in
1997, Sheffield City Airport opened as a CAT 5, code 2C airport,
which means it should have had, and maintained, all the facilities
needed to cope with an aircraft capable of carrying up to 115
passengers;
(o) also notes that the
Airport started commercial services some three years earlier than
originally planned, with the successful introduction on 16th
February 1998, of KLM's three times daily Amsterdam service, which
was an instant success, with KLM saying it was their best start-up
service ever, and that services followed to Jersey, London, Dublin,
Belfast and Brussels and in 1998, 75,157 passengers passed through
its terminal;
(p) recognises that Sheffield
Development Corporation estimated it would take at least seven
years after opening before the airport would make any return on
capital, and that this fact was well known and, indeed, as early as
1990, had been referred to by the SDC;
(q) is interested to know how
Peel Holdings and the airport operator, just eight weeks after them
acquiring one half share of the Airport, were allowed to start
downgrading it; for example (i) at the
end of September 2001 they reduced airport Rescue and Fire Fighting
Services cover from a CAT 5 to a CAT 3, (ii) by the end of
September 2002 they reduced cover from CAT 3 to a CAT 1 and also
turned off the Instrument Landing System (ILS) and (iii) at the end
of August 2002 they started turning the terminal building into a
business centre (offices) without planning permission;
(r) regrets that all of
these actions were quite clearly contrary to the intention of the
lease, as well as Civil Aviation Authority legislation for a code
2C airport;
(s) places on
record that it is abundantly clear that the intention of the
lease/agreement was for an operational airport to be in existence
for at least "the reverter period", a
minimum of ten years from the date of opening;
(t) strongly
asserts that rules and regulations should be abided by, and the
closure of Sheffield City Airport was done in a most unsatisfactory
manner, causing Sheffield one of its worst civic lost
opportunities;
(u) further notes that
Sheffield City Airport closed to all traffic in 2008, and that an
area of eighty acres of prime development land, described as the
best site on the M1 corridor between Leeds and Leicester, was
transferred to Sheffield Business Parks Ltd, for a notional
£1.00, which has never been collected; and
(v) further regrets that the City has lost an airport
and has allowed Peel Holdings to profit from the land
developments.
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8.6
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Following a right of reply from Councillor
Robert Murphy, the amendment moved by Councillor Jack Scott, as
altered at the meeting, was put to the vote and was carried.
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8.6.1
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(NOTE: Councillors Simon Clement-Jones, Bob
Pullin, Richard Shaw, Mohammed Mahroof, Joe Otten, Colin Ross,
Martin Smith, Roger Davison, Sue Alston, Andrew Sangar, Cliff
Woodcraft, Ian Auckland, Sue Auckland, Steve Ayris, Gail Smith,
David Baker, Penny Baker, Vickie Priestley and Mike Levery voted
for paragraphs (a) to (i) of the
amendment and voted against paragraphs (j) and (k) of the
amendment, and asked for this to be recorded.)
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8.7
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The amendment moved by Councillor Ian Auckland
was then put to the vote and was negatived.
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8.8
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The amendment moved by Councillor Douglas
Johnson was then put to the vote and was also negatived.
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8.9
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The amendment moved by Councillor John Booker
was then put to the vote and was also negatived.
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8.9.1
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(NOTE: Councillors Kaltum
Rivers, Douglas Johnson, Robert Murphy, Martin Phipps and Alison
Teal voted for paragraphs (m) to (s) and (u) and (v) of the
amendment, and abstained from voting on paragraphs (l) and (t) of
the amendment, and asked for this to be recorded.)
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8.10
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The original Motion, as
amended, was then put as a Substantive Motion in the following form
and carried:-
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RESOLVED: That this
Council:-
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(a) welcomes the recent news that Doncaster Sheffield Airport has
been named the best in the UK following a survey of
passengers;
(b) believes the development and future growth of the Airport
represents an economic opportunity for the region and could lead to
the development of significant job and business growth and improved
local and national transport connectivity;
(c)
notes that phase two of the Finningley and Rossington Regeneration Route Scheme will play a
significant role in supporting the development of the Airport as
well as supporting other economic opportunities in the area such as
the inventive and job creating iPort;
(d) welcomes that phase one has been a catalyst for business
expansion of the Airport with 55% passenger growth over the past
two years, making it one of the fasting growing airports in the
UK;
(e) notes that the Great Yorkshire Way has helped to create over 400
new jobs at the Airport itself and many more with over 100
businesses occupying another half a million square feet of space
there;
(f)
notes that the road scheme has also opened the door
to major housing projects and the wider regeneration of the local
community;
(g) welcomes the
comments from the Mayor of Doncaster: “We always said Great
Yorkshire Way was the route to jobs and growth. The pace and scale
of private sector development delivered as a result of this new
road in just two years is quite remarkable. We must remember that
none of this existed a couple of years
ago. The impact on our economy and the wider region is simply
startling. Hundreds of millions of pounds worth of private sector
investment has come into Doncaster, over 1,400 new jobs have so far
been created and hundreds of new homes have been
built”;
(h) notes the overwhelming evidence illustrating the disparity in
transport spending between the north and the south of England and
supports the growing campaign across the north of England to get a
fairer transport settlement for the North of
England;
(i)
is astounded that, instead of campaigning for a
fairer settlement for the north of England, the Green Party are
calling on the removal of economic development projects in the
region, such as HS2, and believes it should not be an
‘either/or’ situation in improving transport
infrastructure and connections for Doncaster Sheffield Airport or
funding the development of an improved local transport network in
the region;
(j)
welcomes that the people of South Yorkshire
overwhelmingly rejected what this Council regards as the anti-jobs
Green Party candidate in the recent Sheffield City Region mayoral
election and instead elected Mayor Dan Jarvis to secure the
transport investment and economic growth the region needs,
including supporting the implementation of the 2015 Sheffield City
Region deal; and
(k)
believes
that all companies should pay their fair share of
tax and believes that a more effective means of tackling tax
avoidance would be pursued under a Labour government than under the
current government and previous coalition
government.
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8.10.1
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(NOTE: 1. Councillors Simon
Clement-Jones, Bob Pullin, Richard Shaw, Mohammed Mahroof, Joe
Otten, Colin Ross, Martin Smith, Roger Davison, Sue Alston, Andrew
Sangar, Cliff Woodcraft, Ian Auckland, Sue Auckland, Steve Ayris,
Gail Smith, David Baker, Penny Baker, Vickie Priestley and Mike
Levery voted for paragraphs (a) to (i)
of the Substantive Motion and voted against paragraphs (j) and (k)
of the Substantive Motion, and asked for this to be recorded;
and
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2. Councillors Kaltum Rivers,
Douglas Johnson, Robert Murphy, Martin Phipps and Alison Teal voted
for paragraph (h) of the Substantive Motion and abstained from
voting on paragraphs (a) to (g) and (i)
to (k) of the Substantive Motion, and asked for this to be
recorded.)
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