Sheffield airport to close

[John]

Sorry if this is a repost

http://www.thestar.co.uk/headlines/Airp ... 3758371.jp

Kind regards

John

[Garry Russell]

It's a shame......

I seem to remember a while back it was to close but then was saved..in part anyways.

But as so often the case good things are not given the support they deserve :-(

Garry

[Hot_Charlie]

Well done Peel Holdings. Obviously they identified the naivity of the council early and brokered themselves a ridiculously good deal (on the assumption the airport closed).

If only such shrewd business-minded people worked in government...

[DaveB]

What a cracking deal. Prove the airport isn't commercially viable and you can have the £440m land for a pound. Yeh, sure. We'll do our best to make it succeed :o

Laugh.. I bet Peel Holdings haven't been able to keep a straight face and who can blame em. Ludicrous or what! :roll:

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Mickey D]

Once RAF Finningley re-opened as Robin Hood Airport Sheffield's days were numbered anyway. It'll probably happen to Humberside too once RHA get's it's motorway link. There just isn't the need for three airports within such a small radius.

[markw]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the airport was a politically inspired planning gain imposed as a sop to allow the opencasting and "land reclamation" in the Tinsley-Don Valley area, and that the people who were doing the job (RF Budge if I recall) wriggled and tried to get out of it as being unnecessary (in fact there's a reference in Hansard, 16/5/95, to questions raised in Parliament about the ongoing delay in building the airport after the opencasting had taken place). It wasn't helped by one or other of the Budge firms going mammaries-up. The idea was first mooted about the time of London City being built when there was an over-optimistic view that City STOL airports would be the next big thing. Sheffield had always felt it deserved a passenger airport of it's own despite being within striking distance of LBA and EMA, and because no one wanted the opencasting in Tinsley which was being promoted as the best way to reclaim the old industrial contaminated sites on it, some sort of deal was stitched up by the then Development Corporation who had taken over planning and regenration functions from the City Council and were directly appointed by the then Conservative government. I'm fairly sure British Coal eventually built the runway (or at least paid for it) and it was handed over to a private firm to develop and run it, again run by one of the Budge brothers. As I understand it it has never had any Council involvement or funding. Eventually when the assets of the Development Corporation were handed back to the City, that's when (I think) it was sold to Peel, so again I'm pretty sure no council taxpayer's money has ever gone into the airport

Unfortunately it looks like the original view that the airport was not needed proved correct, it was always too small for any sensible commercial operations especially when the low cost airlines started to change the short and medium hall market, plus the unforseen (at the time) conversion of RAF Finningley into the laughably named Robin Hood International which has done surprisingly well on the back of lo-co operation has effectively stifled any chance for the airport to grow. I also don't think the local economy is of the type to support any extensive business aviation base at Sheffield, so it was probably always doomed.

To be honest, sad as it seems I think a business park and jobs are of more use to the locals and the economy than the airport, the air travel market has changed dramatically since the early 90's when the airport was thought of and Sheffield doesn't have the high-rolling Canary Wharf types on it's doorstep to make it the success that LCY became.

A classic case of all the wrong things happening for all the right reasons and also a good example of how not to procure such infrastructure.

[markw]

Well done Peel Holdings. Obviously they identified the naivity of the council early and brokered themselves a ridiculously good deal (on the assumption the airport closed).

If only such shrewd business-minded people worked in government...

Actually the Development Corporation who procured the airport was run on a business model mainly by people from business appointed by the Government using Government money to kick-start development and streamline the planning process by ignoring local consultation processes and by-passing the Council, so if the airport was a white elephant, it's not entirely political white elephant, some proper business people thought it was a good idea as well.

To be honest I think giving the airport away for £1 is the best deal for the City as the airport was built using private money and was always run by private business. Although the land as I understand it was originally in the ownership of the Development Corporation, and would later be handed over to the City when the Corporation was wound up, from what I remember the airport has never been directly managed by the City and so in effect they were gifted land that had been compulsorily purchased by the Corporation (and would not necessarily have been in the City's ownership before), and an airport that was never going to make any money. Therefore it's a far better deal to flog off something they got for free, had never owned or paid money for, for a quid, not have any future liabilities for an airport of limited use, and instead get a developer to put their own money into creating jobs and businesses which will pay business rates to the City and employ locals.

In effect they've got a quid for something that cost them nothing to acquire but potentially could have had some serious liabilities in the future. That sounds like a good deal to me.