Doncaster Sheffield Airport Could Permanently Close

[ECCOnoob]

8 hours ago, Anna B said:

The fact is, that compared to London and the South East, the North of England is poor. Profoundly so in some areas.

Therefore without help, and investment it is going to continue to go down hill, until it reaches third world status. If Northerners don't have money to spend nothing is going to thrive. What is the point of outsiders investing?  What do we produce these days?  We are now a 'service' economy. The only thing we're not short of is cheap labour.

 

A  quick trip to Hoyland, South Barnsley, will give you a glimpse of the future; Massive warehouses and distribution centres as far as the eye can see. Low paid workers and insecure employment. Is this supposed to be levelling up? 

 

I'm reminded of the 'Hunger Games' - the elite living in luxury in the capital, and everyone else scraping a living in the provinces. We very much need a Northern Assembly/ government fighting our corner for a decent slice of the cake rather than the crumbs...

Let's clear up some of these assumptions you have made about places like Hoyland.   A quick look at the current property market shows that the average house price listing for that post code is over £252,000. So they clearly can't all be downtrodden, overlooked, 0 hours, menial workers living there. 

 

As for your comments about warehousing, You make it sound like the decision to invest is some deliberate token gesture to us simple northerners. How about looking at the bigger picture and the fact there is a masses of flat empty land in the mavers valley which makes it the perfect place to put warehousing. They are certainly not going to stick it in the middle of a Peak District are they?     There are other similar distribution parks across the country north south east and west. So can we stop with the picking on us mentality.

 

How about the obvious fact that despite your rose tinted pipedreams, we don't manufacture in this country anymore because British consumers (like many parts of the Western world) are not prepared to pay for it. When it is far cheaper getting labour abroad on pennies a day to make our goods - we are quite happy to sit back and just buy them online. Something which of course in turn causes a rampant rise in the amount of online order processing,  distribution and delivery services which requires even more (......you guessed it) warehousing.   Do you not see the correlation there.  Do you not think for a minute that we the people may have been a contributing factor to such circumstances well beyond simply blaming the government.

 

Furthermore, despite your obviously snobbish attitude to such facilities, they do provide great job opportunities to those who would otherwise be out of work and their presence can have other secondary effects on the development of the wider community. Come the warehouses, come the housing projects, come with commercial developments, come the retail parks, come the service areas, come the brands and food vendors.... all of which bring money and even more jobs to an area.  Some of those operations will of course require far more than just the shop floor staff. Wherever there is staff there will  be managers who require administration workers.  That high tech distribution equipment requires Mechanical Engineers who work under the authority of operations managers, controlled by the various facilities directors and all powered by systems programmed by various computer technicians....... none of which will be paid anything like what you deem a derisory minimum wage.

 

We then also have the fact that Hoyland  is conveniently placed in the middle of the commuter belt with easy access to motorways and short drives into either Barnsley, Doncaster or Sheffield with a multitude of other types of job opportunities for those who wish to do so.

 

Now even putting all that aside, the fact is that if there is to be investment in the North it needs to be something that has a genuine viability. A failing tourist airport running charter flights a few times a year for bargain hunting sun worshippers does not necessarily make for guaranteed longevity nor benefits the wider community.

 

Not everything is some Tory conspiracy. It's business.

 

Yes of course compared to London we are poorer in comparison but that's because its the capital city. It is the same across the world. Wherever the centre of political,  broadcasting, commerce and financial is located its going to receive more investment.   Add on there is nearly 4 million more people living there than the entire population of the County of Yorkshire as another factor

 

However im certainly not accepting your blanket application that deems everything north of Watford Gap poor and destitute. Sheffield Hallam ring any bells?? What about some of the areas of Leeds or Manchester and the massive investments in Salford, the Rural parts of North Yorkshire with properties in the millions, the Footballers Wives Valley all over Cheshire.....   equally take look down south.   Look at some of their poor towns which are all within the commuter belt of London. Look at how run down they are. Look at some of their employment issues.  It's not all so wonderful and glorious  streets paved with gold just because they have a regular service from Waterloo or Liverpool Street

Edited July 20, 2022 by ECCOnoob

[Man in Crete]

I would also add that much of the money for the Hoyland developments came in the form of eu grants. But…. Many of the operators demanded cheap labour hence some even set up HR recruitment specialists in Poland. Locals then were left out so when all this cheap labour arrived local councils housed them in front of locals even to the extent that children were allocated local schools whilst residents kids traveled long distances out of area

hopefully that’s in the past amd jobs are given more to locals who receive the right pay for the job? Who knows ?

[Anna B]

23 hours ago, LovePotion said:

Small airports never work as they don't have the infrastructure to attract the big boy airlines and because footfall is so low, retail rental demand is sparce. 

My plan would be to expand it into a Northern hub equal to Heathrow.

'Build it and they will come.'

At the moment the emphasis is entirely in the South East, and industry and inward investment follows. But there's a whole country to serve thats crying out for investment north of Watforg Gap. With good transport links in the North that's much more likely to happen. 

Crikey, you can't even guarantee getting over the Pennines to Manchester in Winter. What good is that?

[Anna B]

Closing down Doncaster/Sheffield airport doesn't sound like 'levelling up' to me. 

Rather the opposite as usual.

[HeHasRisen]

21 minutes ago, Anna B said:

My plan would be to expand it into a Northern hub equal to Heathrow.

'Build it and they will come.'

 

Ah so you mean like a slightly bigger Manchester Airport then? 

 

Be easier just to do that with the double runway capacity.  No matter where you build it in the north some people will moan about having to go over the Pennines to access it, that is an inescapable fact.

17 minutes ago, Anna B said:

Closing down Doncaster/Sheffield airport doesn't sound like 'levelling up' to me. 

Rather the opposite as usual.

Are you suggesting the Government should be throwing money to prop up a failing airport? Cant see in this case what good it would actually do.

[Anna B]

South Yorkshire Mayor is being advised to take  Doncaster/Sheffield  Airport into public ownership by none less than Grant Schaps.

 

,This  is what they did with Newcastle Airport apparently when it was threatened. And it's gone from strrength to strength.  

 

Let's see if he can buy it for a quid which is what the council got for Sheffield airport.... 

Edited July 20, 2022 by Anna B

[HeHasRisen]

I would wager Newcastle Airport had more than a handful a flights a day when this happened, DSA is seemingly a lost cause with nobody wanting to base planes there other than the one TUI one there now.

 

Add to that how many other significant international airports other than NCL are within an hours drive of Newcastle?  Another reason why it had money thrown at it. On a good day people from Sheffield can get to THREE other international airports within 60-70 mins with a decent array of flights. The business case for saving it with public money is weak, dont get me wrong its a cracking little airport but you cant save things just for the sake of it.

Edited July 20, 2022 by HeHasRisen

[Guest busdriver1]

58 minutes ago, Anna B said:

South Yorkshire Mayor is being advised to take  Doncaster/Sheffield  Airport into public ownership by none less than Grant Schaps.

 

,This  is what they did with Newcastle Airport apparently when it was threatened. And it's gone from strrength to strength.  

 

Let's see if he can buy it for a quid which is what the council got for Sheffield airport.... 

It was Teesside airport, another lost cause. The flights have doubled since it was taken over but is still losing money hand over fist.

[crookesey]

Please correct me if I’m wrong, I’m surmising that D/S Airport serves mainly the package holiday trade. I reckon that business travel with carry on baggage is the way forward, but if they don’t go looking for this business it’s unlikely to go looking for them.

[sedith]

1 hour ago, busdriver1 said:

It was Teesside airport, another lost cause. The flights have doubled since it was taken over but is still losing money hand over fist.

If DSA is losing money, it has to go unfortunately. If Peel can't make it work, what is the case of South Yorkshire making a go of it?