Reform UK threatens to suspend support for Doncaster Sheffield Airport after lease leak
Doncaster Council has been accused of 'withholding information' over the airport - and plans for thousands of new homes nearby
Reform UK Doncaster has threatened to suspend its support for efforts to reopen Doncaster Sheffield Airport if the Mayor and City of Doncaster Council continue to “withhold information”, after clauses in the authority’s lease with the landowners were revealed in a damning leak.
The threat, made by branch chairman Irwen Martin, recently re-instated after resigning in November 2025, comes after the Yorkshire Post published the details of a secret agreement between Peel, the airport landowners, and Doncaster Council in their lease for the airport.
The lease, which has been obtained by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), contains termination clauses relating to planning applications Peel had submitted to the local planning authority.
One clause is related to an application for 1,200 houses near to DSA. This application was approved by the Doncaster planning committee in November 2025, with councillors on the panel following officer advice to approve the plans – which were acceptable in planning law.
The committee also approved another application on the same site for 1,400 homes, which contravened the authority’s agreed local plan, by circumventing a requirement for job creation at DSA to the building of housing.
Councillor Steve Cox, a senior Conservative member on the committee, was unable to vote on the 1,400 home application, after publicly expressing his opposition to what he said was a “back door” amendment to the local plan.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by the members of planning committee in approving the applications as they were not to know about the clauses in the airport lease.
The approval of both applications was entirely legal and consistent with planning law, however, Reform UK Doncaster have said the revelation of the termination clauses raises further questions about transparency around the project.
The committee meeting where both of these applications were approved were attended by Debbie Hogg, executive director for corporate resources at Doncaster Council, and Christian Foster, director of Fly Doncaster Ltd – the council’s arms-length company to run DSA.
Both Ms Hogg and Mr Foster will be members of Fly Doncaster Ltd’s board of directors and have been integral to reopening efforts so far. Ms Hogg’s position on this board, as well as the council chief executive Damian Allen’s, has previously been raised by external auditors Grant Thornton as a “conflict of interest” concern – which the council previously revealed it was taking advice over.
It is unusual for executive directors to attend planning committee meetings.
Mr Martin said: “Doncaster people have been promised transparency and straight answers about the future of our airport. Instead, we are seeing secrecy, closed-door decisions, and information that appears to have been kept from public scrutiny.
“If documents exist that are relevant to the airport’s future, its finances, its liabilities, or its legal position, then they should have been disclosed openly and promptly. The public are entitled to know the truth, and councillors are entitled to see the full facts before being asked to sign off any spending.”
He added: “We support the reopening of Doncaster Sheffield Airport — but support does not mean writing a blank cheque, and it certainly does not mean accepting secrecy from Labour.
“If the Labour Mayor continues to withhold information, we may have no option but to call for the suspension of all financial dealings connected to the airport until full disclosure is provided and proper scrutiny can take place.”
Due to the council’s directly elected mayor system, Reform UK does not have the power to suspend financial commitments already agreed, such as the £57million loan approved in November 2025.
The party also cannot affect the £160m approved by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority in September 2025.
A spokesperson for the Mayor of Doncaster, Labour’s Ros Jones, declined to comment for this article, but said Mayor Jones would be responding in a statement at full council on January 22, 2026.
A spokesperson for Doncaster Council said: “Whilst we do not comment on apparently leaked documents, what we will say in general is that any clauses in a lease or legal document are advised upon by our legal representatives and follow due diligence.
“Planning matters are governed by and overseen by a quasi-judicial committee which will determine any planning applications on planning law and separate to any other council business. Planning applications are discussed on their individual merits and subject to scrutiny at several levels.”
The LDRS has approached the Peel Group for comment.