Decision on plans for 1,200 new homes near Doncaster-Sheffield Airport delayed
Peel submitted two differing applications for the same plot of land in Gateway East – a development neighbouring the airport.
Decisions on planning permission for two housing estates submitted by the Peel Group have been deferred.
Peel, the owners of the Doncaster Sheffield Airport site, submitted two differing applications for the same plot of land in Gateway East – the substantial development neighbouring the airport.
The applications went before the City of Doncaster Council’s planning committee on Tuesday afternoon (October 21, 2025), but were deferred by committee members following an extended debate.
Councillors spent over 90 minutes discussing the first of the two applications with council officials and the Peel Group, in which concerns about education provision and traffic and highways concerns became too much for members to make a decision.
The application, which proposed 1,200 homes for land off of Hurst Lane, included land for a single-form entry primary school to be built “if required”.
However, to the confusion of committee members, Doncaster Council’s Education department rejected the need for the school, instead asking Peel for an education contribution of around £6million to fund places at existing nearby schools.
Councillor Steve Cox told the meeting: “I’m confused why Education would say we don’t need another school, but we would like a contribution to a different school.”
His concerns were echoed by Cllrs Rob Dennis, Bob Anderson and Chris Kidger, with the quartet grilling officials on the decision for some time.
Staff from the Education department informed the committee it was the government, namely the Department for Education’s, preference that a monetary contribution be secured instead.
They revealed the requirement for building the new school would be around double the contribution requested.
Unconvinced by the explanation, Cllr Anderson said: “It feels like we’re saying Doncaster is never going to get another school. It’s unacceptable.”
Additionally, discussion turned to the impact a potential 1,200 new homes would have on the local road network, with the M18 J3 mentioned numerous times.
The report to the committee said negotiations with National Highways, who had previously objected to developments near M18 due to J3’s poor capacity, saw Peel agree to contribute financially to upgrades when it comes around.
However, despite the efforts of officials to answer questions from the committee panel, members were still unconvinced.
When stand-in chair Cllr Neil Wood asked for a panel member to propose a vote to approve the plans, none of them raised their hand.
It prompted legal officers to suggest deferring the decision to a future date, as requested earlier in the meeting by Cllr Cox.
Members voted unanimously to defer the decision to November’s planning committee meeting. Legal advice then suggested that members do the same for Peel’s second application for the same site, which was agreed.
The second application from Peel is 1,400 homes on the same plot of land close to Doncaster Sheffield Airport. However, it has proven controversial with one member of the panel already.
In the report for the second application, it reads: “The site is allocated and identified for housing in the Local Plan, however the applicable policy contains a mechanism which links the development of housing to the delivery of jobs within the Airport Policy Area.
“This application proposes an approach which would technically not comply with this mechanism, however, there is a mitigation proposal, as the application instead seeks to tie the construction of housing to the delivery of infrastructure works on the adjacent allocated and approved employment site.”
In their second application, Peel seeks to develop the site differently to Doncaster Council’s agreed Local Plan.
During the debate on the first application, Cllr Cox: “The airport and this development are fully intertwined with them both being the same entity really.
“We should not be trying to sneak something through the backdoor by removing the employment conditions.”
In making the second part of his comment, Cllr Cox had prejudiced himself against the second application and will now not be able to vote on it when it returns to planning committee in November.
Both applications will come before planning committee again on November 18, 2025.