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17 February 2023 / Nicholas Dobson
Issue: 8013 / Categories: Features , Public , Judicial review , Local government
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Doncaster Airport: grounded… for now?

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Nicholas Dobson reports on the closure of Doncaster Airport & an unsuccessful application for judicial review
  • An application for judicial review of Doncaster Airport’s decision to close because of a fundamental lack of financial viability failed to cross the threshold of arguability with a realistic prospect of success.

Life can be hard, and you can’t get blood out of a stone. Even a Rolling Stone. For as they once sang: ‘You can’t always get what you want.’ The Common Man in Robert Bolt’s 1960 play, A Man for All Seasons, certainly recognised this, telling the audience: ‘I wish we could all have good luck, all the time! I wish we had wings! I wish rainwater was beer! But it isn’t!’ So while a nice-to-have is, of course, nice to have, it doesn’t necessarily mean you can have it. And this unfortunately applied to Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA), an important local and regional strategic asset.

The background

The Peel Group (TPG), owners of DSA, had since 2005 been

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