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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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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Keystone Law—Milena Szuniewicz-Wenzel & Ian Hopkinson

Keystone Law—Milena Szuniewicz-Wenzel & Ian Hopkinson

International arbitration team strengthened by double partner hire

Coodes Solicitors—Pam Johns, Rachel Pearce & Bradley Kaine

Coodes Solicitors—Pam Johns, Rachel Pearce & Bradley Kaine

Firm celebrates trio holding senior regional law society and junior lawyers division roles

Michelman Robinson—Sukhi Kaler

Michelman Robinson—Sukhi Kaler

Partner joins commercial and business litigation team in London

NEWS
The government has pledged to ‘move fast’ to protect children from harm caused by artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, and could impose limits on social media as early as the summer
All eyes will be on the Court of Appeal (or its YouTube livestream) next week as it sits to consider the controversial Mazur judgment
An NHS Foundation Trust breached a consultant’s contract by delegating an investigation into his knowledge of nurse Lucy Letby’s case
Draft guidance for schools on how to support gender-questioning pupils provides ‘more clarity’, but headteachers may still need legal advice, an education lawyer has said
Litigation funder Innsworth Capital, which funded behemoth opt-out action Merricks v Mastercard, can bring a judicial review, the High Court ruled last week
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