By Oliver Clark.

Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield Airport could benefit from millions of pounds of UK government aid - if it is transformed into an 'Enterprise Zone'.

The potential windfall would come in the shape of incentives to draw companies to its business park.

The bid to transform the gateway into an Enterprise Zone has been proposed by Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

And now Doncaster Council is urging LEP to formerly endorse its plan to establish a zone at the airport's 62-acre business park, in the hope it will encourage the growth of Sheffield's specialist manufacturing sector and "catalyse the economy said Daniel Fell head of policy at Doncaster Chamber, which worked with Doncaster Council to submit the bid.

 "We are looking at Robin Hood Airport as one of these sites, I guess it will be linked closely to Sheffield's advanced manufacturing sector, with the airport as an enabler," he said.

"We have one of the longest and widest runways in the UK at Robin Hood and linking that to an enterprise zone would be an attractive proposition," he added.

Fell said the submission follows a decision to relax planning restrictions at the airport business park, which stated only aviation related companies could receive tax incentives in order to prevent an exodus of business from Sheffield itself.

While the precise details were still to be agreed on, Fell said the aviation centric airport business park would probably be made more "generic" if it won the bid and would be influenced by the example of Manchester Airport, which announced the launch of its airport city plan on the back on becoming an Enterprise Zone.

Sheffield was one of 11 regions to be named in the March budget as a prospective enterprise Zone and since then the LEP has received a number of submissions for where the zones should be sited from interested parties.

According to guidelines set down by Sheffield City Region, the enterprise zones should be around 50-150 hectares

Peter Nears, Strategic Planning Director at Peel, which operates Robin Hood Airport said, "The Government has asked Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership submit proposals for an Enterprise Zone. The Local Enterprise Partnership has then in turn asked the constituent Councils for their ideas, which the LEP will then consider."

Peel has discussed the potential for an Enterprise Zone at the Airport Business Park with Doncaster Council who will then discuss this with the LEP. The LEP will decide which sites to put forward to the Government."