Monchengladbach has an airport a similar size to Sheffield "Heliport", it too is pretty much useless, previous scheduled service operator(s) have gone elsewhere and the people of Monchengladbach need to travel to DUS etc. if they want to fly anywhere.
So expensive petition(s) merely based on matters of principle aren't likely to bring scheduled air services of any worth back to the city and the people of Sheffield are still going to need to travel to other airports to fly anywhere.
It's just boys and their toys ... "They've got an airport so we want one too".