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Highlands MSP condemns air traffic control move


By Tom Ramage

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Labour MSP Rhoda Grant has condemned the announcement that plans to centralise air traffic control in the Highlands and Islands will go ahead in the face of fierce opposition from local communities, the Prospect Union and a cross-section of MSPs.

Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd has announced that air traffic control for five Scottish regional airports will be undertaken centrally from Inverness.

Rhoda Grant MSP
Rhoda Grant MSP

The airports involved are Sumburgh, Dundee, Inverness, Kirkwall and Stornoway.

HIAL said the change will modernise air traffic control but the Prospect Union say the plan puts 60 jobs at risk and described it as "poorly thought through".

It will rely on remote towers, which will not need to be staffed, feeding information to a new surveillance centre in Inverness.

The Highlands MSP said “From the day these proposals were first aired in 2017 I have received representation from local communities who are desperate to maintain the current system for safety reasons and to protect island jobs.

“I have been told that this project relies on super-high bandwith to succeed. We all know that many of our remote and rural areas do not have this so how can HIAL press on regardless?

“The proposals to downgrade services at Wick and Benbecula are astounding given the localities have been earmarked as space ports.

"These decisions also fly in the face of the Scottish Government’s own recently published Islands Plan which seeks to protect and improve services and employment in island communities.

“HIAL appears to be intent on pushing this through despite its own consultants identifying the ‘remote tower’ model as the most costly and risky option.

“While this decision fits with the Scottish Government’s determination to centralise services out of local areas, it is an appalling decision and HIAL and the Scottish Government must stop these plans right now before remote air services are jeopardised and more local jobs are taken out of rural communities.”

Prospect, the union representing140,000 members including air traffic controllers, engineers, scientists, and managers pointed out today (Friday January 17): "No consultation has been entered into with local communities in the highlands and islands, local politicians or with HIAL’s customers, despite the highly controversial nature of the proposals.

"Our analysis suggests that moving air traffic control to Inverness will remove up to 60 skilled jobs and around £1.5m of direct employment from rural and island economies.

"This runs contrary to the intention of the government’s recently published Islands Plan. This is despite the fact that HIAL is owned by the Scottish Government. Prospect also fears that going down this route will reduce the safety and resilience of air traffic control across the Highlands by relying on a single centre and a single point of failure.

David Avery, Prospect negotiator, added: “The proposals to downgrade services at Wick and Benbecula are staggering. They fly against the government’s own recently published island plan which seeks to protect and improve services and employment in island communities.

"Within these small communities the loss of even a few jobs like this is the equivalent of losing several hundred jobs in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

“It is inconceivable that such far-reaching changes can be brought in with the paltry level of consultation and transparency we have seen. For a government-owned company to treat its workers, customers, and local communities in this way is absolutely staggering. Prospect will not stand by and allow HIAL to downgrade Scotland’s islands with this threat to their air services and their economy.

“At the same time as Prospect members were voting to accept a pay deal which included a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies, the HIAL board have decided to implement these changes which will inevitably lead to redundancies. Members will see this as a betrayal by the board.”

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