MSP demands straight talk from Highland airports operator over controversial air control plans
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Audit Scotland has been asked to examine controversial plans by Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL) to centralise its air traffic management system (ATMS) in Inverness.
The request from Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Rhoda Grant follows a third hearing before the Scottish Government’s petitions committee, has written to Audit Scotland asking them to examine HIAL’s contentious centralisation plans for Air Traffic Control.
A petition lodged by petitioners across the Highlands and Islands, including Benbecula Community Council in May 2020, is calling on the Scottish Government to halt HIALs Air Traffic Management Strategy Project until an independent assessment can be undertaken.
HIAL’s plans have provoked opposition since the proposal was announced in 2017, with objectors warning that high-paid jobs would be lost to economically vulnerable areas and raising potential safety concerns.
Opponents have also accused HIAL of a lack of transparency and failing to fully consider the risks and costs of the project.
Mrs Grant said: “The representations that HIAL is putting forward to the committee are clearly not in the spirit of transparency or working in the interests of communities. HIAL is all smoke and mirrors and is relying on a lot of technical speak to cover the fact that this project is not well thought through, not cost effective and is being pushed forward as a matter of stubbornness. As soon as you start to pull at the thread of HIAL’s argument it all comes apart.
“It has also become increasingly clear that HIAL is not willing to properly engage on this matter; with its staff; with the communities it is there to serve and nor – its abysmal performance in front of the Petitions Committee would suggest – with the Scottish Government or those trying to exercise accountability. So I have written to Audit Scotland laying out the risk and cost concerns of the project and asking them to step in and compel some actual detail and honesty about the project.
“It is simply not acceptable that a government agency, one which is there to serve and support our most rural and fragile communities, is being so bull-headed and determined to strip those communities of its lifeline assets at a greater cost than it would take to invest in them, and make no mistake, that’s exactly what this will do.
“As well as removing urgently needed jobs, and families who are invested in these communities, the ATMS plans will leave a less resilient lifeline service. The damage to the Western Isles Sub-sea cable – a vital component in the plan to 'live stream' island airports to air traffic controllers in Inverness – shows that transmitted data is not 100 per cent reliable and is introducing unnecessary vulnerabilities to the air network in the region.”
HIAL, which hopes to complete the project by 2027, says the new system is the best option for guaranteeing the required level of air traffic in the future.
