Airport car park charging challenged

THE RIGHT of Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL) to impose parking charges at Sumburgh was called into question on Monday night after it emerged that the airport’s new carpark was paid for by extra money from the Scottish government.

After the £9.75 million contract to extend the runway at Sumburgh airport was completed in 2006, a large carpark was constructed with redundant rock infill and then tarmac was laid by Shetland Islands Council.

The cost of the extra work amounted to a six figure sum and came entirely from the government, according to Shetland MSP Tavish Scott who was Scottish transport minister at the time.

Shetland councillor Frank Robertson, who sits on Shetland’s transport authority ZetTrans, said he questioned HIAL’s authority “to charge for that particular parking area”.

HIAL have rejected the suggestion, saying it was within the organisation’s remit to introduce charges.

The community in Shetland is up in arms over plans by the airport operator to charge for car parking at a “lifeline” facility, crucial for getting on and off the islands.

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A last minute consultation is currently being carried out by the Sumburgh Airport Consultative Committee, rather than by HIAL itself.

Mr Scott said: “The important distinction is that it was a one-off government grant that allowed the carpark to be built and it was not in HIAL’s budget or in the runway contract.

“It was an add-on, which we were very pleased to be able to do. HIAL can’t use their ownership now as an argument for charging on it, because it wouldn’t have happened bar the work of the Scottish government and the council at the time.”

Mr Robertson said he had followed the work at Sumburgh very closely. When the contract was completed, the contractor realised that a large pile of infill left over was indeed high quality rock that could be used to build a carpark.

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He said: “I question what authority HIAL has to charge for this particular parking area.”

HIAL chairman Grenville Johnston said the decision to build a carpark had been made to take advantage of the fact that the contractor was on site and dismissed the suggestion that meant HIAL had no right to consider imposing car parking charges.

“I disagree with that premise; the whole logic is wrong. Operating the airport is entirely in our remit,” he said.

Such an argument would mean that HIAL could not charge for anything because all their initial funding had ultimately come from the government.

Six weeks ago ZetTrans chairwoman Iris Hawkins wrote to HIAL laying out Shetland’s opposition to charging.

A meeting of ZetTrans on Monday morning heard that no response had yet been received.