Press Releases
15-02-2010 : McARTHUR ATTACKS NOTION THAT PARKING CHARGES MAY ONLY BE INTRODUCED IN ORKNEY
Orkney MSP, Liam McArthur, has reacted with concern to a letter sent by Stewart Stevenson, the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure & Climate Change, to the Chairman of the Kirkwall Airport Consultative Committee. In the letter, the Minister confirms that Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd, (HIAL), is responsible for operational matters, such as the imposition of car parking charges at Kirkwall, but adds, somewhat ominously, that charges at each airport needed to be considered separately. This opens up the possibility that Kirkwall could be picked off as the first, and maybe only, airport to suffer this extra tax on users of the Islands' lifeline air services.
Commenting Liam McArthur said, "The reason HIAL is looking at car park charges in Orkney is because the SNP Government has cut their grant. The Minister, in his letter, makes clear that HIAL is expected ‘to contribute to the Government's overall purpose of sustainable economic growth'. It is therefore a bit rich for the same Minister to then seek to wash his hands of any responsibility for HIAL's plans to add the extra burden of car parking charges to the already high cost of flying within as well as in and out of Orkney.
"More worrying still is Stewart Stevenson's assertion that each island group has different characteristics which must be taken into account when assessing the case for airport car parking charges. There may be differences between the islands but they all share the high cost of flying on lifeline air services and a combination of geography and population density which makes it impracticable to provide public transport links to the airport which most can use.
"The Minister's remark seems to open the door for HIAL to impose charges at Kirkwall and not at their other main island airports. If that is the case, both he and HIAL better think again.
"It may be that Kirkwall airport is HIAL's number one target. Ticket machines and barriers have already been installed to cope with the charges HIAL planned to introduce at Kirkwall from last month. Faced with a backlash of opposition from the Orkney public, HIAL agreed to consult on their proposals.
"Nevertheless, the suspicion is that HIAL will press ahead with charging in due course. If that is the case, and if car parking charges are the only way they can fill the financial hole left by the Government's cut, then HIAL must treat all three of their main island airports equally. Picking off Kirkwall as the first or, worse still, the only one to get the charges will meet with the fiercest possible resistance locally."