Press Releases
23-02-2010 : McARTHUR TO RAISE HIAL PARKING CHARGES IN PARLIAMENT
Orkney MSP, Liam McArthur, will continue his campaign against the imposition of parking charges at Kirkwall Airport tomorrow afternoon when the Scottish Parliament debates his motion condemning the charges. He has won one of the Members' Debates to allow him to raise his concerns and to give other MSPs the opportunity to back his opposition to HIAL's car parking charges plan. The debate comes in the same week as a meeting of the Kirkwall Airport Consultative Committee which will discuss HIAL's consultation on their parking charges plans.
Commenting ahead of the debate, Liam McArthur said, "The debate will give me the opportunity to outline the impact of the charges on Orkney and to make clear to the Transport Minister, who will reply to the debate, the strength of the opposition HIAL's plans are facing not just in Orkney but in the other island groups as well. I will remind him that we already pay high fares to fly on our lifeline air services and that adding car parking charges will push up the cost of flying even higher.
"I will also make it quite clear that Orkney will not just sit back and allow our airport to be the guinea pig for these charges. I will tell the Minister that he cannot expect to get away with allowing HIAL to pick off the islands one by one. Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles must stand shoulder to shoulder on this. I hope that Highlands and Islands MSPs from all parties will back me tomorrow and take part in the debate."
The motion to be debated tomorrow is:
S3M-5426# Liam McArthur: Car Parking Charges at HIAL Airports-That the Parliament notes the welcome, if belated, decision by Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL) to postpone the introduction of car parking charges at Kirkwall Airport; regrets that this decision was taken only after the board of HIAL initially rejected the unanimous recommendation of the statutory Kirkwall Airport Consultative Committee to put the introduction of the charges on hold until a proper consultation was undertaken; further notes that HIAL is considering imposing similar charges at its airports at Sumburgh and Stornoway; is concerned that the introduction of car parking charges at these island airports will add still further to the high cost for island residents of using their lifeline internal and external air services and of island life in general; expects the consultation to be thorough and to enable the detail of HIAL's proposals, as well as the principle of charging, to be robustly challenged, and considers that the delay offers the opportunity for all Orcadians to make their views known and for islanders from Shetland and the Western Isles to add their voices to the campaign against the Kirkwall charges in order to avoid a precedent being set at Kirkwall which HIAL could use to impose charges at Sumburgh and Stornoway .
The motion has so far been supported by:
Tavish Scott, Alasdair Allan, Hugh O'Donnell, Mike Pringle, Bill Kidd, Ross Finnie, John Farquhar Munro, Rhoda Grant, Peter Peacock, Rob Gibson