News from Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL) that Inverness is the preferred location for a proposed remote towers control centre has been described as ‘disappointing’. Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s chairman of transportation and infrastructure Councillor Uisdean Robertson said the news was unsurprising. ‘While it comes as no great surprise, it is nevertheless disappointing Inverness is the preferred location for the remote towers control centre,’ he said. ‘If this goes ahead there will be a loss of high quality jobs in Benbecula and Stornoway. I think, at the very least, such a decision would be contrary to the principle of ‘island prooffng’, contained in The Islands Bill. The loss of well paid jobs and the economic impact on islands would be disproportionately higher in the islands and I call on our MSP and the Scottish Government to demand HIAL looks at this again. ‘The Islands Bill states clearly that island impact sssessments should be a part of the decision making process. Where is the evidence that any impacts on these islands was even given a passing thought? We will continue to make our voices heard and make the case to HIAL and the Scottish Government for other options to be considered.’ Meanwhile, Na h-Eileanan an Iar SNP MP Angus MacNeil is to write to Lillian Greenwood MP, chairman of the Transport Select Committee of the House of Commons, and Scottish Islands Minister Paul Wheelhouse MSP on the matter. Mr MacNeil said: ‘It is absolutely no surprise this is the game HIAL is playing. At the beginning, this was about their empire and jobs in Inverness, which I predicted. ‘The Scottish Government will have to look at the real social and economic impacts of this. The greatest turnover of staThis in Inverness where they want to put this empire and lowest in Benbecula and Stornoway where they are trying to take much-needed jobs. If electronic communications are as good as HIAL are saying, they could easily have put this centre in Benbecula or Stornoway. I am writing to the Transport Select Committee of the House of Commons about the viability of what HIAL is proposing, as well as going into its scoping exercise as air trafic controllers have informed me they feel there have been flaws in this. ‘I will also write to Islands Minister Paul Wheelhouse MSP urging the Scottish Government to get a grip of HIAL because it is running away from social and economic responsibilities in the Hebrides. The Scottish Government has to have a look at this and perhaps one solution might be breaking up HIAL into Highlands Airports and a separate Islands Airports so we have some measure of control and development in our communities.’
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