Scottish Green MSPs used a Holyrood debate on Edinburgh airport’s expansion plans to call on the Scottish Government to step in and halt the company’s ‘flawed’ consultation.
Last week 20 community councils affected by the plans came together at a summit meeting at Holyrood hosted by Mark Ruskell, Scottish Green MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife.
In Thursday’s debate, Mr Ruskell said: “These proposals will impact heavily on West Fife. Dalgety Bay alone will go from being overflown on 70 days per year, to potentially facing flights 365 days per year, 18 hours per day, with no respite.
“This unfair consultation pitches communities against each other. Instead we need to agree that this consultation is not fit for purpose and should be halted immediately.
“Last week, I held a meeting in parliament for affected Community Councils. Representatives from 20 councils, across 6 local authority areas attended, and each had their own story to tell about how they felt misled, or ill-informed. There is no information on the social, economic or environmental impact of the proposed routes, because these assessments have simply not been done. The Scottish Government must step in and force the CAA to put a halt to this consultation.”
Also speaking in the debate, Andy Wightman, Scottish Green MSP for Lothian, said: “This consultation has been seriously flawed, the airport operators have misled the public and have displayed an arrogance and contempt for public opinion. Edinburgh Airport, NATS and the CAA have virtually all the power. They got it from Conservative Governments who privatised the airports, who privatised NATS and who created the modern CAA whose statutes privilege commerce and the needs of the private airline industry.
“Are these proposals in the public interest or are they designed to boost the asset value of a company to be sold off at profit in the years ahead by a bunch of faceless offshore speculators? Edinburgh Airport exercises power in the interest of its faceless shareholders in far-away tax havens.”
Edinburgh Airport held a series of community engagement events over February and March as part of the second stage of public consultation, including presntations to Granton Community Council and Almond Neighbourhood Partnership and a drop-in session in Cramond.
Due to the interest from communities and a call for meetings towards the end the consultation period the airport has decided to extend the period for taking consultation responses for an additional week in May.
Announcing he extended consultation period, Edinburgh Airport’s Chief Executive Gordon Dewar thanked those who have already had their say and encouraged more local residents to take the opportunity to make their views known.
He said: “We are greatly encouraged by the consultation response; the vibrant process is going well with a high level of quantity and quality of the responses.
“By the end of this stage of the consultation we will have attended more than 20 meetings in communities across West Lothian, Fife and Edinburgh. This has been a valuable listening exercise for us as well as giving us an opportunity to share information with our neighbouring communities.
“By continuing to raise awareness we will enable even more people to respond which will give us an even clearer understanding of the views from all those with an interest in this issue.
“We are absolutely committed to delivering a robust consultation process and have invited community councils to work with us to ensure that our consultation methods enable local people to participate.
“It is for this reason that we will be accommodating more meetings towards the end of the month and we are happy to confirm today that the consultation will continue accepting responses for an additional week in May.
“If you haven’t already responded please go to www.letsgofurther.com to make sure you have your say.”
Edinburgh Airport has also commissioned the Consultation Institute to conduct a Quality Assurance of the consultation process.
List of public drop in sessions, public meetings and community council engagement meetings during the second stage of public consultation:
Thursday 23rd February – Livingston drop in session
Monday 27th February – Ratho Community Council meeting
Thursday 2nd March – Cramond drop-in session
Saturday 4th March – Winchburgh drop-in session
Monday 6th March – Kirknewton drop-in session
Wednesday 8th March – Almond Neighbourhood Partnership meeting
Saturday 11th March – Ecclesmachin drop in session
Monday 13th March – Dunfermline public meeting
Tuesday 14th March – Livingston public meeting
Wednesday 15th March – South Queensferry Council meeting
Thursday 16th March – Kinghorn Community Council meeting
Monday 27th March – Granton Community Council meeting
Tuesday 28th March – Charleston, Limekilns and Pattiesmuir Community Council meeting
Monday 3rd April – Dalgety Bay and Hillend Community Council
Tuesday 4th April – Port Seaton and Cockenzie Community Council meeting
Thursday 6th April – South Queensferry Community Council meeting
Thursday 13th April – Equalities drop in session at Hilton Doubletree Hotel at Edinburgh Airport
Tuesday 18th April – Falkirk drop in session
Wednesday 19th April – Winchburgh public meeting
Thursday 20th April – Dunfermline Rotary Club Talk
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Why was Granton and District Community Council and other local Community Councils not represented at the Holyrood Consultation …. all Community Council email addresses are listed
on the edinburgh.gov website