From the minutes of the last HIAL Board Meeting:
HIAL had originally invited three suppliers to tender for the contract to install radar at Inverness airport. The project is separated into two elements phase one, which is to take the radar feed from Lossiemouth and set up a consol in the Inverness control tower with HIAL trained controllers, and phase two, to install a dedicated HIAL radar. One of the suppliers had taken no account of HIAL s long term view so was discounted. One of the remaining two suppliers then advised that it was not interested in continuing with discussions. The Board asked about the costs involved with phase one. Mr Lyon explained that the budget for 2006/07 provided for costs of £500,000 for phase one. This comprised costs for a project manager, staff costs for training, radar feed from Lossiemouth and capital costs of creating a consol in the control tower. The Board asked whether we would be able to recharge the cost to operators but was advised that this was unlikely. The Board requested a further paper which clearly outlined the costs and risks so it could consider in more detail.