You make it sound as though this requirement is something new the CAA have introduced. although I realise you may not mean to..
Just to clarify for anyone who may wonder if CCC have any excuse here, they have not. The requirements for airfields are very simple to understand and there is nothing significantly new in what the CAA expects of Newquay, or anywhere else.
If that figure of £6m to consultants is right, words fail me. Most competent advisers on airfield requirements could have told CCC what was needed, and even project managed the very, very simple task of conversion from military, for less than £300,000. And CCC were aware of that. If I were a Cornwall ratepayer I would be reaching for a lawyer, or rather forming a group to reach for one for recovery of that cash from the Council staff and members involved in what can only have been a huge scam.
But the figure might have been for the whole project, not just the consultants. Even so it was remarkably badly spent.