Tinwald I agree. I am fed up of being fed drivel by the salaried minions working for the Department of Infrastructure
PR machine. The airport has had dollaps of cash spent on it, and now demands more. But says the
PR person, it is in the budget. Well that's fine, but why then do a
PR puff piece on it?
IIRC the secondary radar was introduced about 15 years ago, just after the primary radar was replaced. The whole thing was leased, I think. So it now seems we are rich enough to replace them both, and pay for it from capital, not leased, and hence no longer revenue expenditure.
So... we re dropping an element of our revenue expense, and replacing it by a charge to fund a capital spend.
Maybe that is what the Minister recently referred to as a saving?
Seriously though you have to wonder at the political nous of those who run the airport. Who else would trumpet the necessity of a £3.5m spend just after getting an extra spend approved to resurface taxiways which need not have been resurfaced (the south side of he central taxiway, for example), all this after millions to replace the control tower, comms equipment etc, and the small sum to build an extension to the island?
If I was running the shop I would, in these times of austerity, have tried to make do for a while. In the UK this would be a P45 moment. In the IoM, it usually means a promotion.