This appeared in the P&J recently.
WOMAN'S PROTEST GROUNDS £1.3M AIRPORT LANDING SYSTEM
ERLEND BARCLAY
09:00 - 14 August 2003
The Scottish Executive has been called in to resolve a dispute preventing Inverness Airport from using technology to reduce the number of flights diverted or cancelled by bad weather.
The airport's operator, Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (Hial), spent £1.3million installing an instrument-landing system (ILS) at the site earlier this year.
According to airline estimations, the system could reduce diversions and cancellations by up to 60.
The ILS equipment was first tested in June and Hial hoped to have it fully operational soon after. But a local resident objected after it emerged that the system could function only if a road near the airport was closed permanently.
ILS operates using radio beacons positioned along the runway that emit signals to instruments in the cockpit of each aircraft. One of the beacons sends out a beam along the centre of the runway while another transmits at right angles to the main beam, giving the ideal approach path for landing.
The pilot can then use the instruments on board the aircraft to manoeuvre and land safely, particularly in conditions when fog, mist and low cloud would otherwise cause flight cancellations and diversions.
For the ILS to operate at Inverness, the beams from the beacons have to pass across a 200-metre section of the unclassified Mid Coul-Dalcross road running past the airport.
According to a Hial spokesman, that road would have to be closed.
"We applied to Highland Council to have the road closed through the statutory procedure," he said. "A number of objections were lodged and we tried to address them.
"In the end all the objections were withdrawn apart from one."
Highland Council publicised the road closure earlier this year when it revealed plans to build a new access road running from the A96 to the airport by 2006.
However, Hial wants to close the road as soon as possible.
"We want to have the system up and running in the autumn because that is when the weather begins to turn," said the spokesman. "One of our main airline customers estimates that 60 of the current diversions at Inverness would be able to land once the ILS is operational, so that gives an indication of the kind of difference it will make."
The system was a navigational aid designed to reduce delays and diversions, he said.
But objector Jacki Thompson, who lives at Easterton, a small cluster of houses near the airport, said closing the road would increase traffic and undermine safety on the B9039, which runs from the A96 past her house to the airport.
"We use the road they want to close a lot," she said. "If they close it, it's going to put something like an extra 200 cars a day on the B9039.
"That road is dangerous enough as it is. There's been a lot of accidents and I was involved in one about 18 months ago."
She added: "I don't see why they have to shut it completely, especially so long before the new road has been built."
Highland Council's planning, development, Europe and tourism committee supported the plan at a meeting in June but agreed to refer the matter to the Scottish Executive.
A decision is expected within the next two months.