Anger at Prestwick Airport snub
A councillor said any future plans to develop Prestwick Airport have been put in jeopardy by the Scottish Government.
Councillor Bob Pollock has described the dropping of Prestwick Airport from a draft national policy as“shocking.”
The Troon Tory councillor hit out after the Scottish Government had omitted the Ayrshire airport from the National Planning Framework.
He said:“It is an absolutely shocking plan, it has come out from the Scottish Government with barely a reference to Ayrshire, jeopardising the plans to develop the airport.”
And a former leader of the council, Hugh Hunter, blasted the government for failing to giving an explanation for omitting the airport from the national framework plans. The framework brings together major developments and projects across Scotland.
Mr Hunter said: “It seems ludicrous that it has been dropped without an explanation at all.“
Craig Isles, head of the council’s planning, added: “Prestwick Airport is a national development, however, it has been removed from the national developments within NPF without explanation. The downgrading of the status of the airport and the location of the spaceport within the airport could have implications for South Ayrshire.”
It has emerged that Ayrshire has been grouped with Glasgow, Edinburgh and Lanarkshire as a single ‘Central Belt region ’as opposed to being aligned with the South of Scotland.
It means the likes of Girvan will be lumped in with Edinburgh and Motherwell rather than with Dumfries or Stranraer which it has road links with.