Multimillion-pound plans for a rail link between Aberdeen International Airport and the city centre suffered a blow last night after Scottish Government chiefs insisted they had “no plans” to devolve airport passenger duty to councils.
Aberdeen City Council bosses unveiled an ambitious scheme to create a track between the airport and the new Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre at Bucksburn.
The plans, which would include new stations at the airport and the AECC, could cost as much as £70million.
Council bosses identified a potential funding source from keeping approximately £20million of APD, generated from the airport annually.
But the Scottish Government confirmed they had “no plans” to devolve the duty, leaving the train plan in limbo.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We currently have no plans to devolve APD to councils.
“We will introduce a bill in the first year of the current parliament setting out our legislative proposals for an APD replacement tax in Scotland which will come into effect from April 1, 2018.
“We are committed to reducing the overall burden of the tax by 50% by the end of the current Parliament in order to boost international connectivity at Scotland’s airports, including Aberdeen’s.”
After hearing the news, local politicians vowed to do what they could to force a u-turn from Holyrood.
North-east Conservative MSP, Ross Thomson, who also sits on the city council, said: “This administration has come up with innovative ways to generate income, despite increasing cuts to funding from the SNP.
“It is disappointing the Scottish Government has said that it won’t consider devolving control over Air Passenger Duty.”
However, finance convener Willie Young maintained he was still confident the link would become a reality.
He said: “I’m disappointed at this from the Scottish Government, I don’t see why they have consulted with us if they have already made up their minds.
“But we have called for talks to see how we can work together to make this link become reality especially given the regeneration potential for the whole north-east from the AECC.”
This cut no ice with SNP finance spokesman Graham Dickson, who responded: “I think Councillor Young was merely trying to mislead the people of Aberdeen into thinking he had found funding for an economically unjustifiable rail link.”
