Orkney councillors will view plans to build new airfield terminal buildings at four of the six airfields in the county’s north isles, as the current buildings are no longer fit for purpose.
A report will go before next week’s development and infrastructure meeting, outlining plans to replace the buildings at the council-run airfields in Eday, Stronsay, Westray and Papa Westray.
The total cost is thought to be around £760,000. Each new building is estimated to cost £190,000.
The report states the buildings on the four islands are over 30 years old but continue to operate in “one of the UK’s most difficult environments.”
The new buildings are needed “in order to ensure the safe and resilient operation of the airfield infrastructure.”
These current buildings have combined waiting and watch rooms. This means, in the event of an emergency, the public would share the same room as the emergency personnel handling the situation.
The report says this could “compromise confidentiality” and “degrade the emergency response.”
Other problems include restricted views of the airfields, lack of toilets for those with mobility issues, not having enough space to accommodate Covid-19 social distancing restrictions.
There is also said to be a lack of electric vehicle charging.
At the moment, IT cannot be installed at the airfield because their offices share access with the public.
Orkney airfields face operating in one of the UK’s most difficult environments
A lack of washing and showering facilities for firefighters means there are risks around dealing with contaminates or hazardous materials.
The plans going committee next week are still at an early stage. If approved at next Tuesday’s meeting, more detailed plans will be shown to the council’s policy and resources committee.
Councillors will also view options to do nothing about the situation or spend £94,000 refurbishing and extending the current buildings.
The council previously told the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) that it would upgrade the airfields. This commitment was part of the North Isles Airfield Strategy approved by the council in July 2019.
New terminal buildings, which meet CAA requirements, have already been built at the airfields in North Ronaldsay and Sanday.
Aside from operating in harsh weather and low light, the airfields use hard core and grass without back up facilities.
In 2018 the small airfields competed against much larger airfields for the Airport of the Year Award at the Scottish Transport Awards.
