Demand for public access after Glasgow Airport Consultative Committee meets behind closed doors but Edinburgh’s is open to public

West coast airport the odd one out as Aberdeen, Prestwick and Inverness’s scrutiny body meetings are also accessible by request

They are little known public bodies but have the potential to shed considerable light on the privately-owned world of Scotland’s busiest airports.

Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen all have consultative committees, at whose meetings airport chiefs discuss their operations and future developments.

However, The Scotsman has learned there are stark differences in how much access the public has to these committee sessions, which are held every three months.

Glasgow Airport Consultative Committee is the only one at a main airport in Scotland not to allow public access to its meetings. (Photo by McAteer Photograph/Glasgow Airport)

While Edinburgh Airport’s are open to anyone to attend and Aberdeen’s are accessible by request, Glasgow’s are closed to the public. This is despite Aberdeen and Glasgow airports both being owned by the same firm, AGS Airports.

The public can also request to attend the committee for Inverness Airport, which is part of Scottish Government-owned Highlands and Islands Airports Limited.

The committee for Prestwick Airport, also owned by the Scottish Government, said a request to attend would be considered if a “matter of specific interest” was on the agenda.

The most recent meeting of the Edinburgh committee, in February, elicited significant new information, such as airport chief executive Gordon Dewar outlining its terminal upgrading and expansion plans, and the impending introduction of new security scanners which will enable passengers to carry more liquids in their hand luggage.

Edinburgh Airport Consultative Committee has held its meetings in public since 2020. (Photo by Lisa Ferguson/The Scotsman)

Other topics raised included noise monitoring.

The committee’s constitution, which was changed to permit open meetings from 2020, stated: “All meetings will be in public except those meetings or parts of meetings which the committee, in its sole discretion, decides to hold in private.”

By contrast, interested members of the public would have been unable to attend Glasgow’s most recent meeting, held two weeks earlier, because they were barred.

To learn what was said, they would have to contact the committee or its members, who include local councillors and representatives of travel trade, aviation and accessibility groups. The meeting’s minutes have not yet been published.

Politicians have called for the access anomaly to be ended, pointing to guidelines from the UK Department for Transport (DfT) to committees “that are encouraged to open their meetings to the public, unless there is a legitimate reason why it is inappropriate to do so.”

The guidelines also stated: "The manner in which the public are admitted to attend meetings should be decided by the committee according to local circumstances.”

Scottish Labour transport spokesperson Alex Rowley said: “I would hope that Glasgow Airport follows the guidance as laid out and considers how best it can meet the requirement of transparency and encouragement of having open access meetings.

“It is worth noting that other airports across Scotland allow some form of public access to these meetings, so I would hope Glasgow would take note of this and consider what steps it could take to address greater transparency and how it can better meet the Guidelines for Airport Consultative Committees, as set out by the DfT.”

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Scottish Conservatives transport spokesperson Graham Simpson also called for more openness.

He said: “Airport consultative committees are meant to be forums where airports liaise and talk with people in their community.

"The best ones are open forums and all Scottish airports should be adopting that practice.”

Asked why Glasgow Airport Consultative Committee meetings were held in private, a spokesperson for the airport said the body’s members represented “the interests of the public”.

They said: “The committee has been representing the interests of the public since it was formed in 1975 and includes a number of the key stakeholders drawn from a wide range of areas.

"These include elected councillors from the eight local authorities that fall under the airport’s flightpath as well as representatives from Scottish travel trade associations, chambers of commerce, consumer rights organisations, disability access panels and passenger interest groups.

“Both the agendas and minutes of the four meetings which take place each year are readily available on the dedicated Glasgow Airport Consultative Committee webpage on our website.

“This page also includes a contact form should any member of the public wish to contact the committee directly.”

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A spokesperson for sister airport Aberdeen said: “Members of the public are represented through elected representatives and other groups, including community councils and access forums."

However, they pointed to the committee website, which said that members of the public could request to attend.

It stated: “If you wish to attend a meeting of the committee as an observer, please contact the secretary for an invitation. You might be asked to leave the meeting during discussion on any commercially sensitive matter, or any item that relates to a specific person or organisation.”

The Prestwick committee’s constitution stated: “Meetings will not normally be public meetings but as an exception may be open to the press and public at the discretion of the chairman.”

Inverness airport general manager Graeme Bell said of its consultative committee: “Members of the public who wish to attend, or to provide input to the meetings, should email [email protected]”.

The UK Airport Consultative Committees’ liaison group (UKACCs), the umbrella body for the 24 committees across the UK, said it did not have a stance on whether meetings should be open to the public as that “depended on a wide range of local circumstances at individual airports”.

UKACCs secretariat lead officer Paula Street said: “There are many airport consultative committees that do not allow public access to their meetings”. However, none of these are in Scotland.

She said the DfT’s guidelines were “just guidelines”, and Glasgow’s committee was fulfilling the DfT’s "basic expectations of transparency and openness”, which UKACCs encouraged its members to meet.

Ms Street said those comprised the committee publishing its contact details along with the dates and minutes of its meetings.