No hold on £12m. baggage system
A NEW hold baggage screening system at Guernsey Airport will be installed at a cost of some £12m. members decided, after rejecting the idea of splitting the project into two parts.
States’ Trading Supervisory Board president Peter Ferbrache said that an upgrade to the system was essential owing to regulatory changes, but he led an amendment which offered members the chance to install two new screening machines initially and then build an extension to the screening area later on.
The amendment, which added another three propositions, was approved without debate after Bailiff Richard McMahon said doing so would give members the chance to debate all five propositions at once.
While there was some support for splitting the project, other members said that doing it all at once would provide much-needed work for the island’s construction industry at a time when this had dried up due to the coronavirus pandemic.
On top of this, Deputy Peter Roffey pointed out that doing it sooner, before the airport got back to its pre-pandemic levels of traffic, would be better. It was ‘perverse’ to wait until it got busy again, when there would be more disruption.
One option in the report was to do the minimum and just use the already purchased machine, and this was favoured by Deputy David De Lisle, although the idea was looked at and dismissed by the STSB in its report due to it not being able to handle as many bags as the preferred option.
Deputy Neil Inder told off some members who downplayed the idea that tourists would flock to the island once the pandemic had ended and said this positive investment in the airport was required.
The original propositions were approved, with the vote for the single-phase project passed by 20
votes to 16 with one abstention.
