Queries over whether airport funding will impact rates

Councillor Patsy Kelly was speaking at the full council meeting on Thursday.

Welcoming the Executive’s £7m investment to develop the airport, he asked whether their would be a reduction in the annual subsidy the Council pays towards the costs of running the Eglinton facility.

Mayor Hilary McClintock said that it was probably “very early days” as yet to answer such questions and that negotiations around future development were at “a very sensitive stage”.

Council chief executive John Kelpie said that it has been a “challenging number of weeks for the airport”, but added that recent developments had provided some very encouraging news.

Independent Colr. Paul Gallagher reiterated his call for the Council to formulate an exit strategy from public ownership of the facility.