A Dundee church is leading the campaign for some of the city’s most spectacular views to be opened to the public.
The city council is blocking the plan for a walkway from the rail bridge to Invergowrie, but the airport operators are prepared to talk about the idea.
Dundee West minister Andrew Greaves feels people should be able to stroll along a route that looks over the beauty of Invergowrie Bay and up the Tay to the Perthshire hills.
To the south it offers a vista over to Fife and to the east a panorama of Dundee’s changing waterfront.
People are able to take the route westwards for a few hundred yards, but only as far as a padlocked gate at the end of a rutted roadway.
On the other side is Dundee Airport although a gravel track winds along the shoreline with a fence on one side and the river wall on the other.
“The land for the path is basically set out and it is such a lovely setting,” said Mr Greaves. “My kirk session has supported me in this call for a public path to be set out along the south edge of the airport precincts and the council’s nature park to end at Invergowrie.
“There is a secure fence round three sides of the airport to ensure security isn’t compromised, so why can’t there be one on the fourth side?
“Such a pathway might encroach on the nature reserve but surely this can be managed. People would benefit from such access through activity and an enhanced appreciation of the outstanding setting which is Dundee.”
West End councillor Fraser Macpherson said: “There are clearly issues that would have to be raised with the airport management in relation to security and the nature park about encroaching on bird nesting areas, but I would think that these are not insurmountable.
“I think Rev Greaves proposal is eminently sensible and deserves further investigation.”
A spokesman for Dundee City Council said: “Unfortunately security and safety issues involved at Dundee Airport create a clear obstacle to this idea. The council could not support anything that compromises the airport’s operations.”
But a spokesman for Highland and Islands Airports said: “We would certainly be happy to discuss these proposals with the minister to see if we can assist his plans to provide a coastal pathway, providing it does not impact on airport operations or compromise safeguarding regulations.”