13 July 2008

The Scilly season starts

They say the summer is the silly season for news stories (elephants skateboarding and the like) but spare a thought for the Scilly Islands council and their recent advertisement for an air traffic controller at St Mary’s Airport


The airport wais seeking a fourth air traffic controller and offering a salary of up to £36,000. Although the advertisement states that applicants must have excellent vision in order to guide aircraft safely into the hilltop airport, which is often fogbound. Yet at the bottom is the note: "If you require this document in an alternative language, in larger text, Braille, easy read or in an audio format, please contact the Community Relations Officer."


A spokeswoman for the Council of the Isles of Scilly said the wording was included on all job adverts "to ensure that potential job applicants know that they can access information in a format to suit them."


Keri Jones, the controller of Radio Scilly, said the note had attracted widespread ridicule. "We have had loads of calls about it and people generally find it quite funny," he said. "The islands are always at the cutting edge of innovation, so it would certainly be something for Scilly to have the world's first blind air traffic controller."


The thought of a blind air traffic controller certainly does amuse. Seriously fair play to the council for its commitment to equal opportunities. In this case, though, they may have spared themselves a few comments if they had amended their advert pro forma

3 comments:

Nunyaa said...

A blind air traffic controller, hmm what can I say that you haven't already :-)

Sarge Charlie said...

holy crap, political correctness has run amuck, this is over the top.

jams o donnell said...

I think it's quite amusing!