An airport will keep its £2 ‘kiss and fly’ charge after reaching a compromise deal with councillors.

Members of Leeds Plans Panel West had delayed agreeing a discharge to a planning condition in order to allow the issue to be resolved. But they allowed it to proceed after hearing new proposals from the airport.

Their agreement means the terminal extension can now go ahead.

The charge for dropping off passengers outside the terminal at Leeds Bradford Airport has prompted drivers to use Whitehouse Lane instead as a drop-off and pick-up point, leading to safety concerns.

And even though the airport provided a free one-hour facility in its long-stay car park, councillors were concerned this was too far away from the terminal.

Opponents of the charge argued it needed to be scrapped in order to deal with the problem. But the airport has refused to do this, coming back instead with plans to move the free parking area closer to the terminal. They are also proposing a pedestrian walkway and improved signage.

The council is also planning to clamp down on picking up and dropping off in Whitehouse Lane by resuming enforcement of existing traffic orders and upgrading them.

A report to the plans panel on Friday described the revised package as an “acceptable solution”.

Chief planning officer Martin Sellens told the meeting the terminal was important both to the city and to the regional economy, and he said a balance needed to be found. Members voted six to two in favour of the recommendation to defer and delegate detailed approval to the chief planning officer. Two panel members abstained.

Panel chairman Neil Taggart said: “We don’t live in a perfect world. We can’t force the airport to do things they don’t want to do. But they have moved from where they were before considerably.”

He stressed it was in everyone’s interest for the airport to be thriving and successful, adding: “If we turned this down today, we would rightly be blamed for not taking a look at the bigger picture.”