The Dream That Wouldn’t Die
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Council. The council also took 100,000 ordinary £1 shares in the company, plus a seat on the board and a Golden Share which would allow the council some input in decisions affecting the future development of the airport. Hudson next turned to the larger authority, Strathclyde Regional Council, which was also keen to support the airport buyout. Now that Glasgow was settled into its role of BAA’s centre of operations in Scotland, the huge regional authority, which was based in the city, realised, if belatedly, they had some responsibility towards the Ayrshire airport and its workers. After some negotiation, with the help of Sir David McNee who was first Chief Constable of Strathclyde and who had retained good relations with the senior Labour councillors, and with the backing of Prestwick Regional Councillor John Baillie, the region agreed to lend £1.5 million, with the cargo house and freight sheds as security. Councillor Ian Welsh said: “What that in fact meant was that the public sector funded the purchase price of the airport, the actual money paid to BAA and BAe. It was done without risk because the airport now had a future based on the Hudson operating model. The vehicle was ACAP but the council ended up as guardians. Our role was that of facilitators. We had a clear vision of what we wanted for the airport and we did two things: we structured the sale and lease-back deal which meant we could capitalise £5 million of cash and we also helped organise the loan from Strathclyde Regional Council. The myth locally was that the band of local businessmen saved the airport – but they couldn’t have done it without the council. In turn, I have to admit Matthew did the job the council couldn’t do. He saved the airport and secured the jobs of the workers out there.” ACAP also borrowed back £250,000 from BAe, their profit from the buyout deal, while Blanefield Investments, Hudson’s family company, also put in another £175,000 to go with the costs it had incurred between the beginning of his involvement in 1990 and April 1992. They had the money, now the deal had to be finalised. On February 13, 1992, ACAP went public, announcing the three-sided deal with BAA and BAe, though, behind the scenes, negotiations were far from complete. Dotting the Is and crossing the Ts was to take a further six or so weeks, with the three sets of lawyers and their clients working around the clock as the official take-over date of April 1 approached. The smallest team of lawyers, Kenneth Christie and Morag Campbell of the Glasgow legal firm McClure Naismyth, had but one client – Matthew Hudson, who was driving from his home near Kirkoswald in Ayrshire to Glasgow at 6am every day and back again at midnight or later. However on that February day, a delighted George Younger, in his role as chairman of the consortium, told the country’s assembled media that this was a milestone for Prestwick and for Scotland and announced that the new com-