Meeting of the Parliament 28 April 2015
I congratulate John Scott on securing the debate and I agree that Scotland should be the location of choice for the spaceport.
I am not here to rain on Prestwick’s parade—or not completely. I supported the Scottish Government’s purchase of Prestwick when I was a member of the Cabinet. Indeed, when I was growing up in Troon in Ayrshire in the 1960s, I used to go plane spotting at Prestwick airport. I remember seeing the Dan-Air Dakotas going to the Isle of Man, a regular service that operated at that time. I watched the passengers troop on and then realised that one of them must be the stewardess because she changed her hat just before she got into the plane.
However, the debate would not be complete without seriously considering the merits of Machrihanish. I will say why I believe that Machrihanish and Campbeltown are the places that should be boldly going into the race and ready to serve the final frontier.
The criteria for the choice are interesting indeed. There should be a runway with a minimum length of 3,000m. Machrihanish, of course, has a runway of just over 3,000m; unfortunately, Prestwick does not. Indeed, the parallel taxiway at Machrihanish is almost the same length as Prestwick’s runway.
There should be a coastal area. It is interesting to note that Campbeltown has coast on three sides, not just on one. That would be an important criterion.
On population density, Kintyre’s population density is 0.13 persons per hectare compared with the Scottish average of 0.65.
Campbeltown is also served by a deep-water port with three piers, one of which is a NATO pier. Indeed, in those modern port facilities there is a roll-on, roll-off facility that is used to taking large cargoes.
On the point that Mr Brodie just raised that there should be a limited amount of aviation traffic, I have to say, regrettably, that aviation traffic at Campbeltown is even more limited than the present aviation traffic at Prestwick, as it consists of two aircraft services a day.