Scotsman Archive

'DEAD HAND' OF MINISTER ON PRESTWICK AIRPORT 27 April, 1950

The hearing of objections for the compulsory purchase of Prestwick Airport lands and buildings concluded yesterday. Counsel for Scottish Aviation, the objectors, Mr I. H. Shearer, submitted figures which gave the cost of the company's buildings as 150,000 to 200,000, and of government buildings as being in the neighbourhood of 700,000.

In his submission it was deplorable that a Minister of the Crown in a matter which affected all Scotland should choose the procedure by which he could shelter behind the protection of an Act which did not call upon him to discharge the elementary duty of explaining why he wished to remove from the company their possessions and indeed, their whole business. If the Minister did not state his reasons for this acquisition, and lay them open to cross-examination, there must be a strong suspicion of merely arbitrary use of executive power.

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