£35 Million Plans For Ayr Racecourse Get Green Light
Tuesday February 1, 2005

A £35 million plan to upgrade Ayr Racecourse by building a casino, multiplex cinema,  hotel and conference facility was granted outline planning permission yesterday.
 
And the plans will bring a huge spin off to Ayr and the surrounding area with the local economy being boosted by almost £24 million and 343 full time and 330 temporary jobs being created.
 
South Ayrshire Council’s Planning Committee gave the plan which also includes alterations to the road layout, a racing academy, hostel and stables the go ahead subject to the Scottish Executive rubber stamping it.
 
Ayr, Scotland’s only Grade One racecourse, was bought for £9.5 million from the Western Meeting Club in June 2003 by Ayrshire businessmen Alan Macdonald, Chairman of The Dawn Group and Richard Johnstone, Managing Director of Thorntoun Health Care.
 
Already improvements have been made to the facilities at Ayr with bars and restaurants being upgraded, viewing areas improved and the £3 million redevelopment of Western House into a state of the art wedding and conference venue will be completed by June of this year.
 
A new travel lodge - the Western Lodge Hotel - will open in April at the course where attendances have soared over the past 18 months.
 
Alan Macdonald, speaking shortly after the decision to grant outline planning permission, said: “This is a very important day not only for Ayr racecourse but for the people of Ayrshire.
 
“At the moment the racecourse contributes £4.6 million to the local economy and this will rise to £28.3 million when these developments are completed – a 650% increase.
 
“Everyone from hoteliers to taxi drivers, publicans to shopkeepers will benefit and it will give tourism in the area a major shot in the arm.
 
“We are constantly upgrading facilities on course so that Ayr can compete with the likes of Ascot and York and today’s decision means we will have the cross-funding from the casino, cinema and housing to reinvest in the course.

”When Richard Johnstone and I bought the course in June 2003 we pledged that every penny of profit would be reinvested in the course and that’s what we have done and will continue to do.”
 
The entrance to the course will also be revamped and around 400 houses will be built. There will also be a retail development.
 
It is hoped the entire project will be completed by 2007 when Ayr Racecourse celebrates its centenary on its current site.