Highlands and Islands Enterprise confirm Melness Crofters Estate will still be paid for lease of Sutherland Spaceport site despite Orbex shelving the project
Crofters could receive millions of pounds of taxpayer cash for a spaceport on their land that has been mothballed.
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has confirmed the crofters will continue to receive £70,000 a year for the land leased to the government quango.
But HIE maintain that the net effect for the taxpayer will be neutral because space company Orbex, who have "paused" the Sutherland Spaceport, are obliged to pay it the same amount under a sub-lease.
However the crofters will continue to receive its rental income "as that is part of the lease agreement," said HIE.
HIE leases the site from Melness Crofters’ Estate (MCE). The sub-lease with Orbex will run for 50 years, with an option to extend for a further 25 years.
That means that potentially MCE could receive at least £3.5m over the period for an uncompleted site that may never be used as a spaceport. It is not clear if there are any break clauses in the long leases for either to be terminated.
Amid local fury Orbex has instead switched to rival SaxaVord Spaceport in Shetland.
MCE have said they are "profoundly disappointed" and have previously promised to fund projects in the community from its spaceport income.
Meanwhile John Swinney said ministers would investigate “completely reasonable” concerns around recouping public investment into Sutherland Spaceport after it was put on hold by the developers.
The spaceport received £14.6 million in investment from the public sector over several years, including from the Scottish government and HIE.
It is being built on land owned by MCE on the A’Mhoine Peninsula, west of Tongue but as yet only part of the access has been built.
MCE was one of the project’s biggest supporters, in the hope that it would create jobs and investment in the local economy.
A statement from the trust said: “Melness Crofters Estate are profoundly disappointed at this news from Orbex and hope that they will have the decency to send representatives to explain, in person, their decision to move their initial operations to SaxaVord.
“They should address questions from MCE, the Spaceport Liaison Group and members of the public.”
The statement continued: “When we started working with HIE to develop a spaceport it was with the intention of creating new economic opportunities for Melness and the wider area.
“The North Coast is one of the most fragile and disadvantaged areas in Sutherland. We have very poor infrastructure, a lack of services along with very few job opportunities for our young people. Developing the spaceport project was just one measure to try to address some of these issues.
“We have been discussing Orbex’s announcement with Highlands and Islands Enterprise and are committed to working with them to address the situation and work out a way forward for Sutherland Spaceport, which is well on its way to completion.”
Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen - Scotland's richest man and largest landowner - had opposed the spaceport, which is on land near his estate.
While the majority of the crofters in the area supported the scheme, a group of three objected to the proposal.
However, a Scottish Land Court ruling noted that the three crofters involved were being funded by Mr Povlsen, who has invested in the Shetland spaceport.
Sutherland Spaceport project was at first expected to create 40 local jobs and a further 250 across the region, with 12 rocket launches each year
MCE previously said the money it would receive from the spaceport will go back into the "whole community" and it intended to set-up a charitable fund to help local projects.
It said then that protesters who had run a "sustained, vociferous campaign" had "misrepresented" the spaceport and the intentions of MCE, whose members had been subject to abuse.
Orbex, which is based at Forres in Moray, said it would retain the lease on the Sutherland site and did not rule out developing it in future.
HIE, which has provided over £9m of funding for the Sutherland project, said it was "deeply disappointed" by the decision. Local MP Jamie Stone said it came "completely out of the blue" while one of the area's Highland councillors, Hugh Morrison, said Orbex had behaved "appallingly".
Rhoda Grant, Labour MSP for the Highlands and Islands region, said:“I urge the Scottish government to intervene as Sutherland desperately needs this investment. If the spaceport cannot be salvaged, I urge them to recoup the public money that has been spent and to again invest it in Sutherland and create the jobs we need to stop depopulation.”
Trudy Morris, Chief Executive of the Caithness Chamber of Commerce said: “We were blindsided by this.
“Our concern is that this site is just going to sit mothballed and tied up that nobody else can use it.
“It’s unacceptable that it should sit there, and I’m not convinced that Orbex have plans to do anything else.”
Orbex chief executive Phil Chambers said: "This decision will help us to reach first launch in 2025 and provides SaxaVord with another customer to further strengthen its commercial proposition."
"It’s a win-win for UK and Scottish space."
Orbex plans to focus on developing launch vehicles and associated launch services, but will retain the lease to build and operate its own spaceport in Sutherland, and says this will be "kept under continuous review".
