Crofters and community councillors put weight behind spaceport
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Despite growing opposition, crofters who own the land wanted for Britain’s first vertical launch spaceport have strongly backed the controversial scheme and attacked a campaign by “vociferous” protesters.
Melness Crofters Estate (MCE) own the earmarked site on the Moine Peninsula, near Tongue.
Development agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has submitted a planning application for £17.3m Space Hub Sutherland.
Already 240 objections have been lodged, with 39 in favour.
MCE say in their submission just filed with planners, that it did not support the project “lightly”.
Dorothy Pritchard, chairwoman of MCE said:”We wanted to ensure that the environment was protected and safety ensured.”
Meanwhile Bettyhill, Strathnaver and Altnaharra Community Council have written to MCE saying that, by a majority of 6 to 1, members have given their enthusiastic support to the proposal.
The rationale for their decision was:
n The spaceport will provide a reasonable number and variety of jobs in what is one of the fastest growing industries in the world.
n There is a pressing need for diversification of the local economy which, at the moment, is increasingly dependent on tourism.
n The spaceport is likely to be a tourist attraction in itself.
n There is a good prospect that the development will lead to enhancement of the local infrastructure. No other development is on the horizon which offers that prospect
n The spaceport will be a very high value asset in many ways and, unlike other conceivable industries such as wind farming or forestry, does not require a large footprint thus minimising environmental concerns. There are hundreds of square miles of identical terrain within the vicinity which will remain available for traditional occupations such as deer stalking or hill farming or to satisfy conservation interests.
MCE, which will receive income from the spaceport, says funding will go back into the “whole community” and it intended to set-up a charitable fund to help local projects.
It said protesters who had run a “sustained, vociferous campaign” had “misrepresented” the spaceport and the intentions of MCE, whose members had been subject to abuse.
It also pointed the finger at Extinction Rebellion over a managed campaign of objections.
Mrs Pritchard said: “It is disappointing when a small group of people set out to cause trouble in order to discredit the project and perpetuate the myth that the whole community is divided. There is a community here that really wants to see this happen”.
She stressed that MCE had approached the issue of giving its support “but not at any cost” and that is why it had negotiated “long and hard”.
“We need to provide job opportunities around which families can be raised, if we are being genuine about repopulating the Highlands,” she added.
Kate Willis of Extinction Rebellion Highlands and Islands said: “The Scottish Government and Highland Council have declared a Climate and Ecological Emergency; the development of the Mhoine spaceport, and the environmental impacts and carbon emissions resulting from its construction and regular launch of rockets, is contradictory to this declaration.”
But David Oxley, director of business growth at HIE, said: “Over the past two years, environmental consultants have advised us on how best to ensure protection, including measures to restore significant areas of peatland.”
