Melness crofters insist it's 'business as usual' as work on Sutherland Spaceport starts
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The chairwoman of the crofting group which backed the Sutherland Spaceport said she expects it to be business as usual as work begins on the site this week.
Following the departure of rocket firm Orbex's chief executive Chris Larmour last week, Dorothy Pritchard said she was delighted to see things starting to progress on the ground.
Works to improve and extend the entrance to the site at A' Mhoine, west of Tongue, are due to start on Wednesday, April 26, by Lybster firm John Gunn and Sons Ltd.
The works on the entrance are expected to be completed before the end of May.
Ms Pritchard, chairwoman of Melness Crofters Estate, said: "It's very sad because Chris has been our main point of contact and he's been the face of Orbex, but we've met so many Orbex people now. He's just one person in a team really, so we're sorry to see him stepping back but I don't think it's the last we'll see of Chris.
"I think things will just go on, whether he's there or not."
Asked if she had any concerns about the future of the project she responded: "No, absolutely not."
Highlands and Islands Enterprise last week said that plans for the spaceport remained on course and "are not affected by management changes in the company".
Orbex is recruiting for an environmental clerk of works, a role which will involve monitoring the contractor’s compliance with the ecological, ornithological and hydrological commitments provided in the environmental impact study, approved as part of the planning permission.
Ms Pritchard said: "At the moment there's somebody in Melness employed by Orbex, a logistics person here who is organising things on the ground – that person has been employed for over a year.
"Then they've advertised recently for an environmental clerk of works, so we're hoping a younger person from this area might go for that. There are no other jobs like that here, so I hope a younger person might try and go for it – I think they would work with somebody with more experience and do online learning to take on that role. They'll need a person like that for a long time.
"Once [the spaceport is] going and they are getting ready for the first launch we hope there will be at least 20 jobs, building up to 30 or 40 jobs."
She said that the crofters' group was also working with the Communities Housing Trust (CHT) in Inverness to help build new houses to help provide much-needed affordable accommodation in the area.
"We've had a lot of houses lost – a developer from down south has bought up around 19 houses between Melness and Bettyhill," she said. "All these things pump up the prices and young people can't afford those houses, so we're trying to work with the CHT – who have been so helpful – to build 12 affordable houses."
The area was also dealt a blow last week when it was announced that the six-bed Calah Sona care home in Talmine was to shut down due to difficulties over staffing.
Ms Pritchard said situations like that show how important it is to work hard to bring jobs to the north coast.
"You don't want to see your community just dying out," she said. "Then we had the terrible, devastating news that they are closing our little care home here. That's gut-wrenching actually, it's been here for over 40 years and that's been our main employer in the village.
"You don't want a monoculture of jobs here with just tourism, you want a variety of things, and skilled jobs with better pay."
