Scottish ministers confirm go-ahead for Scolpaig development

The Comhairle has welcomed a decision by Scottish Government not to call in the Spaceport 1 planning application for ministerial determination. 

Scottish Government confirmed its intention to wave through the development in a letter to the Comhairle dated July 24th, saying: “It is not Scottish Ministers’ intention to intervene in this application by either issuing a direction restricting the granting of planning permission or by calling in the application for their own determination. Accordingly, you, as determining authority, are hereby authorised to deal with the application in a manner you think fit.”

The Comhairle has confirmed that the decision taken by its Planning Applications Board to approve the application will now stand.

  A Comhairle spokesperson said: “This is another important step forward in the plan to establish Spaceport 1 – a suborbital, vertical launch facility at Scolpaig, North Uist.
“Following receipt of the formal decision notice, our focus will turn to discharging the planning conditions and delivering on the mitigations laid out in the Environmental Impact Assessment.
“Spaceport 1 will provide an opportunity for the economy of the Outer Hebrides to grow and diversify and will provide much needed local, professional jobs and training opportunities. Prospective launch companies are already looking at working with local businesses and establishing an on-island presence to support launches in future years.  Even at this early stage, it is acknowledged by the launch industry that Spaceport 1 – and the Outer Hebrides – has a critical role to play in the expansion of the Scottish and UK space sectors.” 

The campaign group Friends of Scolpaig has greeted the announcement with dismay, saying that the development has not been given time for full consideration.

A spokesperson for the Group told Am Pàipear:
“The Scottish Government Planning and Environmental Appeals Division was duty bound to fully consider and review the submission before concluding its decision. It is difficult to imagine that this requirement could have possibly been carried out in full in the 28 day period between the Comhairle’s submission and the deadline for their deliberation. The submission was made up of detailed plans, illustrations and diagrams and literally thousands of pages of technical reports and opinions, we feel no comfort that this exercise can have been executed with any proper scrutiny.”

The Group says that the Comhairle set out to bypass requirements for the longer period of public consultation required for larger developments by carefully structuring the site within a two hectare boundary:

“It was a cynical move that delivered a double blow for Uist; for not only did it effectively shut down any meaningful opportunity for the public to assess and comment on the dozens of complex reports the Comhairle submitted with its application, but worse, it forced the access road to the launch pad right through the farm steadings. If the site had moved beyond a two hectare ‘red line’ boundary, the road could have skirted the historic buildings entirely. As it is, the Comhairle has successfully avoided the longer statutory 12 week consultation period for larger developments and Spaceport 1 will be going ahead without any proper scrutiny of the project’s supporting evidence.”

  The Comhairle has yet to confirm a timeline for construction but said it is anticipated that the first launch from Spaceport 1 could be in late 2024 or early 2025.