SCOTLAND’S richest man has won the right to mount a legal challenge against a new spaceport near his Highland estates.
Lawyers for billionaire retail tycoon Anders Holch Povlsen have been granted a court hearing in an attempt to overturn a decision to grant planning approval for the Sutherland Space Hub.
Mr Povlsen objected to the development on environmental grounds and later announced he had invested more than £1.4 million in a rival spaceport in Shetland.
His company Wildland Limited lodged a petition for judicial review against Highland Council’s decision to give the go-ahead to the scheme and the Court of Session, Edinburgh, has now ruled the review can proceed and a one-day hearing has been set for April 1.
The Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) project at A’Mhoine, near Tongue, Sutherland, is expected to create more than 200 jobs as satellites are launched from the station.
Highland Council received 457 objections and 118 representations in support of HIE’s planning application for Britain’s first vertical launch spaceport.
The impact on the environment, including the Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands Special Protection Area, and risk to human health were among the reasons for objections.
The local authority approved the plans in June and referred its decision to the Scottish Government for scrutiny.
Council officials said launches should be limited to 12 per year to limit the amount of plastic and metal debris falling into the sea during rocket launches.
In August, Scottish ministers said the plans did not require a decision at national level and should be dealt with by Highland Council.
Mr Povlsen’s company had written to the Government asking it to intervene in the Sutherland Space Hub scheme – and to also consider it alongside Scotland’s two other planned rocket sites in Shetland and the Outer Hebrides.
The company described the decision to grant approval as “flawed” and said the council “did not have access to sufficiently detailed or rigorous impact assessments on key aspects of the proposal to approve the application in the way it did.”
The company said it had concerns over the spaceport’s impact on “environmentally vulnerable protected areas”.
It described the decision to grant approval as “flawed” and said the council “did not have access to sufficiently detailed or rigorous impact assessments on key aspects of the proposal to approve the application in the way it did.”
In November it was revealed Wildland’s sister company Wild Ventures Limited had secured
“a significant minority investment”
of £1.43m in the Shetland site on the island of Unst.
The firm said it looked at all the prospective Scottish spaceport sites and it believes the Shetland location, combined with its business model, affords the best chance for sustainable success for Scotland and the UK.
Mr Povlsen, 47, from Denmark, has an estimated fortune worth
£4.73 billion and is Scotland’s largest private landowner.
A spokesman for Wildland Limited said: “Wildland welcomes the court’s decision to give permission to proceed with the review of the Highland Council’s grant of planning permission in the months ahead.”
A Highland Council spokeswoman said: “We are unable to provide any comment during the judicial review process.”
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