Tycoon can challenge Highland spaceport in court

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.

The businessman objected to the development on environmental grounds and later announced he had invested more than £1.4million in a rival spaceport in the Shetland Islands.

His company Wildland lodged a petition for judicial review against Highland Council’s decision to approve the spaceport scheme. The Court of Session has now ruled that 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 in 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 reasons given for objections.

The local authority approved the plans in June and referred its decision to the Scottish Government for scrutiny. In August, ministers said the plans did not require a decision at national level adding that the matter should be dealt with by Highland Council.

Wildland’s judicial review petition passed the permission stage, which means the court ruled the company had demonstrated a ‘sufficient interest’ in the subject of the application and the challenge has ‘a real prospect of success’.

The firm said it had concerns over the impact on ‘environmentally vulnerable protected areas’.

Wildland called the decision to grant approval ‘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 disclosed that Wildland’s sister company Wild Ventures had secured ‘a significant minority investment’ of £1.43million in the Shetland spaceport site on the island of Unst.

Danish businessman Mr Povlsen, 48, pictured, is Scotland’s largest private landowner and worth an estimated £4.73billion.

Highland Council said it could not comment on the matter, while HIE said it hoped the matter ‘can be settled as quickly as possible’.

A spokesman for Wildland said: ‘Wildland welcomes the Court of Session’s decision.’