Council ‘minded to approve’ spaceport application

A major milestone in Shetland’s space race ambitions has been achieved after the SIC announced it was “minded to approve” the application.

The council said today (Friday) that its planning service was “confident” the SaxaVord Spaceport application could be dealt with under delegated powers.

Spaceport chief Frank Strang said the team was “delighted” with the announcement and looked forward to receiving confirmation of approval in the coming days. 

The planning committee had been due to consider the application at its meeting on Monday but it was dropped from the agenda at the last minute.

The council said that as all objections from statutory consultees had been resolved, the committee was no longer required to determine the application. 

Instead,  council officers will make the decision.

But while the council is “minded to approve” the application, it must still notify Scottish ministers, who then have 28 days to decided whether to call it in.

Once built, the space centre is expected to create hundreds of jobs and inject millions of pounds into the economy. 

The plans were revised last year to overcome objections from Historic Environment Scotland and the RSPB.