The chief executive of Orbex is expected to attend a meeting of the Sutherland Spaceport Community Liaison Group next week, it has been confirmed.
The meeting, which is not open to the public or the media, is due to take place on Monday, January 20, but it is not yet known whether it will be held in person or online.
Phillip Chambers. Picture: Abermedia
It comes just weeks after aerospace company Orbex announced on December 4 that it was pulling out of the £20 million Sutherland spaceport project, sparking a massive backlash.
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The project has been ‘paused’, with an access road to the site on Melness Crofters Estate unfinished and no work started on the main spaceport buildings.
Orbex chief executive Phillip Chambers, who was appointed to the role in January 2024, is likely to face some tough questions, with community councils in the area asked to submit questions to be put to him.
However, there has been criticism that the meeting is being held behind closed doors, particularly as Highland councillors have previously called for greater public involvement in the community liaison group.
There have been calls for Orbex to hold an open meeting in Tongue.
The group was set up to be the “main interface between the community, the spaceport project, the construction contractor, and the launch site operator for commercial operations”.
Membership is said to include representatives of Melness Crofters’ Estate, local community councils, stakeholders, and environmental groups, but little information is available about the group.
Comments about the closed nature of the group were made when the Highland Council granted renewed planning permission for the spaceport project on October 29.
North Planning Applications Committee (NPAC) chairperson Drew Millar called for greater public involvement in the group, saying: “It is important that the community liaison group or the company does liaise properly.”
Local resident Rachel Broughton, who objected to the spaceport planning application, said: “The councillors present at the planning meeting made a point of the public having access to the liaison group. Several of them sought reassurance that the group was open to the public.”
One local resident, who asked not to be named, said: “Why is this a secret, closed meeting? Orbex has betrayed our communities – it is as simple as that, and the firm has a moral obligation to hold a public meeting in Tongue.”
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