Orbex, the Forres-based company behind the Sutherland Spaceport, has released new plans to increase economic prosperity and address environmental concerns in developing the Sutherland Spaceport.

The company has come together with the local councillors and the community to update previously submitted plans for to make Sutherland a carbon neutral spaceport.

In the new plans, the spaceport will see a slight repositioning on the northern tip of Scotland, and the communications hub will be relocated to the summit of Ben Tongue.

While the original plans were approved in 2020, they have been scaled back for better functionality and environmental concerns.

Part of the changes include a near 60% reduction in peat excavations to reduce carbon emissions, and the instillation of bridges over waterways to allow for “mammal migration paths.”

The spaceport is already under partial development, with current construction efforts underway on the roads and supporting bridges towards the launch pad.

Dorothy Pritchard, chair of Melness Crofters Estate (MCE), said: “We at MCE have a vision of the potential benefits the spaceport, over time, could bring to the Melness/Tongue area which has suffered greatly from the negative effects of an ageing demographic and depopulation.”

Members of the council echoed these hopes and concerns for their community.

“The Melness/Tongue area has been identified as a fragile area as a consequence of a number of factors such as depopulation and poor access to a range of services,” Trudy Morris, chief executive of the Caithness Chamber of Commerce, said.

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“The spaceport development is designed to help address these through the creation of new job opportunities and the delivery of community benefits.”

Orbex has already offered job vacancies to those without technical expertise or to those looking to retrain in order to give back to the community it is building in.

Both those in Sutherland and developers are aiming to manage what they hope to be a year-round influx of visitors aiming to view launches from the spaceport.

Despite worries from locals and land developers about increases in through traffic, the council approved the new plans, a welcomed decision from Orbex, which will continue to liaise with the public in its continued planning.