People objecting to Cornwall Council supporting plans for Europe’s first spaceport have accused the council of “greenwash” and say Virgin supremo Richard Branson should pay for it himself.

The council’s Cabinet will this week consider a report on spending £12million on Spaceport Cornwall which would be based at Newquay Airport.

It would be used for horizontal small satellite launches with Virgin Orbit set to run its European base from the spaceport for its LauncherOne system which it is developing in the US.

The council has said that it would bring hundreds of new jobs to Cornwall and generate millions for the economy by attracting space sector businesses to Cornwall.

But the plans have attracted criticism from environmental campaigners who have accused the council of hypocrisy after it declared a climate emergency earlier this year and published a climate change action plan.

The council claims that Virgin Orbit launches would only add 0.1 per cent to its current carbon production by 2030.

Nichola Andersen has written to every member of the council’s Cabinet comprehensively outlining why the council should not be backing the spaceport.

She states that the council’s carbon emissions report is flawed and says that the cost of the spaceport should be with Sir Richard Branson and not Cornwall’s taxpayers.

“The report that the council has had is not a proper carbon audit – it has been calculated just on launches by Virgin Orbit, it has not taken into account all the other aspects, the testing by Virgin, the transport of their staff, the other launches.

“There is also no consensus among scientists about how to calculate the carbon emissions of space projects and satellites, there is no proven theory. There needs to be a lot more work done.

“This is not the carbon audit that we were expecting. It is greenwash of the highest order.”

In their report the council states that it will offset carbon emissions produced by the spaceport by planting 50,000 trees. Nichola dismissed this.

Nichola is also concerned about the council funding the spaceport and in her letter highlights that council chief executive Kate Kennally stated at the first spaceport announcement last year that “we see this as a commercial spaceport. We are working on the basis to attract a whole range of commercial operators with very little government subsidy, that is from central government or Cornwall Council”.

Under the proposals Cornwall Council would provide £12m of funding for the spaceport with £7.5m coming from the UK Space Agency and £2.5m from Virgin Orbit.

Nichola said: “Richard Branson is the only beneficiary of this. Cornwall Council should be saying there are better things that we can spend this money on that will benefit people in Cornwall.

“If Richard Branson wants to build a spaceport then he should bloody build it himself. If the council wasn’t involved then I wouldn’t be campaigning against them, I would just be campaigning against Richard Branson.

“I have spoken to a lot of councillors and they disagree with me, but everyone I have spoken to outside, the people on the street say “why the hell are we paying for this?”.

“Nobody I have met wants this, it is a joke.”

Cornwall Council’s Cabinet will meet on Wednesday (September 18) to decide whether to support the funding. Any decision will also have to be approved by full council.