Cumberland Council has approved plans for a small temporary observatory to be built on Greymare Hill within the sprawling RAF range north of Brampton.
The scheme has been brought forward by 3S Northumbria, working with its US parent company ExoAnalytics, which already operates what it calls the world’s largest network of around 400 telescopes across 38 observatories.
In a letter supporting the bid, chief project officer Mark Brown said the ‘modest’ Spadeadam installation is intended to give 3S Northumbria a UK base and offer partner universities ‘an exciting avenue for further study’.
He wrote: “Once approved, we hope to use the facility to gather information on satellites in Low Earth Orbit, thereby contributing to the international effort for Space Situational Awareness as well as offering floorspace to our partner Universities for their observations/experiments in this field.”
The timber-clad structure will measure about five metres by 3.2 metres, sitting on an open steel frame which allows the observatory to roll on and off depending on operational needs.
Once installed, the telescopes and associated equipment will be run remotely, with only occasional visits for servicing.
Planning officer Richard Maunsell said the building would be ‘small in scale and utilise appropriate materials’, concluding that it would not appear obtrusive in the forested, moorland landscape of the 9,000-acre site.
The observatory will stand on an area of long-established hardstanding used as part of the existing DNV-GL testing and research facility.
Because of that, planners said there were no biodiversity impacts and the project is exempt from new biodiversity net gain rules.
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Surface water will drain to an existing watercourse, and the council judged the arrangements acceptable given the limited size of the development.
The Ministry of Defence’s safeguarding team, which checks new schemes against the needs of nearby defence assets, raised no objection.
In its response, the MOD said the observatory would have ‘no detrimental impact on the operation or capability of a defence site or asset’, but asked to be re-consulted if the design changes.
No comments were received from Kingwater Parish Council and no public objections were lodged during consultation.