Cornish airbase considered as space travel launch site - The Pasty sells saffron cakes from Cornwall and Cornish pasties

Sir Richard Branson’s business Virgin Galactic may consider using a Cornish airfield for its launch pad for space travel, it has been revealed.

Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, which is pumping hundreds of million pounds into making space travel affordable, has said it might use RAF St Mawgan, near Newquay, as a “spaceport”.

Although the company is yet to approach the owners of the Cornish airfield, it is “one of the very few possible sites in England”, he said.

Virgin Galactic is currently building five SpaceShipTwo spacecrafts, which it plans to send more than 70 miles above the Earth.

It hopes to “bring the dream of space travel for many millions closer to reality”.

Tickets for the three-hour journey will cost £115,000. Virgin Galactic plans to launch its first flight from its main base in New Mexico, USA, in 2008.

Roads in Cornwall and Devon have been melting, after a wave of Mediterranean weather swept the United Kingdom.

Workmen from Cornwall County Council had to cover several roads with protective grit and dust, to stop car tyres pulling up pieces of melted tar.

Andy James, from Cornwall County Council, said: “It helps to absorb the excess bitumen and prevent it from sticking to tyres as they pass over.

“We have also sign-posted the site to warn people about loose chippings.”

Tamar Bridge’s managers are planning to debate plans for a park-and-ride scheme for Cornwall locals that commute to Plymouth daily for work in a meeting on Friday.

On average, around 6,000 motorists use the bridge at morning rush hour when travelling to Plymouth.

The meeting with the Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferry Joint Committee are to debate the feasibility of the scheme which is to be based at Saltash.

The Tamar Bridge first opened in 1961 and an average of 50,000 commuters use the bridge daily, Plymouth already has three park-and-ride schemes enforced.

If the plans are to go ahead then it is estimated that 1,000 vehicles will use the scheme, the feasibility study will be debated by the committee on Friday.