THE company behind a scheme to build a ‘thermal processing’ plant in Winsford says it would create jobs for 500 people out of work.

OSL Enerj8 has submitted plans to Cheshire West and Chester Council to build the facility, which would burn specific types of waste known as ‘feed stock’ and use the resultant char to produce lightweight thermal building blocks, with gas filtered through a pollution control system.

Supporting documents to the application say the unit would burn more than 400 tonnes of waste each week, by operating 24 hours a day six days a week, 50 weeks per year at temperatures up to 1,300°c.

The noise impact statement shows that 75db of noise would be created, with 65db expected at the boundary of the proposed site – about the same noise level as standing 50 metres from a road.

The feed stock would come in from private companies across Cheshire, Staffordshire and north Wales, with the planning documents detailing a maximum of four truck deliveries a day.

Winsford Town Council member, Cllr Malcolm Gaskill, who fought against incinerator plans for Northwich, has called such projects ‘dangerous’, although OSL Enerj8 insist the process is clean and such claims are ‘unfounded’.

Cllr Gaskill said: “We fought tooth and nail to stop an incinerator in Northwich.

“The fact is it is dangerous stuff that is being burned and if it wasn’t dangerous you wouldn’t need to seal it would you?

“The concern is the dioxins. Dioxins are present in anything once you burn it and some are dangerous and some aren’t.

“It could affect house prices in the area too. It will affect the people not only in Wharton but in the whole of Winsford and the surrounding towns.”

But Mathew Conway, a director at parent company OSL Global, said: “It’s a very clean solution to a particular issue that affects the whole of the UK.

“It’s a real solution – 70 per cent of all waste is being exported from the UK at the moment.

“We have designed a process that takes material that no one else wants, like offcuts of cloth or wood that can’t be reused.

“We are working with the Local Authority and Environmental Agency to prove this technique. Once proven we will create about 500 jobs in the Winsford area.

“We have engaged with the job centre and have initially employed 10 people, so we have already started recruiting. The shortest time out of work was nine months, and the longest four years, and we are retraining these guys.

“We are only interested in re-skilling people who have been made redundant – not stealing jobs from elsewhere. We are all about regenerating.

“It’s about regenerating the area and bringing back jobs locally. I fully understand the concerns but they are unfounded. It’s a clean process.

“The difficulty is this hasn’t been done anywhere in the UK.

“The process is clean and we are not processing hazardous waste or anything nasty.

“We are not a recycling plant – anything quintessentially called waste is not being managed by us.

“We take specific types of material that would normally go to landfill and convert that into lightweight thermal blocks for building.

“It’s a solution that fits all and brings jobs back to an area that is struggling.”

Matthew added that Graham Evans MP, members of Winsford Town Council and the Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) are due to meet with representatives from OSL to talk through plans.

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