PLANS to build a £100m, state-of-the-art factory in a former pit town will help replace jobs to be lost with the looming closure of a nearby industrial giant, it is claimed.
The “world leading” manufacturing plant proposed by international paint company AkzoNobel will bring 140 jobs to Ashington, Northumberland. The investment has been welcomed as it will help offset the economic damage set to be caused by the closure of the 512-job Rio Tinto Alcan aluminium smelter at Lynemouth.
The Journal revealed five months ago how AkzoNobel had chosen Ashington’s Ashwood business park as the location for the £100m facility, which will replace its 50-year-old paint-making factory in Prudhoe.
The move will treble its manufacturing capability in the region and bring up to 140 full-time jobs to Ashington, as well as significant employment during construction work.
Next week county councillors are expected to grant planning permission for the 16,400sq metre factory, which will be built on a 25-acre site in North Seaton.
Yesterday Ashington mayor and town council chairman, John McCormack, said: “This factory will be a flagship facility and will bring jobs to the area, which is particularly important now in light of the Alcan closure.
“We are going to need all the jobs we can get here. We understand they will be bringing people over from Prudhoe initially but, as time goes by and staff turnover happens, there will be more opportunities for local people. We also hope that the factory shows the way for other companies and jobs to come to this business park, which is now part of an enterprise zone.”
A report to next week’s meeting of the county council planning committee says there has only been one objection to the AkzoNobel planning application, on the grounds of safety, fire risk, air pollution and odours. Officers say all of these issues will be dealt with through mitigation measures.
The report states: “Overall the scheme will bring benefits to the area, in particular by securing local employment and the fulfillment of a long-standing development plan allocation for general industrial use on the application site.”
AkzoNobel has said it hopes to start work on the plant this summer, and to have it up and running by 2014.
The company, whose products include Dulux paint, Polycell filler and Cuprinol, plans to close its factories in Prudhoe and Slough, when the new one opens.
Workers at the two sites will be offered the chance to transfer to the new plant, and it is expected that between 60 and 80 of the 140 jobs will be filled in this way. That means between 60 and 80 more will be created for local people, along with significant auxiliary and supply jobs.
Project director, Andy Jackson, says it will take two years to build the new plant, during which time between 200 and 250 construction jobs will be created.