1,000 jobs could be created as work starts at new power station site

A clean-up has started at an old chemical works in Knottingley which could be turned into a gas-fired power station.

Around 1,000 jobs could be created at the former Oxiris plant on Common Lane after the government gave consent for a new power station last year.

Now St Paul’s Developments has appointed a contractor to prepare the site for the building of the power plant after a £2.45m loan was secured.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Rotherham-based QDS Remediation is carrying out work at the 110-acre site, where Knottingley Power Ltd wants to build a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine power station.

David Newton, Managing Director of St Paul’s Developments, said: “After many years of complex proposals, planning applications and working with stakeholders, The Environment Agency and Wakefield Council, we are delighted to be fully committed on site undertaking the reclamation and remediation works for this major regeneration project.”

The loan came from Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership’s Growing Places Fund.

Mr Newton added: “The support of the public bodies and the Growing Places Fund has been pivotal in getting us to the start on site stage for the power station, which represents a major investment into the region.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Fifty-full time jobs could vbe created at the power station, which would use gas from an underground pipeline to power more than two million homes, after it is built.

It would built based on a 50-acre plot at the site.

Wakefield Council leader Peter Box said: “It is positive news for the local community, district and wider region that St Paul’s Developments is moving this project forward.”

St Paul’s Developments has already demolished part of the plant, which was home to Oxiris Chemicals for seventy years.

The proposed new power station could be operational by 2020 after three-and-a-half years of building work.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It would use gas from an underground pipeline to power more than two million homes.

The eight-kilometre long pipeline would be built to connect the 70-metre-high power plant to the national gas transmission network’s pipeline near Gateforth in North Yorkshire.

The proposed combined cycle gas turbine power station would use natural gas, the same fuel used by many people for cooking and heating homes across the UK, to produce electricity

Development consent was granted in 2015 and lasts for five years.

For more information on the scheme visit www.knottingleypower.co.uk