Plans to build a £50m pair of cutting-edge sustainable greenhouses and bring 150 new, long-term green jobs to Wrexham moved a step closer with the submission of a formal planning application.
A period of pre-application consultation with the local community concluded successfully last week, paving the way for developer Low Carbon Farming to submit today its formal application to Wrexham County Borough Council.
The Project is now awaiting critical approval.
First unveiled in April, the project aims to be the centrepiece of a ‘green recovery’ from Covid-19 for the region. It remains firmly on track to enter construction next spring, stimulating indirect employment in the agricultural supply chain, as well as direct employment in construction and operation.
The two greenhouses will span 15.2 hectares, approximately 4x the footprint of the Principality Stadium, of agricultural land located directly between Dwr Cymru’s Five Fords Waste-Water Treatment Works and SecAnim Abattoir. Waste heat and carbon emissions from the Dwr Cymru facility will be captured and used to grow the low carbon fresh produce.
Andy Allen, a Director at Low Carbon Farming, said:
“It has been a genuine pleasure to engage with the local community and to have so many warm and detailed discussions about our plans. We now have a very clear view of local sentiment and this has informed our formal application.
“We wouldn’t have proposed this project if we didn’t think it was the right fit for Wrexham and 100% deliverable. We have though made a point of highlighting that it’s a time-limited opportunity since the window for support funding from UK Government is closing. We therefore make no apology for now testing the efficiency of the council’s planning team and its statutory target of determining new planning applications within an 8 week timeframe”.
If used solely for growing tomatoes, as is planned for the developer’s two world-first projects currently in construction in East Anglia, the Five Fords site would be capable of producing over 40% of all tomatoes consumed in Wales.
Employing a high productivity, state-of-the-art, growing system, the greenhouses will capture and recycle all run-off water. This prevents any harmful soil leaching and run off, and harvests all rainwater on site.
Further project information can be viewed at https://www.5-fords.com/
