People in north Pembrokeshire were given a chance to find out more about plans to build an £80million biomass plant in Trecwn recently.

More than 50 local residents and councillors attended an exhibition at the former Royal Naval Armament Depot site to discuss the proposed development of a combined heat and power plant.

Peter and Karen Didcote, who live nearby, said they were initially concerned that trees bordering the site would be used as woodchip to power the plant.

But the couple said they had been reassured this would not be the case by prospective site operators Renewable Developments Wales (RDW).

Mr Didcote added he was hopeful that the plant would create jobs for local people.

RDW say the plant could provide around 50 full-time jobs, plus another 150 positions during the two-year construction phase.

Plans are for the facility to be operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with woodchip being brought on to site by rail to avoid road congestion.

The plant would produce about 25MW of renewable electricity for the National Grid. This would run alongside a 20MW diesel-fired peaking plant on a different part of the Valley site, which was granted planning permission last year.

Ken Davies, of RDW, said there had been a lot of secrecy about plans for the 1100-acre site over the years, but he hoped the public exhibition had gone some way to increase transparency.

An RDW spokesman added: “We were delighted to see so many local people visiting their exhibition and taking such a keen interest in plans for a biomass plant as part of the regeneration of the Trecwn Valley as an energy park.

“The next stage for RDW is to complete a detailed environmental study prior to submitting a planning application for the biomass project.”