PEOPLE in north Pembrokeshire have been given another opportunity to find out more about plans to build an £80 million biomass plant in Trecwn.

Local residents and councillors attended the Renewable Developments Wales exhibition at the former Royal Naval Armament Depot on April 1 to discuss the proposed development.

The combined heat and power plant would create around 50 full-time jobs, plus another 150 construction jobs over a two year period.

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 has already been granted planning permission.

Planning director, Anne Dugdale said: “I think we’ve had a good response to the exhibition. We’ve had some people who didn’t come last time, which is great, and also people who are following up on questions that they’ve thought of since last time.

“We’ve done a lot of work on the planning application, undertaking all the environmental assessments and making sure that we understand all the practical issues around the plans, what the plant is going to look like, and where the fuel is going to come from.

“When the application goes in, which we think will be in about six weeks time, hopefully there will be enough information to say what we’re trying to do here.”

PR advisor, Phil Thompson added: “From what we’ve seen today the local support has been very good. Quite of a few people here are very interested in the project generally, and welcoming it not only for the work related, but the community involvement, and obviously long-term jobs.

“It’s a moving process, it’s going to be into the latter part of next year before major construction would start, and that’s assuming everything goes smoothly, and it’ll be two to two and a half years before completion.”