£300m business park scheme gets Government go-ahead

A GAS fired power station at a Staffordshire business park has been approved by Government, which will create 800 construction jobs over a three-year period.
Meaford Gas Power Station now been granted consent by Greg Clark, the newly-appointed Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The £300m investment will create 30 permanent jobs and is seen as being the catalyst to progress the development of Meaford Business Park.
The development is being led by Meaford Energy, a joint venture between Glenfinnan and St Modwen.
Staffordshire County Council’s cabinet member for economic growth Mark Winnington welcomed the decision.
He said: “Government approval of the gas fired power station at Meaford is a major milestone and demonstrates real progress. This is a key part of the site development and will provide a boost in terms of jobs and an important part in national energy security.
“Following on from the approval of the first industrial unit last month it is rewarding to see things moving at pace. We’re pleased to have laid the foundations at Meaford which will lead to more investment and employment opportunities.”

The power station will be much smaller than the previous conventional coal power station that had been on the site. It won’t have any cooling towers and the tallest structure will be 50 metres high. It will have a generating capacity of up to 299MWe and directly source gas by a pipeline connected to the local gas system.
Staffordshire County Council has been carrying out infrastructure works to provide roads and utilities to the site, paving the way for developer St Modwen to begin construction on site which could provide up to 2,200 jobs. 
The road scheme received the backing of the Government’s Local Growth Fund while £6m was secured by the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership, together with a contribution from St Modwen.

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