Plevin progresses with plans for major UK recycling centre

PLEVIN has made progress with its plans to open the UK’s largest waste wood recycling centre in South Yorkshire.

The wood recycling firm’s new £5m facility, which will primarily manufacture wood chips for energy giant E.ON’s £120m renewable energy plant at Blackburn Meadows near Sheffield, is now open for receipt of waste wood material and preparations are underway for the installation of processing equipment.

Site preperation work to date has included the demolition of redundant buildings. Installation of processing equipment is due to commence in the new year and production on site will coincide with the opening of Blackburn Meadows.

The centre, on a 50 acre site in Hazlehead, Barnsley, will create 20 jobs and process up to 150,000 tonnes of waste wood a year.

Managing director, Jamie Plevin, said: “We’re pleased to see work progressing on schedule at Hazlehead.

“We have had a great response to the start of our recruitment drive and have already hired three new members of staff, two machine drivers and a load inspector, who will prove integral to the site’s success.
 
“Later in the year, we will start recruiting for further posts at Hazelhead.”

The Hazlehead site will allow Greater Manchester-based Plevin to fulfil its contract as the sole supplier of fuel to the Blackburn Meadows plant.
 
Barnsley Development Agency, a partner in the South Yorkshire Sector Growth Enhancement Programme (SYSGEP), which is part-financed by the European Union’s 2007-13 European Regional Development Fund, is helping Plevin with recruitment at the new base.

The agency’s SYSGEP sector growth manager, Steve Hawkins, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Plevin to Barnsley. It’s quite a coup for the borough to be chosen as a manufacturing base for such a major supplier to the green energy sector and we look forward to continuing to support them as they create valuable jobs in the area.”