Thornton’s £130m waste facility sparks jobs rush

Over 200 interviews for jobs within Lancashire's new waste processing facility in Thornton, Wyre will take place this month after over 1,000 people applied for vacancies.

The 37-acre waste processing facility on the former ICI Works on Hillhouse Business Park will begin accepting waste from Blackpool, Fylde, Wyre and Lancaster households in April.

Approximately 105 staff will be recruited between now and June; 35 of which will be recruited after this month's interviews.

These interviews follow a successful training-for-employment course set up between Blackpool and The Fylde College, Job Centre Plus and Global Renewables Lancashire, a joint venture between Lend Lease and Amec, which will operate the facility. The three-week course was designed to help long-term unemployed people into sustainable work by giving people skills and qualifications directly linked to a job. Anyone who completed the course was presented with a certificate and guaranteed an interview this week.

Tracey Robinson, human resources manager at Global Renewables Lancashire, said: "After watching construction of the facility for the past two years, it is great we are now able to go out into the local community and meet and greet the people who will actually make this facility happen."

Lancashire County Council and Blackpool Council have invested in the development of the two new waste processing facilities at Thornton and Leyland. These facilities will help recover over 85% of the waste produced by Lancashire's households and will make Lancashire one of the greenest counties in the UK in terms of sustainable waste management.