Tissue producer pushes on with Deeside scheme

ICT Group has lodged plans for a 700,000 sq ft paper mill at the Airfields site, a priority development area for Flintshire.

Headquartered in Italy, ICT – Industrie Cartarie Tronchetti – announced the development in May, on the back of a pledge from the Welsh Government that it would provide £5m towards the project at the Northern Gateway site.

A consultation process was carried out last month, leading to the submission of plans. Flintshire Council lists the applicants as ICT and Craig Hill Estates, with solicitor Wright Hassall named as agent.

The professional team includes architect AEW, BWB, RPS, Curtins, Cundall, Amion, Tyler Grange, Spawforths, Shepherd Gilmour, Arcadis and Barry Chinn Landscape Architects.

Full consent is sought for the paper mill, with ancillary offices and parking.

The Airfields site refers to the former RAF Sealand South Camp site, also extending to the former Corus steelworks.

The Welsh Government is funding a spine road that will allow access to the ICT site and support public transport access to this and other plots.

ICT signed a preliminary contract in May for a 50-acre site, to develop an integrated tissue production and conversion facility, described as the first of its kind in the UK in more than 15 years.

The company’s proposal comes on the back of a further tissue paper production project in the area, announced in September by Eren Holding, which has now taken control of the UPM Shotton paper mill site and announced expansion plans.

Various industrial and residential projects are being advanced within the Airfields holding, with Anwyl Homes and Bellway revealing plans for a £40m development in May.

Lucca-based ICT expects its facility to deliver consumer tissue products marketed through retailer private labels and ICT’s own brand FOXY to the UK and Irish markets. The company said that it had carried out feasibility studies on potential sies across the UK over three years before choosing Deeside.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said of the scheme in May that “this development is good news for the Northern Gateway site, Deeside and North Wales.

“It will bring a brand new state-of-the-art facility to the site with more than 200 jobs, and the possibility of further expansion in the future.”