Transforming disused land and facilities

1. Why is Brunner Mond selling off land and facilities?
Our plans involve finding new and better uses for land and facilities which would otherwise be derelict. This will benefit both Brunner Mond and the wider community.
We are one of the leading employers in the area and the sale of disused land at Wallerscote/Winnington and the sale of our old power station site at Lostock will generate resources to allow further investment in our sites. This will help ensure our long-term success.
For the community as a whole a wide range of benefits would ensue. These include the transformation of an ugly industrial site, the creation of jobs, new wealth for the area and a boost for the aims of the Council's Vision for Northwich.

2. Why do you need the money and what do you intend to do with it?
Brunner Mond is in a fiercely competitive international market and it is vital that we keep pace with the best in our field. Over the past 10 years, more than £200 million has been invested in our sites at Winnington and Lostock, including the new Combined Heat and Power plant which has been developed by PowerGen.

Proceeds from these proposals would enable us to continue with this programme of investment and business improvement. For example, we would like to install more of the latest computer-controlled technology.

3. Why don't you need these facilities any more?
The Wallerscote site has been largely derelict since the main Wallerscote Soda Ash manufacturing facility was closed in the early 1980s. The last of the operating plant was replaced by a new £6 million Dense Soda Ash finishing plant at Lostock in 1994. (The re-siting meant that materials no longer had to be transferred between Wallerscote and Lostock, removing some 300 lorry trips per day from the roads of Northwich.)

We still have storage facilities here; this regeneration programme will make it possible for us to build new facilities at the heart of our Winnington site.
The power station at Lostock is now no longer needed as all of Brunner Mond's heat and power is supplied by the new PowerGen CHP plant at Winnington.

4. Does this mean you will be shedding jobs?
Not at all. This is derelict land and idle assets which we want to use more productively to ensure the continued success of the company.

5. Why are you planning a housing development at Wallerscote rather than finding an industrial use which would provide more jobs?
Part of the legacy of being a manufacturing company of such long standing is that Brunner Mond has areas of land that are either no longer utilised or are under-utilised as our operations have become progressively more modern, efficient and concentrated. This situation presents the major challenge of how to remediate such land and make it available for alternative, beneficial use. Over the past 15 years we have made efforts on a number of occasions to attract either light industrial or large retail developments to the Wallerscote site, without success.

There is currently no demand for retail or major industrial use on this site; there are more attractive sites available in the area.

The site does however provide a perfect opportunity for the provision of an integrated residential development on brownfield or recycled land which is the preferred planning option to using greenfield sites. As well as this, the illustrative plan for the village indicates areas for office and light industrial developments and live/work units. Planners estimate that the village would create around 500 jobs.

6.What is the future of the Wallerscote limebeds?
The limebeds are now closed as a waste disposal site altogether. We are looking at how the site could, in the long term, be restored and returned to beneficial public use.

7.What is the latest situation with the proposed Thermal Treatment (Energy from Waste) plant at Lostock?
Cheshire County Council has issued its Replacement Waste Local Plan First Deposit Draft which includes the Lostock site as one of the possible locations for waste facilities in the future, a Thermal Treatment plant and Materials Recovery Facility being the likely developments. The Council's policy-formation process is not yet complete and any further development of plans for the Lostock site is likely to await its conclusion.

The Urban Village

1. What is an urban village?
An urban village is a development which combines housing with leisure facilities and community services such as health centres, post offices and schools for the people who live there. It can also have commercial developments - shops and small industrial units, for example - so that jobs can be provided locally too. An urban village is designed to ensure that the lives and needs of future residents are considered before the houses are built, not afterwards.

2. What will you be knocking down to make way for the houses?
We will be demolishing the silos and the former soda ash-finishing plant at Wallerscote and clearing the whole of the Brunner Mond site to the west of the A533.

3. How big is the urban village site?
The new planning application submitted by the Winnington Urban Village Consortium covers a total of 56.4 hectares, inclusive of the land owned by Brunner Mond.

4. What kind of homes are planned and how much will they cost?
There will be upto 1200 homes of various sizes and styles including live-work units. It is too soon to give an indication of price.

5. What facilities will be included?
The facilities will include a primary school, community centre, shops, play areas and open space. There will also be live-work units and space for new medical facilities if the public health authority determines that these should be provided from within the Urban Village.

6. This is industrial land - how will you make sure it is safe for domestic building?
In common with all industrial sites which are going to be used for building, a thorough ground remediation programme will be carried out. Unlike many other brownfield sites, the Brunner Mond land has the advantage that we know all of its history since it was farmland in the 1920s. Any contaminated material will be transported off site for disposal in an appropriate licensed site or will be made safe on site. The land will be made perfectly safe for building.

7. Wouldn't an urban village built here be in danger of flooding?
Even though last year's floods in Northwich were the worst for 50 years, we still had a minimum of 5ft clearance here when the river was at its highest point. We have discussed the issue in detail with the Environment Agency which has indicated that the development could proceed providing a few simple construction guidelines are followed.

8. Would the urban village make the most of its proximity to the river?
Very much so. The plan includes two new pedestrian bridges over the river as well as a riverside promenade.

9. How will local roads cope with the extra traffic generated by the village?
As part of the planning preparation, specialist consultants have made in-depth studies of current and projected traffic flows. The plans include traffic improvements on existing roads such as the widening of junctions, the creation of filter lanes and new traffic lights. Once these measures are in place, the studies show that traffic conditions will not be significantly different to those of today.

In addition, the design of the village will make it as easy as possible to walk, cycle or catch the bus.

10. Who are the Winnington Urban Village Consortium?
Three major house-building firms - Taylor Woodrow, Morris Homes and Barratt Homes - have joined together to form a Consortium to develop the Urban Village site.

Waste planning in Cheshire

1. When do you expect to have further news about the possibility of a Thermal Treatment plant at Lostock?
The Replacement Waste Local Plan First Deposit Draft has been issued by Cheshire County Council and includes a proposal for development at Lostock. The Council has further stages of their policy-making process to complete  before any plans become firm. Only when the County policy has been finalised can there be more certainty about a development at Lostock

2. Shouldn't waste be recycled rather than disposed of?
The aim of everyone involved in finding solutions to Cheshire's waste disposal is to put in place an integrated strategy which has several phases designed to reduce waste at source. We must all:
* reduce the amount of waste we generate
* re-use or recycle as much material as possible, and only then
* dispose of the residue in the most effective and efficient way.

Thermal Treatment (or Energy from Waste) plants come in at this stage.  The Government's Waste Strategy 2000 states "Energy from Waste can make an important contribution towards sustainable development as a source of renewable energy, reducing the use of fossil fuels and emissions of greenhouse gases" If the plan proceeds it is likely that there would be such a plant at Lostock alongside a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF)

The Government's Waste Strategy 2000 states: "Energy from waste can make an important contribution towards sustainable development as a source of renewable energy, reducing the use of fossil fuels and cutting emissions of greenhouse gases."

3. Where would the waste for the Thermal Treatment Plant come from?
Cheshire County Council is currently developing its waste disposal strategy and we anticipate that its conclusions will include the need for introducing some Thermal Treatment Plant capacity to handle domestic waste from the County.

4.What other benefits are there from Thermal Treatment Plant plants?
The obvious advantage of Thermal Treatment Plant plants is that they dramatically reduce the need for landfill sites - in line with all the latest environmental thinking. Thermal Treatment Plant also has the advantage of not giving rise to methane gas as landfill does.

Thermal Treatment Plant produces "green" electricity which is not reliant on the burning of precious fossil fuels. It also eliminates the C02 emissions which fossil fuel-burning power stations produce.