Council waiting on start date for construction of £390m bottle factory

Councillors have been told that there is still no start date for the construction of a £390 million bottle factory.

Concerns about the factory, which it is hoped will create 600 jobs, were first aired by councillors last month because of the lack of tangible process being seen at the site in Ebbw Vale.

Fears have been raised that the bottle making plant could be another economic white elephant for Blaenau Gwent, such as the Circuit of Wales project which promised much but failed to materialise.

A report on the current status of the project was discussed last week by the council’s Corporate Performance Scrutiny Committee.

‘Assistance package’

The self-assessment report noted that CiNER is in discussions with both the Welsh and UK Government about agreeing an “assistance package.”

In response to a question about a potential start date on the site, Director of regeneration and community Ellie Fry said: “I know there is great interest in this.

“The package from the Welsh Government is with the minister to be signed off.

“That’s something we have been working with the government to ensure the development of the site is possible.”

The package was also with the UK Government and Ms Fry told the committee that no decision had been made at Westminster yet.

‘Positive’

She added: “What we’re hoping for is some sort of noise from the UK Government in the near future.

“They are very positive, but nothing has come out yet.

“And then hopefully shovels in the ground, which is what we are looking for.”

She said she believed the scheme is moving “in the right direction.”

The committee agreed to recommend that the assessment goes to a full council meeting later this month to be ratified by councillors ahead of being published on the authority’s website.

In 2023 it emerged that CiNER wanted to make number of changes to the original planning permission that they were given for the scheme in June 2022 for a site on the Rassau Industrial Estate

Changes to the scale, height, layout, appearance, access, and landscape of were agreed which make the factory smaller and a condition about Great Crested Newts was deleted as the amphibians are not present at the site.

These changes were agreed by Blaenau Gwent planners in February.

In September CiNER announced that they had appointed Gokhan Sen as the new chief executive of CiNER Glass UK to help oversee the company’s expansion plans across Europe.

CiNER is currently working to build two new state-of-the-art glass factories to help increase its glass production capacity to serve the European market.

The first glass plant will be situated in Lommel, Belgium which they hope to have built by 2026 – their second factory is the one earmarked for Ebbw Vale.

On the Ebbw Vale development CiNER said: “The project would be one of the largest investments in South Wales for decades and would look to supply glass bottles to UK food and beverage producers.”

They added that works were progressing at the site.

CiNER have been asked for further comment.