Public Consultation

Welcome

Thank you for visiting our website to learn more about plans for a new paper manufacturing facility in Flintshire.

An Exciting Economic Opportunity for Flintshire

Industrie Cartarie Tronchetti (ICT) Group, an international company which manufactures tissue paper, is delighted to be bringing forward plans for a new paper mill, at the Northern Gateway, Deeside, Flintshire. The paper mill will be ICT Group’s first tissue paper processing and production facility in the UK and would produce materials such as toilet paper and kitchen roll.

We want to hear your views on our proposals for this site before we submit a planning application. Our website has everything you need to learn more about our plans, including how you can get in touch with the team to find out more. We recommend starting with ‘Our Proposals’ and taking it from there.

Our consultation will run until Thursday 21st October. Following the end of the consultation, ICT will review all comments received and incorporate feedback provided into the final plans, where possible, before submitting a planning application.

You can find more information about ICT Group at: https://www.ictgroup.net/en

Our Proposals

ICT is proposing to deliver a paper processing mill at a site located in Flintshire, on the western edge of Garden City. The site forms part of the former RAF Sealand ‘South Camp’ site, now referred to as the Airfields, which was previously utilised by the Ministry of Defence, and extends south onto the former Corus Garden City. The site forms part of the Northern Gateway Strategic Mixed-Use Development Allocation designated in the Council’s Unitary Development Plan (UDP). Beyond the eastern and southern boundaries of the site will be the Welsh Government’s proposed Commercial Spine Road. This proposed road, submitted as part of a separate planning application by the Welsh Government, will facilitate access into the proposed ICT Paper Mill Facility.  The road is also expected to provide a public transport link into the Deeside Industry Park and link the Airfield site with the adjacent former Corus Garden City which forms part of Northern Gateway.

The new paper mill will produce and manufacture tissue paper, along with office space and infrastructure, such as car parking. The delivery of the comprehensive paper mill facility is proposed in three phases.

  • Phase 1 of the development will deliver a pulp warehouse, paper mill, jumbo reels storage warehouse building, converting hall, dispatch area, workshop, staff social area, automated 10 level finished product high bay warehouse, water treatment plant, mill station and two storey office building.
  • Phase 2 will deliver a tissue paper production output and will follow 12 months after the completion of Phase 1. This will provide an additional pulp warehouse, paper mill and jumbo reels storage warehouse, to maximise output on the site. The Phase 2 buildings will adjoin the Phase 1 buildings and increase the facility in width. The floorspace of Phase 1 and Phase 2 combined totals 83,811 sq. m.
  • Phase 3 will only be delivered if the facility needs to increase in size because of market demand for the finished product. It will establish an additional pulp warehouse, paper mill, boiler room, jumbo reels storage warehouse, converting hall and an extension to the proposed automated finished product high bay warehouse to maximise production on site. The floorspace of Phase 1, 2 and 3 combined totals 124,344 sq. m.

The site has been chosen as it occupies a strategic location, not only within Flintshire, but also in a sub-regional and national spatial context. Located next to Deeside Industrial Park, a major centre for employment, the site is well served by the local trunk road network providing links to Liverpool, Cheshire and Greater Manchester. It is part of the larger Deeside Enterprise Zone, designated by the Welsh Government in September 2011.

What do you think about our proposals? Tell us what you think by completing the feedback form here.

Benefits

Economic and Employment Benefits for Flintshire and Wales

The plans will deliver a boost to the local economy of Flintshire and wider economy of Wales. Overall, once fully developed, it is estimated that the proposed development will generate approximately £2.9 million of business rates revenue per annum, with Phase 1 directly accounting for £1.5 million per annum, which Flintshire Council can use to spend on services. Once in operation, the facility is expected to create 463 direct jobs, which will be available for local people.

As well as the hundreds of direct jobs created through the paper processing mill, many other jobs will be established in the supply chain resulting from the new facility. Additionally, other employment opportunities will become available during the development and construction of the facility, including 154 jobs and opportunities for training and apprenticeships.

Establishing Flintshire as a Place to do Business

The delivery of this facility could kick start the Northern Gateway site, showing other major employers that Flintshire is open for business and wants to work with those looking to invest in the UK. We are confident that our plans can act as a catalyst for local investment, in turn benefiting the Council to the tune of millions of pounds in business rates and creating hundreds of new jobs for the area.

Considerations

During the development of our proposals, we have considered the site and the local area. You can find more information on each of these aspects below:

Design

Our design considerations are outlined in our Design & Access Statement Document which you can read by clicking the button below. Furthermore you can also read our extensive assessment to ensure the culture, heritage and archaeology of the site is protected. 

Planning

You can view our draft Planning Statement below.

The development will also deliver several economic benefits. 

Traffic & Highways

Vehicle access into the site will be served from the Welsh Government’s proposed Commercial Spine Road 2 and 3. The proposed road is now the subject of a reserved matters application submitted to Flintshire County Council in June 2021 and once determined and constructed will provide highways access to the site.

If approved, this road will create eight points of access and junctions into the site. Four junctions will be created into the site from Road 3 of the Commercial Spine Road and four junctions into the site from the east from Road 2.

The site is well connected, with access currently via Corus Road, which is connected to Welsh Road (B5441). To the east of the B5441 Welsh Road lies the A494 Trunk Road. The A494 is a dual carriageway that connects the M56 to the A55; a strategic transport route which joins North Wales to the North West and areas such as Liverpool, Cheshire and Greater Manchester.

The proposed Commercial Spine Road and Corus Road will allow bus access and linkage through the wider Northern Gateway Site and into Deeside Industrial Park. A Bus Hub and Interchange is also proposed near to the Corus Garden City and the Welsh Road. This will be constructed and delivered by Flintshire County Council and will improve overall public transport connections through the Northern Gateway site.

Our highways consultants are working closely with the Highway Officers to ensure that any impact on the highway network is acceptable. You can find out more by reading our Transport Assessment and Travel Plan.

Flooding

The site is classified as being located within Flood Zone C1. This is defined as “areas of the floodplain which are developed and served by significant infrastructure, including flood defences”.

Our expert technical team has conducted extensive surveys to ascertain how the development can be delivered and which demonstrates that the scheme is acceptable and will not increase flood risk locally. Furthermore, the proposals include an outline drainage scheme. You can read more about our approach to drainage in our Flood Consequence Assessment.

Ecology

Mitigation proposals have already been agreed with the Council as part of the separate landowners, Crag Hill Estates Ltd, enabling works around the ICT plot which will provide aquatic ecological habitats. There is also provision of a reptile mitigation area at the northern end of the site and a grassland ecological mitigation area adjacent to the ICT plot. A reptile mitigation will include refuges and mounds and the grassland mitigation area will have a meadow mix grass seeding over existing grass sward. For more details, please see the full Ecology and Nature Conservation Report and the Water Environment Report here. 

ICT will also produce a Construction Environmental Management Plan that will further provide measures to protect ecology and wildlife through the construction phase.

Trees, Hedgerows and Landscaping

Strategic landscaping will be provided around sections of the boundary of the site as part of the separate landscaping work to be undertaken by the landowners Crag Hill Estates Ltd (CHEL). In accordance with the outline permission already granted, landscaping works will include removal of self-seeded trees, the replacement of trees, and aquatic ecological habitats, with reptile and grassland mitigation areas. The reptile mitigation will include refuges and mounds and the grassland mitigation area will have meadow mix grass seeding over existing grass sward.

In addition to landscaping and treatment proposed as part of enabling works to be implemented by CHEL, ICT will also seek to provide hedgerows planted on the southern and south western boundary facing the Commercial Spine Road 3 and further tree planting on the northern and north western boundaries adjacent to the Millennium Greenway Sustrans cycleway.  Security fencing will also be provided around the perimeter of the site.

The majority of the screen planting around the boundaries is proposed to be carried out as part of Phase 1 so they can flourish, mature and grow over time. They will also provide some screening and softening of the elevations particularly for views from the Sustrans Route 5 around the north of the site.

Separating the Application Site and the Commercial Spine Road are proposed drainage swales, which will also connect into the proposed new swale between the Application Site and Plot D of the industrial park. Whilst these swales are for drainage purposes, they provide a green and blue infrastructure buffer as well as a physical boundary between the road and adjacent land proposed for housing to the south of the Commercial Spine Road. 

This housing land immediately to the south of the Commercial Spine Road is referred to as Plots H4 and H5 of the Airfields site and will be separated from the road by a 2.4m high earth bund and a 1.4m acoustic fence (total height of 4m). The bund is currently being constructed and will provide an appropriate landscaped buffer which will help screen the ICT Paper Mill Facility from the proposed residential development.

Sustainability

ICT is committed to ensuring the paper mill is sustainable. As such, a Sustainability Statement has been prepared.

Noise & Air

Assessments have been undertaken to predict the potential impact of the development in terms of noise and air pollution.

A Noise Assessment has been undertaken and demonstrates that the scheme is acceptable within local planning policy. To learn more about the noise impact of the development, you can read the Noise and Vibration Paper.

Furthermore, the Air Quality Assessment has considered the impact of emissions from the site and the traffic generated from the site in terms of air quality, as well as the effect during construction. The studies show that the impact of traffic emissions is predicted to be negligible.

Documentation

ICT UK Ltd has  produced a number of documents as part of its application. All these documents can be viewed here:

Tell Us What You Think

Thank you for taking the time to look at our proposals.

We are committed to listening to local people as we develop our plans and this consultation provides an opportunity for the local community to have their say. As such, we would welcome all feedback from those interested in helping to shape the future of the local community before we submit our final plans to Flintshire County Council in the coming weeks.

There are several ways to have your say:

We look forward to hearing from you.

Please ensure all feedback is provided by Thursday 21st October 2021.

Thank you for taking the time to visit this website. We hope you found the information useful.

If you have any questions, you can contact a member of the development team by:

Who is Industrie Cartarie Tronchetti (ICT) Group?

ICT Group is an international company which manufactures and produces over 620,000 tonnes of tissue paper per year, including toilet papers, kitchen rolls, napkins and other paper products. With headquarters in Italy, the ICT Group is a European market leader, operating across a number of facilities including in Italy, Poland, France and Spain with over 1,700 staff. The company specialises in premium products, adopting state of the art technology for the highest quality tissue production. ICT Group currently sell relatively small volumes of products to UK distributors supplied via their mills in Europe.