Local Plan Issues and Options (Regulation 18)

Comment

Representation ID: 15355

Received: 29/08/2025

Respondent: Peel NRE Limited

Agent: Turley

I&O_15914
Section 2 Strategic Context Ellesmere Port As identified above, Ellesmere Port – the location of ORIGIN – is one of the most important industrial and employment clusters in the UK, including 1,300 businesses employing 24,100 people. ORIGIN is at the forefront of advanced plans to respond to the Climate Emergency through several transformational projects, as described above. As well as the area’s importance for hosting and supporting projects that will drive forward decarbonisation, the area also plays an important role as the economic engine of CWAC and the wider region more generally. Ellesmere Port is identified as a principal town and recognised as a key employment location within CWAC24. The majority of employment provision across the borough is within Ellesmere Port (as well as Chester) and it is an established industrial area and hosts the largest advanced manufacturing and logistic firms in CWAC. There is a mix of industry, with both high-profile investors/operators, including those with links to the low carbon economy, but also smaller businesses such as welders, car mechanics, metal fabrication that support bigger industry. The area has benefited from being part of the Cheshire Science Corridor Enterprise Zone which came into effect in 2016 and has been successful in terms of supporting economic growth. Ellesmere Port is also host to Stanlow Oil Refinery and Vauxhall automotive manufacture. Both are major employers in the area. It has recently been announced25 that Vauxhall will be closing its van-making factory in Luton in 2025, with electric van production moved to the Ellesmere Port plant, creating further jobs at the site. Ellesmere Port is strategically well connected in CWAC. It is located off the M53 and M56 motorways with strategic connections to Manchester, Liverpool, Chester, and the Wirral. The Manchester Ship Canal borders Ellesmere Port to the north which enables freight shipments to and from Ellesmere Port, which is connected to the Royal Seaforth Container Terminal and the Liverpool2 deep-water Container Terminal based at the Port of Liverpool. Ellesmere Port and Stanlow also each have a railway station, as well as freight rail infrastructure. This offers multi-modal opportunities for freight transportation, with access via port, rail and road. CWAC’s own evidence base supporting the R18 LP (Economic Needs Assessment (ENA) 2025) evidences Ellesmere Port will continue to make a significant contribution to employment levels across the borough. The ENA demonstrates there is significant demand and tight supply for premises at Ellesmere Port, especially within the Enterprise Zone. Demand (around 45%) is generally for large scale units (likely driven by the motorway connectivity) for a minimum of 10 ha for new sites, but more frequently 25 ha and significantly above. The ENA also reports that it is perhaps not out of the realms of possibility that gigafactory interest could emerge – requiring over 200ha on one site. Notwithstanding the contributions Ellesmere Port makes to employment provision, it is also one of the most deprived areas within CWAC, and indeed the UK. Workplace earnings in CWAC are also lower than national averages suggesting a level of out-commuting occurs where residents travel out of the borough they reside in to access higher paid employment elsewhere. Ellesmere Port remains an area of national and regional investment interest for a range of specialist and general industrial / distribution requirements and also innovative flagship low carbon technologies. It is – and will remain – the industrial heartland of CWAC. If economic growth is to be sustained and maximised, opportunities must be identified to support and reinforce this through the preparation of the Local Plan. Protos and surrounds Protos is located close to Ellesmere Port in a strategically important position within CWAC set within the heart of the net zero industrial cluster & ORIGIN. Protos is uniquely positioned and recognised in its role to help CWAC and the North West region achieve clean growth through being able to provide land for projects that will decarbonise industries and create low carbon energy26. Indeed, Protos is already advancing its contribution to this sector. Key projects to date include: [See attachment] Protos is at the epicentre of ORIGIN and will host infrastructure associated to the first phase of HyNet. The Protos ERF will likely to be the first UK EFW delivering negative emissions in the UK. Protos is recognised for its strategic significance for economic development and waste management in CWACC’s adopted Local Plan (the site being referred to as ‘Ince Park’), including LPP1 at Policies STRAT4 (Ellesmere Port), ECON1 (Economic growth, employment and enterprise), and ENV8 (Managing Waste); and LPP2 Policies EP6 (Ince Park), and DM54 (Waste Management). The strategic allocation effectively recognises the original planning permissions27, but also safeguards the site for waste management uses. The adopted policies reflected a point in time, and the context within which Protos now operates has moved on, and the policy position needs to evolve to be reflective of these changes, and provide flexibility to, the future ambitions of CWAC associated with climate change and securing sustainable economic growth. The land at and surrounding Protos is integral to meeting the needs of the borough – both for employment and to meet the ambitions surrounding net zero – and with it, safeguarding existing jobs and creating new jobs within the Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy. The location and the land available benefits from unique and distinctive attributes that distinguish it and provides a broader opportunity to accommodate large scale flexible development plots associated with energy generation, industrial decarbonisation, energy intensive industry, resource recovery, and general employment. There are no other sites within the borough which offer the same opportunities, including the benefit of clustering and synergy in these developing industries. CWACC should grasp this opportunity and recognise the importance of allocating the land at and surrounding Protos with a flexible policy position to respond to this emerging sector and also to meet the more general employment needs of the borough. To not grasp this opportunity would compromise the achievement of CWACC’s net zero ambitions and employment provision, in turn limiting its responsiveness to support economic and clean growth, and the contribution the borough will make to the decarbonisation of the region, and indeed the UK.