Plan for Eggborough Power Station could create over 1,000 jobs - but there are concerns about the site

More than 1,000 jobs could be created with the news that Eggborough Power Station is to be redeveloped.

Property and investment firm, St Francis Group, has snapped up the redundant 130-acre for an undisclosed sum.

The company now intends to clear the site and build various-sized industrial and logistics units to take advantage of the plant’s excellent transport position, close to the M62 and A19.

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There are also still plans to build a 2.5 GW gas power plant at the site, first presented in 2016.

Selby District Council Councillors
Mary McCartney
CD copySelby District Council Councillors
Mary McCartney
CD copy
Selby District Council Councillors Mary McCartney CD copy

Although no timescale has been disclosed, it is thought the number of new employment opportunities on the site will exceed four figures. Speaking about the sale Adam Booth, managing director for Eggborough Power Limited, said: “The sale of the station represents a new and exciting chapter for this site, which has played a critical role in the UK’s infrastructure for over 50 years.

“Eggborough Power will continue to maintain an active interest in the site as we pursue our plans to develop a new, high-efficiency gas-fired power station on the former stock yard of the old coal station.”

But Mary McCartney, ward representative for the Eggborough area on Selby District Council, has concerns about the site.

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She says J34 of the M62 “desperately” needs upgrading for such a development, and questions the future of the existing sports facilities on the Eggborough site.

Coun McCartney also queries the possible jobs boost, saying: “The destruction of the coal industry, pits and power stations, has seen high-skilled and well-paid jobs disappear and I fear that they will not be replicated at either the Eggborough Power site or indeed on the Kellingley colliery site.”

Eggborough closed in 2018, two years after Ferrybridge’s last station also powered down.

Built between 1962 and 1970, Eggborough was designed to use coal reserves from the region to generate capacity of 1,960 megawatts, enough electricity to power 2 million homes.

Having changes hands several times since 2000, the last owners, Czech Republic-based Energetický a průmyslový, said the plant was no longer commercially viable.

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