North councillors have approved plans for a “once in a generation” alloy car wheels factory near Fort William which will create 400 new jobs.
GFG Alliance’s facility will be part of a £120 million expansion of its Lochaber smelter and the metals giant aims to start producing in 2020. Liberty British Aluminium will manufacture up to two million wheels a year for the UK car industry at the new site.
GFG executive chairman Sanjeev Gupta said it will “transform the economic prospects of the area” and hopes it can generate hundreds more jobs in the supply chain and in the wider Highland economy.
North MSP Kate Forbes said the planning approval marked a turnaround in fortunes after the threat of smelter job cuts under its previous owner, Rio Tinto, before it was acquired in December 2016.
Local councillors praised the development but urged a rethink on a planned spend – 1% of the project’s capital costs – on “public art” as part of the development in line with council policy, suggesting that it would instead be better spent on improving local infrastructure.
Fort William and Ardnamurchan councillor Andrew Baxter said: “It’s a once in a generation – if not a once in several generations – opportunity for our community, and Liberty Group should be applauded for this contribution to the economy and community.”
He spoke during a debate of the item at yesterday’s South Planning Applications Committee in Inverness.
Committee chairman Jimmy Gray said: “It’s a short time ago we were looking at the possibility of losing 170 jobs (at the smelter) but now there is potential for 400 jobs here. There are few areas here (Highlands), or in Scotland, that undergo such a dramatic turn around.”
Kate Forbes MSP said: “The key here is not necessarily alloy wheels or aluminium smelting in and of itself, but instead the impact on the local economy. It’s about the future of jobs, houses and training opportunities for local people, as well as attracting people to move to the area.
“Fort William has a history of peaks and troughs when it comes to the local economy due to an over reliance on one employer, such as the paper mill. That is why Liberty is such good news, in tandem with expansion and growth at BSW Timber, Ferguson Transport and tourism businesses as well as the development of West Highland College and the proposal for a STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) centre.
“There is growth right across Lochaber, and I hope that everybody benefits.”
The new factory, to the west of the existing smelter, will involve the redevelopment of part of a former brownfield site on which a former carbon factory once stood.
The consent comes with a number of conditions related to transport and traffic management and environmental, historical and archaeological management.
Among council officers’ suggested planning conditions is that archaeologists monitor the construction of the factory.
The plant has been proposed for land where the two battles of Inverlochy were fought in 1431 and 1645.
Mr Baxter and Inverness councillor Richard Laird also said yesterday that they have struggled with a council policy which requires a 1% spend on public art as part of bigger developments, with Mr Baxter suggested spending the money on the local rail network or on developing proposals for UHI’s STEM centre in the area.
