Work is progressing on schedule to create the UK’s largest waste wood recycling centre.
 
Leading wood recycling firm Plevin is on course with development plans for the new £5 million facility on a 50 acre site in Hazlehead, South Yorkshire.
 
The centre, which will primarily manufacture wood chips for energy giant E.ON’s £120m renewable energy plant at Blackburn Meadows near Sheffield, will create 20 jobs and process up to 150,000 tonnes of waste wood a year.
 
The facility is now open for receipt of waste wood material and preparations are underway for the installation of processing equipment. Site preparation work to date has included the demolition of redundant buildings. Installation of processing equipment is due to commence in the new year, and production on site will coincide with the opening of Blackburn Meadows.
 
Jamie Plevin, managing director of Plevin, said: “We’re pleased to see work progressing on schedule at Hazlehead.
“We have had a great response to the start of our recruitment drive, and have already hired three new members of staff, two machine drivers and a load inspector, who will prove integral to the site’s success.
 
“Later in the year, we will start recruiting for further posts at Hazlehead.  Further information will be posted on the Plevin website, www.plevin.co.uk.”
 
The Hazlehead site will allow the firm, based in Mossley, Greater Manchester, to fulfil its contract as the sole supplier of fuel to the Blackburn Meadows plant.
 
Barnsley Development Agency, a partner in the South Yorkshire Sector Growth Enhancement Programme, which is part-financed by the European Union's 2007-13 European Regional Development Fund, is helping Plevin with recruitment at the new base.
The agency’s SYSGEP sector growth manager Steve Hawkins said: “We’re delighted to welcome Plevin to Barnsley. It’s quite a coup for the borough to be chosen as a manufacturing base for such a major supplier to the green energy sector and we look forward to continuing to support them as they create valuable jobs in the area.”
 
As well as processing biomass fuel, Plevin manufactures a range of market-leading wood-based products, including materials for the panel board industry and animal bedding for livestock, equestrian and small animals.