50 jobs to help Cheddleton firm generate own power

FACTORY bosses are set to expand their workforce with 50 new staff after unveiling plans to build new shower and changing facilities.

Animal rendering plant John Pointons & Sons, of Cheddleton, has seen its staffing levels almost double over the past few years, to 180.

Now bosses at the complex – which processes animal by-products and food waste – says it needs a new facilities room, laundry room, canteen and toilets, to cope with a further rise in the number of people it employs.

The plan was unveiled as the company reveals another 50 employees are set to join when the firm completes its energy resource centre.

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The £12m facility, due to be completed by 2015, will allow the company to generate its own electricity by converting waste products into energy.

However, planning officers at Staffordshire Moorlands District Council have recommended refusing permission for the further extensions.

Barney Williams, the company's technical director, said: "Over the last seven or eight years we have almost doubled our staff.

"We have already taken on another 25 due to the energy centre and we should take on another 50 to go with that project.

"At the moment showers and changing facilities for our staff are in a number of portacabins. It's time we provided them with something better.

"It's a messy job, there's no getting away from that. We provide suitable showers at the moment, but it gets busy in there and people are sometimes waiting around. We want to provide a state-of-the-art facility.

"We've tried to work with the council. The application is in line with existing buildings, it is not overbearing, and we want to build it within the footprint of a previous demolished building.

"We are living in a tin city. We want to remove the portacabins and replace them with modern buildings."

The temporary portacabins are currently used by production staff for changing and showering, by office staff as a reception, and by management as offices and meeting rooms.

The new building would include offices, a reception, staff canteen and toilets, along with changing rooms, lockers, showers and laundry rooms.

District council planners have recommended refusal of the application, on the grounds that it is set within greenbelt land.

Cheddleton councillor Mike Worthington, who sits on the planning committee, said: "Cheddleton Parish Council is in favour of it, so that is something. We will look at all the evidence before making a decision."