Plans for new cheese plant in turmoil

Partners in Cheese’s ( cumbria-investment.co.uk ) plans to build a cheese plant in Cumbria are in turmoil again after the company announced it had been forced to look for an alternative site for the £50m processing facility.

West Lakes Dairy Park, the UK-based company created by PiC, pulled out of the site after it emerged Swedish company Studsvik (www.studsvik.co.uk) wanted to build a nuclear waste treatment next door to the proposed dairy at Lillyhall.

If it is given the go ahead, the nuclear facility would clean contaminated metal waste from nuclear facilities.

While secturity measures would be in place to privent contamination, West Lakes Dairy Park said the “perceived risks” from locating the dairy plant close by “did not provide a viable business option.”

Dutch entreprenreneur Ronald Akkerman, West Lakes Dairy Park director, said he was enormously disappointed the processing plant had been “ousted” from the Lillyhall site.

“However we remain 100% committed to building this dairy facility in Cumbria and are working around the clock to secure another site in the county as soon as possible so as to minimise any delay in starting construction.”

Kate Willard, West Lakes Dairy Park chief executive, said the company had called a meeting for all the dairy farmers who had signed up to supply the processor.

“Ensuring that our farmers understand how we are driving this project forward is critical,” she said.

“We will be taking this opportunity to reassure them that this potential set-back – forced on us by external forces – has simply meant that we have now redoubled our efforts to get onto a new site and start construction as soon as we can.”