Cereal Partners Expansion

Supporting Statement relating to

Cereal Partners production facility in Staverton GR ST856607 for

West Wiltshire District Council.

Environmental Summary

Introduction

This statement summarises the Environmental Protection employed and the Impacts seen from the proposed use of use for the buildings.

·         A CEMP is not required as the construction impact is negligible, however the protection of the river Avon [an SSSI and SAC] as it runs through the old industrialised plant is imperative during any tasks.

·         A Phase 2 Environmental Audit of the Nestle site prior to our purchase is available for inspection on request.

·         The visual impact of the limited building works will be minimal and in keeping with existing building materials.  The picturesque former water mill building will not be affected by this proposal.

Commercial synopsis

Cereal Partners UK is a partnership between Nestle SA and General Mills inc.  It has factories around the world including France, Spain, Poland, Russia and China.   The company manufactures Breakfast Cereals; these are marketed under the Nestle Brand name.  The company is also the largest supplier of Private Label cereal to the major UK retailers.

Cereal Partners built a new cereal production facility on the Nestle site at Staverton in 1998 in the former Crosse & Blackwell culinary plant.  Subsequent to the closure of the Nestle Chilled plant in late 2004, Cereal Partners now control the operations of the whole site.  In order to remain competitive against rising costs and reducing retail prices, the company has had to make the difficult decision to close its manufacturing and warehouse operations in Hertfordshire.  As part of this rationisation, the company did consider transferring the production to its exiting locations elsewhere in Europe.  The Staverton site was able to bid for this business and due to the available space on the site, it was successful in securing the new investment.  The company is therefore proposing to transfer the production of several products from the Hertfordshire site to the Staverton facility.  The net output from the CPUK will increase significantly from existing levels the level of output achieved when Nestle occupied the Chilled plant.

The combined projects represent a total investment of £40m by Cereal Partners in West Wiltshire and the project should be complete by late 2007.

Although this project will significantly increase the current activity on site, in terms of traffic, it will less than it was before the closure of the Nestle Chilled Dairy plant.

Building modifications

To accommodate the new equipment there is a need to make some minor changes to the buildings:

A new connection building will be constructed linking the Dairy and Cereal Buildings.

A temporary changing facility will be demolished make way for a hard-standing for a hydraulic plant room with acoustic enclosure.

Some penetrations will be made between the Dairy and Cereal plant providing access for pedestrians and internal transport between the two buildings where they abut.

An ancillary building area will be increased in height to accommodate a new cleaning system.

The former Sports and Social club will be removed, as it is no longer required.

The net effect on floor space will be a reduction of 161.3 m3.  Details of the areas of these buildings are attached to the planning application (appendix 3)

Traffic & Transport

Current situation

Strategies

In-bound Deliveries

Currently 90% of our in-bound suppliers are located in the East, or North East of England and the most direct route to the site is 13 miles from the J17 M4 alongis the A350from J17 to Chippenham.  Their local route to the site is via B3101 through the village of Holt.

Outbound Deliveries

This site does not have a finished goods warehouse.  Currently 60% of outbound finished product is sent 135 miles away to a warehouse in Hertfordshire.  These vehicles travel through the village of Holt on the B3101to join the A350 at Melksham and then onto Junction 17 on the M4.  The remaining 40% of finished goods are shipped 200 miles to a warehouse at Deeside in the North West of England.  These vehicles travel towards Bath on the A363 to pick up the A46 and Junction 18 on the M4.

Proposed situation

There will be a significant increase in traffic to and from the site from the levels of today, however they will be 40% less than they were only 18 months ago when Nestle operated on the site.  These are detailed on appendix (i). 

The premises is situated on the B3105, which is a busy commuter route to Bath and is the only route for commercial traffic from Trowbridge to the North, Wales, the North, and S.W. of England.  The amount of traffic servicing the site will be relatively low in proportion to the existing traffic.   Notwithstanding this, the company is proposing to take the following actions to mitigate is impact on the local community and environment:

• A new, purpose-built Distribution Warehouse (DC) is to be built in the Melksham area, just off the A350 trunk road.  Approximately 95% of the finished product will be shipped to this location.  The remaining 5% will be shipped to other CPUK sites or direct to customer.
• New, low noise & emission tractor units are to be used.
• Due to the low bulk density, pPayloads are very low, circa 6.25 tonnes per 40 tonne capacity lorry.  This reduces fuel usage, emissions, noise, vibration and wear & tear on the road surface.
• Regular, local drivers will be employed who will be trained to be sensitive to local concerns such as speeding, local black spots, schools etc. 
• In/out-bound loads will be routed alternately through the villages of Hilperton and Holt to their destination to minimise the impact on either community.  The building of the proposed Hilperton relief road would affect this proposal as all outbound traffic to Melksham could be routed along this road thus reducing the impact on these communities.
• Deliveries to the local Distribution Warehouse will be made 7- days per week and 24 hours per day.  On average there will be one in-bound (empty) and one outbound (full) lorry every 50 minutes.
• Suppliers are instructed to comply with corporate business principles.

Please see Transport Statement prepared by Mouchel Parkman (appendix 2) for further details.

Employment and Travel

To accommodate the additional production, an additional shift will have to be recruited and the site will operate on a 24/7 basis.  The number of employees at the site will rise from 100 to 155.  These positions are a mixture of Factory Technicians, Engineers, Technical, Professional and Managerial staffs.  All the positions are permanent, pensionable and salaried.  In addition to the increase in volume through the factory, Cereal Partners has contracted a third party logistics business to construct and operate a new local Distribution Centre on the industrial estate in Melksham.  It is expected that this warehouse will employ a further 50 employees bringing the total number of new jobs created to around 100.  It is also expected that the two facilities will provide significant further employment for support enterprises in the local community.   We are currently receiving a large number of applicants from the Westbury Dairies who are currently reducing their workforce and from several other manufactures who are experiencing difficulty.

The shift handover time is 06:00 and 18:00, there are no more than 30 people are on a shift at any one time.  In addition to the shift operation a further 30 people will work a Day- shift from Monday to- Friday, their hours are roughly spread between the hours of 07:00 - 09:00 to 16:30 - 18:30.

There areCurrently public transport that to the site is poor and does not meet the need of the shift workers.  Nevertheless, a recent survey has revealed that 20 % of employees travel to work in modes other than cars.  It is proposed that the company will take measures to reduce the reliance on cars as a means of transport.  There are currently adequate parking facilities on site, and therefore there is no proposal to increase the number of parking spaces.

Environment

Noise

It is not expected that there will be an increase in noise emissions from the factory.  All new equipment is to be located inside the factory building or within purpose built sound attenuated enclosures.  All ventilation fans that vent to atmosphere will be sound attenuated.

Emissions & odour control

Odours

Cereal Production consists of cooking raw grains such as wheat and corn in cookers.  The cooked grains are then dried and formed into cereal pieces and toasted in ovens.  Some products are coated with sugar or flavours before being packed into cartons.  Some products have nut and/or fruit added at the packing stages. 

The odours from a cereal pant are typical of a kitchen/bakery and can be described as ‘wheaty' or ‘toasted'.  For the products that are coated with flavourings, occasionally sweet or chocolate notes are detected.  For these processes, the company employs the use of ‘best practice techniques' to minimise the concentration of these odours. 

Under this proposal, the corn-based products are to be transferred to its Bromborough facility and only wWheat based products will be produced at Staverton. 

No additional external lighting will be installed so there will be no effect on light pollution.

Waste management

Factory staff are trained and encouraged to segregate waste whenever possible at point of usage, this minimises landfill and maximises recycling opportunities. The site is registered with the Environment Agency as a waste handler (licence number NAD 489).  It is also registered with Valpak (registration number RM00630) for the disposal of used packaging material.

Energy Use

The site uses natural gas as a heat source for both direct heating and toasting of products and also for raising of steam, which is used for cooking and drying processes. Electricity is also used on site to generate compressed air and to provide motive force for the cereal manufacturing processes. New equipment will use energy efficient; eff 1 electric motors were possible and best practise in standards of thermal insulation. All processes are reviewed to ensure best efficiency; this will include future provision of all utilities. Total consumption is expected to increase from circa 250 TJ to 391 TJ.

Cereal Partners are m      

embers of the Climate Change Levy scheme (number FDF / 00313 / 392) and therefore have an objective to continually reduce the amount of energy it uses per tonne of cereal produced.