Green light for paper factory set to create 450 new jobs

MILL WILL GIVE REGION HUGE ECONOMIC BOOST OF £26.5M EVERY YEAR

- By COREENA FORD

A FINNISH firm has been given the green light to create the biggest tissue paper mill in the UK at Humber Freeport, creating more than 450 jobs.

Metsa Group first unveiled plans to build a factory in Goole in 2023 ahead of launching a series of public consultation exercises to highlight the benefits to the area, in terms of the huge job creation opportunities and economic boost its proposals could deliver.

Those proposals - earmarked for land southeast of North Airmyn Grang - were tweaked after initial consultation and have now been mulled by planners at East Riding of Yorkshire Council who approved the scheme, subject to Metsa meeting a number of legal agreements.

The huge factory, extending to around three million square feet of space once complete, is to be built in four separate phases over 10 years. Once finished, the mill will produce around 240,000 tonnes of tissue paper every year - one fifth of all tissue paper made in the UK - slashing the UK's reliance on imports within the industry by more than 30%