A £35m scheme to expand a Norfolk sugar factory allowing it to process imported cane sugar would safeguard thousands of jobs for the next two decades.
Simpson Ovans, factory manager at the plant in Cantley, near Yarmouth, explained the reasons behind British Sugar's plans and responded to villagers' concerns about extra lorry traffic and noise at a special meeting of the parish council's planning committee on 21 October.

Mr Ovans said the scheme should be regarded as a “good news story that will boost the rural economy by turning Cantley into one of Europe's leading sugar factories”.

If plans are approved by the Broads Authority in December, the summer importation of unrefined cane sugar from the Third World will start in 2010, and negotiations look set to result in Yarmouth's outer harbour receiving the contract and a welcome early boost to its operations.

In the longer term, the trade could see a return to transportation by river barges from Yarmouth with a £5m quay being built at Cantley.

As well as creating an extra 25 long-term jobs and 250 construction jobs, the extension of the plant's working year would secure the future of the 400 people directly and indirectly employed by it, and a further 3,000-plus - including farm workers - dependent on the region's sugar beet industry.

Subject to approval, construction work will begin next year on a new drive-through warehouse and lime production plant. The scheme will also involve modernising equipment to reduce oil burning on site by 50pc and slash CO2 emissions.

Mr Ovans said they had chosen the part of the site furthest away from Cantley and careful landscaping and insulation would further minimise its impact.

He stressed the project had been driven by the economic reality that the factory currently only operated five months a year processing sugar beet - following an EU review of the way the industry is regulated in 2014 it was likely to become “increasingly hard for a factory to continue to be sustainable operating only part of the year”.

Under an EU scheme to aid the Third World, the raw sugar would be imported from such countries as Swaziland, Bangladesh and Mozambique.

During the first year, 100,000 tons would be imported, requiring 73 days of lorry movements from the port to Cantley in June and July. By 2014, it was hoped this could be stepped up to 230,000 tons, which would involve 165 days of lorry movements.

Mr Ovans stressed there would only be 55 to 80 daily lorry journeys into Cantley during the summer, compared to up to 800 a day during the winter.

He added: “It would not be economically viable to use barges to bring the sugar up river from Yarmouth in the early years, but as production increases we would be seriously looking at investing £5m in a quay facility at Cantley to make it possible.”

Robert Beadle, chairman of Cantley Parish Council, said the views he had received from villagers had been “broadly balanced”.

He said: “There is support for the plan because the factory provides employment and people want to see it remain here, but that is balanced against the problem of the extra lorries during the summer that villagers don't want.”

Source : EDP 24