PLANS to build a glass bottle manufacturing facility in Blaenau Gwent which promises to create 600 jobs have been revealed.

Ciner Glass wants to open the facility on the Rassau Industrial Estate, near Ebbw Vale, with operations starting in 2023 and full production the following year.

The proposed development includes warehouse facilities for storing glass bottles and two furnaces and chimney stacks up to 75 metres high.

Production lines for the manufacturing, inspection and packaging of glass bottles including pallet storage facilities are also planned, along with two buildings used to process rejected and recycled glass.

A scoping report - which is normally submitted before a planning application to consider environmental impacts - has been submitted to Blaenau Gwent council giving some details of the plans.

“Typically glass production involves two main methods - the float glass process that produces sheet glass, and glassblowing that produces bottles and other containers,” the report says.

“Glass production proposed by Ciner Glass Ltd is the production of container glass which consists of a three-part operation.

“The handling of raw material, the manufacturing of the glass containers and the product inspection and packaging process.”

Around 1,200 pallets of glass bottles will need to be transported from the site following production each day, while materials for the production of glass will also need to be delivered to the facility.

This is estimated to create an additional 100 HGV journeys to and from the facility every day, with access to the site provided from the A465 Heads of the Valleys Road.

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The development is estimated to create 600 jobs associated with the operation and running of the facility, which will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the report says.

A report says the development will be a “typical feature” of the industrial character of the area, but the “tall structures” associated with the facility will have an impact on views, including from the Brecon Beacons National Park which is located 500 metres to the north.

The design and height of tall structures will be “carefully considered to avoid significant effects on landscape”, the report adds.

Cllr Dai Davies, Blaenau Gwent’s executive member for regeneration and economic development, said the council is working with the Welsh Government and a private company on the scheme “to establish an advanced manufacturing facility”.

“A planning application is anticipated later this year subject to land and utilities being secured and the scheme will then be subject to extensive public consultation,” he said.