Update 09.Jan 2023
Ciner Glass has adjusted its plans around the batch house at its proposed glass bottle making facility in Ebbw Vale, Wales, UK.

The Turkish-headquartered glass manufacturer suggested the changes following a meeting between the company’s planning agents, Arup, and local authority Blaenau Gwent council on December 5.

The purpose of the meeting was to find out if changes proposed to the batch building, which would make it smaller, fall within the scope of the current application.

In a planning document submitted to the council Arup said: “The proposed changes comprise rotating the batch building by 90 degrees, with the longer elevations now facing east and west.

“This change was essential in reducing the overall size of the service yard, reducing the overall footprint of the development, and subsequently allowing the relocation of the warehouse to the end of the main production buildings, forming the preferred linear layout.”

Changes include removing 12 bulk material storage silos from the proposal as the building was originally to have six silos on each side of it.

Arup said: “There will be a reduction in on-site bulk storage resulting in a reduction to the overall building footprint.”

Another change will see two material feeder units for sand delivery added to the plan.

Arup said: “The previous design’s hopper solution resulted in very deep basement structures.

“The shallower basements result in a more efficient design solution.”

A conveyor bridge structure will also be moved from the end of the building to the side.

Arup said: “This was required due to the rotation of the building.”

The new documents also focus on the noise expected to come from the batch building and the movement of raw materials.

Arup said the noise had already been assessed as part of an addendum to a previous Environmental Assessment.

It said: “The closest sensitive receptor is located approximately 450m south of the batch building, and so the slight change in distance in the scale of 30-50m (as worst-case scenario) is very unlikely to result in worse impacts than those reported in the ES.

Ciner Glass wants to build the glassworks, named the Dragon Glass Bottling Factory on the Rassau Industrial Estate on the outskirts of Ebbw Vale.

The facility will include two furnaces, two cullet buildings and stores for the storage and processing of rejected and recycled glass; two production lines for hot and cold processing, inspection and hashtag#packaging of glass bottles as well as an automated warehousing facility for the storage and distribution of glass bottles at the site.

A month-long consultation started just after Christmas about the adjustments to the plans.

Anyone with comments should email planning@blaenau-gwent.gov.uk by January 29.
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First published on 25.Oct 2023
The facility in Ebbw Vale, Wales known as Dragon Glass Bottle Factory, received planning approval in June 2022 but the Turkish manufacturer has submitted revised plans in a section 73 planning application to Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council.
Planning agents, Arup state: "It is considered that the proposed amendments would deliver an enhanced scheme to that currently approved, providing an increased level of quality to the overall proposed development."

Ciner want to change some of the ‘approved parameters’ to the scale, height, layout, appearance, access and landscape of the proposal. The company also want to remove a condition which relates to Great Crested Newts as they believe they have provided ‘sufficient details’ on this topic. Arup state: "The relevant Amphibian Survey Report confirms that no great crested newts were found within the site during 2022 and they are considered unlikely to be present."

The changes to the buildings will see a reduced height of the main process building (from 28m to 23m), reduced height of furnace roof (from 35m to 23m) and a 12m furnace ‘pop-up’ building to be included above the furnace area on the southern elevation as well as reduced height of the warehouse building (from 28m to 12.5m).
The planning documents continues that the size of the incoming materials yard will be reduced from 10,800sqm to 5,800sqm.

Ciner Glass received consent for the construction and operation of a purpose-built glass bottle manufacturing facility.
It includes two furnaces, two cullet buildings and stores for the storage and processing of rejected and #recycled glass; two production lines for hot and cold processing, inspection and packaging of glass bottles as well as an automated warehousing facility for the storage and distribution of glass bottles at the site.