A PLAN to restore an environmental grot-spot in Northwich will start before the summer, says the company behind the project.

Cheshire Land Ltd's proposal to extract and recycle hundreds of thousands of tonnes of former industrial waste from a series of former ICI lime-beds at Lostock Gralam received planning permission from Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC) in 2020.

The  trailblazing project will remove black ash and lime from the site to provide source materials for the construction industry.

Cheshire Land’s Planning Director, Richard Gee, explained: "This is an entirely new approach to dealing with this kind of waste material that recognises that what was once regarded as waste, now has a resource value and can be recycled with a very substantial carbon saving.

"CWAC rightly required us to fulfill a large number of pre-commencement planning conditions to satisfy them and the Environment Agency about every aspect of the process and all the potential impacts.

"We have been working closely with both parties, and happily, we are very nearly at the end of that process and will be submitting the final pieces of information in the very near future."

The project envisages removing the black ash, that came from the ICI plant’s former power station.

Black ash is used in the manufacture of clinker blocks for the building industry, whilst the lime is the core component in the manufacture of cement.

Dafydd Rees, from DB Remediation, which is Cheshire Land’s main contractor and strategic partner on the project, added: "This is not only about clearing an environmental blot on the landscape, it’s about removing and reusing hundreds of thousands of tonnes of material and embedded carbon.

"Mining, transporting and processing material from scratch would generate very significant amounts of CO2 which we will be saving.

"Furthermore, the second phase of the process, which will involve treating the lime, will embrace pioneering carbon capture technology to realise an even more substantial CO2 saving.

"This has got to be one of the most sustainable and green planning projects currently being delivered in Cheshire."

Although plans to date have focused on the 53 acres of land within the ownership of Cheshire Land, the company are hoping to extend the project to complete the remediation of the neighbouring 112 acres owned by Tata.