A low carbon developer has abandoned a £60m project to build giant greenhouses in North Wales and the site has gone up for sale. Brighton-based Low Carbon Farming wanted to build two 7.6 hectare sized commercial greenhouses and a packing facility between Dwr Cymru’s Five Fords Waste-Water Treatment Works and SecAnim Abattoir, near Wrexham.

The firm said the greenhouses would have captured both waste heat and carbon emissions from the treatment works and used them to grow a claimed 40% of the tomatoes consumed in Wales.

They said at the time it had the potential to create 150 jobs and submitted a planning application in July 2020 - warning they needed it approved by September to meet a deadline to secure UK Government tariffs.

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But the plans were refused by Wrexham council planning officers. They said the proposed development lies outside the defined settlement limits and would comprise of major development within the open countryside. There were also concerns about the impact on traffic and local wildlife, as well as a lack of information about flood risk.

The company appealed and this summer Welsh Government planning inspectors overturned the decision - giving the scheme the green light. But now the developer says they will not be progressing the plans.

The site has been placed up for sale by the landowner with Forge Property Consultants. There is no price stated but it is understood to be in the region of £3m.

A spokesman for parent company Oasthouse Ventures said: "The £60m development which would have employed over 200 people and produced 40% of Wales’ tomato demand is now consigned to the scrap heap due to mishandling of the planning application by the Wrexham council planning department.

"Oasthouse Ventures remains hugely disappointed about how the planning application was handled, specifically the time sensitive nature of the application and applicant’s appeals directly and via the media, which were ignored by the entire planning department and planning committee. The concept of the greenhouse was vindicated in planning terms when the refusal was overturned on appeal, however as per the applicant’s protestations, this is now too late."

The commercial agent listing says: "Extending to about 100.8 acres (40.8 hectares) the land at Five Fords Farm to the south-east of Wrexham offers buyers a large-scale and increasingly rare opportunity to develop a significant area of commercial glasshouses.

"The increased need for food security, reducing the number of food-miles and new and innovative growing methods to produce food and other crops for medical purposes is prescient. Subject to third party agreement, the proposed glasshouse project would link to the Welsh Water/Dwr Cymru treatment works nearby for additional land, heat and Co2 recovery further adding to the positive environmental impacts."

Wrexham council said: “We have no further comments regarding this application.”

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