THE FIRST of two public consultation events on plans for an aluminium wheels factory in Fort William will be held next week.
The public sessions are intended to share details of the proposal with local communities and answer questions from residents and other stakeholders. Representatives of the company behind the scheme, GFG Alliance, will be at the Ben Nevis Hotel, Fort William, from 2.30pm to 7.30pm on Thursday September 28 to discuss the proposed new plant on a site next to GFG’s Liberty British Aluminium smelter just outside the town.
If given the green light, the plant, which will employ 400 people, will convert liquid aluminium from the smelter into approximately two million alloy wheels a year, displacing some of the eight million such wheels currently imported into the UK annually. At present, there are no volume producers of alloy wheels in the UK. Brian King, managing director Lochaber operations for GFG Alliance, said: ‘Our ambition is for this plant to become a leader in its field, producing the most advanced products on the market and employing highly-skilled people.’