Cooling towers to come down as plans submitted for Ironbridge Power Station demolition

Uniper, the owners of Ironbridge Power Station in Buildwas, have now made a submission to Shropshire Council for prior approval to clear the site.

Full demolition of the main power station site is set to begin in Spring 2018 and will include the removal of all the buildings that have come to the end of their operational life.

The work is expected to take about 36 months and it is anticipated that the sites iconic pink cooling towers will be demolished using controlled detonation

Earlier this month, contractor Keltbray began demolishing a small section of the site, including two conveyors, and some associated structures.

Uniper, which took over the decommissioning of the site from energy company Eon, says conveyors six and seven and the accompanying conveyor tower need to be brought down because they are deteriorating structurally, and will help make way for the future demolition.

The conveyors need to be removed for safety reasons, to allow for electrical isolation from the National Grid substation which shares the site.

It is the first stage of the clearing of the station, with a decision on the full demolition of the site to be decided by Shropshire Council, now that the plans have been submitted.

A covering letter, submitted with the plans says: "The demolition of Ironbridge Power Station is intended to take place on completion of the decommissioning operations, will be a short-term process, well managed and controlled.

"The future use of the site will form part of a redevelopment process and will be the subject of a separate planning application."

The letter indicates that the intention is for the demolition works to be "temporary in nature" and have "no long term impacts".

Mitigation plans have been put together to prevent the demolition from having any environmental impact.

Uniper is currently working on several demolition projects in the UK, including at at High Marnham Cooling Water Towers, Lincolnshire, Grain Oil-fired Power Station and Kingsnorth Coal-Fired Power Station in Kent.

Both power stations are similar in scale to Ironbridge and are being successfully demolished using a number of demolition techniques, including controlled detonations.

The power station has been shut since November 2015 and earlier this year, the 141-hectare site was put up for sale.

Property experts Cushman and Wakefield are handling the sale process on behalf of Uniper. The plant was officially switched off on November 20, 2015, after 46 years of service, following an EU directive.

Under the EU, ageing plants like Ironbridge were legally limited in the emissions they can produce and its operating hours were restricted in 2008.

The EU’s Large Combustion Plant Directive said the station had to end its life after passing the milestone of generating power for a total of 20,000 hours since January 1, 2008,

So far, there has been mixed reactions to the potential loss of its iconic pink cooling towers, with many saying they would miss thesuch an iconic feature in the Ironbridge Gorge.

Councillors and groups from both Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin are hoping to work with Uniper on the future of the site, which is one of the most important in both council areas.

The company said it had reached the decision to seek a buyer after considering a number of options for the site.

The site is nearing completion of decommissioning and earlier this year, Uniper said the full demolition of the site was expected to begin in 2018 subject to Shropshire Council approval.

Uniper has set up both an enquiry line and an email address for anyone with questions regarding the site plans.

People should contact 0121 270 8855 and UniperUK@outlook.com respectively.

Any enquiries relating to the site sale process should be directed to david.tonks@cushwake.com.