Finnish manufacturer Metsä Tissue has abandoned plans to build the UK’s largest tissue paper mill in Goole, East Yorkshire.
Last year, the company and Wykeland Group, which holds the long-term development rights to the 211-acre site located between Rawcliffe Road and the M62 motorway in Goole, submitted a planning application for a 3m sq ft facility.
The development, which received planning permission in September this year, was due to be built in several phases over the coming decade.
Tobias Lüning, senior vice president (commercial) and managing director of Metsä Tissue, said: “Since announcing our plans in 2023, we have worked closely with the local community, businesses and authorities across East Riding of Yorkshire to bring the tissue mill project in Goole to life. However, after extensive pre-engineering, permitting processes and financial evaluations, we have decided not to proceed with the project.”
Dominic Gibbons, managing director of Wykeland Group added, said: “We’re disappointed that Metsä Tissue has decided not to proceed with this development following the substantial amount of work, over the past three years, by ourselves and other stakeholders to deliver a detailed planning consent in early September.
“However, the site now has full planning consent for 3m sq ft of manufacturing and high-bay warehousing space, and benefits from attractive freeport financial incentives, so it offers a very appealing investment proposition. We had put plans in motion in anticipation of Metsä’s decision and we’re now talking to prospective alternative end users who are interested in realising the potential of this key site.”
