A former chemical plant will make weapons components as Hampshire firm expands

A defence firm has submitted proposals to convert a large former chemical plant into a factory producing weapons components.

TBG International Limited, which has offices in East Street, Titchfield, is proposing to convert the former Mossmorran chemical plant in Cowdenbeath into a new facility. The Fife Ethylene Plant near Cowdenbeath ceased production in February, after its owner ExxonMobil said it was no longer financially viable.

More than 400 staff were affected by the closure. The energy giant said it anticipates it will take until 2028 to fully decommission the site and and make it safe for dismantling.

TBG International Limited submitted a pre-application screening request to Fife Council last month. This it to convert the site into an “energetics manufacturing facility”.

A Titchfield defence firm is planning to convert the former ExxonMobil ethylene plant at Mossmorran near Fife into a weapons factory. | Pool/Getty Images

Energetic materials are the explosives, propellants and pyrotechnics that are key components in weapons. The proposals would see the construction of “process buildings, earth-covered storage magazines with associated earthworks, ancillary buildings, access, parking, landscaping, drainage and associated infrastructure”.

They would also see existing offices and warehouses at the site altered and re-used. A letter from Fife Council to the defence firm indicates the proposed development will require an environmental impact assessment to be carried out.

The letter states: “This is because the proposal constitutes Schedule 1 development under paragraph 6(f) of Schedule 1 to the EIA Regulations, namely an integrated chemical installation for the manufacture, on an industrial scale, of substances using chemical conversion processes, in which several units are juxtaposed and functionally linked, and which is intended for the production of explosives.”