Caldicot Metal Decorating Ltd (CDM), the largest independent metal decorator in the UK, employs 65 people and has submitted an objection to the application for a plant in the Severn Bridge Industrial Estate.
The company contends that the emissions from the plant could affect its product and force it to consider moving from Caldicot.
One of CMD’s key contracts is the production of metal packaging for infant formula, most of which is exported to China.
The infant formula market is extremely sensitive to perception food hygiene standards and CMD is concerned that emissions from the plant could damage perceptions about its product and “any damage to CMD’s image and brand or loss of business could be catastrophic for the local economy”.
This comes as campaign group Severnside Together Opposing Pollution (STOP) held a second public meeting last Thursday (11th January) to coordinate its opposition to the proposal.
The group has already helped to encourage hundreds of objections to the application and has been in correspondence with Monmouthshire County Council to highlight its concerns.
While it is working hard to provide MCC with evidence which it believes is enough to reject the application, it also wants the public to share its views.
Ted Tipper from STOP said: “(The response) is good, but as we have seen tonight, it could be more. We haven’t found anyone who is for it and we really want to get it out to more people.
“We have got 300 objections, most of them are single households, if you double that or triple that then you get over 1,000. But we know it’s only a small cog in the wheel.”
“If you look on the portal the objections dipped, in October and November we had about six but now it has picked up again and the intervention by the company down the road has wound things up and has given us another avenue to keep the pressure on.”