A NEW wave of public consultation is being held into proposals for a new power station near Selby as plans are being prepared for submission later this year.

The White Rose Carbon Capture & Storage Project, which is set to create more than 1,000 jobs, received multi-million pound funding from the Government's Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) study in December last year.

Now the firms behind the scheme are putting the plans on public display once again as they prepare to submit their planning application to the Planning Inspectorate in the autumn.

The White Rose project will see a new coal-fired power station built on land north of the existing Drax Power Station.

The plans have been drawn up by three companies, Alstom, Drax and BOC Linde, acting as the consortium Capture Power Limited.

The project could take up to four years to build, and would create more than 1,000 construction jobs over that period. Once operational, the plant, which would operate for at least 25 years, would employ up to 60 people.

Developers say the proposal could generate enough low carbon electricity to supply the equivalent needs of more than 630,000 homes as well as capturing 90 per cent of all the CO2 that would otherwise be emitted to the atmosphere.

The captured CO2 would be transported by pipeline for permanent storage deep beneath the North Sea.

Outline plans for White Rose that were unveiled last summer, with initial public consultations indicating more than 75 per cent of attendees viewed the proposal positively.

Peter Emery, Drax production director and a board director with Capture Power, said: “We’re very pleased with the interest shown in the project by those attending the first informal exhibitions, and receiving feedback at such an early stage is incredibly helpful to the process.

“We are keen to gain more feedback from the local community and I encourage people to come along to the latest round of exhibitions next week.”

The next exhibitions are being held at Drax Sports and Social Club on Tuesday, April 15, at the Junction at Goole on Wednesday,16 and at Selby Town Hall on Thursday,17, all from 2pm to 8pm.

Once plans have been submitted the Planning Inspectorate will make its recommendation before referring the final decision to the secretary of state for the Department of Energy & Climate Change, with a decision expected by the end of 2015.