PLANS have been submitted to demolish a major power plant in North Yorkshire.

The coal-fired Eggborough Power Station, near Selby, has been at risk of closure since 2013 and was considered financially unsustainable, as bosses said it needed to find about £200 million of additional funding by 2019 to continue generating power.

In February 2016, The Press reported a new deal would bring an extra year of employment for 235 workers at the station, which was due to close in March 2016, as bosses announced a contract to provide extra power capacity for the National Grid over the winter. This week, a plan submitted to Selby District Council said the power station was due to close within two years, and recommended an assessment be carried out to determine what effects the demolition of the Gale Common Ash Disposal site would have on the area.

A report said: “The power station is still in operation. However, it is anticipated to cease generation by 2019 at the latest, although decommissioning and demolition could start as early as Spring 2018. It will then require a programme of decommissioning and demolition.

“To support the proposed demolition works an Environmental Impact Assessment (‘EIA’) screening exercise is being undertaken to consider the environmental effects that may result from them.”

The demolition would be carried out over 32 months, according to the report, and would take place as soon as the power station was decommissioned.

Before demolition could be carried out, crews will remove asbestos and other harmful materials from the site, and the demolition itself would in most cases see a deconstruction of the buildings, as opposed to simply knocking them down.

However, “controlled collapse, with the potential use of explosives” could be used to destroy the power station’s cooling towers, and several other structures on site, including the boiler bay and turbine house;

The report said noise from the proposed demolition could affect residents in Gallows Hill, Hensall, Eggborough, West Haddlesey, Chapel Haddlesey, and smaller farms in the neighbouring areas. The site will be fenced off to the public, but the demolition plans do not yet include the entire site, with about half of the main power station site and half of the Gale Common site up for demolition.

A review by Lucie Watson of City of York Council said: “Land contamination is likely to be present at this site and will need to be investigated and remediated accordingly in due course. However, I would agree that an EIA is not required in relation to the proposed demolition works on land contamination grounds.”