Westfield: jobs at risk and threat of biomass closure as company opens talks with staff

Melton Renewable Energy operates five biomass power stations across the UK including its site at Westfield, Cardenden - but they could all close when the Government’s Renewables Obligation (RO) ends in March 2027.

The company aid that unless it can secure some transitional support after that expiry date, it will begin a three-month consultation leading to the closure of all sites and the loss of 200 jobs with 25 of them at the Fife plant.

Westfield, which is based on the site of one of the UK’s largest open cast coal mines, safely processes around 90% of all poultry litter in Scotland, preventing it from being spread to land and helping the poultry sector keep down its cost of production.

Workers at all five plants were updated on the position on Monday as the company confirmed that unless the Government establishes appropriate transitional support or alternative commercial arrangements are secured, its plants will close in April 2027.

It stressed no posts were currently at risk and that a consultation process has not yet begun - but if there is no support by December, the company will begin a three‑month consultation process in January 2027. Redundancies are not envisaged to take effect before March 31 2027 at the earliest.

Eddie Wilkinson, chief executive officer of Melton, said: “We remain fully committed to achieving a positive, long‑term outcome for the business and our employees.

“We are exploring every available commercial and development opportunity. However, unless the government puts in place appropriate transitional arrangements beyond the end of the Renewables Obligation Scheme, our biomass generation plants will close in April 2027.” He said this would result in the loss of “skilled jobs, critical infrastructure assets and a significant near‑term negative emissions opportunity for the UK.”

Mr Wilkinson added: “I call on the UK government to take action to support our business as soon as possible, securing much-needed employment, as well as ensuring we can continue to play our critical role supporting the UK’s environmental objectives and domestic energy security at a time of unprecedented risk and volatility in world energy markets.”

For more than 25 years, Melton has provided a safe, cost‑effective and efficient off‑take route for around 600,000 tonnes of poultry litter annually from the UK poultry industry. That material, together with other agricultural wastes, is used to generate 113MW of low‑carbon baseload electricity, enough to power approximately 250,000 homes each year.

Its facilities represent the UK’s only large‑scale, secure disposal route for poultry litter, reducing reliance on land‑spreading, thereby protecting rivers, watercourse and soil health, and reducing biosecurity risks linked to untreated agricultural waste.

The company said these benefits will be lost if the five sites close. It many has been working closely with the Department of Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) for several years to identify a viable support mechanism beyond the end of the RO scheme, but so far without success.

The company stressed it was not seeking open‑ended subsidy - and is calling for “urgent, co-ordinated cross‑government engagement” to establish a time‑limited bridge mechanism beyond March 2027, enabling continued operations.

With the right national infrastructure and policy framework, Melton said its sites could be retrofitted with carbon capture technology capable of delivering up to one million tonnes of biogenic CO2 removals annually.