Economic Impact

INEOS employs 1,507 direct employees across the Runcorn manufacturing site and approximately 70 people in Derbyshire. Without planning permission to develop Tearsall, an estimated 1,500 jobs (approximately half of these are suppliers, contractors and associated businesses) could be lost in Runcorn and the Derbyshire Dales, with a loss of income of around £280million.

Glebe Mines, Derbyshire
The value of Glebe Mines operation to the local economy is estimated to be £3million with and the current operation providing 70 direct jobs and an additional 50 – 90 jobs indirectly.

Glebe Mines and its predecessor has operated in the ore field for more than 60 years and the operation has retained a highly specialised skill base, providing all year round professional, skilled, semi-skilled and administrative jobs in an area of low employment.

Virtually all employees are full time and more than half are the sole earner in their household. All employees would have to find alternative work if Glebe Mines closed. However, the skills acquired by employees are very specialised and it will not be easy to find new jobs in the area.

Glebe Mines operates in a rural location and provides diversity of employment from the other main industries of agriculture and tourism, both of which were badly affected during the Foot and Mouth outbreak in 2001, when the mines were unaffected.

Furthermore, the open cast operations are concentrated in an area recognised to be in need of assistance, with wards including Eyam and Stoney Middleton, Bradwell and Tideswell classed as Objective 2 Areas for the European Regional Development Fund.

INEOS Fluor, Runcorn
If the planning application to extend the existing Tearsall open pit is unsuccessful, this will inevitably lead to the closure of Glebe Mines. This will have a knock-on effect at the Runcorn site, with an estimated loss of £275million per year in lost revenue and 1400 lost jobs, including a large number of dependent contractors, suppliers and hauliers.