Somerset residents react to plans for £4bn car battery factory

Residents are looking forward to new jobs being generated by a new £4bn electric car battery factory.

The government confirmed earlier that the UK car industry's biggest factory will be built in Somerset.

The BBC understands it will be built on the old Royal Ordnance Factory site, now called Gravity, at Puriton near Bridgwater.

Emma Rawlings, chief executive of the Somerset Chamber of Commerce, said it will bring opportunities for Somerset.

"As the county chamber of commerce, we're really pleased that this will bring opportunities for our businesses across Somerset and the region," she said.

"It's really pertinent that we are leading in terms of the supply chain.

"Our supply chain are already geared up for what we've done with Hinkley and we can upscale that."

The new "gigafactory" owned by the Tata group, will be located 15.3 miles (24km) from the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.

Karen Earthy, fitness instructor at Puriton Village Hall, says the news is wonderful and hopes it will bring more people into the area.

"I know there are a few nerves about the volume of traffic, but the amount of jobs it's going to bring into the area, and hopefully it will bring people to my class!"

The new gigafactory in Bridgwater will be one of the largest ever investments in the UK automotive sector and will create up to 4,000 new jobs and thousands more in the wider supply chain.

It will be the largest factory in Europe and will make batteries for Jaguar Land Rover vehicles like Range Rover, the Defender and the Jaguar brands.

The plant is set to provide almost half the battery production needed by 2030, before the government introduces a ban on the sale of new diesel and petrol cars.

Kerry Chalin lives in Puriton and says she looks forward to the thousands of jobs the plant will create.

"I've got three grandsons that all live in the villages surrounding and I'm really hoping that they will find some employment when they grow up," she said.

However, Ms Chalin says local opinion is going to be very mixed.

"Going by the Facebook page, there's people that really don't like the idea and they're going to move away - so they say - and others of course will welcome it because it will bring loads of money to the area."

Sarah Hills says she hopes the factory may also potentially bring new transport links to the area.

"I'm not able to drive, so it will now aid me in transport to be able to get from A to B, to achieve what I want to," she said.

Pauline Nutty lives in West Huntspill and thinks the factory is a really good idea for Somerset.

"More work for everybody," she said, although she also expects it to cause house prices to increase in the area.

BBC Chief Political Correspondent Nick Eardley says it is a significant move for the UK car industry.

"It's good for jobs, it's definitely good for the electric car industry because we talk a lot about moving from diesel, petrol to electric and we see electric cars popping up everywhere," he said.

"They need batteries and for a while there has been a bit of criticism that there hasn't been enough of a strategy to try and make the batteries here [in the UK]."

Tata said it would invest £4bn in the plant, but it is understood that the government will invest in subsidies worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

Professor Peter Wells is an electric car industry expert and director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research at Cardiff University.

He says the plant is so important due to the direction the industry is going in and believes Somerset was chosen due to its "implicit attractiveness".

"It's a good big site, it's got a good electricity supply, it's got a decent logistics position," he said.

The plant will be the first Tata gigafactory outside of India and the largest in Europe.

However, by contrast, the EU has 35 electric plants open, under construction or planned.

"We're definitely playing catch up," Professor Wells added.

"It doesn't take away the competitive threat and this plant's future will be very closely tied to the future of Jaguar Land Rover.

"This is an extremely competitive market. We are behind in terms of developing these capabilities and for me, it doesn't make the UK as a location particularly more attractive to other investments."

Steve Leahy, President of Bridgwater Chambers of Commerce says he does not think there is anywhere else in the UK who will do the project better.

However, Mr Leahy says the plant will need to bring people in from Bristol and other cities to fulfil the site's labour requirements.

"Bridgwater is used to large project builds and has managed that while learning lessons," said Mr Leahy.

"One of my concerns is infrastructure. Infrastructure is massively important and there's got to be a major project to look at that."

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