A SECOND giant newspaper recycling mill is set to create 1,200 construction jobs in Kent - but only if Brussels gives the final go-ahead. Aylesford Newsprint has won Government backing for a second mill alongside the M20 at Aylesford, near Maidstone.

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), a Government agency, chose the Kent-based company as the “preferred bidder” for the £250 million project ahead of Welsh firm Shotton Paper. This coup for Kent means that Aylesford Newsprint will be entitled to a Government grant of up to £20 million.

The project would create 1,200 short-term construction jobs and around 50 permanent jobs. It could also lead to thousands of indirect jobs nationwide and give a much-needed boost to the United Kingdom’s inadequate newspaper and magazine recycling capacity.

But the decision has to be cleared by the European Commission’s competition experts in Brussels and that could take up to six months.

Aylesford Newsprint already has planning permission for a second mill from Tonbridge and Malling council. But it expires next summer and company chiefs hope for a decision well before then. They will not press ahead with costly detailed planning until they know the outcome.