Skip to main contentAccess keys help

[an error occurred while processing this directive]
BBC News
watch One-Minute World News
Last Updated: Tuesday, 13 April, 2004, 05:49 GMT 06:49 UK
Alcan cash boost for Fife town
Old Alcan plant at Burntisland
Alcan's Burntisland plant closed in 2002 with the loss of 370 jobs
The first payment is due to be made from a �1m fund set up by a Canadian firm which shut a plant in Fife.

Alcan closed its Burntisland operation in 2002 with the loss of 370 jobs - but bequeathed the money to the area so it could be used in good causes.

Community leaders said the cash will be used for local improvement projects in the town on the Firth of Forth.

Details of the first payment from the Burntisland Fund are likely to be announced within the next few days.

Community leaders set up a supervisory development trust to handle the money.

Industrial heritage

In its heyday, the Alcan aluminium works dominated the town but now it is gone the town is determined to spend the windfall wisely.

The factory's closure ended an 85-year-old link between Burntisland and aluminium making.

The plant was established in 1917 as a refinery to produce smelter-grade alumina, for turning into aluminium but switched to producing special chemicals in 1972.

The Fife chemical factory closed in September 2002 after Alcan failed to find a buyer for it.

It had put the Burntisland plant on the market the previous January after deciding to pull out of the chemicals market in Europe.

At the time, the GMB union representing most of the workers described the decision as a "tragedy" for the region.


SEE ALSO:
Chemical plant workers 'stuffed'
19 Nov 02  |  Scotland
Chemical plant closure 'a tragedy'
05 Sep 02  |  Scotland



PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

News Front Page | Africa | Americas | Asia-Pacific | Europe | Middle East | South Asia
UK | Business | Entertainment | Science/Nature | Technology | Health
Have Your Say | In Pictures | Week at a Glance | Country Profiles | In Depth | Programmes
AmericasAfricaEuropeMiddle EastSouth AsiaAsia Pacific