ABLE UK has announced plans for a £100m port development project on the largest available site of its kind in the UK.

The Teesside company, which employs about 350 people, said developing the 1,500- acre site on the River Humber would “extend our profile beyond what we are better known for doing”.

The facility, providing logistics for nearby Immingham Port and Humber Sea Terminal, in North Lincolnshire, would dwarf the Billingham company’s £50m Able Humber Port Facility on a neighbouring 200-acre site.

Plans have been submitted to North Lincolnshire Council.

Able’s group development director Neil Etherington said: “It continues the long-term strategic growth that has characterised Able UK since it was founded in 1966.

“It has always taken the long-term point of view and it is a natural progression.

“We will always remain headquartered on Teesside, that is where our heart is, but this is a major development and we are very excited.”

Able is probably best known for decommissioning and recycling ships and marine structures, including oil and gas platforms, which is carried out at its dockyard in Graythorp, near Hartlepool.

But it is also involved in development and site reclamation work, and Mr Etherington said: “It extends our profile beyond what we are better known for doing.”

Under the plans – which must go through the council’s normal planning process – Able UK would invest about £100m over the next ten years.

But the company believed it would create 5,000 jobs and bring overall investment of £1.5bn into the area by the time the project is completed in 2020.

The proposals include the creation of transport depots, warehousing and external storage areas, together with offices, a business park and a motel.

There will be road and rail links to Immingham Port and the Humber Sea Terminal and a large part of the site will also provide landscaping and provision of areas for wildlife and ecology.

The land is earmarked for industrial use in the Local Plan, and the South Humber Bank is the last remaining strategic development site fronting a deep water estuary in the UK.