A COUNCIL will today decide whether to approve plans for a factory that could create 200 jobs.

Able UK has applied to Hartlepool Borough Council for planning permission to build the units at its Graythorp site.

The development would enable the manufacture of steel support legs for land and offshore wind turbines.

Also included in the plans is a management office, canteen, decontamination unit and bio-disc units for the processing of sewage.

A proposal to install an oil/water holding tank and treatment plant has also been submitted.

This would not be related to the factory units but is designed to store and process contaminated surface water emanating from an oil rig dismantling pad.

Cleaned water would then be released while contaminated residues would be removed from the site.

A report to the meeting of the council's planning committee said: "The project will bring high levels of investment and up to 200 jobs, many of them skilled.

"It will contribute to the local economy and provide significant supplier chain opportunities."

No objections have been received by the council to the development, which is in an area characterised by heavy industry and is flanked by a nuclear power station and the Huntsman Tioxide plant.