A WEAPONS factory where there was an unexplained explosion earlier this year has been given the go-ahead to complete a building at its Monmouthshire base, 15 years after work started.

BAE Systems was granted planning permission for the structure at its Glascoed factory near Usk in 2009.

That permission was for a building smaller than one first approved in 2007, although construction work, wasn’t completed.

Its planning department has now approved changes to the 2009 permission for the reinforced concrete building, that will be similar to the one originally approved in 2009 and still smaller than that planned in 2007.

The new plans include a canopy which would cover a walkway surrounding the building.

Meanwhile, an application to consider if an environmental report was required before proposed expansion of the arms factory has been “closed”, according to the council

The initial plan put forward by BAE was “to develop a new energetics manufacturing facility on vacant land within the eastern part of the existing BAE site”.

Protestors blockaded the entrance to the Glascoed munitions factory
Protestors blockaded the entrance to the Glascoed munitions factory in January (Cymru Peace Coalition.)

The site was the scene of an explosion last April, three months after protestors against the Gaza war had blockaded the site entrance.

Police cars
Police vehicles near Glascoed after the explosion (Tindle)

Nearby residents said the blast felt like an earthquake, and the Health and Safety Executive said specialist investigators would be probing the incident.

The private firm, which supplies the UK Ministry of Defence and others, also launched its own investigation after confirming an “incident”, with no injuries, at the site which emergency services attended.

David Davies, who was Monmouth MP at the time, said the explosion happened in a “remote part of the site that had been set aside to take apart shells and this was being done by remote control”.

During a general election campaign visit to Usk, the then Conservative Government Home Secretary James Cleverly, said he wouldn’t “speculate” on reports that European intelligence agencies had warned that Russia had plotted violent acts of sabotage across the continent and elsewhere.

The Financial Times highlighted the unexplained explosion at the factory that supplies shells used by Ukraine in its coverage.

Mr Cleverly said Britain has “robust” arrangements against state aggression but said: “I’m not going to speculate about that particular incident.”