REGULAR readers will be aware that Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE), which owns Fiddlers Ferry power station in Cuerdley, has been consulting staff recently about the future of the plant.

The issue that SSE has is that coal is becoming uncompetitive compared to other forms of energy generation – particularly gas-fired plants.

In addition, like many other coal-fired plants, Fiddlers Ferry is ageing – it first opened in 1971 – and naturally the cost of keeping an older plant running at a safe and reliable standard is considerably higher than for a more modern one.

Put together, this makes Fiddlers Ferry uncompetitive – in fact the plant made a loss both this year and last.

So much so, in fact, that it has decided it will be cheaper in the long-term to renege on a Government contract to supply electricity and pay the associated penalties than to fulfil the terms of the contract.

One option would be for SSE to reduce the current generating capacity by 75 per cent, the other would be to decommission the plant altogether. 213 people – many of them from Warrington – currently work at the site.

Along with my neighbouring MPs Helen Jones and Derek Twigg, I met with managers at the plant last week and I spoke to the secretary of state for energy as well to see if we can find a way forward.

The UK's generating capacity is diminishing rapidly as older coal and nuclear plants get closed while new nuclear plants get bogged down in red tape. The gap between capacity and demand is the lowest it has been for decades.

The irony of the situation is that, just as we are closing our coal-fired power stations, Germany has just announced a brand new power station burning lignite, or 'dirty' coal.

Belgium, Holland and Spain, most of whom already emit more carbon per capita than us, all increased coal-burning in 2014.

These countries sell us electricity through inter-connectors so we are quite literally closing down coal-fired power stations the UK, only to buy coal-fired electricity from other countries.

I raised this at Prime Minister's Questions – see the PM's response on my website.