LibDem NW MEP, Chris Davies, [pictured] writes: St Helens has been a world centre for glass production for 200 years, and it remains so although Pilkington (now a subsidiary of the Japanese NSG group) employs only a few more than 2,000 people in the town compared to the 20,000 once on its payroll. I visited its flow glass production line last week to watch sand and soda ash, limestone and recycled glass disappearing into an enormous gas furnace, only to turn into plate glass further down the line.

It’s a fantastic facility, some 450m long, working round the clock and employing during quiet shifts just 10 people. Like most manufacturing plants I visit the place was spotless, though not quite so pristine as the neighbouring plant where nano materials are added  to glass in a vacuum equivalent to that of outer space to improve its energy insulating properties.