MYSTERY surrounds the future of an Oxford mill which has a paper-making past that stretches back to the 17th century.

Wolvercote Mill stopped producing paper in February this year when owners Sappi made 140 staff redundant.

Now Oxford print and paper consultant Peter Messenger has come up with an idea to use the mill to make recycled paper, using fibres from flax or hemp.

He wants South Africa-based Sappi to give him a month to raise £10m before it sells off all the valuable paper-milling equipment.

He said: "Our scheme would probably employ 300 people. All I need is a month to get the money."

A spokesman for the Graphical Paper and Media Union, Bob Knight, told the Oxford Mail: "We were told Sappi have 32 years remaining on a £300,000-a-year lease from Oxford University Press. I think Sappi are looking for someone to buy the lease from them."

Mr Messenger runs a company, based in Iffley Turn, called ESP. He claims he was the first person to get Government permission to grow hemp for paper-making and that he had a field of it off the Oxford Western Bypass in 1993.

He said the recycled paper he would like to produce at Wolvercote would contain flax or hemp. He explained that recycling shortens paper fibres and longer fibres were needed to give strength.

The finance director of Sappi UK, Arthur Tucker, was unavailable for comment.

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