PLANS for a new £100 million automotive business park in Ebbw Vale are "terrifyingly weak", the Welsh Conservatives have claimed.

The Welsh Government announced plans for the new park, which it has said will create 1,500 new jobs, when it scrapped the Circuit of Wales project last month.

But Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies has raised questions over the scheme after writing to economy and infrastructure secretary Ken Skates over the plan.

In a reply to a letter from Mr Davies, in which he asked for details of evidence that the new park would create 1,500 jobs, Mr Skates said: "Officials drew on a range of internal expertise and external assessments.

"These evidenced a need for high grade manufacturing, research and development facilities in the Ebbw Vale Enterprise Zone.

"The technology park has the potential to create 1,500 jobs based on floor space creation and pipeline projects."

Although the park's proposed location has not been announced, it is believed not be the same site previously planned for the Circuit of Wales, which is not owned by the Welsh Government.

And Mr Davies said he was concerned the plan had not been fully thought through.

"After being strung along for more than seven years on the empty promise of a national racetrack, the people of Ebbw Vale will be seeking cast-iron assurances that this new £100 million development is going to bring the uplift Labour ministers are now promising," he said.

"But Mr Skates’ business case for the development is terrifyingly weak.

"As the letter indicates, he hopes to create 1,500 jobs by pouring cement into the ground and hoping for the best.

"The scores of industrial ghost towns across Wales show that Kevin Costner’s ‘build it and they will come’ approach just doesn’t work in the real world."

The Conservative leader said he had "little faith" in the Welsh Government's advice over the plan.

"Given the massive amount of cash earmarked for this project the taxpaying public has a right to see a detailed business case," he said.

"And yet with characteristic flippancy what we received from the cabinet secretary was a terse, paragraph-long statement.

"High paid jobs demand action and creativity, warm words simply do not cut it.

"Another Welsh Government-sponsored white elephant must be avoided at all costs."

But a Welsh Government spokeswoman said the decision not to proceed with the Circuit of Wales had been taken following "extensive external and internal due diligence".

She added: "There is strong and collective ambition between Welsh Government and its partners to shape and deliver a project that can genuinely regenerate the local economy and create the high quality jobs the area needs.

"We will publish a business case later in the year that draws upon specialist advice and reflects the views emerging from our partners."