Watchdogs for the county's three national parks say quarrying remains one of the most significant threats to preserving the irreplaceable Peak District, North Yorkshire Moors and Yorkshire Dales.
In a summit meeting yesterday the Council for the Nat
ional Parks (CNP) unveiled an 18-month research project spelling out the dangers of failing to act.
And it called on the Government to grasp the nettle of decades-old laws and bring them up to date with modern environmental practices.
Rachel Reeves, senior policy officer at the CNP, said national parks all over Britain were potentially at the mercy of quarrying firms with current permission to mine which was granted before the long-term damage was understood.
She said the issue of 'dormant' quarries, which have not been worked for many years, also presented a real problem as, in theory, work could resume at any one of more than a dozen in Yorkshire alone.
She said: "'Dormant' permissions are 'ticking timebombs' which could be reopened at any time up to the year 2042, again with potentially disastrous consequences for landscape, archaeology and nature conservation in our finest countryside."
National Parks celebrate their 50th birthday this year, but, at the time they were being created, the post-war government allowed far reaching permission for quarrying to be carried out. At the time, the industry was still mainly a manual one but, over the years, it has become highly mechanised with a greater potential to dig deeper and further.
However, many quarries dug into the National Parks have just a handful of conditions attached to their working. Any such activity granted permission today would have scores of conditions attached to its operation.
One quarry at Birchover in the Peak District – the second most visited National Park in the world – has no controls in place over the number of lorries accessing the site, what time of day it can operate or even how deep quarrying may go.
Miss Reeves said: "Surveys for the report identified 20 'active' permissions in National Parks across England which, because of weak legislation, are able to operate without modern environmental conditions. These old permissions therefore have the potential to destroy our top
landscapes."
John Bull, chairman of planning at the Peak District Park National Park Authority, said the outdated laws coupled with lack of clarity over dormant mines presented a major threat to areas of outstanding natural beauty.
"We would not allow practically any quarrying if permission were to be applied for today, but we are stuck with this legacy," he said.
"People cannot understand why we allow this quarrying to go on in the Peak District, but we are saddled with it because the companies already have permission. All we can do is try to restrain the activities."
In the Peak District, the future of dormant quarries like Nether Water Farm and Hazlebadge Farm near Bradwell and Hillhead, near Buxton, remain unclear.
At Endcliffe and Lees Cross near Stanton Moor and its Bronze Age monument The Nine Ladies, eco-warriors have dug a series of tunnels in a four-year campaign to prevent quarrying. The issue over whether the site is dormant is currently being decided by the Court of Appeal.
In North Yorkshire, Yatts Brow near Pickering, and in the Yorkshire Dales, Grassington Moor and Old Ingleton, are both 'dormant' quarries which could in theory be reopened at any time.
Andy Tickle, of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: "We are talking about several thousands acres of land here in some of the most beautiful parts of Britain.
"National parks face a real conundrum. They cannot refuse applications which have already been granted and they are in a position where, because of a loophole in the law, they cannot force quarrying companies to observe modern practices that would be forced on them if the application was made today."
lyn.barton@ypn.co.uk
