Exclusive: Industry threat ‘to very fabric of national park’

NATIONAL park chiefs have been warned that landscapes dating back thousands of years could be lost as a wave of new industry attempts to capitalise on Yorkshire’s valuable natural resources to satiate demand for energy across the UK.
Ebberston Moor between Scarborough and Pickering. Picture: Tony BartholomewEbberston Moor between Scarborough and Pickering. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Ebberston Moor between Scarborough and Pickering. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

The North York Moors is facing the biggest wave of development in its 61-year history from a series of multi-million pound gas and mineral mining schemes which are aiming to exploit reserves buried underground.

The latest proposed gas project, which is aiming to target a gas field which was mothballed in 1974, is expected to be given the go-ahead by the North York Moors National Park Authority this week. Advances in technology and a dramatic rise in the price of gas have prompted the decision to draw up plans to once again extract from gas reserves under Ebberston Moor, near Scarborough.

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Senior officials from the Campaign for National Parks have maintained, however, that the desire to mine rich gas and mineral reserves across Britain should not be at the expense of the country’s world-famous landscapes.

The organisation’s chairwoman, Anne Robinson, said: “The challenge to protect national parks is escalating, and they are facing up to the biggest threat in their history.

“The extent to which development is now placing national parks under threat is not sustainable. These are precious landscapes which have stood the test of time, but the very fabric of the national parks is now in very real danger of being lost.”

Developers from Viking UK Gas Limited have drawn up the proposed scheme for Ebberston Moor, which will be considered by the national park authority’s planning committee on Thursday.

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The company plans to carry out an initial five-year operation to establish the viability of extracting the gas, but has submitted a second planning application which aims to extend the use of the plant for a further 15 years.

It is hoped enough gas could be extracted to power up to 40,000 homes a year – roughly the size of Scarborough.

The national park authority’s head of development management, Mark Hill, told the Yorkshire Post each planning application has to be taken on its own merits. But he stressed that a long-standing government policy test means there is a presumption against major development in a national park.

Mr Hill said: “The authority is acutely aware that every effort must be taken to ensure that there is not a detrimental effect to landscapes from proposed development. However, this particular scheme has been deemed to be a way of extracting gas in a sensitive manner without having an adverse impact.

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“It has to be a balancing act as there is an ever-increasing demand for natural resources while we have to fulfil our role of protecting national parks.”

The proposals follow a separate high-profile scheme by an international mining company, Sirius Minerals, to create a £1bn potash mine on farmland near the village of Sneaton, to the south of Whitby. The Campaign for National Parks has already urged the Government to instigate a public inquiry into the controversial plans for the potash mine.

A third project announced by another firm, Moorland Energy, is set to create a gas plant on the edge of the park at Thornton-le-Dale, in one of the biggest operations of its kind in the north of England. It was announced in June last year that the project had been approved following a public inquiry, although work has yet to start on the development.

The iconic view of Roseberry Topping, near Great Ayton, is also under threat from a proposed wind farm just over the Yorkshire border in Redcar and Cleveland after developers submitted a 
planning application for five turbines.

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Developers behind the gas plant for Ebberston Moor maintained there is an increasing need to exploit the area’s natural resources in an attempt to meet the nation’s growing energy demands. Viking Gas UK Limited stressed every effort would be made to minimise the impact on the environment, and claimed natural gas is a far cleaner fuel than either coal or oil.

The UK became a net importer of oil and gas for the first time in 2004 to cope with increasing demand, which is expected to continue to rise from both businesses and consumers as the economy recovers.

The nation now imports about a third of its gas needs, and it is predicted the figure could rise to as high as 70 per cent by 2020.