Campaigns & Projects  NYMA is involved in campaigns and projects to protect and enhance the biodiversity and landscape of the North York Moors – some are listed below. Let us know if you’d like to get involved or have ideas for new projects! 

The Woodsmith Mine  
York Potash Ltd (YPL) was acquired by Sirius Minerals Plc in January 2011 after exploration indicated a significant reserve of polyhalite within the North York Moors National Park. Polyhalite is a compound mineral which includes potassium, sulphur, calcium and magnesium. Its principal use is as a crop fertiliser, and the major potential customers are overseas. 
 
NYMA and the Campaign for National Parks (CNP) campaigned against the mine because National Parks should have the highest levels of landscape protection, and developments must have regard for their conservation and recreational purposes.  
 
The Woodsmith Mine was taken over by the mammoth mining conglomerate Anglo-American in March 2020. People who had invested in the failed former owner Sirius Minerals lost most of their money.  
 
Tom Chadwick, Chair of NYMA, commented that: "This is what we expected from this group of entrepreneurs - it was obvious that sooner or later they would hit a funding crisis." 
 
The takeover by Anglo-American has secured the future of some jobs in the depressed area of Teesside and the wider north-east. Our concern remains the impact on the landscape of this industrial site, including light pollution and other visual and audible intrusion. We believe that building a mine of this scale in the North York Moors is at odds with the purpose of national parks.  
 
In 2020-21 work continued slowly, having been delayed by Covid-19 restrictions. In 2022 working practices returned to normal, and late that year a controversial application was submitted to use a holiday park in Egton to accommodate mine-workers.  
 
 
 
History & Development 
In September 2012, after exploration drilling, the company was confident that it had found a substantial reserve, and announced that the minehead site was to be located within the National Park at Doves Nest Farm (3 miles south of Whitby). A planning application was submitted to the National Park Authority (NPA) in February 2013 for the extraction of polyhalite over 253 sq. kms. Development consent was required from four separate bodies: 
 
Minehead and extraction area - National Park Authority 
Pipeline to transport the mineral to Teesside - National Infrastructure Directorate 
Undersea extraction - Marine Management Organisation 
Materials Handling Facility - Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council 
 
A decision on this application was deferred at the company’s request in July 2013 and the application was withdrawn in January 2014. For its second planning application, the company revised its scheme to include a 37 km. tunnel to transport the mineral to Teesside. After supplementary environmental information was submitted, a special planning meeting was held in June 2015. 
 
At this stage, a 230 page report to the Planning Committee made it clear that the proposed development was in conflict with both the local plan and national planning policy. Despite this, the application was approved by 8 votes to 7, the main reason being the economic benefit to the Whitby / Redcar / Teesside area in terms of job creation, local expenditure and the multiplier effect. 
 
The system of reaching a decision on major developments through the present planning system is influenced by the imbalance between public sector resources and the huge sums available to the applicant. Sirius Minerals spent around £100 million to obtain the approvals it needed, while the NPA spent approximately one fifth of its annual budget of £5 million on examining thousands of pages of information in the period leading up to the decision. Small organisations like NYMA and CNP are clearly at even more of a disadvantage. 
 
In 2017 access roads were improved to take the increased traffic and construction of the access shafts began, with 24/7 site-working which entails continual flood-lighting. 
 
NYMA’s Position 
NYMA challenged the development from the outset, as this was to be the largest mine in any European national park (and the largest mine constructed in the UK for decades). The mine is inappropriate for a landscape which should have the highest level of protection. We are supported by the Campaign for National Parks (CNP), which sees the project as a test case for possible developments in other national parks. 
 
 
The decision is also of international significance, since if the special status of a protected area can be undermined in a country with high conservation awareness and regulations such as the UK, it sets a poor example for protected areas in countries with weaker regulatory frameworks and lower public support for the environment. 
 
In March 2015 NYMA (with the CNP, The National Trust, the Campaign for the Preservation of Rural England and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust) requested that the planning application should be called-in for a public inquiry, as the only fair way of deciding such a complex issue and providing proper public access to information. However this was refused by the Secretary of State. 
 
Consultation or PR? 
From the start, Sirius Minerals embarked on a public relations exercise which has presented some significant misleading information. At a public meeting at Ravenscar the company stated that 130,000 cubic metres of spoil would be generated at the minehead site. By the time the application was submitted this had increased to 600,000 cubic metres, and after admitting errors it was further revised to 1.3 million cubic metres. It now stands at 1.9 million cubic metres. The volume and nature of the spoil highlights the alteration that will take place from a rural landscape to an industrial landscape. 
 
Mitigation Measures 
The minehead site quickly became a prominent feature of the landscape, with considerable night-time visual intrusion into what shoud be a 'dark skies' landscape due to the floodlighting. 
 
Some benefit will accrue to the National Park from the mine under a 'Section 106' agreement for Sirius Minerals to address the cost of environmental mitigation of the damage caused, and the National Park Authority is monitoring the impact on the environment and on the locally important tourism industry. A positive outcome of the mine is that Sirius Minerals has established and endowed the Sirius Minerals Foundation, a registered charity which donates funds to a range of organisations and projects across the area affected by the mine. 
 
Present Situation 
The project consists of the minehead development, the Mineral Transport System, the tunnel and conveyor with an access shaft at Lockwood Beck, the Materials Handling Facility at Wilton Teesside and the Harbour Facility at Bran Sands, Teesside. In addition, roads to the minehead site have been significantly 'improved', changing the nature of this rural area to a semi-industrial one.  
 
Fracking 
We applaud the government's decision in November 2019 to place a moratorium on fracking in Britain - although we note that the threat may return in the future.  
 
Conventional extraction of gas within the North York Moors National Park was first carried out in the 1960s at Lockton. Since then there has been considerable exploration for gas in the Vale of Pickering, Westerdale, and other places within and outside the National Park, especially for extraction by hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’). Approval was given in May 2016 to Third Energy Ltd. by North Yorkshire County Council for test fracking at a well near Kirkby Misperton, giving rise to extensive protests. The company dropped its plans in January 2020.  
NYMA’s Position on Fracking 
NYMA supports the National Park Authority in opposing fracking in or under national parks. Meanwhile, the government's position is that surface structures associated with fracking are excluded from National Parks and AONBs - but it will allow fracking to take place under these protected areas below a depth of 1200m. In response to a government consultation on fracking, with regard to surface structures, NYMA asked for an exclusion area to extend outside the National Park boundary to protect the setting of the protected landscape. Should the threat of fracking return, we will return to monitoring developments. 
MoorsBus 
NYMA makes a significant financial and managerial contribution to the operation of MoorsBus during the summer months each year. The service makes the National Park accessible to non-car owners and to people wishing to leave their car at home. 
 
Running Fridays-Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays through the summer months, the services link towns and cities (including York, Malton, Saltburn, Middlesborough, Darlington, Guisborough) to key places within the park. Click here for a 2021 report on Moorsbus and the National Park.  
The History Tree 
In 2010 (our 25th anniversary year) a plaque was installed at the National Park's Moors Centre in Danby on the site of a Copper Beech tree which had to be felled 3 years previously. The tree was estimated to be over 200 years old, and the metal plaque is inscribed with some of the key events which took place during its life-span. 
 
In 2018 NYMA published 'The History Tree' book, with associated educational materials, to accompany the plaque. The book expands on the often quirky local events and personalities noted on the plaque, as well as national and international events with local resonance. It acts offers fascinating insights into its history and culture of the North York Moors.  
We are very grateful for support for the project from the Heritage Lottery Fund and from the David Ross Foundation through the Land of Iron Project. 
Corbett's Copse 
As a contribution to the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity (and to mark our 25th anniversary), NYMA was given permission to improve biodiversity on a 1-acre plot of land close to Park Wood, Danby. 
 
Regular voluntary work includes fencing, planting trees and clearing bracken. For instance we have to keep the fences in good repair to prevent sheep breaking through from the surrounding moor, and we plant more trees and clear undergrowth.  
 
The plot includes a small area of Juniper trees planted under the Juniper Regeneration Project, and in 2019/20 we planting Alder Buckthorn to support the 'Buckthorn for Brimstones' project run by the Whitby Naturalists' Club. 
Cornfield Flowers 
NYMA was one of the lead organisations in the Cornfield Flowers project, which conserves and encourages the wildflowers of arable fields. These plants were a common sight in our rural landscape for hundreds of years, but due to intensification of farming practices since the 1940s many have become rare or even extinct. 
 
The Cornfield Flowers Project was initiated in 2000 to help reverse this loss in north-east Yorkshire. Working alongside local farmers and with the support of volunteer horticulturalists, naturalists, schools and other enthusiasts, this project has propagated seed and reintroduced new plants into protected farm fields. 
 
Now operating with more limited funding, the project is hosted by the Ryedale Folk Museum at Hutton-le-Hole. Click here for more info. 
Juniper Regeneration Project 
This was a joint venture with the North York Moors National Park involving primary and secondary schools (2002-2012). 
 
Juniper trees within the Park were found to have reduced to about a dozen old trees with no new trees naturally propagated, due principally to sheep grazing and heather burning. 
 
The programme propagated new trees from Juniper berries collected by school-children, with seedlings planted out across the Park by school parties. 
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