PLANS submitted for the billion pound York Potash project are likely to be withdrawn.

For nearly three years Sirius Minerals has been working on establishing a potash mine at Sneaton, near Whitby in a move set to create 1,000 direct jobs.

Last September the company submitted a planning application for a sunken head mine to the North York Moors National Park Authority.

A decision was due this summer, however it was deferred at the request of Sirius until July next year.

Now Sirius Minerals, the parent company of York Potash, has said it is likely to withdraw the first application completely, and submit a new one focusing on areas of concern previously raised by the authority.

The company says this will “simplify planning documentation”, and will not result in any change to proposed planning decision timescales.

Sirius has also notified the National Park Authority that it may have to extend the underground boundary of the planning application to cover additional parts of its area of interest where it holds additional mineral rights.

The areas, near Cloughton and Whitby, fall outside of the National Park boundary and as a result a new planning application would be required to be made to both the North Yorkshire County Council and the National Park Authority.

The applications would be identical and both the County Council and the National Park Authority would determine the parts of the proposal that fall within their remit.

Sirius claims that in the meantime it is progressing various planning work streams and studies and is holding regular meetings with the National Park Authority.

Chris Fraser, managing director and chief executive of Sirius, said: “The company is making good progress towards the approvals needed for the York Potash Project and the involvement of the County Council is unlikely to impact our current timescales given its minerals planning experience.”