MOORLAND Energy Ltd blames the North York Moors National Park and North Yorkshire County Council for the procrastination of time with regard to its gas plant planning application at Thornton-le-Dale.

The truth is that Moorland Energy and its agent, Barton Wilmore, put in the worst and sparsest planning application we have ever seen and it included a lot of repetitive nonsense to “pad it out”.

Had they put in proper detailed plans that were accurate, concise, factual and informative the democratic process would have been decided last year. A lot of questions remain unanswered by Moorland and we will be asking the planning inspector to get the outstanding answers.

We also want sight of detailed plans of the plant and its flow chart and safety systems, together with technical data that Moorland has been reluctant to date to show anybody, including the county council.

Everybody says the best site for the gas plant is at Givendale Head, which negates the explosive risks of plant and sour gas pipeline and all other health and safety issues near any villages.

Givendale is the obvious site which any responsible and reputable company would have picked in the first place.

We will highlight a lot of health and safety issues missing from Moorlands’ inadequate planning application, and additionally ask the secretary of state if a plant were approved, that a £50 million bond is held should Moorland Energy Ltd go bust, so that the site areas can be dismantled and cleaned up of all contaminates.

In the meantime we would appeal to all residents to write a letter of objection to the Gas Plant Application and send it to.

The Planning Inspectorate,
Reference APP/W9500/A/11/2155352/NWF
Temple Quay House
2 The Square,
Temple Quay,
Bristol, BS1 6PN.

Jerry Scarr & Mike Pitt, TAGS (Technicians Against Gas Site), Thornton-le-Dale