A MAJOR obstacle against plans to build a mine in a national park has disappeared after the Ministry of Defence announced that it intends to withdraw its objection.

Defence chiefs had submitted a holding objection over proposals by Sirius Minerals to create a £1.5bn potash mine in the North York Moors National Park, not far from RAF Fylingdales.

The MoD had voiced fears that drilling or potential subsidence could affect sensitive monitoring equipment at the radar base and wanted assurances  the proposed work would not compromise national and international security.

But following a meeting between representatives from the MoD, RAF Fylingdales and Sirius Minerals, those objections look set to be withdrawn, providing planning conditions include an on-going programme of monitoring to ensure the mine doesn’t interfere with work at the base.

A spokesman for the MoD said: “The MoD is minded to withdraw its objection, provided that appropriate planning conditions are put in place to ensure the continued protection of RAF Fylingdales.”

Chris Fraser, Managing Director and CEO of Sirius, said the agreement to planning conditions seemed a “sensible” way to address the concerns of the base.

“We welcome the MoD’s intention to remove the objection following the submission of extra technical information showing that RAF Fylingdales will not be affected by the York Potash Project impact,” he said.

“Planning conditions are a sensible way to ensure important consultees are given comfort on our on-going commitment to the issues they raise, without incurring unnecessary delays.”

The news involves the removal of one of the major objections to the plans, which will be considered by the North York Moors National Park Authority in July.

The minehead would be sunk in an area near Sneaton, south of Whitby.

But at a meeting of the authority earlier this month, an outline of the issues its planning committee will have to consider when deciding on York Potash’s application was set before them.

It said the committee would have to bear in mind the principal that major developments “likely to result in harm to national parks” should be refused in “all but exceptional cases”.

The company said the mine would create 1,000 jobs, could add more than £1bn to the economy and would also produce polyhalite to help meet an increasing need for agricultural fertiliser as the world’s population grows.