A GAS drilling operation in a national park is set to be launched, after overcoming concerns it would pave the way for proposed fracking operations nearby.

Third Energy and Moorland Energy said the controversial decision by North York Moors National Park Authority's planning committee meant the Knapton Generating Station would remain open, preserving dozens of jobs and generating millions of pounds for the local economy.

They said with Ryedale gas fields in rapid decline, they were pleased new sources of gas would be available to keep producing energy for the National Grid.

The meeting heard the proposal did not involve fracking, unlike Third Energy's proposals at nearby Kirby Misperton, and the authority said studies by independent experts had allayed concerns over the activity triggering earthquakes and polluting groundwater supplies.

A report by the authority's officers found there was a “lack of demonstrable environmental harm” if care was taken to pipe gas to the generating station at Knapton, where there have not been public safety concerns since it opened 1995.

More than 200 people had objected to the scheme, which will see water re-injected at an existing borehole at Ebberston Moor, to extract up to 15 million standard cubic feet per day of conventional natural gas only by conventional drilling methods.

It also includes the drilling of a second borehole and a 13.9km underground pipeline from the site to Knapton Generating Station.

Campaigners said they were dismayed authority members had voted 14-1 in favour of an "industrial development" in the highly protected landscape, weeks after approving plans for the world's biggest potash mine near Whitby.

Objectors had pointed towards the National Planning Policy Framework, which states "great weight should be given to conserving landscape and the scenic beauty of national parks".

There are also impending gas exploration applications in the national park on its eastern boundary at Staintondale and in a highly sensitive site in the heart of the park at Westerdale.

Campaigners argued the gas reserve was not of national significance and therefore there were no exceptional circumstances that should allow the development to proceed.

A Frack Free Ryedale spokesman said: "We are disappointed that this application was finally approved, particularly given the worrying safety issues that still surround the waste water re-injection wells.

"A lot of observers feel that this application is the thin end of a very dangerous and toxic wedge, which could result in the wholesale industrialisation of one of the most beautiful parks in the country."