Drax wins approval for 23.5 million tonne ash extraction plan

North Yorkshire Council’s strategic planning committee has approved the application by Drax Power Ltd for the Barlow Ash Mound, immediately north-west of the power station near Selby.

The scheme will allow pulverised fuel ash (PFA) and furnace bottom ash (FBA) to be recovered over two phases, with extraction potentially continuing until 2045 and full restoration of the site expected by 2055.

The 161-hectare mound reaches up to 39 metres high and has been used for ash deposits from Drax since the 1970s.

Permission already existed to recover ash from parts of the site, but the new scheme extends extraction into an area which had previously been capped, restored and returned to agricultural and environmental uses.

Around 23.5 million tonnes could be recovered over the lifetime of the development, at a maximum rate of about 1.175 million tonnes a year.

The recovered material can be used in construction, including as an ingredient in concrete, reducing the need for virgin aggregates. Council officers described the deposits as a “nationally significant resource”.

Three objections were received from local residents, raising concerns including dust and air pollution, noise, lighting and the impact on the landscape.

Residents also expressed concern about the loss of established woodland and habitats, the length and scale of the operation and the removal of parts of the mound which currently help screen Drax Power Station from surrounding communities.

A visualisation of the area after the ash has been removed and the land restored. Image submitted with application.

Councillor Tim Thrall, from Barlow Parish Council, spoke at the meeting.

He said: “Can I say from the outset that Barlow Parish Council in principle has no objection to the removal of the ash mound.

“However, we do have a number of concerns about whether mitigation measures are enough to impact the quality of life of the residents of the village.”

North Yorkshire councillor Mark Crane, whose division includes Barlow, also spoke at the meeting.

He said the proposal that the site is operated 18 hours a day, from 6am until midnight, seven days a week excluding bank holidays “blew his mind”.

He added: “I have never seen that condition, I don’t think, anywhere. This is clearly going to have an impact on some people who live in Barlow.

“To expect them to accept that they can work from 6am in the morning till midnight every single day of the year is, I’m sorry, completely unreasonable.”

Both Councillor Thall and Councillor Crane criticised the applicant’s proposal to provide a £200,000 pot for landscape mitigation projects.

Cllr Crane said: “£200,000 doesn’t seem a huge amount of money when you learn that the benefit to Drax here would be circa £2bn.”

Councillors said this was unreasonable and approved conditions limiting when the site can be worked from 8am until 8pm, excluding Sundays and Bank Holidays.

The committee also agreed a condition to ensure that 65 per cent of the ash was transported by rail with the remainder removed by road.

The committee agreed to the mitigation fund despite the concerns.

Council officers concluded that, subject to conditions, the development would not result in unacceptable impacts on residents, highways, ecology, air quality or the water environment.

The approval is also subject to a Section 106 legal agreement, including a proposed £200,000 landscape mitigation fund.

Following extraction, the site would be progressively restored with woodland, grassland, wetland habitats and new permissive paths.