Enhancing our local area

In order to mitigate and offset the potential impact of the project, we provide significant funding to North York Moors National Park Authority, North Yorkshire Council and Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council for environmental, skills and economic development projects.

The measures are included as part of our planning permission (Section 106 agreements) and will amount to £170 million over the lifetime of the planning permission. Our contributions support projects that safeguard and enhance the natural environmental, improve public footpaths, restore historic monuments, and include a 7,000 hectare woodland creation scheme. We are also funding programmes to increase skills and aspirations, promote tourism and improve local rail services.

 

Minimising impact

Being located in the North York Moors means we have a deep understanding of our responsibility to our environment.

The whole design philosophy of our project is to minimise our environmental impact as much as possible – both in construction and operations.

We have designed our infrastructure to be sympathetic to its location: the number and size of the buildings has been reduced to a minimum, which together with extensive landscaping and planting, will ensure the site is screened and blends in with the surrounding area.

We make sure we adhere to almost 100 planning permission conditions relating to environmental issues for our sites, including lighting, noise, traffic and wildlife and ecology.

We have a dedicated team who work with the relevant regulatory authorities, as well as identifying ways that go beyond our minimum requirements to ensure we limit our impact.

Wildlife and EcologyWildlife and Ecology LightingLighting Noise and vibrationNoise and vibration Air QualityAir Quality WaterWater TrafficTraffic LandscapeLandscape EmissionsEmissions

Wildlife and EcologyWildlife and Ecology LightingLighting Noise and vibrationNoise and vibration Air QualityAir Quality WaterWater TrafficTraffic LandscapeLandscape EmissionsEmissions

Wildlife and Ecology

Most of the possible impacts on wildlife and ecology occur during construction. To minimise them we:

• Retain habitats wherever possible to reduce the impact on species and wildlife
• Carry out protected species surveys and re-home wildlife as necessary
• Implement the agreed Protected Species Management Plan
• Position construction lighting away from sensitive ecological receptors. Lighting will be designed using guidance from the Bat Conservation Trust
• Not restrict movement along bodies of water
• Adopt a precautionary method of working across all of our sites to minimise the risk of harm to wildlife. We will actively encourage reptiles to move into better habitats by removing debris and cutting vegetation that could provide shelter

Lighting

Preserving the dark skies that characterise parts of the North York Moors has been a major consideration in the development of our plans. To reduce the impact of light on the local environment, we:

• Strictly control working hours for surface operations during the construction period
• Enclose shafts and winding towers to enable 24 hour underground operations without light spill at the surface
• Keep lighting at the mine to a minimum during operations and add additional shielding by creating screening mounds
• Install shutters on our welfare building, keep car park lighting to a minimum and enclose this area with an environmental barrier to contain light from car headlights
• Keep lighting at the Wilton materials handling facility to a safe minimum and contain our main operations within buildings

Noise and vibration

Noise from the type of modern mine we are going to build will be minimised through being located underground. To keep construction noise to a minimum, we:

• Ensure that full noise control measures within the Construction Environmental Management Plan and Noise and Vibration Management Plan are delivered
• Provide notification in advance of blasting for shaft construction

Air Quality

We have undertaken extensive air quality monitoring around all our proposed sites. To minimise our potential impact on air quality, we:

• Ensure that full dust control measures within the Construction Environmental Management Plan are implemented
• Restrict vehicle movements and enforce a Travel Plan which sets out approved routes for contractors
• Restrict the number of parking spaces at the mine site
• Comply fully with Institute of Air Quality Management guidance

Water

To protect existing watercourses and minimise flood risk or surface run off, we:

• Implement a Surface Water Drainage Strategy in line with the principles set out in our planning application
• Use proven Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS)
• Apply silt traps, check dams and apply level one water treatment as part of the SuDS
• Obtain approval from the regulator for our construction methods to ensure existing watercourses are fully protected
• Operate to the highest standards of site safety and good practice construction methods
• Monitor surface water flows and quality and report on a monthly basis

Traffic

Working with the community and the local authority to reduce the impact of our work on local roads – particularly during construction – is a priority. To keep the impact to a minimum we:

• Implement and enforce a Travel Plan that restricts our vehicle movements and sets out approved routes for contractors
• Restrict the number of parking spaces at the mine site
• Operate a Park and Ride scheme for those working at the mine to reduce the number of individual vehicles going to and from the site
• Restrict parking at the site to those car sharing with at least two other employees

Landscape

Locations for both the mine and access buildings have been selected to ensure that their visual impact is kept to a minimum. Although all of our sites already benefit from existing screening, to enhance this further we:

• Provide new landscaping to blend into the surrounding area
• Use the material extracted from the mine as we build it to provide landscaped features to further screen the mine and access buildings
• Implement measures for the long-term management of the woodlands at the mine site

Emissions

Within the constraints of a large construction project, we are working, together with our contractors, to proactively reduce carbon emissions, through measures such as a reduction in the use of diesel generators and using mains power and LNG instead.

In 2019 emissions totalled 5,491 tonnes of CO2e.

Find out more about the Woodsmith Project

Find out more about our pioneering project. Take a deep dive into our Woodsmith Mine, travel down our 1,600metre shafts, see inside our state-of-the-art tunnel that will transport polyhalite and visit our material handling and port facility.

Read more