the environemntal impact of this project is pretty negligible in the context of the North York Moors, so its good to see it going ahead. Most people will be completely unaware of its presence. At the weekend someone was up in arms about this and how it "Would Trash the North york Moors", which she visits regularly. I asked her the question "Have you visited Staithes before?" - "Yes, I love it there" - "So what did you thinkof Boulby Potash mine?" - "I've never seen it". Anyone knowing that area, knows full well that when you turn right into Staithes, you get a view of the full Boulby site, with its shafts and chimneys. What this proves, is unless you are actually looking for it, you just don't see it - and the visual impact of this one is far less than Boulby - no chimneys, no headframes, no processing plant, no rail loadout.
With regards to the tunnel v pipeline argument, they were never going to get planning permission for the pipeline - somone mentioned electricity cable trenches - these are no more than a metre wide, what was proposed here was a trench 8 metres wide across 20 miles of National Park.