Political involvement - is there something fishy going on in Whitby ?

From the very begining in January 2011, our member of Parliament "Robert Goodwill MP" seemed to come out strongly in favour of this project, even though we knew virtualy nothing about it, we had no idea what would be involved, no idea of the size or scale of any development or where the site(s) would be.

We did know that any proposed site would likely be inside the National Park, and we therefore knew that detailed proposals, when they are eventualy announced, would be highly controversial and will have a major impact.

This is what Mr Goodwill said in 2011

"This is absolutely brilliant news as this investment could create one of Scarborough’s largest employers. “We have been saying there will be private sector jobs that come and replace some of the losses in the state sector and this could see that happening in Scarborough with thousands of jobs."

It seems to me that Mr Goodwill always appears to overlook the fact that he is member of Parliament for Whitby aswell as Scarborough, and the fact that the proposed development will actualy be in the Whitby area and not in the vicinity of Scarborough compounds my thoughts.

Government grants BEFORE planning permission is granted - is this not slightly odd ?

I am not a legal expert but I feel something does not make sense here, the company behind the proposed potash mine applied to the Regional Growth Fund for a grant towards a global centre of applied inovation in geosciences, to be built at its potash mine development somewhere near Whitby; The application for government money was successful and Sirius Minerals were awarded £2.8 million even though no permission has been given for the project to go ahead.

If a planning application by Sirius Minerals is refused by the National Park, it will then most likely go to a public enquirey which will be overseen by government planning inspectors who are employed by the Department for Communities & Local Government, headed by Eric Pickles - the government department which awarded Sirius Minerals the £2.8 million grant is the Department for Business.

New director appointed to Sirius Minerals

On the 18th January 2011 Sirius Minerals announced the appointment of John Hutton ( the Lord John Hutton of Furness ) as a director of the company, Lord Hutton was minister in charge of the Department for Business, and allthough Lord Hutton appears not to have any kind of background in geology or mining, he has qualifications in law, he headed the governments Commission into public sector pension reforms, much to the dismay of former Labour colleagues.

In June 2010 Lord Hutton was appointed to the board of American company Hyperion Nuclear Generation, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments stipulated that he should not lobby his former department for 12 months.