PLANNING officers who have spent four years examining proposals for a £1.5 billion fertiliser mine in a national park have indicated they will not recommend whether the scheme should be approved.

The North York Moors National Park Authority's planning boss, Chris France, said it was likely to take the "extremely unusual" course of issuing an open recommendation, which means the authority's members will not be given firm guidance from officers on how to vote on the plan on June 30.

He declined to reveal whether the officers were unwilling or unable to make the recommendation, but said the major development at Sneaton, near Whitby, was highly controversial, principally due to it being sited within a national park and over the 1,000 jobs it would create.

Mr France cited the case of controversial zip wire scheme in the Lake District being given an open recommendation by that national park authority's officers.

The planning boss said the authority held a meeting with Sirius Minerals, the firm behind the polyhalite mine scheme on Monday (May 11), after being pressed for an early indication on what the officers would recommend.

Mr France said: "We would rather this had not been made public by Sirius until we completed the report."

Chris Fraser, managing director of Sirius, said: "We are very pleased to be heading towards a decision by the members and have confidence in the strength of our planning case, the huge levels of support for the application and the many wide ranging economic benefits that the project will deliver to the local area and to the country at large."

The planners' decision not to issue a recommendation drew criticism from Whitby MP Robert Goodwill, who said the the project had been "mired in planning bureaucracy for too long already".

He said: "If planning officers aren’t prepared to make a recommendation to the committee, then I certainly am because this scheme is central to my local democratic mandate.

"20,613 people voted for me and no one can have been in any doubt about my 100 per cent support for this new mine and the 1,000 jobs that come with it.”

North York Moors Association chairman Tom Chadwick said he believed the planners' decision was probably related to them being under pressure to make a statement.

He said: "The members will make the decision and it is inconceivable to me that anyone acting on behalf of the national park could approve this scheme.

"If it is approved, in future years we won't be getting the Tour de Yorkshire, we'll get the Tour de Potash."