New life for historic mining shed
A MASSIVE storage shed once used in the processing of coal from the multi-mine Selby complex has been given a new lease of life in a deal which will reduce lorry traffic and carbon emissions by ensuring material used in the building industry is transported by rail.
Yorkshire-based UK Coal has agreed terms with British Gypsum under which a 210,000 sq ft storage facility on the former Gascoigne Wood mine, once the hub of the five-pit Selby complex, will be used to store gypsum, produced at the nearby Drax power station.
The gypsum will be transported in wagons hauled by trains operated by EWS from Drax to Gascoigne Wood where it will be stored in the shed, which is big enough to house 10 full sized football pitches, until it is needed by neighbouring British Gypsum for their state-of-the-art plasterboard plant at Sherburn-in-Elmet.
Advisers on the letting of the shed was DTZ.
British Gypsum procurement manager Kevin Flinton said: “This agreement is a win-win for the local communities, the environment and the four businesses involved.
“Re-using the existing storage facility at Gascoigne Wood close to our production base and transporting 200,000 tonnes of gypsum by rail eliminates the alternative need for over 7,000 lorry movements covering a distance of 840,000 miles – a saving of around 1,000 tonnes of carbon emission.”
Eddie Peat, a director of Harworth Estates, the property arm of Doncaster-based UK Coal which owns the former Selby mine sites, said: “The agreement with British Gypsum demonstrates the continued demand for this type of opportunity, and particularly the growing importance of rail distribution in the UK. The Gascoigne Wood site has created a number of serious expressions of interest which we continue to pursue.”
Mike Baugh, industrial director at DTZ, said: “This deal is excellent news for the Yorkshire region, at a time when there has been a slowdown in large scale industrial and distribution take-up.
“The Gascoigne Wood site has the potential to play a significant part in creating new job opportunities in the area.”
The arrangement between UK Coal and British Gypsum was made possible by a ruling by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government last August that the 90-acre Gascoigne Wood site could be re-used for rail connected activities.
The shed, the largest single span building in Europe when it was completed in the mid-1980’s, was used to process up to 12m tonnes of coal a year, which was then transported by rail to nearby power stations.
The shed has not been used since late 2004 when Riccall, the last surviving Selby mine, ceased production. Three of the other five former mine sites are also being re-used to help generate hundreds of jobs in the area.
