Craven's famous limestone pavements have been saved for future generations thanks to a quarry company agreeing to relinquish its rights.

Hanson, the owners of two of the three last remaining sites in England with permission to quarry limestone pavement, has surrendered its planning rights to quarry the stone to the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority.

It will ensure the protection of one of the UK's rarest habitats.

Limestone pavement, much in demand for garden rockeries, but protected at many sites in the UK and Ireland, has been quarried at Horton-in-Ribblesdale and Ribblehead quarries in the Yorkshire Dales National Park since the war.

While Hanson has never quarried limestone pavement at Ribblehead, it has now decided that it will not do so in the future and handed the site to English Nature to be used for conservation.

Since taking over Horton quarry, Hanson has reversed the previous practice of extracting limestone pavement and told the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority that no more limestone pavement will be removed from the quarry.

Eddie Jordan, Hanson Aggregates natural resources manager, said: "To continue this practice, however lucrative, would have been quite unjustifiable and in conflict with our own environmental standards. I hope this sends out a clear message that limestone pavement must be protected."