Europe's biggest peat bog has opened as a national nature reserve after years of controversy over soil extraction for garden compost.

More than £17m of government funding has gone into buying out companies on the 3,400 hectares around the Humber estuary.

Environment minister Elliot Morley, hosting a marquee lunch in the middle of the bog between Doncaster and Goole, said that rare plants, insects and bird migration sites made the area "unique and exceptionally valuable".