North Yorkshire County Council has set the date to consider Third Energy’s proposal to frack for shale gas at its site at Kirby Misperton

The council’s planning committee will meet to vote on the planning application in four weeks’ time on Friday 20 May 2016 at County Hall in Northallerton.

A statement from the council today said:

“The County Council is currently finalising its report about the application, with reference to legal counsel, following thorough consideration of detailed information provided by the applicant, along with responses from statutory consultees and over 4,000 representations.”

“The County Council recognises that there is likely to be significant public interest in the committee meeting and is therefore making all necessary arrangements to ensure the meeting is managed safely and effectively.”

There have been more than 3,000 written objections to the application to frack, test and possibly produce shale gas from the existing KM8 well.

Ryedale District Council’s planning committee has recommended refusal and town and parish councils near the site have passed motions against fracking.

Rasik Valand, Chief Executive of Third Energy, said today:

“We are pleased that the North Yorkshire County Council has now set the date for the Planning & Regulatory Functions Committee to consider our application to hydraulically fracture certain sections within the existing KM8 well in Kirby Misperton.

“We look forward to the planning committee members’ visit to the operating well site in Kirby Misperton as they will have the opportunity to see the well site as it operates; understand the environmental protection measures already in place, and the high standards to which the site was built.”

“We have taken every possible step in this application to minimise disruption to the local community, as well as ensure that our plans will not impact the local environment.”

“To be clear, the programme detailed in this application is actually of a smaller scale and shorter time than the drilling of the KM8 well 2013.”

“The hydraulic fracturing and testing is a key step towards determining the viability of producing gas from this hybrid sandstone and shale formation in North Yorkshire.”

Ian Conlan, from Malton  resident, says: “This is a hugely important application for everybody in Yorkshire.”

“Huge swathes of the county have been licensed for fracking, despite widespread opposition, but it will be county councillors that decide on whether to allow fracking a foothold.”

“Government ministers have already indicated they wish to progress large scale fracking applications for multiple wells after  pushing to get exploratory fracking approved locally.”

“The public should be under no illusions about the huge impact that very noisy and intrusive 24 hour, 7 day a week drilling and fracking would have on the area and people’s well being.”

Sue Gough, who lives at Little Barugh half a mile from the proposed site, said:

“The majority of people in the area oppose fracking, and we urge county councillors to listen to those concerns and reject this application. We would like councillors to resist the pressure from central Government and listen to their local voters.”