IGas proposed shale gas site at Tinker Lane, north Nottinghamshire
A decision expected this month on plans by IGas to explore for shale gas at a second site in Nottinghamshire has been put back again.
The County Council said today that a further public consultation was needed on the Tinker Lane site, between Barnby Moor and Blyth.
The decision had first been scheduled for early this year and then later at a special meeting on 21 February 2017.
But the council said IGas had provided new information on air quality and the public and statutory consultees would be given 21 days to comment on it. The new consultation is expected to start in the next 7-10 days.
The council said the Planning and Licensing Committee was likely to consider the application following completion of the consultation, on a date to be determined.
Sally Gill, Planning Manager for Nottinghamshire County Council, said:
“It is important that members of the public and other interested parties are given an opportunity to comment on every element of the application. In light of new information from the applicant about air quality matters, we are arranging for a further three-week consultation on this issue.
“Further information about the consultation and when and how people can register their views will be released shortly. We hope to announce a date for the Planning and Licensing Committee to consider this application in the near future.”
If approved, Tinker Lane would be the second shale gas site to get the go-ahead in Nottinghamshire. In November 2016, the county council approved plans by IGas for two exploration wells at Springs Road, Misson. A legal agreement for this site is currently being negotiated.
The application
The Tinker Lane application, submitted by the IGas subsidiary, Dart Energy (East England) Ltd, is for three years and includes:
- One vertical multi-core well to take samples from the Bowland Shale and Millstone Grit formations
- Up to nine groundwater and gas monitoring boreholes in three groups
- Security cabins and fencing already on the site
- Construction work associated with the development of the well site
The application does not include hydraulic fracturing.
The application put the depth of the well at 3,300m but the company has since revised this to 1,840m. It said drilling would be 24-hours a day, seven days a week for four months and would require six heavy goods vehicle movements in and six out of the site each day.
Other parts of the operation would be carried out between 7am and 7pm, Monday to Friday and 7am and 1pm on Saturdays, with no work on Sundays or bank holidays. Delivery and removal of the drill rig would generate 13 HGV movements in and out of the site a day over two periods, each of two weeks. DrillOrDrop review of the application
More information
DrillOrDrop page on Tinker Lane
DrillOrDrop page on Springs Road, Misson
Nottinghamshire County Council page on shale gas
This report is part of DrillOrDrop’s Rig Watch project. Rig Watch receives funding from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. More details here
Categories: Regulation
DRILL OR DROP? 
Why prospect for gas in the UK. Well just a note to say that in Germany in January, there was record use of coal and gas. That’s the country that is held up as the exemplar of renewable development. Why the use of coal? because it was cold but the sun didn’t shine and the wind didn’t blow. If some of that coal was replaced by gas (or nuclear, you choose) then there would be fewer CO2 emissions and less pollution. By the way I see that Waitrose is starting to run lorries on organically produced natural gas, that’s brilliant but we’re never going to be able to generate enough gas to upscale that inititive – why not use shale gas, after all shale rock is only a mudstone, a billion year old compost heap!