The planning committee of North Lincolnshire Council voted this afternoon against plans for oil production at Egdon Resource’s Wressle site near Scunthorpe.
Seven members of the 10-person committee voted against the scheme, despite the recommendation of planning officers to approve.
They said there was not enough information in the officers’ report to convince them that the application, which included acidisation and proppant squeeze techniques, would not have an impact on people and the environment.
The ward councillor Holly Mumby-Croft, who opposed the application first time round as a member of the committee, said:
“I have not heard anything today that makes me change my mind”.
The committee also refused permission by five votes to four, for the existing planning permission to be extended for a year. Councillors again defied the advice of officers to approve.
Egdon has already appealed against the council’s earlier refusal and the production scheme will now be considered at a public inquiry in the autumn.
Opponents of the scheme said they were surprised and delighted.
Elizabeth Williams, of Frack Free Lincolnshire, said
“Words fail me.
“I applaud North Lincolnshire Council’s planning committee for standing up for a principle.”
She added
“We are now bracing ourselves for the appeal”
Geraldine Clayton, another opponent of the scheme, said
“It is a blow for the unconventional oil and gas industry.
“So many other countries have rejected this and yet we keep having to fight these battles for justice for the environment.
“I take my hat off to the local councillors..
“The government and the industry assume we are a pushover. But people will stick to their principles.”
Ms Clayton said opponents of the scheme had sought answers from the Environment Agency about the current scheme and the use of acidisation and proppant squeeze – stated by Egdon – at the nearby Crosby Warren oil site. But she said the EA had not responded.
Chris Crean, Midlands campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said:
“This is a fantastic result for the democracy that exists within our planning system. The local councillors have listened to the views of their local community and have supported their views in taking this decision.”
Representatives of Egdon left the meeting without talking to reporters.
Mark Abbott, the company’s managing director, said in a statement on the website:
“We are very disappointed by the decision of the Committee that again goes against the positive recommendation of their Planning Officer which was determined after an extensive and thorough review of our proposals which included more detailed information to address the specific concerns outlined by North Lincolnshire Council in their refusal of the original application on 11 January 2017.
“Our business has been operating exploration and production sites in a safe and environmentally sensitive manner across the region for many years, engaging with communities, employing local people and investing in the local supply chain.
“We will now take forward our appeal against the original 11 January 2017 determination which is due to be heard in November 2017.”
Reporting from this meeting was made possible by individual donations from DrillOrDrop readers.
Categories: Regulation
DRILL OR DROP? 
“I applaud North Lincolnshire Council’s planning committee for standing up for a principle.
Could not put it better.
Oh dear, more council tax money down the drain…….
What, like the £2.0 billion bung + other “incentives” to the DUP to rip off the tax payer into paying for DUP support to the tories you mean?
Money well spent to kkep Corbyn out.
aahh! Double standards, right! Bit of a stutter there?
I was at the first meeting when they said no. I am amazed and delighted well done Lincs, all the best from Yorkshire x
This will be overturned by the SoS and the council will be fined costs. Future o&g applications may be withdrawn from council level in the future. The councillors refused on grounds that do not stand up legally.
You wish, people see through that, it wont happen again not after the present debacle.
“The councillors refused on grounds that do not stand up legally.”
Care to provide proof of that little gem?
Are you having a laugh?
All the time GottaYetProvideProofForSillyRemarks, Loving it!
Phil. I suggest you don’t make comments on issues you don’t understand! Try and remain focused on spouting the usual comedy for my own entertainment.
What I’ll say is watch what is said when it is overturned and all will become clear. You’ll at least learn that dim councillors don’t have any real power.
Try again, not anywhere near GottaYetProvideProofForSillyRemarks!. Still loving it! Perhaps you should try taking your own pathetic and insulting advice GottNothingToSayInYourDefence? And provide proof that the decision was illegal, is this going to be another Nick climb down?
You still focussed on bubblewrap unicorns? No wonder!
So the councillors are still playing silly buggers and going against their professional planning officers .
Pity they are not held to account for their actions and forced to sell their houses to pay liquidated damages to Egdon .
They have made Sajid Javid look like a complete cretin (again) .
Where do they get off stopping legitimate businesses going about their work ?
The Unite fool cannot be speaking on behalf of his Steel employer , just his backwards union .
Is it a failure of the education system or do they just want to condemn their offspring to living in a massive open air museum without any industry and job opportunities ?
Unite has gone ultra left along with Labour. If their members actually paid attention to what the numpties like Len are up to they would tell them to beat it. Unfortunately Len got elected because the turn out was so low and he has turned the union into a big of a militant style machine.
Funny how times have changed, I thought unions were meant to welcome jobs!
GottYourselfInARightMess, You don’t seem to understand why the unions were formed and where the labour movement came from, and why they were necessary? There is no right or left in politics, that’s just another cheap label to paste onto anyone who disagrees with the exploitation and corruption rife in the tory and whig comfortable self interest monopolies on power and privilege.
There were and are very good reasons for those movements, not just one but many of them. It was recognised that most of the decisions for workers were made without worker representation behind closed doors in parliament, so the political parties were formed to represent people not just landowners and nobility, so called, because all that really happened was the most vile stole as much partitioned freeman land as possible and killed and deported anyone who stood in their way. Yeah, great political strategies those aren’t they?
The fact that the movements have been successively high jacked and compromised by that same power base corruption, internally and externally, only goes to prove that politics is an inherently dirty corrupt process, and representative democracy is the most flawed of the options and always leads to power base corruption and inevitably leaves the workers ignored and sidelined as before, nothing changes in politics, only the sad sorry spectacle of self preserving privilege and personal greed.
This diatribe of yours against people who merely oppose your extremist imperatives, only goes to prove that anything goes as long as you lot get your own way to preserve access to the trough, preferably whist getting someone else to pay for it, that is not democracy or politics, it is merely gross self interest.
What a palaver? No more than frustration because the Humpty Dumpty Numpty tory dreams of fracking avarice and greed lie shattered in their self motivated suicidal dive off the wall, and even all the Queens horses and all the Queens men wont mention fracking again even after an 8% bung? now more and more are saying “NO!”, so we get all this empty rhetoric to defend the frustrated greed, avarice and self interest of the o$£&g imperative.
Buying off the DUP with tax payers money will only sanction more slow marches in front of traffic, approved of course, no police harassment and arrests there?
Are you mistaking unions for unicorns perhaps GottaBubblewrapUnicorn/UnionConfusion?
I presume the panel were so cowed by green lobbyists that they have passed the responsibility on to the appeals process at the risk of losing costs rather than taking the decision themselves. A great shame and a very big missed opportunity.
Great that they are sticking to their principles. The longer they hold out against a corrupted officialdom the better. It will eventually become clear how the law gets bent at the highest levels to protect operators from their liabilities: the risks, the pollution and the impacts that come with this industry. The Ernst vs Encana case in Canada provides almost a template for how it’s done, and how once the industry is in bed with the government the average person will get nowhere trying to raise a legal challenge, no matter how badly they have been affected (be it through water contamination, property value, sickness etc).
Jessica Ernst had spent many years working for oil and gas herself but when her own land got contaminated by the industry she decided enough was enough and that the truth should come out. http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/news-multimedia/fracing-multimedia/ She has suffered endless name calling (from ‘lefty’ through to ‘terrorist’) of the the kind you see practiced by the fossil fuel brigade on these threads. After many years and over $30,000 dollars of her own money trying to get the O&G companies and the environment agencies to come clean over this it is clear that the govt and corporates can just perpetually sideline and evade the truth and the responsibilities (and liabilities) that go with that truth.
…. the following undercover interview, now in the public domain, is one of the most revealing I’ve come across:
Canada seems to be the new place of interest for the antis, first it was the US then Oz. Wonder where they will take us next?
Isn’t it great to have so much prior knowledge and experience to consult GBH. Otherwise we’d just be left with sales and spin merchants.
Excellent post Philip P, this just goes to show the mindset of the industry and their lawyers, and why we can never ever trust the industry to do anything in this country without the most severe and rigorous regulations and come down on these industry frauds like a ton of bricks.
So, we are Canada now! Giggle takes you everywhere.
[Edited by moderator]
Somebody sneezed in Cairo last week-so what?
Does this nonsense mean anything to anyone? [Edited by moderator]
Sorry, my post of 8.16 doesn’t make sense because my Giggle information was edited. Strange, when factual information that has appeared in the press needs editing? (I know factual and press are not always connected, but in this case, were, because I was employed by a company that owned a subsidiary in Canada at the time that was involved in the industry concerned and they confirmed the information.)
No worries. You haven’t missed much.