Broadford Bridge oil site, 22 October 2017. Photo: Weald Oil Watch
Council officers are investigating complaints of Sunday working at the Broadford Bridge oil exploration site in West Sussex.
Residents reported operations at the site near Billingshurst on the past two Sundays, allegedly in breach of the planning permission. They said they saw a crane head moving above the trees and heard sounds from moving vehicles and machinery. Similar complaints were made in August.
A condition of the planning permission for Broadford Bridge restricts work to Monday-Friday and Saturday morning, except during the 24-hour drilling phase which is now over. The reason given for the condition is to “protect the amenities of occupiers of nearby residential properties.”
Extract from the decision notice of the Broadford Bridge planning permission
A spokesperson for West Sussex County Council confirmed there had been four complaints about working on the site on 22 and 29 October 2017. The spokesperson said:
“WSCC is investigating the complaints and will determine how to proceed once we have further details.”
Drone footage of Broadford Bridge site, 29 October 2017, showing crane head rise. Video: Weald Oil Watch
“Safety management reasons”
UK Oil & Gas Investments plc, the parent company of the site operator, told DrillOrDrop:
“We have reviewed our activity on site at Broadford Bridge on Sunday October 22 and Sunday October 29.
“On October 22 we were finishing off an operation which had begun a few days earlier and needed to be completed for well safety reasons. The crane was in use and we can confirm that noise levels were extremely low.
“On October 29 we were in the middle of some well intervention work which had also been started prior to the Sunday and needed to be finished for safety management reasons. Again, noise levels were very low.
“We have been in very regular communication with West Sussex County Council. They are fully aware of our activities.”
When asked about the safety issues, the spokesperson said:
“They were simply ongoing activities which could not be suddenly terminated without detriment to our health and safety standards.”
“Mockery of conditions”
Broadford Bridge Action Group, which has campaigned against activities at the site, said:
“UKOG openly admits to working out of permitted operating hours because there is no penalty for them doing so.
“This makes a mockery of the conditions of operation and further confirms that the regulatory authorities are not fully regulating activities on site.
“Their relationship is far too cosy and that’s not in the interests of local taxpayers.”
After the complaints in August, West Sussex County Council told residents the matter had been investigated and there had been no significant or long-term harm.
The council said it would “overcome matters” without taking formal action if that was possible. The authority said it would not prioritise what it called “technical breaches” that it did not regard had caused harm.
Categories: Regulation
DRILL OR DROP? 
Clearly, regulations are there as a sop to the public. The operators, compliant local authorities and government will continue to do what they wish and whenever they wish. If breaches of regulations are given sufficient airing, the authorities will wave an admonishing finger and the operators will promise to be good in the future….until they decide not to be. And the weak suffer what they must….until they decide not to.
Well said laith1720!
We see this phrase such as these used all the time now:
“On October 22 we were finishing off an operation which had begun a few days earlier and needed to be completed for well safety reasons.”
And from West Sussex County Council.
“no significant or long-term harm.”
I have worked abroad where the limitations on working times on holy days and Ramadan for example are far more severe than a letter from the local authority.
Breach of working times carries severe and life threatening consequences, yet oil companies and such like never get into the position where such breaches can occur.
How? By planning the work and competing it on schedule and sometimes to the minute.
Easy if you plan correctly and work to a tight schedule and completion.
So why cannot UK Oil & Gas Investments plc do the same?
Simple, they know there are no penalties and they are as a result lazy, inefficient, slap dash and contemptuous and they don’t give a proverbial monkeys about such breaches.
Remedy? Make any breach have severe and costly penalties, fines of millions of pounds for proven breaches.
It’s a money game, and to make it stick, you need to hit them where it hurts, in the bank account. We cannot take the religious route to to arrest imprisonment and violence…….does that sound familiar?
But perhaps a scale of fines and stop day working practices, that being for every day breach, two working days are implemented where no work can happen at all. And perhaps with a deposited million pound up front confiscatesble bond would do the trick.
Only when sufficient penalties that hurt their pocket are in place will such breaches be stopped in their tracks.
The harm situation regarding West Sussex County Council is also worth exploring, If harm is the issue, as breach of regulations is the issue, how is harm measured? This gets interesting.
What parameters pertain to and define harm? Harm to whom or to what? How is harm to whom or to what defined?
Who and what regulatory body has been consulted or enquiries made to establish the degree of harm resulting in breach of regulations?
What regulatory and legal measures are in place and ready to roll into legal court action action if such significant or long-term harm should become evident and who is responsible for measuring or establishing that harm and the risks involved?
What is the fine scale and applicability to failure to follow clearly defined regulations and conditions and agreements?
Why is no formal action being taken?
What formal actions are in place or planned to be taken if such breaches are established to be of significant or long-term harm?
Answers to these questions are required asap please West Sussex County Council.
Letter on the way!
I noticed whilst I was writing that little epistle that there is a curious dichotomy of how protectors are treated, and how operators are treated?
The police come down like avenging “angels”, I use the word advisedly, on protesters in an almost religious get out, and yet multiple and far more obvious and dangerous breaches and minor infringements by the operators are left entirely unsanctioned and frankly totally ignored?
This is very enlightening don’t you think?
How can the law descend upon the public with wrath and a gnashing of teeth, when the same attitude is not extended to the operators?
This is clearly a massive inequality of treatment between operator and protector is it not?
This must be addressed at all levels top to bottom of this crazy system.
It’s like slavery and women’s right to vote isn’t it?
We are so used to the apartied system of rights divisions between the elitist business cartels and government self importance and on the other side the vastly put upon and exploited tax payer, that we do not see it clearly any more?
Smoke and mirrors.
Well now we do see it, time to act upon it.
Clearly heath and safety comes first.Good to know ukog and the WSCC have some sense unlike others .
WSCC are a Tory pro-oil and gas organisation, who care nothing for the democratic rights of the people of Sussex. They have no concept of safeguarding any form of environmental protections and will walk through every application made by UKOG and their mates, who are intent on making the ‘Industrialisation of the Weald’, an actual fact. This destruction will happen in a matter of years unless the people of Sussex get off their arses and take action.
If I was an investor I would be worried about the health and safety issues that warrant all these extra paid for labour hours. Is it pressure issues or contamination issues. Maybe the EPA needs to give them a health check up.
I was repairing my mower last Saturday and whilst doing so noticed some extra work was required. Do you know what-I ended up completing it on Sunday! Real world v internet world.
Martin is your Sunday working restricted by your ability to comply with clearly defined planning conditions? Real world vs Internet world!
UKOG are way behind schedule imo if they need to work continually out of permitted hours , what are the issues at Broadford Bridge ? This well is proving that the Weald cannot be drilled without problems , cement bonds that don’t seal , collapsed / washed out well bore , it all sounds less than safe to me . I wonder if UKOG were actually aware of all these problems when they went to the planning extension meeting in Horsham ? The extension sure did get them out of jail there if so. Gold standard regulation ? Sanderson used these quotes in his drivel at that meeting , “Good conduct and safe practices” , He was “Proud of the company’s public engagement ” ” Social responsibility” “Strive to be good neighbours” and “Strong and compliant ” where have we heard a similar slogan lately ?
So, crembrule-if there was a serious incident on a Sunday, outside of the planning ideal working times, UKOG should stand around wringing their hands?? Now that is what I call drivel. Just perhaps completing a task might prevent a serious incident from developing? Doesn’t fit your agenda, but it happens in nearly every industry, every week of the year.
Anyway, the one positive to come out of this is that employment at the site on a Sunday, all that overtime, does kill off the drivel about no jobs being created and no benefit.
I refer you to my answer above martin, or is that a breach of Thursday working regulations?
If it is, i am sure you will feel free to disregard the breach.
I merely asked if you were restricted by planning conditions in completing the works to your mower on Sunday, comparing your weekend activities and the impact on your neighbours to those of an operational O&G facility is actually drivel. You tinkering with a mower is clearly not the same as the operator at this site being unable to complete its planned works in a professional and efficient manner, within good time scales (not an emergency) and thus avoiding a breach of clearly defined planning conditions. Seems to be a standard operating procedure for O&G companies to ignore restrictions that are put in place to protect the amenity of those local to the site.
Phil Austin-what impact was there to neighbours? I thought that was still being investigated, and investigation of similar complaints in August concluded there was no significant impact.
I understood a Community Fund was operating from this activity to help the amenity of those local to the site?
If you don’t wish to follow my mower story, my son works on building sites. Many times they have had to work on sites on a Sunday although outside of planning conditions. (Sometimes diggers fracture water pipes. I recognise that sort of event is unknown in some quarters.) As long as they can supply a good reason for doing so, it is perfectly normal. You will find getting hold of anyone in the Planning department on a Saturday afternoon is not that practical and common sense has to prevail.
Nice try. Would it be preferable for drilling and oil fluids to gush everywhere! No, I thought not.
Pour birds, never a dull moment with a drone flying around.
In reply to pictures and video evidence that UKOG were breaching planning permission at Broadford bridge
UKOG say.
“We have reviewed our activity on site at Broadford Bridge on Sunday October 22 and Sunday October 29.
“On October 22 we were finishing off an operation which had begun a few days earlier and needed to be
completed for well safety reasons. The crane was in use and we can confirm that noise levels were extremely low.
So in other words the company UKOG were working on a Sunday on a job that had been started a few days earier and
needed to be completed for well safety reasons?
This then must mean that they had been working 24/7 for a few days
most of which will have been outside the agreed working hours.
If a job of this size was known to be happening would it not be in order to inform WSCC and local residents ?
Maybe that is covered by one of the quotes from Steve Sanderson CEO UKOG when speaking at the planning extension
meeting , he mentions , “Good conduct and safe practices”, “Public engagment” , “Social responsibilty and to ,
“Striving to be good neighbors & strong and compliant” I see none of this in action here and the question has to be
asked , Why ? Why are UKOG still working 24/7 to do something with a well that couldnt be drilled or cemented ?
What is going on behind the security fences ? Its obviously enough for them to be breaching Planning permissions
without informing the locals or WSCC ?