Councillors vote unanimously in favour of Cuadrilla’s application
Councillors in West Sussex voted unanimously this afternoon in favour of Cuadrilla’s plans to flow test its oil well at Balcombe. DrillOrDrop live updates
The council’s planning committee added several conditions, including a local liaison group and continuous noise and air quality monitoring.
At the end of the two-hour meeting, some members of the packed public gallery shouted “Shame on you”.
The permission gives Cuadrilla three years to test the commercial viability of the well, drilled in 2013, amid protests which made national headlines.
DrillOrDrop has been collecting reaction to the decision.
Matt Lambert, Cuadrilla director
“We are delighted that West Sussex County Council’s Planning Committee has unanimously approved our planning application to flow test and monitor the existing exploration well at our site at Lower Stumble, Balcombe. This covers the same scope of work as the previous planning permission granted in 2014. The well requires no hydraulic fracturing because the rock is naturally fractured. The flow testing Cuadrilla is looking to undertake will measure the rate at which oil flows from the well.
“We are aware the planning permission only runs until 2021 and that once we start the work it must be completed within two years, including plugging the well with cement and fully restoring the site. We will establish a local Community Liaison Group and consult with residents, at the appropriate time, before work commences.”
Helen Savage, Balcombe teacher and resident who spoke against the application
“We are very disappointed but not surprised. We had expected it would be approved because councillors have to work within the planning regime which has been skewed by government policy in favour of the oil and gas industry.
“It’s very frustrating. The country says we must comply with the Paris climate change agreement but at a micro level we are saying that we need oil and gas and must develop fossil fuels.
“We are all concerned about climate change. This decision is opening the way to more fossil fuels when we should be developing renewables for the next generation.
“We’re also concerned about the industrialisation of our countryside. The executive chairman of UKOG has already said oil companies will need to drill wells back to back to make this pay.
“If the council is not going to protect us, we will have to protect ourselves. We already have more than 6,000 paper and online signatures on a petition against oil exploration at Balcombe.
“The liaison group is a small concession. When Cuadrilla drilled the well, we didn’t know who to complain to. I live nearly 1km from the site and I couldn’t sleep with the window open because it was so noisy. We were passed from one organisation to another.”
Rodney Jago, Balcombe resident who spoke in favour of the application
“It is the right decision for the economy and it will do no harm to Balcombe.
“I feel that somebody has got to stand up for our economy, for our hospitals and NHS, as opposed to selfish nimbyism.
“There is concern that the village will be industrialised. This is nonsense. We might see a nodding donkey. It will be a tourist attraction as much as anything else. I see it doing no harm whatsoever to our peaceful village.
“Unfortunately the only impact when the well was drilled was protests. No one is against peaceful protest but when it comes to trespass that is a different matter.”
Brenda Pollack, Friends of the Earth South East campaigner
“This is devastating news for villagers and everyone who wants a clean and safe environment to live in.
“Where is the democracy when over 2,700 people objected to Cuadrilla returning to this beautiful rural part of Sussex?
“Whether it’s fracking or not, dirty fossil fuels must be left in the ground. Allowing companies to drill underground for ever more difficult to extract oil and gas reserves is crazy when it won’t help keep polluting emissions down. We need to see a much bigger push for a cleaner future without an over-reliance on oil. Cleaner transport measures and reducing car and lorry movements is the way forward.
“The residents who came today showed what local people feel about this. Cuadrilla and companies like it are not welcome here. It seems like the government’s support for dirty oil and gas is forcing these projects through.”
Keith Taylor, Green Party MEP, South East England
“It’s a sad day for local residents and campaigners. Councillors have chosen to place the commercial interests of Cuadrilla above those of their own constituents and the planet. The people of Balcombe and voters across West Sussex have registered their opposition to these climate and environmentally-destructive plans time and time again. And we saw by the strength of opposition on the steps of the County Hall in Chichester that residents are continuing to say no – loudly and clearly. Councillors, however, have turned a deaf ear to their legitimate concerns.”
“The fight isn’t over, though, the people of Balcombe have rebuffed Cuadrilla’s advances before and I will continue standing alongside them as they fight to protect their homes and communities once again.”
“The government-backed unconventional oil and gas rush across the UK will not only despoil this Outstanding Area of Natural Beauty but will ensure the UK fails to meet its legally-binding climate change targets under the Climate Change Act and Paris Agreement.”
“The scientific consensus on the climate breakdown has never been greater. The best chance we have of averting climate catastrophe is by keeping fossil fuel reserves in the ground.”
“Instead of facilitating, and in many cases investing in the dirty oil and gas industry, Councillors had an obligation to take note of the overwhelming public opposition to oil and gas drilling in the region and refuse permission for any new drilling. We need to be working to build a clean energy future – for West Sussex and across the UK.”
Categories: Regulation
DRILL OR DROP? 
Anti frackers, you are losing.
No we’re not.
No they are not yet. If Cuadrilla get the dry well, which is very likely based on UKOG experience, the anti frackers will have the last laugh.
No works carried out since 2013. That sounds familiar.
At their Becconsall site no works have been carried out since 2011.
This is about keeping sites open.
It may keep money coming in but investors want more than retained sites.
A big talk portfolio with just a few pages of any interest to investors.
In a country at Peak Oil this decision is more than sad.
The acid question and nearby river concerns me. Is this a Conservative council? If so I’m not surprised. Our own council run by Capita would hold open the duvet to get into bed with any company that throws monet at it.
[Typo corrected at poster’s request]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-42619747
The key words here GBK are,
……..arrested on suspicion……….
( On suspicion )…….. I would also be interested to know what links these two gentlemen have to the anti fracking protest movement.
In this world anythings possible, whose to say this wasn’t an inside job to bolster the grounds for a future Injunction against the people ….. Third Energy are already fully aware of what problems stiff local opposition can cause to their O&G operations .
With possible large amounts of CASH at stake, anything’s possible.
Let’s wait and see what the results of the Police Investigations are, prior to passing judgement.
It’s right that the person/persons responsible for this appalling incident are prosecuted .
You do realise that it’s the same mantra time and time again from you lot Jack? When one of the anti mob commit a crime it’s never accepted instead we apparently carried out a covert operation to make it look like you did.
Put your feet up Jack and have a little think about what you’re actually implying.
I’d bet all my money that the pellets came over the fence rather than being dropped on the same side. Just accept that there are some very sick ppl in the anti movement.
[Typo corrected at poster’s request]
When Cuadrilla have on their website for over a year
“In accordance with the planning consent well plugging and site restoration work WILL be carried out after the wintering bird’s season, ending 31st March 2016 and BEFORE THE DEADLINE SET BY LANCASHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL OF 31st OCTOBER 2016”
And then they do not restore the site in 2016 or 2017 I would say that was a disgusting way to treat local residents who are concerned for their health and homes.
If the industry has not got the resources then they should not be given consent for new developments.
Where are all the young people? it’s their opinions which matter as they will have to live with this for years not old boy Roger ” it’ll be a tourist attraction” what a fool..
A tourist attraction ….oh yes hey kids ring Grandpa and Grandma lets have a day out in a gas field and get some fresh air…
Dear Rodney Jago,
The objections to this project and others like it do not in my opinion reflect narrow-minded ‘nimbyism’ as you classify it but rather I feel forward-thinking ‘nomplism’ (not on my planet -ism). Unconventional onshore oil and gas exploration will not in the long term benefit any of us unless we are financially invested in it. The time to call a halt to global warming is NOW. Viable renewable energy sources exist, and we should be investing in them. We have already in many senses passed a tipping point in terms both of environmental and ecological changes that may very well prove to be irreversible. Whether the drilling takes place in my back yard, your back yard, or in Australia the net damaging effects to the planet (the only one that we know for sure will support us) will be the same. Nodding donkey or no nodding donkey it shouldn’t be the above-the-surface detritus of the onshore oil and gas industry that should concern us, but rather what is going on below ground. No well ever drilled has yet proven impervious to leakage, as the concrete linings that are spilled down well shafts will all deteriorate over time, even if they begin life as an efficient seal (and an estimate 25% of them are not even impermeable to begin with). In addition to oil and/or gas, the area surrounding drilling wells may also be subject to contamination by the acids routinely deployed by the oil & gas industry and any ‘naturally occurring radioactive materials’ (NORMS as they are known) that the fracturing of the affected local geology might release to the surface. Where might these substances end up? Not just in our soil, but in our water supply, and in the local vegetation that might well end up in the digestive tracts of our dairy herds and other livestock and/or wildlife. In addition to which, should these unconventional oil and gas extraction methods be deployed on any scale they might well destabilise the underlying geology of the areas in which we live. This has happened extensively in areas of the US and Australia, where the frequency of oil tremors has increased significantly. Aquifers have also been routinely contaminated in these areas. It’s not a single nodding donkey that we need to be concerned about, but our noddingly acquiescent government that is sponsoring these highly dangerous extraction techniques. Don’t imagine for a minute that a relatively modest above-ground wellhead represents a vertical bore with a limited sphere of influence. No. Many horizontal shafts will be drilled from each vertical well in a number of directions once a target geological seam has been accessed vertically. Such tentacles may well reach out over a kilometre in any direction, somewhat akin to a vast root system that spins off a single vertical trunk. Tourist attraction Rodney? I operate an international tour operator that has provided travel arrangements to four of the world’s five continents. Not once have I received a request to visit a drilling site. Anywhere. How will unconventional oil and gas extraction assist our economy Rodney? How will this support our failing NHS? Whilst other countries surge ahead in their formulation of renewable energy policies the UK lags far behind, trying to squeeze the very last drops of oil and gas from its substrata at absolutely any cost and investing in the monstrous white elephant that is Hinkley. The wind rarely stops blowing off the Atlantic, which equally pounds our shores with wave energy and thousands of UK householders are already benefitting from earnings from solar panels. Energy from these sources would be forever, and following initial infrastructure investments would be ridiculously cheap and safe to provide. Healthy flow-rates from even a productive unconventional wellhead rarely last for more than a year or two, and yet the damage they do will last for all eternity. Regarding your objections to protest, please note that the right to protest is acknowledged almost worldwide as a basic human right, and that if no-one had ever protested we would be quite possibly be living still in a basically feudal society in which almost no women and very very few men would enjoy even very basic human rights. I am sorry if the quotations taken from your presentation above do not fairly represent the overall thrust of your thinking. However, they are all I have before me, and I feel strongly compelled to react to them.
Yours, with no personal enmity whatsoever (but highly frustrated nonetheless),
Jonathan Plumridge.
2700 objections. 11 letters in favour. Approved unanimously. Local democracy and opinion seems to mean nothing to Tory councillors.
As the head of North Yorkshire County Council planning committee said when KM8 was approved at Kirby Misperton, after 4,275 objections and only 36 letters of support, “Public opinion is not a material objection.”
The fight against this industry continues. And the industry might rue picking another fight in Balcombe.
One litre of UK oil replacing one litre of imported oil reduces CO2 emissions, and generates taxation within the UK that can help fund NHS etc. Good example is Wytch Farm, doing exactly that and it is slap bang in the middle of a prime tourist area and every visitor to the site I have spoken with is full of praise for the operation.
Congratulations on doing your research on UK oil and avoiding the Giggle temptation, Rodney.
Sorry Jack. Whilst I agree with the policy of awaiting the outcome of investigation, the rest of your post would have been better not said. If the investigation identifies antis were to blame your suggestions will come back to haunt you, and many others.