The decision on plans to drill oil and gas wells near the village of Dunsfold in Surrey has slipped into 2020.

This the fifth time Surrey County Council has postponed the decision.

UK Oil & Gas plc (UKOG) submitted proposals in April 2019 to explore at the site for gas in the Portland sandstone and oil in the deeper Kimmeridge limestones. The company plans to drill a vertical well and a sidetrack.

A decision had been expected by August 2019. But the date was delayed to September, then October, November and December.

The council said today it had extended the time needed to consider the application because UKOG had submitted new information.

Nearly 20 new documents have been added to the application website.

They are the company’s responses to comments on the application about highways, air quality, noise, lighting, archaeology, soils, drainage, ecology, landscape and construction management.

The documents include a revised transport statement. This has results of speed surveys, accident data and swept path analysis. The statement concluded that the well site would not have a “detrimental impact in road safety, traffic and highway terms”.

Members of the public can comment on the new material until 4 December 2019.

The application is now due to go before the Surrey’s planning committee on 30 January 2020. A parallel application with an alternative access to the site is scheduled to be considered at the same meeting.

DrillOrDrop page of Dunsfold key facts and time