Site plan for extended well test at Angus Energy’s oil site at Balcombe in West Sussex. Map: Angus Energy planning application

The decision on Angus Energy’s planning application for an extended well test at Balcombe will not now be made this month.

The company was expecting the application would go before West Sussex County Council’s planning committee on 25 February 2020.

But today the council said the meeting had been cancelled “because there is no substantive business nor any applications requiring a decision by committee at this time”.

Correspondence from West Sussex County Council

The next meeting of the committee will be on Tuesday 24 March 2020.

DrillOrDrop understands that the public consultation on the application was extended until later this month after Angus Energy submitted a hydrogeological risk assessment last month.

In November 2019, the Environment Agency had objected to the application because of insufficient information, including the absence of the risk assessment.

At the time of writing, there were more than 500 online objections to the application and about 30 online comments in support.