A meeting to reconsider plans by UK Oil & Gas plc to drill at the village of Dunsfold in Surrey has been postponed for another month.
A second hearing on the application by the county council’s planning committee had been expected on 22 October 2020.
But the council said today that a committee report by planning officers could not be completed in time for this meeting.
The first hearing, in June 2020, refused the scheme. But this decision was later ruled invalid. An investigation into complaints about the meeting, held virtually, concluded that irregularities arising from technical difficulties would “render any notice of refusal unlawful”.
The next scheduled planning committee is on Friday 27 November 2020. Link to meeting. The officers’ recommendation will be published a week before the meeting.
DrillOrDrop understands that because of Covid-19, the November meeting will also be held virtually.
But unlike the September meeting, the chairman and key council officials are not expected to take part remotely but will be in the same room at county hall.
Link to DrillOrDrop page on Dunsfold
Updated to correct date of first meeting.
Categories: Regulation, slider
DRILL OR DROP? 
A correction – the first meeting where SCC refused the application from UKOG was 29th JUNE, not Sept as in this article.
Thanks very much Sarah. Corrected now.
SCC are a joke. This is just a rerun of a meeting “held” in June, though the applicantion was made in April. All documentation had to be prepared for that meeting so why is a new report required? Have they changed their recommendation? Is there a statuary number of times a piece of paper has to be shuffled across a desk before it can be submitted? I sit on an Authority and if our Planning Dept messed about like this there really would be questions (not that there aren’t already!). No wonder Whitehall want to reform planning law! This well would have been drilled and possibly abandoned by now if SCC were half competent.
?statutory. Statuary conjures up interesting visions.
Well done SCC, local representation and democracy is invaluable. Undermine it and you are heading towards fascism and dictatorship.
“Well done SCC”-for arriving at a situation where they have been told what they did was invalid? And been forced to repeat the exercise? At what cost to locals? £400k in Lincolnshire, so this one could be a whopper.
Incompetent.
Not the first time SCC have dug themselves into a deep hole. They need to be extremely careful.
When local democracy is a mask for UDI, it soon slips and the costs are high.
I do like the idea that the incompetency of SCC is some sort of shield against fascism. Brilliant.
I am afraid, Daniel, that fascism is often used totally inappropriately by some activists. Has been the case before on DoD.
In this case it is just weird. Why would planning committees following correct procedure do anything of the sort? If they were allowed to just do as they wanted, without due consideration of procedure and regulations, then all sorts of activists could get elected and run riot. In some cases they have, and the tax payer foots the bill, and finds services expected from the tax they have paid are removed.
Not only brilliant, Daniel, but very ironic.
The last surge of real fascism was defeated largely as they were unable to control OIL, and those that could, defeated them! (For the time being.)
what report is required ? This is simply a re vote. all the relevant reports have been done. or are they saying the held an illegal vote last time. How is a business supposed to operate when working with such incompetence. 6 months of unnecessary delay.