Opponents of oil operations in the Lincolnshire Wolds were celebrating tonight after councillors refused planning permission for long-term extraction.
Lincolnshire County Council, meeting this afternoon at a country hotel near Louth, voted by seven votes to four with two abstentions against an application by Egdon Resources for its site at Biscathorpe.
The company wanted to drill a sidetrack well and produce oil for 15 years.
It was the first time the council had refused a planning application for the Biscathorpe site, which has had consent since 2015. Councillors went against the recommendation of planning officers to approve the scheme
Opinions appeared to swing in favour and against during discussions lasting nearly two hours.
Councillors seemed reluctant to approve oil extraction at the site, which is in the Lincolnshire Wolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Some said there were no planning reasons to refuse, while others pointed to potential harm to the AONB and what they said were the limited likely benefits.
Nick Bodian, chair of the community liaison group for oil drilling at Biscathorpe and a member of the local campaign group SOS Biscathorpe, spoke against the application. After the decision, he said:
“I am very pleased that Lincolnshire County Council have actually carried out what their climate summit two weeks ago pledged: that they must show real leadership and take some real action.
“After a very difficult planning meeting, they can say they are really doing that.”
Mr Bodian also called for new legislation on planning to meet the needs of climate change:
“The National Planning Policy Framework has to be changed to prevent any future oil and gas exploitation onshore.”
Amanda Suddaby, who has campaigned against the Biscathorpe appliciation, said:
“I am just delighted. It vindicates all the hard work in fighting this application.
“What was said in the meeting proves that we need new legislation. It is wrong to be so difficult to come to the right conclusion.
She said:
“The decision is important because it sets a precedent for other sites that are still being threatened, like near North Kelsey, where planning permission expires at the end of this year.”
Egdon Resources, in a statement this afternoon, said:
“We will await the formal decision notice before taking advice and considering our options including an appeal.”
Reporting at this meeting was made possible by donations from individual DrillOrDrop readers
Categories: Regulation, slider
DRILL OR DROP? 
Another good result, the arguments for the application are well worn and have been seen through yet again. You don’t reduce your carbon footprint by producing more oil, even if it’s local. Great to see these companies getting put in their place . They exist for one reason, to keep the BOD in luxury.
Absolute madness. COP26 is showing just how ludicrous decisions like this are. The Chinese must be wetting themselves at such stupidity.
It’s refreshing to see at last planners make up their own minds and refuse the diktats either of party or of planning officer. Would that North Yorkshire had blazed this trail when fracking consent was in question. We must hope that the public mood against fossil fuel development has indeed changed. Politicians and industry and their “Yes men” seem to be getting the message, the message that the national interest as perceived can no longer be used as a reason for ignoring the planetary interest or the common good..
And the last post was made at 11.15pm using artificial light and plastic to do so, quoting planetary interest and the common good, and suggesting that “we” must hope!
OMG, with so many influencers to chose from, that message just about fails every test of scrutiny.
Still using artificial power, energy and plastic for your computer? Didn’t you notice the clocks change? Anything before 07.00 and past 18.00 is now in the night! Maybe some have economy and use them sparingly at off peak times? Maybe some generate their own energy with solar panels and wind generators? Have you thought of that? No. Of course not. The old “one fantasy fits all” attitude isn’t it.
But there are those who post several posts to answer only one post from anyone else and many many more during the rest of the day on every subject regardless of relevance or knowledge?
I wonder who they are? Oops!
wonderful I was at balcombe and barton on moss and many other places have been a bit inactive recently. My dad died and now swims a bay in alicante
thank you all.
i detest explaining to my 6 yr old grandson our government and oil companies and police poison our water for money and my friends are getting cancers.
keep up your stalwart work.
Frances Sue Ocean