The communities’ secretary is still considering an application for long-term oil production at West Newton-A in East Yorkshire.
The proposal, which also included four new wells and more than doubling the site size, was approved by East Riding of Yorkshire Council in March 2022.
But before the formal decision notice was issued, the local Conservative county councillor, Jacob Birch, asked for the application to be called in.
This means the recently-appointed secretary of state, Greg Clark, could decide the plans.
Yesterday Mr Clark’s department wrote to Cllr Birch:
“I can confirm that your request for the above planning application is still under active consideration.
“I hope you will understand that I cannot comment on the matter further, as to do so might prejudice the Secretary of State’s position.
“I will of course contact you in due course when a decision is made. In the meantime if you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me.”
Cllr Birch had argued that East Yorkshire’s planning committee had sought to determine the application mainly on concerns about energy security resulting from the conflict in Ukraine.
He said neither council officers, nor the applicant, Rathlin Energy, had responded to concerns about the impact of the scheme on greenhouse gas emissions and national targets for reducing fossil fuel use.
He also raised concerns about the impacts of heavy lorries on narrow roads and tall equipment on the landscape.
Cllr Birch said the application relied on tree planting outside the site planning boundary to make it acceptable. Tall equipment would not be screened by tree planting by the end of the production phase and the proposed planting would be outside the control of Rathlin Energy, he said.
DRILL OR DROP? 
i don’t understand they was given the green light then red light
i’m confused
the oil company should sue jacob birch for ever bit of money
they loose while there waiting
it takes a lot of money to run these company’s
https://www.grammarly.com/grammar-check
Well, wonder how all that tall equipment (pylons) that are part of the £54B to improve the distribution of wind energy, will get by? Perhaps it will need to be interpreted as being short if you put the telescope to the blind eye.
More hysterical hypocrisy from people who can’t do basic maths.
Thanks to West Newton, a few more people will be able to heat their homes in winters to come, and less carbon will be emitted imported oil and gas from around the world from dodgy regimes (who find climate activists in the West and Jail/Torture them at home).
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Don’t people realise that we are heading to a position when millions will hardly be able to afford their gas and electricity bills. If people were worried about excess deaths in the recent heatwave, then a cold winter will kill thousands more. That’s not an exaggeration. See “Cold homes and excess winter deaths – briefing paper 2018”. Europe is already on the edge of gas rationing.
We need put our energy industry (both renewable and fossil fuel) on an emergency footing. Sometimes the government needs to lead public opinion not follow it.