The appeal hearing on plans to extend the life of an undeveloped oil site near Market Rasen in Lincolnshire will be held later this year.
Exactly 12 months ago today, Lincolnshire County Council unanimously refused planning permissions for another year at North Kelsey Moor and a change to the direction of an exploratory well from vertical to lateral.
More than 1,100 people had opposed the application for an extension. There were also objections from seven parish, town and district councils, as well as local environmental organisations and residents’ groups.
Councillors decided the application should be refused because of the impact on the amenity of local residents.
Council officials had recommend the application be approved and Egdon Resources, the company behind the plans, appealed in August 2022.
Now the Planning Inspectorate has announced that a one-day hearing will be held on 14 June 2023. The location for the hearing has not been announced.
A planning inspector will consider the company’s appeals on the year’s extension (APP/Q2500/W/22/3304453) and the well direction (APP/Q2500/W/22/3304454).
Planning permission was first granted for North Kelsey Moor for three years in 2014.
Egdon Resources has since made three applications for more time.
Lincolnshire County Council previously gave the company extensions in April 2018 and September 2020.
In nine years, the only work carried out on the site had been on the entrance. The well pad had not been built and no wells drilled.
Hearing
Egdon Resources had sought to have the appeal decided by the submission of written arguments.
But Amanda Suddaby, of SOS North Kelsey, a group campaigning against the application, welcomed the decision to hold a hearing.
She said:
“Egdon dithered and delayed for nine years, which has meant uncertainty for local people. It is important that we should have our say at a hearing.
“In the nine years since planning permission was first granted, the world’s view on energy and fossil fuels has changed. The price of renewables has plummeted and the cost of damage caused by fossil fuels is rising, both for the environment and the economy.”
Ms Suddaby said it was “very disappointing” that Egdon Resources was seeking to overturn the county council’s decision:
“Everyone who could say ‘no’ to this development has said ‘no’. Every level of democratically-elected organisation has said no, including parish, district and county councils, our MP and several other local groups.
“It is ridiculous that the decision may be overturned by the secretary of state.”
Egdon Resources had previously said it would appeal because of the “clear current need for the UK to secure further indigenous supplies of energy to reduce its reliance on imports”.
Opponents of the development said the North Kelsey Moor well would produce, at best, enough oil in its life to supply the UK for less than a day.
Categories: Regulation, slider
DRILL OR DROP? 
Hmm, the last sentence just indicates the amount of oil UK uses, so every little helps. Otherwise, each wind turbine is hardly worth the effort, a few solar panels on a roof not worth bothering with.
Except that wind turbines and solar panels give us cheap energy FOR EVER and they won’t cost the world £billions in extreme weather damage, not to mention loss of life due to drought, flood, famine, conflict, mass migration and all the rest that is coming with climate change. The world cannot afford to burn existing known fossil fuel reserves AND stand a chance of achieving the 1.5 degree C limit vital to keep the planet habitable, so it’s crazy to go looking for more.
Glad you accept that it’s a drop in the ocean – well, if that’s all it is, surely it’s up to local people whether they think it’s a fair trade off? After all, we are still a democracy.
Well, alex you started with an incorrect statement-which was not a good start. Not cheap, £200B needed to back them up when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine, and they have a finite life and then have to be disposed of. Disposing of materials from renewables is a problem already.
Nope, it is not just up to local people, the oil would not just be used by local people. Democracy is different to UDI. The EU is about to bring in fast tracking regulations for materials that are of particular importance for certain sectors, nuclear has been re-designated today to bring it into the fold of sustainable energy. All of which will take decades to make a difference. UK has already had to keep coal fired power stations available longer than planned, and looks to extend their lives further. Existing nuclear that was at the end of life, is suddenly being resurrected and given longer life. These unreliable renewables seem to have a lot of issues that other forms of energy generation are having to make up for.