Arrangements are underway for a new appeal over oil drilling and production by Egdon Resources at Biscathorpe in Lincolnshire.

The same company is looking again at seismic data to decide what to do with its undeveloped site at North Kelsey Moor, also in Lincolnshire. And local campaign groups have won an award for their opposition to the two sites.

Biscathorpe

The Planning Inspectorate is preparing for a new appeal by Egdon Resources against the refusal of planning permission for long-term oil production at Biscathorpe in the Lincolnshire Wolds.

It is the latest stage in a development process that began more than 20 years ago.

In November 2021, Lincolnshire County Council refused permission for 15 years of oil production at Biscathorpe.

Two years later, a planning inspector overturned the refusal and granted permission.

Campaigner Mathilda Dennis, representing SOS Biscathorpe, then challenged this decision at the High Court in June 2024.

But before the High Court judge gave her ruling, the government and Egdon’s parent company, Heyco Energy, conceded defeat and the planning permission was quashed.

This followed a landmark climate judgement by the Supreme Court, which ruled that carbon emissions from the use of the oil at another site should have been taken into account when granting planning permission.

The case now goes back to the Planning Inspectorate to reconsider the appeal.

Union Jack Oil, one of Egdon’s partners at Biscathorpe, said in half-yearly accounts:

“The successful planning appeal decision has been overturned following a judicial review and the planning inspectorate is arranging a new appeal process.”

Union Jack said the Supreme Court judgement continued “to hinder the Company’s desire to drill” at Biscathorpe. It said it believed that Biscathorpe was “one of the largest unappraised conventional onshore discoveries within the UK”.

North Kelsey

Union Jack also reported that Egdon was re-processing seismic data for at North Kelsey Moor, about 20 miles from Biscathorpe.

In March 2022, Lincolnshire County Council unanimously refused planning permission to extend the life of  North Kelsey by a year and change the trajectory of the proposed well.

Egdon appealed against the refusal but withdrew just over a week before the start of a hearing in June 2023.

That decision centred on how the application should have been handled.

The council and company had agreed that the extra year and changes to the well were minor. This meant that under section 73  of the Town and Country Planning Act they did not need a completely new planning application.

But the planning inspector dealing with the hearing considered the borehole to be a new development because it extended beyond the original application boundary and, therefore, needed a full application.

It is now 10 years since planning permission was first granted for North Kelsey. No wellpad has been built and no wells drilled. The only work carried out was on a new entrance.

Award

The campaign groups, SOS Biscathorpe and SOS North Kelsey, have received a Friends of the Earth Earthmovers Award for their contribution to local activism.

The award was made for a “determined and tenacious community campaign against oil extraction proposals”.

 The groups thanked East Midlands Friends of the Earth for its “help and support”.

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