Equipment is to be removed from the unlawful oil site at Horse Hill, stripped of its planning permission by the Supreme Court, Surrey County Council (SCC) said today (18 December 2024). But the council has not demanded that the site be restored to woodland and agriculture.

In response to public questions, council officials said:

“SCC has made clear its position that the site is to be cleared of all plant, machinery, operational development and miscellaneous paraphernalia not necessary for security and/or environmental monitoring purposes.”

Horse Hill was at the centre of a landmark judgement, issued in June 2024, which stated that the site’s planning permission was unlawful.

The court ruled in the case brought by campaigner Sarah Finch that Surrey County Council should have taken into account the greenhouse gas emissions from burning Horse Hill oil. The council had argued that it needed to consider only the emissions from the production process.

The Supreme Court quashed the Horse Hill planning permission but oil production continued at the site until October 2024. More details

The council has been carrying out an enforcement investigation, which is still underway. The planning application for production must now be reconsidered by the county council.

More questions

A group of residents has been submitting questions to the monthly meetings of the council’s planning and regulatory committee.

One resident, Deborah Elliott, asked today whether six months since the court judgement was “sufficient time” for the council to conclude its investigation and decide when the Horse Hill site should be returned to agriculture and woodland.

The council replied:

“The expediency of requiring restoration to its previous agricultural/woodland use is being kept under continuous review whilst the process of redetermination remains a live issue.

Ms Elliott asked the committee to publish the stages of remedial work at Horse Hill and a time limit for each stage.

Sian Saadeh, the council’s planning development manager, said this was “still the subject of discussions” between the planning enforcement team and the site operator, Horse Hill Developments Limited (HHDL) and its parent company UK Oil & Gas plc (UKOG). She said:

“It isn’t something that is normally put into the public domain as part of a live enforcement investigation because we have to be conscious of prejudicing those discussions”.

She said she would publish information that could be shared publicly.

Another resident, Jackie Macey, asked whether the committee would issue an enforcement notice to HHDL the site operator, a subsidiary of UK Oil & Gas plc, to ensure that “unlawfully produced oil is not sold for profit”.

Ms Saadeh said the sale of oil and profit made from it was “not something that the planning enforcement system is set up to deal with”. She said:

“There may be other ways in which enforcement action can bring consequences to bear on an operator in an unlawful situation but it is not usual to pursue matters financially like that as the purpose of the planning enforcement system is to remedy the planning harm.

“Within the remit of that planning enforcement investigation, it is not looking at the profit from the sale of that oil”.

Ms Saadeh added that the case was not closed.

Sarah Freeman asked how the enforcement investigation was resolving the issue of no current planning permission at Horse Hill.

Ms Saadeh said:

“The quashing of the [planning permission] decision by the Supreme Court earlier this year means that that application comes back to us.

“That application, where the previous grant of planning permission was quashed,  is now a live application back with the planning team to determine.”

She said the Supreme Court had “effectively nullified”, the council’s grant of planning permission made in September 2019. She added:

“There will be more information submitted on that application and there will be more information for public consultation in due course. It is not a new application as such. It will be the one that was determined being re-determined.”

Trish Kiy asked why the council had not taken steps to prohibit unlawful oil production (from 20 June- 25 October 2024) “for such a long time”.

Ms Saadeh said this issued had already been addressed and she had nothing to add. But she offered to compile previous answers.

Previous DrillOrDrop reports of questions to Surrey County Council’s planning committee

November 2024

October 2024

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