Around 250 people took part in a march on Saturday (22 March 2025) against plans to explore for gas in the village of Burniston, near the North York Moors National Park.

The march, organised by local opposition groups, aimed to raise awareness of the proposal and to encourage people to comment on a planning application submitted by the drilling company, Europa Oil & Gas.

A controversial part of the application is the company’s proposal to carry out a proppant squeeze, a form of small-volume hydraulic fracturing. The company has also said it has plans, if the Burniston site were approved and successful, to develop other well pads in the area.

Chris Garforth, from one of the organisers, Frack Free Coastal Communities, said:

“We know, because they have told us, that their end game is to put in further applications to develop this area to be the largest onshore gas field in the UK and we don’t want that to happen.”

He said:

“We are at a juncture in our history where we are supposed to be transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewables sources of energy. The world is accelerating towards catastrophic climate change at the moment and we feel that this is exactly the wrong kind of thing to be doing, when we should be redoubling our efforts to move away from gas and oil.”

Will Holland, the chief executive of Europa, told local television that 30 independent reports commissioned by the company had shown that the impacts of the proposal would be “insignificant”. He said:

“There won’t be a problem with air quality, there won’t be a problem with public health, there won’t be a problem with seismic activity, water pollution in the water table and traffic will increase by only by a small 1% of HGV [heavy goods vehicle] traffic during the drilling operation itself.”

But Rich Maw, who represents part of Scarborough on North Yorkshire Council, said:

“This first planning application is for 1,000 HGV [heavy goods vehicles] lorries coming along Burniston coastal road.”

He urged local people to object to the application:

“Wouldn’t it be great for the planning committee chairperson to see that he had 50 people who each wanted to do a three-minute speech.”

The event attracted local people and opponents of the onshore oil and gas industry from across the region. It was supported by York City Unison, Parents For Future UK, Scarborough Green Party, York City Unison, Scarborough Unity, Social Justice Party Scarborough, Friends of the Earth and York Trades Council.

Cllr Maw said at a rally at the end of the march:

“I see a lot of people united. For me, the people united can never be divided.”

He said there was a lot of concern about the effect on tourism:

“People who come to the heritage coast don’t, for all sorts of reasons, want to be presented with the largest onshore gasfield in the UK, which is what will happen if Europa’s plans go from this testing phase to a full-scale production phase.”

John Atkinson, of Frack Free Scarborough, another organiser of the march said he was “delighted with the turnout”:

“People of all ages and from all walks of life clearly feel the same as we do – we can’t allow drilling of any kind in the midst of a climate crisis and we’ll fight this to the bitter end.”

He said opponents of Europa’s plans could not “assume the government is on our side” and “if the government is wavering on its fossil fuel commitments, it’s up to us to concentrate their minds”.

He said:

“filling in objections to the planning application is a great start – and we should all do it – but it’s nowhere near enough without the backing of a mass movement.

“We came here today to tell the oil and gas industry, to tell our councillors, we won’t let them frack here (or whatever fancy name they want to call it). We came to tell them they don’t have our permission to wreck our town and village, to wreck our one and only planet for our children.”

“We came here today to give other people the confidence to come out next time. Because the more of us there are, the harder it will be for them to ignore us.”

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