Parish councillors voted by 8 to nil to object to plans for gas exploration and small-scale hydraulic fracturing in the North Yorkshire village of Burniston.

About 100 people attending an extraordinary meeting last night also unanimously opposed the scheme in a show-of-hands.

Europa Oil & Gas has applied for planning permission to construct a gas exploration site on the edge of Burniston, meters away from the North Yorkshire and Cleveland heritage coast and near the edge of the North York Moors National Park.

The company proposes to drill one well and carry out proppant squeezes, where fluid and a proppant is pumped into the well to fracture surrounding rocks.

A public consultation on the application is open for comments until tomorrow (17 April 2025).

“Make the world worse”

At last night’s meeting, villagers voiced local concerns.

The youngest speaker, Jack, 12, expressed his fear that Europa’s plans would “make the world worse” in many ways, from local health impacts and environmental damage to global climate effects.

One Burniston resident said:

“This is, for us, an emotional topic. We find ourselves having to defend so many important things against people who are motivated by profit.

“Europa’s CEO, Will Holland, has told us ‘it has happened in other places and no one has noticed’. Well, it hasn’t happened here yet, and if it does, we will certainly notice.”

Some speakers were concerned about increased traffic and the capacity of the road network to cope with extra heavy goods vehicles.

Others feared the area’s vibrant tourist economy would be devasted by the industrial development.

Many talked about their love of walking on the cliff top paths and the Cinder Track, created from the former Scarborough-Whitby railway line.

There were concerns about the impacts on air quality and how round-the-clock drilling would affect sleep and relaxation.

One speaker noted there was no contingency plan if things went wrong and questioned whether Europa would have the resources to put things right.

The meeting heard there would no benefit for the local community but a lot of harm. The only significant benefit would be the financial reward for Europa Oil & Gas, its commercial partners and shareholders, the meeting was told.

The company’s application was also criticised for containing contradictory material and lacking important details.

Parish councillors talked about the scheme’s impacts on the quality of life of residents, the natural environment, wildlife and human mental health. They raised concerns about the safety of children walking to school and highlighted a new housing development of 46 homes which had no gas supply.

One councillor said:

“if the development is not good enough for the North York Moors National Park, it’s not good enough for us”.

Council collaboration

Burniston has collaborated with neighbouring councils at Cloughton, Newby and Scalby to research the issues around Europa’s proposals.

A working group had direct discussions with the company and visited the earmarked drill site. The group has produced a 10,000-word report on the impacts of the proposal on the local area and its residents.

Each council hosted drop-in meetings for residents to discuss the plans.

Chris Garforth, of Frack Free Coastal Communities, said after the meeting:

“Great to see local democracy in action. A Parish Council doing its job of representing its constituents, seeking to hold North Yorkshire Council and Europa Oil & Gas to account by looking carefully at the evidence and giving residents every opportunity to make their concerns and views known.”

Burniston Parish Council will now formalise its response as a statutory consultee. The application will be decided by North Yorkshire Council’s planning committee.

• More than 1,100 responses to the public consultation have now been published on the application webpage so far. DrillOrDrop has read and analysed them and will publish a review of reaction to the application after the consultation closes.

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