The Reform-led Scarborough Town Council has voted unanimously against plans for lower volume fracking in the North Yorkshire village of Burniston.

The council, where Reform UK holds 11 of the 15 seats, objected to the planning application by Europa Oil & Gas to use proppant squeeze to explore for gas.

An opposition motion, approved at a meeting yesterday (Wednesday 16 July), referred to concerns about an increase in heavy goods vehicles through Scarborough, a risk to groundwater and aquifers supplying the town, as well as noise pollution and degradation of landscape.

The council expressed its “full and unwavering support for local residents in their opposition to the proposed fracking-style hydrocarbon development”.

The vote apparently goes against Reform’s policy support for fracking. The party’s 2024 general election manifesto pledged to revive fracking in the UK by granting shale gas licences on test sites.

Scarborough is at least the fourth small local authority to oppose the Europa application. Burniston Parish, Cloughton Parish and Newby and Scalby Town Councils previously objected to the proposal.

Alison Hume, the Labour MP for Scarborough, whose constituency includes Burniston, also opposes the application. She has called for a parliamentary debate on the issue of proppant squeeze and lower volume fracking.

A parliamentary petition, which now has more than 6,000 signatures, is demanding a ban on all forms of fracking.

This morning, Friends of the Earth urged the energy secretary to widen the moratorium on fracking in England to include lower volume processes, such as proppant squeeze, which are currently excluded.