A crucial meeting tomorrow (Friday January 30 2026) to consider gas drilling plans at Burniston near Scarborough has been postponed.

DrillOrDrop has heard that the delay follows multiple local requests for the government to call in the application. This could take the decision out of the hands of North Yorkshire Council.

Last week, council officers recommended the planning application from Europa Oil & Gas should be approved with conditions.

But there were requests for a call-in from Burniston Parish Council, MP Alison Hume, the campaign group Frack Free Coastal Communities and the Scarborough councillor Rich Maw.

We understand North Yorkshire Council was instructed not to decide the application tomorrow until the call-in requests had been considered by the secretary of state.

If the application were called in, a planning inspector would be appointed to carry out an inquiry. A report would be prepared for the secretary of state, who would then issue the final decision.

Public speakers at the meeting received an email this morning from the council telling them about the postponement. The email said:

“With the support of members of the Strategic Planning Committee, the Assistant Chief Executive Legal and Democratic Services has taken this course of action in light of a request received yesterday from the Planning Inspectorate to the Local Planning Authority not to issue a decision in respect of application ref: NY/2025/0030/ENV construction of a temporary wellsite near Burniston pending the Planning Inspectorate’s consideration of a request made by interested parties to the Secretary of State to call in the application.”

A formal statement from the council later said:

“A number of interested parties have written to the Planning Inspectorate requesting that the application be called in for determination by the Secretary of State. Yesterday (Wednesday, January 28) we received correspondence from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government asking that no decision is issued in this case while the Secretary of State considers these requests.

“The decision to postpone the meeting has been made as a result of this correspondence, as well as discussions with councillors who sit on the strategic planning committee. We will not be in a position to set a new date for the committee until we receive confirmation from the Planning Inspectorate on whether the application is to be called in.

“As this is a live planning application, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this stage.” 

The meeting had been due to be held at 1.30pm at Scarborough Town Hall. Opponents of the scheme, which included proppant squeeze, a form of lower volume fracking, had planned to lobby councillors outside the meeting.

North Yorkshire Council said a revised date for the committee to consider the application would be arranged “in due course”.

Reaction

The chair of Burniston Parish Council, Cllr Richard Parsons, said:

“Today North Yorkshire Council announced a postponement to the gas drilling planning application hearing. We are told that this came about as direct result of our request and other requests to the Secretary of State to call in the application.

“We are very pleased that the request is being considered. This planning application, which will have significant negative effects on a local basis, is of national strategic importance. 

“The Government has repeatedly told us they will ban all onshore fracking, they are committed to the green agenda and will continue to remove our reliance on fossil fuels, as they severely harm our environment and they will remove the ‘great weight’ tilt in planning hearings. These areas are not just for the community of Burniston they affect every person in the UK. 

“The Government appear to be moving quite quickly in updating the areas of legislation and guidance that are quite frankly, out of date, unreliable and do not reflect public opinion. 

“Taking the 1600 plus responses to Europa’s planning application for Burniston as a snapshot of national opinion, shows that we have moved well beyond allowing fossil fuel companies being allowed to do what they want, with very limited mitigation practices.

“We hope that the Secretary of State sees the significance of his decision on a national basis, calls in this application and passes it to the planning inspectorate who will start from a position of impartiality, taking into account every view, every opinion and every piece of evidence before coming to a decision.”

Professor Chris Garforth, of Frack Free Coastal Communities, said:

“This postponement reflects the seriousness of the issues at stake. The conflict between national fracking policy and what Europa is proposing through this legislative loophole needed to be addressed.

“Over 1,600 local objections, opposition from our MP, parish councils, and Scarborough Town Council—all made clear this application raised questions beyond the scope of a local planning committee. The government now has the opportunity to close the loophole that allows companies to rebrand fracking as something benign and subject local communities to the same risks the moratorium was designed to prevent.

“We’re grateful to everyone who submitted call-in requests and to the Planning Inspectorate for recognising this application warrants closer scrutiny.”

Kim Turner, of Frack Free Scarborough, said:

“The proposed scheme contradicts national climate and energy policy, is of major national significance, and as we have long argued, the application process has been handled as though it were a mere formality. So we regard this development as a win.

“But the campaign is by no means over. We should use this pause to build momentum. Whichever department makes the decision, the voices of those most affected by climate change and local pollution must be heard.”

Steve Mason, a member of North Yorkshire Council and campaigner with Frack Free United, said this morning:

“The decision to postpone is very sensible. The conflict between national and local policy makes it impossible for Cllrs to make a sound decision.

“The definition needs to be clarified to capture all types of fracking and close the loopholes that allow gaming of the planning system.

“History provides the evidence: if you are shattering rock under communities to extract fossil fuels, it’s fracking, no matter how much fluid you pump into the ground.”

Tony Bosworth, climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said:

“North Yorkshire Council is right to delay a decision on this deeply controversial fracking scheme while the government is still reviewing its position.

“Fracking blights our countryside, won’t cut UK energy bills and is deeply unpopular with local communities.

“Ministers have promised to ban fracking. That ban must include proppant squeeze, a low-level form of fracking, or communities across large parts of England risk seeing it creep in through the back door.”

A spokesperson for Europa Oil & Gas said:

“It is disappointing that the NYC planning committee has unnecessarily decided to postpone the meeting. This will result in a delay to consider the recommendation by the planning officer to approve the application. The planning officers’ recommendation to approve has been submitted following extensive independent assessment to ensure that the local community and environment is not adversely impacted by the proposed drilling actively. The UK continues to consume gas and whilst this continues the socially, environmentally and economically responsible source of gas is undoubtedly domestically produced gas.”

Scarborough and Whitby MP, Alison Hume, said:

“I’m pleased the planning meeting to discuss Europa Oil and Gas’ bid to ‘Proppant squeeze’ in the beautiful village of Burniston has been postponed.

“Earlier this week, I made an urgent request to the Secretary of State at the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to call-in the application.

“I had initially pressed for this planning meeting to be delayed because the consultation on proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, which could significantly impact Europa’s application, does not close until March.

“Because of that, I felt it would have be incredibly helpful if tomorrow’s scheduled meeting was pushed back. It now has been.

“Together with the overwhelming majority of residents in Burniston and indeed Scarborough and Whitby as a whole, I am opposed to this drill going ahead and have made my position on that abundantly clear throughout the whole process.

“The government is committed to no more drilling and this should allow the application to be considered under the most up-to-date guidance.”