The local government secretary will not decide controversial plans for gas drilling and lower volume fracking at Burniston near Scarborough.

In a letter today, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, said:

“The Secretary of State has decided not to call in this application. He is content that it should be determined by the local planning authority.”

Local campaigners have said they are disappointed at the minister’s letter (see Reaction below).

The original decision by North Yorkshire Council on the Europa Oil & Gas scheme, was postponed at the last minute in January 2026 after multiple local requests for the government to call-in the application. These included: Burniston Parish Council, the local MP Alison Hume, the campaign group Frack Free Coastal Communities and the Scarborough councillor, Rich Maw.

The government instructed North Yorkshire Council not to decide the application a day before its strategic planning committee was due to meet to consider the application.

Today’s letter withdrew that direction.

The letter said:

“The Secretary of State has carefully considered the policy on calling in planning applications, as set out in the Written Ministerial Statement dated 26 October 2012.

“The policy makes it clear that the power to call in a case will only be used very selectively. This policy also gives examples of the types of issues which may lead him to conclude, in his opinion that the application should be called in.”

More than 1,600 formal objections have been made to the Burniston application.            

North Yorkshire planners had recommended the scheme should be approved with 38 conditions.

But since then, there have been calls for external scrutiny of the way the authority has handled the application.

There had also been calls for the decision to be delayed because of proposed changes to rules on onshore oil and gas.

The government has promised to ban fracking and wants to remove a requirement in the National Planning Policy Framework for decision-makers to “give great weight” to the benefits of onshore oil and gas extraction.

Reaction

Chris Garforth, of Frack Free Coastal Communities, said:

“We are disappointed that the Secretary of State has decided not to exercise his power to call in Europa’s planning application. Even more disappointed that the decision letter makes no reference at all to the various reasons put forward by many individuals and organisations in support of the request for it to be called in, including the national policy context around the decline in reliance on fossil fuels and the forthcoming legislation that will see at least some fracking banned for good.

“On the other hand, the forced postponement of North Yorkshire’s Strategic Planning Committee meeting from 30th January has given us – and hopefully committee members – time to reflect on the flaws in the way that North Yorkshire’s planners have handled the application – flaws which are evident in the report that the planners have put forward to the committee in support of their recommendation to approve.

“We will redouble our efforts to present our case to the committee that the report cannot be relied on as a basis for approval. To that end, we await with interest a response to letters to the CEO of North Yorkshire Council, from FFCC as well as others, suggesting that the handling of this planning application should be subject to an external professional review.

“Let’s see if North Yorkshire will now decide on a new date for the committee meeting. If so, we will be ready to dust off the placards made for the 30th January and give the committee no room for doubt about the level of feeling about Europa’s plans to drill and frack under our feet for gas that has no place in the future energy economy of the UK.”

DrillOrDrop has asked North Yorkshire Council and Europa Oil & Gas to comment on today’s news.