An environmental campaigner has taken the first steps in a legal challenge to the approval of lower-volume fracking in East Yorkshire.

Peter Lomas, from Hornsea, has given the Environment Agency (EA) 14 days to revoke permission for the operation at the West Newton-A site in Holderness.

If the EA refuses, Mr Lomas will seek a judicial review in the courts, arguing the decision to approve fracking was unlawful and should be quashed.

In a legal letter dated yesterday (2 April 2026), Mr Lomas’s solicitor, Leigh Day, set out four grounds for the challenge.

This is the second formal expression of opposition to the West Newton frack in a week.

On Wednesday (1 April 2026), East Riding of Yorkshire Council unanimously supported a motion against the operation.

Details

Mr Lomas’s challenge centres on the environmental permit for the West Newton-A site.

A permit is issued by the EA for oil and gas operations that could pollute air, water or land. It can include conditions on the activity.

At West Newton-A, the original permit was issued in June 2013 (see timeline at the end of this article).

In September 2024, the West Newton-A operator, Rathlin Energy, applied for the sixth variation to the permit.

This variation sought permission to inject oil-based fluid and proppant into the target reservoir at pressures high enough to fracture rocks.

Rathlin described this operation as “reservoir stimulation”. It is also known as a proppant squeeze, lower-volume hydraulic fracture or fracking.

The company said the operation was needed because of damage caused during well drilling, which prevented the expected flow of hydrocarbons.

The proposed fracturing is not prevented by the moratorium on fracking in England because the volume of fluid proposed is below a limit set in law.

Granting the variation, the EA said:

“We do not permit activities that pose an unacceptable risk”.

It added:

“We are satisfied that this facility will not cause significant pollution or harm and that it will provide a high level of protection for the environment as a whole, as such it fits with these aims.”

But Mr Lomas argues that the EA acted unlawfully in granting the permit variation in four key ways.

Seismicity

His first ground focuses on the risk of induced seismicity (earthquakes) from the fracturing process.

The EA has stated that seismicity is regulated by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA).

But Mr Lomas’s lawyers said the EA unlawfully failed to consult the NSTA on the permit variation. The EA also failed to take into account the hydraulic fracture plan (HFP), which assesses the seismic risk of the operation, they said.

Rathlin Energy produced an HFP dated September 2025 and sent it to the NSTA. But it did not send it to the EA until the day the permit variation was approved, five months later.

Groundwater risk

The lawyers argued that the EA failed to lawfully rule out any risk of pollution to groundwater, in breach of its duties.

In one example, Leigh Day said the EA should have considered the impact of the input of hazardous substances on river basin districts.

The lawyers also said the EA referred incorrectly to a risk of “indirect input” of a pollutant to groundwater from the injection of fracturing fluid.

They said the organisation should have used the term “direct input”, which means the “introduction of a pollutant to groundwater without percolation through soil or subsoil. 

“Indirect input”, they said, was defined as “the introduction of a pollutant to groundwater after percolation through soil or subsoil”.

Lambwath Meadows

The West Newton-A site is 882m from the Lambwath Meadows site of special scientific interest, a series of rare damp hayfields.

Mr Lomas’s case alleges the EA unlawfully failed to consult Natural England, the government’s nature advisor, about the fifth variation of the permit in 2023. His lawyers said the EA was required by law to notify Natural England and take its advice.

The lawyers also said the EA relied on what they said was an out-of-date ecological impact assessment from 2021 and a habitats risk assessment from 2023.

The EA could not have excluded the likelihood that the sixth variation, to allow fracking, would not damage the Lambwath Meadows, they said.

Climate

The final ground argues that the EA failed to consider whether it was allowing an “internationally wrongful act”. This was said to be contrary to the document Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change, an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, published in July 2025.

West Newton-A timeline

27 June 2013

Drilling starts at West Newton-A1 well

30 January 2014

Application for West Newton-A permit

30 April 2014

Original environmental permit issued for West Newton-A

5 August 2015

Permit variation 2 granted

29 April 2019

Start of drilling at West Newton-A2 well. Details

6 August 2019

Permit variation 3 granted

2 November 2019

UK government announces moratorium on high-volume fracking in England. Details

23 April 2020

Permit variation 4 granted

18 October 2021

Rathlin Energy applied for permit variation 5 to allow extra drilling, site expansion, long production, well treatment and burning gas generators.

17 March 2022

East Yorkshire Council approves planning permission for expansion and long-term production at West Newton-A site.  Details

5 October 2022

East Yorkshire Council votes overwhelmingly against fracking. Details

23 August 2023

Permit variation granted

17 September 2024

Rathlin Energy applied for variation 6 of environmental permit to allow lower-volume fracturing

12 December 2024

EA asks Rathlin Energy for more information

28 February 2024

EA asks Rathlin Energy for more information

19 November 2024

Start of first consultation process on permit variation

11 April 2025

EA asks Rathlin Energy for more information

23 July 2025

Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change – the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice. Details

29 July 2025

Start of second consultation process on permit variation. Details

September 2025

Date on the hydraulic fracturing plan submitted to the NSTA

16 February 2026

EA approves permit variation 6. Details

1 April 2026

East Yorkshire Council unanimously opposes fracturing at West Newton. Details

2 April 2026

Date of pre-action protocol letter to EA from Leigh Day, on behalf of Peter Lomas,

16 April 2026

Deadline by which EA is asked to revoke the West Newton-A environmental permit