UK Shale Explorer Clears 1st Hurdle
Barclays Bank-owned Third Energy has welcomed a recommendation from the planning officer at North Yorkshire County Council that the county's planning committee approve the company’s application to hydraulically fracture (frack) and test its KM8 well, drilled in 2013, near Kirby Misperton in Ryedale.
The council's planning committee will meet on May 20 in Northallerton to consider the application. It has received representations from over 4,000 groups and individuals, mainly objections, and its members will visit the Third Energy site on May 17.
“We believe that this thorough report will enable North Yorkshire County Council to reach a positive determination on our application,” said Third Energy CEO Rasik Valand on May 13.
UK Onshore Oil and Gas (UKOOG) chief Ken Cronin said also May 13 that the report’s recommendation was “good news” and reflected the “hard work” by council officers and Third Energy in addressing concerns raised.
Activist group Friends of the Earth’s Yorkshire campaigner Simon Bowens told the Yorkshire Post: “While it is disappointing that planning officers have dismissed the serious risks of fracking in Ryedale, Third Energy shouldn’t be popping champagne corks yet.” More than 1,000 anti-fracking protesters are expected in Northallerton on May 20 including fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, the Post adds.
The government however now has powers to overturn local council planning committee decisions over shale gas.
In parliament on May 12, opposition energy spokesperson Lisa Nandy called on the government to let the local council have the final say on Third Energy’s application. But junior energy minister Andrea Leadsom brushed off her appeal, replying: “It is vital for our energy security that we continue to use home-grown resources wherever we can. It is also a massive jobs and growth opportunity for very many communities where employment is desperately needed.”
Elsewhere in northern England, the government last year did overturn Lancashire’s rejection of shale gas explorer Cuadrilla’s plans to drill and frack at two sites near Blackpool. A government Planning Inspector is due to submit her report to the Communities Secretary Greg Clark by July 4. His final say is then only reversible by a judicial review, if one were mounted.
Speaking at the Flame conference in Amsterdam May 11, the chair of Kings College, London, policy institute Nick Butler said that in the UK, despite a supportive central government, drilling for shale gas would have to be forced through in the teeth of local protests.
Mark Smedley