Bishop Hill No objection
Aug 8, 2013 Energy: gas Greens Media In an interesting article in the Independent yesterday, it was revealed that Balcombe Parish Council didn't object to Cuadrilla's application for planning permission to drill for oil.
The two-week protest against potential fracking in Balcombe took a dramatic twist today as it emerged that the local parish council had lodged "no objection" to the planning application, without consulting the West Sussex village - a decision the council chair said she was now "gutted" about. Alison Stevenson, a member of the parish council when the matter was dismissed without discussion in 2010 and now its chair, said no-one at the meeting had any reason to suspect an application by Cuadrilla, the fracking company chaired by former BP chief executive Lord Browne, would have any repercussions for the village. Private Eye is trying to insinuate that the councillors engaged in some kind of underhand behaviour (article reproduced here) but don't seem to dispute that no objections were received by the Parish Council, so it looks like Hislop et al are simply clutching at straws. As is their wont, the green protestors are running storyline after storyline to see if any will get some traction in the mainstream media. The planning permission story is being spun as "Cuadrilla's planning application only made a single mention of 'hydraulic stimulation'", with dark mutterings about sneakiness. However, given that the Cuadrilla planning application did not seek permission to fracture the well, this looks a lot of a stretch.
Reader Comments (45)
If Cuadrilla wanted to drill for and frack gas beneath my back garden, they would be entirely welcome to do so.
Dr JV's map of oil and gas wells looks relevant here.
http://frackland.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/update-map-of-existing-uk-oil-and-gas.html
A lot of wells drilled in Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire between 1980 & 1999.
Almost business as usual, then?
Or perhaps I've missed the stories of furious locals continually pounding the roads from one well to another protesting at the destruction of their wild and unspoilt countryside.
The Balcombe well is an oil well, probably with a high chance of success as it is following on from a discovery well spudded by Conoco in 1986 (not developed when oil was just $10 / bbl).
Cuadrilla have clearly stated its an exploration well for an oil target. If it should need stimulation to produce, well, so do loads of other wells. Its quite normal. Even if stimualtion were required (and I doubt very much that it will be needed) then it is not the same as fracking a shale gas well. And Cuadrilla, as they have already stated, would need additional permission to do so.
This is not a shale gas well - are these people too stupid to understand that? Or is the UK onshore oil industry about to grind to a halt because of a bunch of bigoted, selfish fools who cannot even bother to get their facts straight and who are completely ignorant of the tried and tested technology involved?
To date, 191 wells have been drilled on Wytch Farm in the middle of Poole Harbour in an environmentally sensitive area. Most people don't even know its there, even though the discovery was in 1973 and first production in 1979. Nothing has gone wrong, the sky hasn't fallen in and no-one complains.
You must question the quality of Balcombe's councillors who regret making the right decision because it turns out to be unpopular. Surely, you elect people to make decisions based on fact and not prejudice. Unfortunately this is a trait of all politicians and why the general population switch off - hopefully not followed by the switching off of their energy supply.
Private Eye has gone the way of the Guardian. Never the same without Richard Ingrams. Integrity given way to advocacy
I would have thought that Ian Hislop makes most of his money these days from appearing on the BBC. Nice to know the public are helping him.
Wells drilled to date according to UK Gov listing at 22 July 2013:
West Sussex 52
East Sussex 30
Hampshire 117
Dorset 74 (plus a further 191 for the Wytch Farm field = 265).
Grand total wells drilled 464
Grand total of consequential Envronmental Disasters 0
Trefjon: This seems unkind to the Parish Council, who by common consent have generally done an excellent job of analysis and consultation, in what must sometimes be trying circumstances.
Aug 8, 2013 at 10:27 AM | Unregistered CommenterJohn Page
Uk parish councils lack the power to block applications of this nature. Yes, they can push them to governmental review but that's it. They don't even have powers to control development merely the ability to object.
Trefjon: "You must question the quality of Balcombe's councillors who regret making the right decision because it turns out to be unpopular."
Unpopular with whom? Anti-fracking and enviromentalism supporters or the people of the area?
"Surely, you elect people to make decisions based on fact..."
The fact is that in the period 1980 - 2012 some 1065 wells were drilled for oil and gas in the UK onshore, without fuss and with straightforward planning applications under the successful and responsible regulatory regime set by UK Government. This is just one more ordinary oil exploration well.
Why the fuss? Because of the hysterical nonsense being touted about fracking. This well has nothing to do with shale gas, and based on the average 32 wells per year drilled should be a completely ordinary decision for the council, like the thousand plus before since 1980. The mass hysteria being whipped up by anti-fracking protesters, environmentalists and MSM is based on uninformed opinion and is highly irresponsible. The UK onshore oil industry has been plodding along quietly, without subsidy,with no environmental disasters, generating essential energy supplies and tax revenues for the last 100 years (with more than half the wells drilled in the last 30 plus years) and these people want to close it down in some sort of hysterical frenzy. This is the politics of the mob, not democracy.
The inference from this post is that explicit planning permission is required to frack a well as compared to just drilling it. Is that in fact the case?
"Cuadrilla, the fracking company"
That is just so deliberately pejorative. Why not Cuadrilla, the energy company?
Cameron just gave an excellent defence of shale gas on BBC News 24 in a live Q&A from a Crown Paints factory oop North. Emphasis on the economic benefits and dismissal of the questioner's scaremongering by saying "we will do things properly in the UK with proper environmental checking and permitting". Let's hope he sticks to his guns on this and isn't swayed by the next focus group or Greenpeace opinion poll.
A good article up on Balcombe on Spiked right now written by someone on the ground who actually sounds like they've tried to get some insight, here:
BALCOMBE: COLONISED BY FRACKTIVISTS: Anti-fracking activists who have descended on West Sussex claim to be speaking for the locals. The locals beg to differ.
So now that Balcombe has become home to lots of Anti Capitalist New Age Enviromental Ex Occupy Ex Anti Globalisation Ex Dale farm protestors , have they posted a sercurity guard on local War Memorial in case someone sprays an Anarcist CND peace sign on it.
They did the Cenatarfe and Churchills statue in London a fews back.
Twyford Down was a field in the middle of no where .Balcombe is in the middle of a town .Rupert Murdock Times Sun News of the World News International Wapping print works all over again plenty of locals who want a quiet life to disresect and upset.
Chilli
I'm more worried about Davey sticking to his guns. For all his remarks about the need for gas and the need for fracking he has provided himself with the perfect get out with his 0.5 limit on earth tremors.
Every time anyone sneezes within a mile work stops.
For anyone interested in reading the planning application and associated documents this is a link to it
The parish council are just covering their arses. When asked why they didn't object, rather than say they didn't feel the need to they are saying it was too complex. The Independent says that hydraulic stimulation is only referred to once in the planning documents. From what I have looked at so far that is in Appendix c: The Drilling Operation.pdf and is a lengthy paragraph explaining the procedure.
The additional comments from Kathryn McWhirter illustrate a common problem with contentious planning applications - she didn't know about it until too late and now wants to stop it. Don't people get a local newspaper with planning applications in? Don't people see the little green notices that go up? Or check their local council's planning portal online? The parish council thought the application was unexceptional. So it would seem did the residents of Balcombe as they did not prod the parish council into action.
@Bloke down the pub: Perhaps it would help to hear it from the horse's mouth, Francis Egan, CEO of Cuadrilla. He explains that if fraking is required they will apply for permissions as per the process.
See: http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/debate/article-2384176/My-fracking-drills-wont-cause-cancer-pollute-water-death-threat-zealots-say-Francis-Egan-CEO-Cuadrilla.html
To measure local sentiment Balcombe Parish Council created an information leaflet and sent it, and a polling card, to approximately 850 residents.(See letters to Caudrilla and WSCC here) I have not yet found a copy of the leaflet itself. The poll results are detailed in this pdf and are as follows:
284 polling cards returned.(33%)
234 polling cards wanted the council to oppose fracking.(28% of cards sent out, 82% of cards returned.)
This is just what we find with applications for wind turbines. Parish councils can recommend to the Local Planning Authority (the LPA, usually the district council) whether to rcommend refusal or support. The LPA planning committee makes the decision to grant approval or refuse the application. Very often parish councils, without studying the detail (or because the councillors have a vested interest), make their recommendation without consulting the parishioners, because that is their job. It is their lack of expertise that is the problem. We have in the past lobbied parish councils and got them to reverse their recommendation before the decision is made by the LPA. But most parishioners have no idea what decisions their parish council makes. They vote for them, so they must accept the decision if they don't care to take any interest in what is going on.
Perhaps Ms Grey can cover stories that this new fangled technology causes nearby hens to stop laying and cowes from giving milk? Or maybe this was some of the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt being spread during the introduction of the 'rnviromentaly friendly' railways in the C19th. John Ruskin must be doing summersaults in his grave.
Or maybe the protesters can cut to the chase and say they agree with the Duke of Wellington that this new technology will ".. only cause the lower orders to move about." ?
Following on from my comment in the last post, activists don't deed to understand. All they need do is wave banners and shout slogans.
Gareth - thanks for the link to the planning application. The link doesn't work properly as it seems to be dynamically generated, but I backtracked and repeated the search on Balcombe Parish Council and Minerals and Cuadrilla came straight up. Appendix B is nice for the geology (its a small target structure!) and as you say the drilling stuff is in Appendix C.
This is a standard oil and gas exploratory well with an option to stimulate during the testing phase if hydrocarbons are found. This is quite normal, standard practice and has been normal standard practice in the oil industry for many decades. It is not a "fracking" well in the sense everyone has been getting hysterical about. As Snotrocket links to above, the CEO of Cuadrilla has categorically stated they are not fracking and if they wanted to they would apply for further permission.
Cuadrilla, the innovative energy company that creates jobs, pays taxes and helps people live better lives.
They are being attacked by aggressively ignorant deliberately deceitful anti-progress extremists who use mob tactics to impose their will.
"A lot of wells drilled in Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire between 1980 & 1999.
Almost business as usual, then?"
Aug 8, 2013 at 10:07 AM | John Page
According to Northern Petroleum Plc
http://www.northpet.com/operations/united-kingdom/why-uk-onshore/oil-in-hampshire-/
"It may surprise some that a total of 144 production wells and 157 exploration wells have been drilled across the region between Dorset and Kent.
This is why an oil exploration company would perhaps regard drilling for oil in the region as a tried and tested activity and one with which planners and regulators have considerable experience to resolve environmental and safety issues."
So yes. Very much 'business as usual'!
Gareth
Excuse me while I tear my hair out and then sigh in despair.
For 20 years I either edited or wrote for a local paper and/or was on a community council (Scottish version: no powers but statutory right to be consulted).
If I had £1 for every time I've heard:
"I didnae ken."
"Don't you get a local paper?"
"I cannae be bothered; they're all rubbish".
"The don't blame me if you don't like the result."
I would be lying on a beach on the Bahamas surrounded by ........ well, perhaps not. Madame might have something to say. But you get the drift.
I really don't know what (local) government is supposed to do. At all levels there are advisers or officials who, believe me, vet these applications pretty carefully and the usual complaint from developers is that it's difficult to get anything through but policy dictates what is and is not permitted and the assumption is that if it falls within planning guidelines it should be approved and if not it should be rejected.
County/District Councils are supposed to have the expertise to make the decision. Parish/community councils are entitled to be consulted but at the end of the day the only valid objections are those based on planning grounds.
All the proper procedures for neighbour notification, public availability of plans, open meetings of the Planning Committee will have been done. As I've said elsewhere, I sympathise with Ms McWhirter but what's a poor council supposed to do????
If you can't be bothered to spend a couple of minutes a week checking either your local press or the Planning Application section of your local council's website (and there will be one) then you really do only have yourself to blame.
thinkingscientist,
Thanks for letting me know. A dynamic page is unhelpful. For anyone else interested in the application the number is WSCC/027/10/BA and the search page for West Sussex planning applications is here
If Cuadrilla do find they need to frack they will put in for planning permission
No doubt the Balcombe activists will object to it, on grounds it's harmful to human health.
- Below is a complete list of the Validated Scientific Evidence that they will submit :
.
.
.
.
.
there I have finished
My understanding of planning law (and I am by no means an expert) is once an application is made, the planning authority must advertise the application with notices around the site and letters to locals who may be affected. If this process hasn't been carried out, which I doubt, that will be a real cock up and could lead to appeals because of lack of consultation.
Further to my comment, according to the documents on the planning website, the planners did advertise the application:
So no cock up
The Balcombe Parish Council fracking report sent out with polling cards appears to be this pdf. It comes across as a fairly sober document putting traffic increases, risk of seismic events and other things into perspective.
mangochutney
Your understanding is correct but the responsibility for notifying neighbours (in Scotland at least) is the applicant's responsibility and there is a form to be completed to say it has been done. There are also rules about what defines "neighbour" including reference to how far from the site they would be if there wasn't a road in between and such like "loophole pluggers"!
I've never had direct involvement in an application for mineral extraction but I think the principle is pretty much the same.
The problem that has arisen in Balcombe (for all it is not really relevant to this application) is that — to repeat myself — the usual suspects (with a bit of help from a couple of ill-informed locals) have had a knee-jerk reaction to the word 'Cuadrilla'. The enviro-activists do not want oil or gas or coal to be extracted from anywhere at any time ever. Since fracking is the current method of choice they will tell any lie, distort any fact, disrupt any lawful activity and generally make a thundering nuisance of themselves in an attempt to get their own way.
Mike Jackson,
In Oxford planning letters haven't been sent for years. You can set up a standing search on the Planning Portal, but the search seems to run rather erratically.
Gareth - good find.
Jonathan
I can only speak for Scotland, others (Phillip Bratby perhaps) will be better acquainted with England.
But as far as I know local authorities are obliged to make all planning applications public in some form and parish councils have a right to submit comments.
I thought the days when councils did their best to keep everything secret were gone. Goodness knows we fought hard enough to win that battle!
For Mike Jackson:
"“There’s no point in acting surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display at your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for 50 of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now. … What do you mean you’ve never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven’s sake, mankind, it’s only four light years away, you know. I’m sorry, but if you can’t be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that’s your own lookout. Energize the demolition beams.”
Douglas Adams, HHGTTG
The definition of neighbour in Planning is anyone whose boundary is within 50 m of the site.
If the land is on a farm, there is no neighbour for most of the site.
Correction: 20 m.
Isn't it time Cuadrilla did the following:
Offer a 1% royalty to councils and private land owners each for the gas sold.
(And then bump it up a little if anyone says it is too low).
Bruce
I'm not at all sure they have that option. The principle of "developer contributions", which is just a polite name for a bribe in my view, is well-established but this usually wears the fig leaf of being a payment to assist with the new infrastructure (roads, schools, leisure facilities, etc.) that could reasonably be associated with the two or three hundred houses the developer is seeking consent for.
Certainly there has been talk of sizeable payments to local communities on the back of windfarm developments; how many and how much I don't know.
The situation with minerals you'd need to ask an expert about but my understanding is that any payment of this sort would probably require government approval since the landowner in the UK doesn't own the minerals under his land.
But I don't think trying to bribe the communities is the answer. It is the government's job to make the case for its energy policy and then go ahead and get on with it. As has been said before, you can only extract minerals from where they are and if the elected government decides that gas is to be at least a stop-gap fuel then I think it has the right (or in any case should have in the national interest) to overrule local views.
Which is not to say that where individuals are directly adversely affected by the development they shouldn't be entitled to compensation. But they have no right to prevent such development from happening.
Private Eye need to concentrate on the possibility of fracking in the Weald of Kent. I'm sure the residents of Sissinghurst will be most concerned. The Eye will undoubtably expose potential nimbyism.
I suspect coalition politics are gumming up the works. Ed Davey seems to support the exploration for gas and oil but it would seem to be counter to his general policy of supporting hugely expensive non-sources of energy. Perhaps the conservatives are leaning on him because if the lights go out it will prove they have all degraded us to third world status.
However, fracking is a subset of this, where required, and I would be extremely surprised if the Lib Dems support it because the Greens are dead against it and because it is the sensible thing to do, given our energy crisis. Lib Dem pressure may have prevented any proper leadership in stating a clear case for going ahead.
Add to all of that, the Balcombe drilling is not about fracking, the drilling will create no disruption, inconvenience or safety problems in comparison to the rent-a mob that has descended on the place.
The council took the right decision, the only thing that has changed is that the madness of the masses has been allowed to hype the whole thing to a ridiculous extent.
If the council starts to backtrack on their decision, the madness will escalate. I doubt if there is any cure for mass stupidity.
The government of the UK need fracking. They need it to pay for their stupidity in subsidising green energy. If they don't get fracking they know that energy prices will go beyond sustainable and they will be trown out of power immediately. Irony : they need to subsidise green with brown.
@Stephen Richards Good point
"Would you be happy for fracking to subsidise exisiting windfarms or do you think they should be unsubsidised ?"
Mike, greenies attack shale gas with PR stunts all the time.
Offering compensation to individuals and councils is a valid counter-stunt.
Stephen Richards, well said. It is the relationship of the parasite and the host we are talking about here. Trouble is, like most parasites, these ones aren't very bright. Many of them would happily keep sucking until the host is dead, having not thought through the consequences for themselves.