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.