Horse Hill Developments Ltd have submitted additional material from UKOG to support their planning application for five new wells (one for water reinjection) and 25 years of production at Horse Hill. Surrey County Council has invited all those who have already responded to the planning application to write in on the new information.

And since the application was submitted, there has been an important change in national policy on climate change.

Please write in giving your views on the new information.  And if you haven’t written before, it’s not too late to do so. The deadline for comments is Monday 24 June.

The estimated date for the application to go to the planning committee has been put back once again, and is now 11 September 2019.

It is important that Surrey County Council hear as many objections as possible.  Please send your views.  You can

• write to: Planning Development Team, Planning Group, County Hall, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey. KT1 2DY
• email: MWCD@surreycc.gov.uk
• respond online: https://planning.surreycc.gov.uk/plancomment.aspx?AppNo=SCC%20Ref%202018/0152

You must quote the application reference no: SCC 2018/0152/DE and give your name and address.

The additional information

The new material consists of four documents, which you can find under ‘Attachments’ on the web page above:

03/05/19 Response to Restoration and Landscape
03/05/19 Response to geotechnical comments
03/05/19 Response to Environment Agency Comments.pdf
03/05/19 Response to Surrey County Highways Submission 16 May 2019.pdf

Read more about the additional info on Drill or Drop

Climate change 

Since the application was submitted, there has been a development in national policy on climate change.

In March 2019, a High Court judge ruled that Paragraph 209(a) of the National Planning Policy Framework was unlawful. Paragraph 209(a) required mineral planning authorities to “recognise the benefits” of onshore oil and gas for energy security and transition to a low carbon economy.

The judge, Mr Justice Dove, said adopting this paragraph into the NPPF was unlawful because the government had failed to take into account the scientific developments over low-carbon claims and had also failed to carry out a lawful public consultation on the revision of the policy. On 23 May 2019, the local government secretary, James Brokenshire, said that paragraph 209(a) had now been quashed.

This ruling means that planning applications for oil and gas must be assessed based on current scientific evidence about climate change.