Councillors vote for new Lincolnshire oil site – DRILL OR DROP?
A new oil site got the go-ahead from Lincolnshire councillors this morning, despite local opposition.
Lincolnshire County Council planning committee, 17 April 2023.Source: council livestream
The site, proposed by IGas near the small village of Glentworth, was granted planning permission to operate for up to 21 years.
Seven members of the county council’s planning committee voted in favour, with two abstentions and no opposition.
The scheme, for one vertical appraisal well and up to seven production wells, has been opposed by the parish council, local county councillor and villagers.
The chairman of Glentworth Parish Council, John Latham, told the meeting in Lincoln:
“There is no support whatsoever for this development in the village.”
The construction and drilling phases of the scheme, lasting nearly five years, are expected to generate up to 100 lorry movements day, or an average of one every 6 and a half minutes.
Cllr Latham described the impact on the village of the 24-hour-a-day drilling phases:
“This is nothing less than industrialisation of the countryside with no direct benefit to the village or its residents. Once it is lost it is gone forever and we urge you to refuse [the application].”
He said Kexby Road, on the proposed lorry route, was a “quiet country residential road”. It was not a heavily trafficked street that experienced heavy goods vehicles on a regular basis or an industrial area, he said.
“We are concerned about the noise, air pollution, vibration and safety. The mental health impact of these 100 lorry movements a day on the residents living on Kexby Road cannot be lightly dismissed.”
The increased traffic would have an impact on pedestrians, dog walkers, horse riders and cyclists, he said. The road also had school bus pick-up points.
Mr Latham said the IGas proposal contravened two policies in the National Planning Policy Framework: paragraph 152 on supporting the transition to a low carbon future and paragraph 185 on protecting tranquil areas.
The meeting heard that 62 people had objected to the proposal. But it was supported[1] by county council planners.
The council’s highways department had been concerned about the proposed lorry route. But the meeting heard that IGas had agreed to a legal agreement requiring four new passing places, widening an existing passing place and improvements to the road surface.
Tony Bryan, development director for IGas, told the meeting the company had a “long and successful history” of oil extraction in Lincolnshire. It had operated an existing site near Glentworth, since 2011.
There was a continued role for fossil fuels during the transition to a low carbon economy, Mr Bryan said. The proposal was consistent with national policy and helped to avoid the need for imports, he said.
IGas has previously said the new site could produce up to 2,500 barrels of fluid a day, comprising oil and water. But there are no estimates of the individual amounts of oil and water.
Mr Bryan told the meeting there had been no objections from statutory consultees and the environmental impacts were “acceptable”. He said a traffic management plan would aim to avoid lorry movements at school drop-off and pick-up times.
Discussion
The planning committee took 34 minutes to approve the proposal.
Cllr Noi Sear said she was concerned about lorry access to the site. The head of planning, Neil McBride, said the proposed improvements should ensure the local highway network was “of sufficient standard to absorb those traffic volumes”.
Cllr Thomas Ashton said there were no clear planning grounds to refuse the application.
Lincolnshire had been “familiar with this type of oil development for a very long time”, he said. The current IGas Glentworth site was “happily sitting there pumping away for very little impact on the landscape and very little noise”, he said.
Cllr Ashton said he was satisfied that, with tree planting and landscaping, the new proposal would “sit as harmlessly on the landscape as the one that is already nearby”.
He said he was “much more supportive, if we are going to have oil, … that it comes from Lincolnshire and not on a ship from the far side of the world”.
Cllr Tom Smith said site construction would be “very distressing and very difficult to live with” for local residents. But he said the impact was “not of the level” that would constitute planning grounds for refusing the application.
Cllr Paula Ashleigh-Morris said:
“Shipping oil from who knows where is massively more environmentally damaging than a small amount locally. Having been in the motor trade for aeons, engines need oil. … And we have to have it from somewhere.”
The committee chair, Ian Fleetwood, said the surrounding countryside meant that equipment on the site would be “visually not so intrusive” and noise “would not carry”.
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References
- ^ supported (drillordrop.com)
- ^ Regulation (drillordrop.com)
- ^ slider (drillordrop.com)
- ^ 21 years (drillordrop.com)
- ^ approve (drillordrop.com)
- ^ Glentworth (drillordrop.com)
- ^ heavy goods vehicles (drillordrop.com)
- ^ highways (drillordrop.com)
- ^ IGas (drillordrop.com)
- ^ John Latham (drillordrop.com)
- ^ Kexby Road (drillordrop.com)
- ^ legal agreement (drillordrop.com)
- ^ Lincolnshire (drillordrop.com)
- ^ lorry (drillordrop.com)
- ^ Neil McBride (drillordrop.com)
- ^ Noy Sear (drillordrop.com)
- ^ oil (drillordrop.com)
- ^ operate (drillordrop.com)
- ^ Parish Council (drillordrop.com)
- ^ planning permission (drillordrop.com)
- ^ scheme (drillordrop.com)
- ^ site (drillordrop.com)
- ^ Thomas Ashton (drillordrop.com)
- ^ traffic (drillordrop.com)
- ^ traffic management plan (drillordrop.com)