Burniston gas drilling plans set for Scarborough decision

​Europa Oil & Gas’ proposal to install a 125ft (38m) rig in the village of Burniston, close to the North York Moors National Park, has been recommended for approval by North Yorkshire Council despite more than 1,600 local objections.

​Residents will organise a lobby ahead of the planning meeting outside Scarborough Town Hall at midday on Friday, more than a year after full plans were submitted and months after a previously scheduled meeting was postponed.

​The proposed wellsite, which is located 350 metres to the east of the village of Burniston, 700 metres southwest of the coastline, and 800 metres south of the North York Moors National Park boundary, were first announced in 2024.

​Europa’s plans would employ a proppant squeeze method to extract the gas – a technique which has been likened to “small scale fracking” and which is allowed under current legislation.

​The planning application has attracted more than 1,600 objections from local residents, local MP Alison Hume, parish councils including Burniston, Cloughton, Newby & Scalby and Scarborough Town Councils, and Friends of the Earth, among others.

​Professor Chris Garforth, of Frack Free Coastal Communities, said: “Councillors have a clear choice: reject this reckless scheme – or ignore the voices of the more than 1,600 objectors who refuse to let our community become a testing ground for the serious risks to health, homes, environment and climate that fracking brings.”

​He added: “We’ve had to formally complain about systemic failures in how the council has handled this application. Their response has been inadequate, so we’re now escalating to stage two of the council’s complaints procedure. A ‘yes’ vote based on a fundamentally flawed process would be unsafe and indefensible. This only strengthens our call for councillors to reject this application.”

​A spokesperson for Europa said: “The proposed development in terms of planning is very straightforward. The development is temporary in nature and is for a single appraisal well to test a gas accumulation, something which has been delivered safely and in an environmentally sound manner many times historically in the UK.

​“The planning application has been put forward for approval by the council’s officers following a thorough analysis of the application by specialist officers to ensure that it fully complies with the strict regulations that govern these activities in the UK.”

​Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), the spokesperson also claimed that Frack Free Coastal Communities continues to “mislead councillors when raising concerns with respect to elements of the operational procedures associated with the project, such as the proposed proppant squeeze, which is highly regulated but falls outside of the planning process and will be dealt with under national regulations and authorities”.

​Earlier this month, Friends of the Earth published new research from leading geologist Professor Stuart Haszeldine of the University of Edinburgh, which warned that the evidence from analysis of the seismic activity triggered by Cuadrilla’s fracking at Preston New Road in Lancashire in 2019 and from Preese Hall in 2011, “shows that earthquakes from high-volume fracking and low-volume fracking are ‘equally large and equally unpredictable’”.

​Friends of the Earth campaigner, Tony Bosworth said: “The government has rightly committed to banning fracking for good. It blights our countryside, won’t lower UK energy bills, and is deeply unpopular.

​“With significant parts of England already covered by oil and gas licences, the UK government must reassure communities by banning all forms of hydraulic fracturing for fossil fuels.”

Europa has previously said the scheme would be positive for the local economy and “no-one is going to notice” its presence.

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