Five months ago Surrey County Council ruled that the original decision to refuse consent was invalid. It said there were technical problems with the online meeting of the planning committee on 29 June 2020. Another meeting has been fixed for Friday 27th November – COVID permitting. However, this time the meeting will not be held virtually – councillors will be in the same room.
Committee members voted in June by six to five against the recommendation of planning officers to approve the application by UK Oil & Gas plc (UKOG).
The company has applied to construct a site, on land owned by Alfold man Ashley Ward, to be called Loxley, on Dunsfold Road to drill and test vertical and sidetrack wells. The location is located on the map below.
In a statement UKOG’s chief executive, Stephen Sanderson said:
“Despite the further delay to the PCM [planning committee meeting] rerun, UKOG welcomes the opportunity to restate why its low footprint Loxley gas project is of material local and national economic importance, representing an opportunity to power around 200,000 Surrey homes from Net Zero compliant UK gas.
“The submitted development presents minimal visual, local business and highway impacts and already has a full environmental permit from the Environment Agency.”
The June meeting heard that local councils and 84% of responses to the public consultation objected to the application. This included a strong objection from Waverley Borough Council. Concerns included the impact of the scheme on the landscape, climate change, local businesses, air quality, light pollution, highway safety, noise and local ecology and heritage.
UK Oil & Gas application in Dunsfold – Refused…for now?