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Isle of Wight oil plans open for consultation

PUBLIC CONSULTATION for  UK Oil & Gas to drill for oil and gas on the Isle of Wight is now open. Please object before Friday July 24th.

All the details about the planning application  (reference 20/00513/FUL) which is at Arreton are on the Isle of Wight Council website.

Frack Free Isle of Wight has re-designed the front of its website to faciltate its campaign Don’t Drill The Wight to maximise objections by email, online or by post which you can find HERE

The Isle of Wight plans are part of UKOG’s expansion plans for the South of England – with back to back wells in an industrialised process. They hold a large licence for the island, despite strong local opposition including from the local MP.

It doesn’t matter where you live – if you care about climate change, the industrialisation of our countryside, the use of acid stimulation for hard to reach fossil fuels, and pollution of air, water and soil, you can make a contribution to the growing opposition.

With other sites being proposed for expansion or extension across the South of England we must continue to fight these damaging plans.

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Oil company injunction watered down further as campaigners celebrate – press release

Faith at the Gate, Horse Hill
Faith at the Gate gathering outside the gates of the Horse Hill site in Surrey before the lockdown

Campaigners are celebrating a significant weakening of an injunction, which set out to target peaceful protest at unconventional oil sites in Surrey and Sussex.

The High Court has agreed a variation of the Order by UK Oil and Gas (UKOG) against ‘Persons Unknown’, removing clauses relating to their supply chain, combining together to protest and ‘gathering and loitering’ at the sites.

Continue reading “Oil company injunction watered down further as campaigners celebrate – press release”

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Angus Energy pulls Balcombe three-year well test plan – but will submit further application

Residents of Balcombe in West Sussex have welcomed the withdrawal of oil company Angus Energy’s planning application for a three-year well test on the edge of the village.

However, they warn that the fight goes on, as a company statement to shareholders announcing the withdrawal on 1 May also said that Angus intends to submit an updated application for a shorter test within six weeks.

Continue reading “Angus Energy pulls Balcombe three-year well test plan – but will submit further application”

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Oil company lawyers seek to remove legally represented defendants from injunction case

A day long wrangle over court procedures failed to resolve any of the main issues in the UK Oil and Gas (UKOG) injunction case, which is being opposed by five fossil fuel campaigners from Surrey and Sussex.

It also failed to involve any of the so-called possible defendants which the oil company claim to number 116, despite two having come forward to remove their names from it.

Continue reading “Oil company lawyers seek to remove legally represented defendants from injunction case”

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Local residents and campaigners will tell the High Court the damaging impact of an oil company’s attempt to stifle peaceful protest

Local residents and campaign groups across the South East have written to the High Court in a bid to get a draconian injunction quashed.

The interim injunction by the UK Oil and Gas (UKOG) group of companies has dragged on for two years without a trial of the evidence.  It bans protest at two of its sites: Horse Hill in Surrey and Broadford Bridge in West Sussex.

Continue reading “Local residents and campaigners will tell the High Court the damaging impact of an oil company’s attempt to stifle peaceful protest”

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Ban on peaceful protest at oil sites in Surrey and Sussex: Application to end Draconian Injunction

Lawyers for five peaceful protesters supported by the Weald Action Group have applied to the High Court to bring an end to an interim injunction against protest at oil sites in Surrey and Sussex in line with a new Court of Appeal ruling.

A recent judgment, made on a case brought by fur company Canada Goose, says it’s unlawful to allow interim injunctions against “persons unknown” to drag on and vindicated the protesters’ argument that companies such as UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) should stop misusing Court procedures to get wide orders against lawful protesters  through the unfair device of persons unknown.

Continue reading “Ban on peaceful protest at oil sites in Surrey and Sussex: Application to end Draconian Injunction”

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Oil and Gas applications up for decisions

A flurry of oil applications are in the process of being decided around Surrey and Sussex, including the controversial new site at Dunsfold. This is how you can get involved in opposing them:

Broadford Bridge: UKOG want a third extension to their permission at this site in West Sussex despite their promises to be off the site by now. Join campaigners outside the County Council meeting on March 24th which will decide it:  gather at 0945 at County Hall, West St, Chichester PO19 1RG. Bring banners. We hope to see you there.

Balcombe: Angus Energy’s application for a three-year well test at Balcombe may also come up at the same meeting. Watch this space.

Brockham: Angus Energy is applying for an Environment Agency permit to reinject waste water, after saying it was pulling out of the site and also after the EA said it wasn’t competent to carry out reinjection.  It’s also planning the same at its Lidsey site in Sussex.

Dunsfold aka Loxley: the planning decision about whether to open up this new greenfield site targeted by UKOG has been repeatedly delayed.  The next Surrey planning meeting is scheduled for March 25th. UKOG has recently withdrawn a second application for the site.

Isle of Wight: UKOG has published its EIA screening report for the Arreton sight and Frack Free Isle of Wight is holding a series of public information meetings about the plans.