The Dunsfold Planning Inquiry opened today with UK Oil & Gas appealing against refusal by Surrey County Council for a new fossil fuel site.
Although the grounds for refusal focused on landscape and highways impacts, UKOG raised the issue of the need for more onshore fossil fuels and the policies it says support more exploration.
Kirsty Clough presented a statement to the Inquiry, on behalf on the Weald Action Group, challenging these claims. She told the Inquiry:
“There is no current Government Energy policy that I am aware of that can be used to back up a view that there is a strategic need for further exploitation of conventional onshore fossil fuel reserves”.
Although Kirsty agreed to being questioned by UKOG’s legal team, they declined the opportunity.
Read the statement: WAG planning appeal statement
Read the letter from the Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP, Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth, referred to in the statement.