Climate campaigners and walkers to visit Surrey’s hidden oil extraction sites as part of Big Green Week

Campaigners say both sites are set to produce millions of tonnes of oil and gas, despite the deepening climate crisis. The 6.5 mile (10km) walk is taking place on Saturday (October 1) as part of the national Big Green Week which is the UK’s biggest ever celebration of community action to tackle climate change and to protect nature.

Dubbed The Shale Trail, the walk will begin outside UK Oil and Gas’ Horse Hill site near Horley and then meander through beautiful countryside across gentle terrain to Brockham, where Angus Energy has an oil extraction site. The Horse Hill site was granted permission by Surrey County Council in 2019 to extract oil and gas at the site for 20 years. The campaigners say this could produce an estimated 3.3 million tonnes of oil which when burned, could result in 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Angus Energy was granted planning permission in April this year to produce oil from the Brockham site until 2036. Walkers will join members of the Green Party, Climate Action Reigate and Redhill, Dorking Climate Emergency, Dorking, Reigate and Redhill Extinction Rebellion, and the Weald Action Group on the walk, which will end at Brockham Church Hall at 4pm.

Walkers will be invited to have tea and cake at the church hall and join a talk which is open to all with a panel of speakers who will explain the geology and the policy behind both oil extraction sites and how this is damaging both the local and the global environment.

Speakers will include Sarah Finch, who will talk about her ongoing legal battle with Surrey County Council following its decision to grant permission to UK Oil and Gas (UKOG) to expand the Horse Hill oil extraction site, near Gatwick. Mrs Finch argues that the council did not make a full environmental assessment of the total impact of the pollution that the site would generate when it granted UKOG permission to drill four new wells in 2019.

After a long battle Mrs Finch was granted permission in August this year to take her case to the Supreme Court - the highest court in the land. The case is expected to be heard next year. If she wins her case, then all fossil fuel developments will have to look at the end-use emissions at the planning application stage, not just the emissions involved in the production itself.

Sarah Finch said: “I'm looking forward to the Shale Trail and showing local people two of the oil sites that haunt our countryside. In a climate emergency, it makes no sense at all to be producing yet more fossil fuel. Yet right here in Surrey companies are trying to extract ever more oil, and our county council is allowing it to go ahead."I look forward to sharing ideas for our campaign to keep the oil in the ground, and updating people about my legal fight against 20 years of oil production at Horse Hill. The Supreme Court - the UK's highest court - has agreed to hear this as they see it's an important legal issue which needs to be resolved."

Climate campaigner the Reverend Helen Burnett, who has helped organise the walk, said: “Walking from Horse Hill to Brockham we will be making a strong link between two active local sites of shale oil extraction which lie within seven miles of each other in south east Surrey. Walkers drawn from the local concerned community and from further afield will join together to walk and talk and sing as we pass through beautiful countryside in the shadow of the awful fact that our current government is hell bent on ignoring the direct link between fossil fuel extraction and climate breakdown, and instead of investing in renewables wants to extract every last barrel of oil and gas from our land. This policy benefits the oil companies at an appalling cost to our planet which means that the poorest suffer while the richest line their pockets.

Walkers should assemble at 10.30am for an 11pm start at the Horse Hill site entrance on Horse Hill Road (RH6 OHN). Anyone joining should wear proper footwear and dress for the weather and remember to bring a packed lunch and water for the walk.

There is no car park near the site but walkers can be picked up and dropped off at Horley Station and from and to nearby parking spaces. Please contact Helen Burnett on [email protected] to arrange.

The talk at Brockham Church Hall is open to all and will begin at 4pm.

Map: shorturl.at/aqHTZ

Facebook event: shorturl.at/ORT34