Inspector's shock decision over drilling at Balcombe site: councillors dismayed as hydrocarbon exploration appeal permitted

On Monday, February 13, an independent Planning Inspector permitted an appeal from Angus Energy to undertake 30 months of hydrocarbon exploration at the existing oil well at the Lower Stumble Exploration site, off London Road.

The district council said West Sussex County Councillors refused the 2020 application due to ‘the adverse impact on the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’. Application WSCC/045/20 was dated August 20, 2020 and, despite council officers recommending approval, it was refused by notice dated March 10, 2021.

Mid Sussex District Councillor for Balcombe Gary Marsh said: “Councillor Bruce Forbes and I both feel very let down for our residents in this ruling. We feel that this flies in the face of the government recent decisions. Balcombe is a quiet rural village in the AONB, and in a sensitive environmental setting.”

In the Appeal Decision, which was welcomed by Angus Energy, the Inspector said the benefit of exploration outweighed any adverse impact on the AONB. They said: “There remains a significant national need for onshore hydrocarbon exploration and assessment for considerable time to come. This weighs greatly in favour of this appeal, given also the great policy weight still attributed nationally to the benefits of mineral extraction.”

They added: “The national need is the overriding consideration and furthermore amounts to the requisite exceptional justification for permitting this major development within the High Weald AONB.”

The Inspector also said that the proposal does not involve fracking. The Appeal Decision said: “The scope of the present appeal is strictly limited to the specific testing and restoration operations, which are self-contained and time-limited.”

The District Council confirmed: “All that the Planning Inspector has permitted is a 30 month period of exploration and testing. There is no planning permission for energy extraction.”

MSDC leader Jonathan Ash-Edwards said: “This is a very disappointing decision and I agree with local residents that there is no need for hydrocarbon exploration in Balcombe. This decision does show why we need more local control of planning decisions. The Government is reforming the planning system and intends to make clear that Planning Inspectors should not overrule sensible local decision making.”

Sue Taylor from the Frack Free Balcombe Residents Association called the decision ‘outrageous’, adding that Angus Energy had ‘blighted’ the village for over 10 years. She said: “Now they’re being allowed to return for a fourth attempt at a commercially hopeless well in an AONB. Only a change of government will stop this madness.”

Angus Energy said: “Angus Energy (AIM: ANGS) is pleased to announce that, further to its RNS of 2 March 2021 and 2 August 2021, its appeal against the decision by West Sussex County Council to refuse permission for an extended well test at its Balcombe oil site has been upheld.”

The company said it has a 25 per cent interest in the Balcombe field discovery (PEDL 244) targeting the Kimmeridge limestones.

Angus Energy continued: “The Balcombe 2Z horizontal sidetrack was drilled in 2013 and permission for a flow test was granted in 2018. The test evidenced a definitive oil show with high flow rates for short periods. The planning permission expired prior to the completion of clean up operations leaving a quantity of, what the company subsequently determined to be, left-over drilling fluids from the 2013 operation.”

The company said they applied for a new planning permission in 2020 to ‘complete the clean-up exercise’, following it with an extended well test.

They said: “As a consequence of yesterday’s decision by the Planning Inspectorate, the Company is now capable of pursing this well test subject to satisfaction of planning conditions noted in the Appeal Decision as well as the determination of the variation to the Environmental Permit by the Environment Agency, which we understand to be imminent.”

CPRE, the countryside charity, said the decision ‘shows contempt for local democracy’, adding that 800 people objected to the proposal.

Paul Miner, CPRE’s acting director of campaigns and policy, said: “This extraordinary decision defies belief. It makes a mockery of the climate crisis.”

But he said it ‘is not the end of the road’: “There will almost certainly now be a statutory legal challenge at the High Court, which anyone opposed to turning our countryside into a cash machine for oil barons must hope succeeds.”

Paul continued: “As damaging as this proposal to drill for oil would be for the residents of Balcombe, the danger is far graver and wider. This decision could set a precedent to expand drilling across the Jurassic Weald, an area of oil-rich shale that stretches all the way from Winchester in Hampshire to the rolling downs of Rye in East Sussex. It sends shivers down the spine.

“The government must urgently act to make sure this cannot happen again. It needs to introduce, and enforce, a firm policy against new onshore gas and oil extraction in the same way that we should have a presumption against new coal extraction. And there’s no time like the present as this can be achieved by strengthening the National Planning Policy Framework, which is currently being reviewed by Ministers.”

What do you think? Let us know how you feel about the decision by emailing [email protected].

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