Moratorium on fracking welcomed by East Sussex county councillors

In early December, East Sussex County Council agreed a motion, which saw the council note public concerns and give its support to the government’s recently lifted then reimposed moratorium of the controversial gas extraction process.

Cllr Claire Dowling, the council’s lead member for transport and environment, said: “The council is committed through our climate emergency action plan to achieve net [zero] carbon emissions from its own operations as well as helping the county to achieve this target.

“Continuing to use fossil fuels goes against this very target, especially when there needs to be more emphasis on renewable and low carbon energy supplies.”

The debate had stemmed from a joint motion from Green Party co-leader Georgia Taylor and Labour group co-leader Chris Collier, submitted at a time when the national moratorium on fracking had been lifted by the Liz Truss led government.

That original motion called on the authority to “resolve to oppose, as a matter of council policy, any initiatives to develop fracking, or other methods, for the extraction of shale oil or gas in East Sussex.”

As is the council’s usual process, the motion was first considered by the cabinet member whose portfolio covers the topic of debate, in this case Cllr Dowling.

At that meeting, Cllr Dowling approved an alternative wording, which had been proposed due to officer concerns around the potential for predetermining future planning applications related to fracking.

This advice had been softened in the full council report, however, with officers saying a policy such as that proposed by the original motion would not, of itself, predetermine any planning applications. They did caution that planning committee members would need to keep an open mind on any future applications, however.

Even so, it was the version of the motion backed by Cllr Dowling which was eventually voted through.

This version was approved despite calls for a further amendment from Cllr Taylor, which she argued would strengthen the motion. This amendment called on the council to commit to oppose both any future lifting of the fracking moratorium and any other form of oil and gas extraction.

Cllr Taylor said: “A moratorium is a temporary measure. It can be changed at any time and we saw that in the last few months. With this amendment I would like to strengthen Cllr Dowling’s motion so it ensures the protection of the people and the environment in East Sussex.

“We do know that areas in East Sussex have been identified as potential for exploration. We haven’t received any requests for exploration but that could happen.”

She added: “Any money going into producing energy needs to go into renewable energy at this stage. This is where our economy is going to be resourcing and resourced much better than through the dying and no longer needed fossil fuel industry.

“What we need to do is be looking to the future looking at where we can encourage that kind of activity in this county.”

However, the amendment was not accepted and voted down by the Conservative majority chamber.

Cllr Dowling said: “We support the government’s policy for the reinstation of the moratorium. It couldn’t be any clearer than that and sometimes less is more for the public to understand.”