October 25, 2021 3.42 pm This story is over 29 months old

Campaigners against Lincolnshire oil drill to bring petition at council meeting

It has been signed by over 1,400 people

A 1,400-strong petition against a controversial oil drill in Biscathorpe will be presented to Lincolnshire County Council at the planning meeting next week.

Community residents will attend the planning decision meeting at Brackenborough Hotel in Louth on November 1 to demonstrate their opposition to oil drilling in Biscathorpe. They are demanding that the council rejects 15 years of new carbon emitting oil.

In addition to the petition, over 200 locals submitted their objections via the county council’s planning portal.

Egdon Resources has applied for permission at the site in the Lincolnshire village, which is believed to contain more than 30m barrels of oil. Objectors said the development flies in the face of climate concerns, however, the county council has said the climate is not a planning concern.

Five of the parish councils closest to the site – Donnington-On-Bain, Hemingby, South Elkington, Welton-Le-Wold and South Willingham – are also against the plans, along with MP for Louth and Horncastle Victoria Atkins, Natural England, Historic England, and multiple others.

This comes in the same week that the UK government prepares to host the world’s largest conference on any issue – the UN Climtate Change Conference – between October 31 and November 12.

Amanda Suddaby, a Lincolnshire resident who attended the recent Lincolnshire Climate Summit said: “At the Climate Summit, we heard from councillors that they want to ‘lead by example’.

“Next week’s oil planning decision on November 1 gives them a chance to do just that. Lincolnshire can either approve 15 years of new oil drilling in our precious AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), or be a climate leader – they can’t do both.”

Residents involved in a four-year campaign to protest the Lincolnshire Wolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty from 15 years of new oil drilling made a video to get their point across.

Martin Scutt, who will be attending the planning decision in person, said: “As the international climate talks begin in Glasgow, we encourage those who can to join us on November 1 at The Brackenborough Hotel in Louth at 2pm, to demand our council take the real action we need to tackle climate change.

“In the last few weeks we have seen county councils in Yorkshire and the Isle of Wight reject fossil fuel development and now LCC need to show their residents that Lincolnshire are also taking responsible action on climate.”

In the Officers’ Report from Lincolnshire Council Council it states: “The impacts of the proposal on landscape character and visual impact are considered by officers to be minor in nature given the duration of the proposal and that it is entirely reversible.”

Officers also said that they couldn’t consider arguments about climate change, adding: “In determining this application, it is necessary to consider only whether the development would be an acceptable land use, in planning terms, at the proposed location.”