Fracking Giant INEOS Rejected, Again

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By Ruth Hayhurst for Drill orย Drop

The UKโ€™s biggest shale gas company, INEOS, has suffered another vote against its explorationย plans.

A packed public gallery at Rotherham Town Hall this lunchtime watched as councillors unanimously opposed the companyโ€™s application for a vertical coring well in the village of Woodsetts. Seeย DrillOrDropย liveย updates

This is the second unanimous vote against INEOS by Rotherham councillors in six weeks. It means that all the companyโ€™s schemes going through the planning system have now been opposed by local authorities. It brings to five the number of onshore gas applications rejected by planning authorities thisย year.

At Woodsetts, a local campaign group submitted a 76-page objection to the INEOS scheme. After the meeting, members said they were โ€œelatedโ€ and โ€œthrilled, thrilled, thrilledโ€ with theย result.

Woodsetts Against Fracking spokesperson, Richard Scholey,ย said:

โ€œBy the turn-out you can see the overwhelming support and the passion with which people spoke. It means so much. People feel we are fighting for our community and our way ofย life.โ€

INEOS said this afternoon it was disappointed by the vote. It said its application, to take core samples, was no different from those drilled by the coal industry locally in previous decades. It also said the shale gas industry could bring energy security and lower fuel prices. (See full statementย below).

The company did not ask for permission to frack. But its application said INEOS depended on a supply of raw materials for its chemicals business. And speakers at the meeting appeared in no doubt that they thought the Woodsetts scheme was a precursor to fracking for shale gas to supply INEOSย plants.

Mr Scholeyย said:

โ€œThere is a bigger picture here. The shale gas industry is not about keeping the lights on, as Theresa May keeps saying. It is about making money for the petrochemicalsย industry.โ€

He said of INEOS:

โ€œThis is a company that came to the north thinking they can roll on through and we are a small community that cannot stand up to a large company. We have proved themย wrong.โ€

Rotherham councillors voted in line with the recommendation of planning officers to refuse the application on ecological grounds. The officers said there were deficiencies in surveys submitted with the application on bats, breeding birds and badgers. They were also concerned about the lack of evidence about possible impacts on ancient woodland 25m from theย site.

Councillors also added a second reason for refusal: the impact on highway safety of the increase in heavy goods vehicles. Planners had said these issues did not justifyย refusal.

Inquiry

Woodsetts against Fracking expects INEOS to appeal against the refusal and the application to go next to a publicย inquiry.

INEOS has already appealed against Rotherham Borough Council over its failure to decide a similar scheme at the village of Harthill by the target date. Another appeal is underway against Derbyshire County Council for the same reason over the companyโ€™s shale gas plans for the village of Marshย Lane.

Deborah Gibson, of Harthill Against Fracking, attended the meeting and saidย afterwards:

โ€œThe councillors were totally unanimous in their decision on Harthill and they were totally unanimous forย Woodsetts.

โ€œI think INEOS is running out of places toย go.

โ€œWe are ready for the inquiries for Harthill and Marsh Lane. We expect this decision will go to an inquiry and it looks as if Woodsetts are readyย too.

โ€œIt gives me heart. We feel we are right in the middle of allย this.โ€

David Burley, of Frack Free South Yorkshire,ย said:

โ€œOnce again, a Minerals Authority that understands its own area and the wishes of its people has rejected exploration for shale gas.ย There is an increasing demand for a sustainable and clean energy system locally and across the UK to meet our carbon targets and stave off the consequence of global warming. And that means greater efficiency and more cost-effective renewable energy and storage. Shale gas and fracking will not achieveย that.โ€

Localย Democracy

Chris Crean, of Friends of the Earth,ย said:

โ€œThis is an example of what local people can do to stand up to this dirty industry. This is a victory for localย democracy.

โ€œItโ€™s deeply significant that Rotherham Council rejected a second INEOS test drill application in as manyย months.

โ€œAlong with Derbyshireโ€™s rejection of the Marsh Lane application last month and Rotherham Council rejecting the Harthill application in January, which now makes three INEOS applications rejected by local councils in short succession already thisย year.

โ€œSurely itโ€™s time for would-be frackers to accept that this risky technology is not needed, not wanted, wonโ€™t address the challenge of climate change, and their best bet is to stop throwing good money after bad, and invest in popular, clean energy alternativesย instead.โ€

Also this year, Lancashire County Council unanimously opposed Cuadrillaโ€™s shale gas fracking plans for Roseacre Wood near Blackpool on traffic grounds. At Cheshire West and Chester, councillors voted to refuse IGas plans to test a gas well at Ellesmereย Port.

There were moments during todayโ€™s meeting when discussions verged on badย temper.

Minutes before the vote, INEOSโ€™s operations director, Tom Pickering, said he wanted to make some extraย points.

But the planning board chair, Alan Atkins,ย said:

โ€œI am chairing this meeting and I am chairing. INEOS has not covering itself in glory over this application or the last one. I am not having anyone ride roughshod over ourย planning.โ€

Earlier, the meeting heard that INEOS believed further ecological surveys would not alter the companyโ€™s approach toย mitigation.

One member of the planning board accused the company of โ€œcutting cornersโ€. He retracted his comment when Mr Pickering interruptedย saying:

โ€œYou need to be very careful about the accusations you haveย made.โ€

Cllr Clive Jepson, who represents Woodsetts on the borough council, said the community had been โ€œsubject to bullying by INEOSโ€ and the company had shown โ€œhow not to carry out a publicย consultationโ€.

INEOS‘ Statement inย Full

โ€œINEOS Shale is disappointed by the news that Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council officers have refused the application for test core drilling at Woodsetts. We feel that that the plans presented offer the right amount of ecological mitigation as part of what is straightforward application. The fact that a majority of external statutory consultees agree that this is the case, exemplifies thisย point.

โ€œThe application allows for the drilling of a single vertical core bore well to gain scientific knowledge of what is below the surface, which has been agreed by many Councils many times in the past to support the coal industry. This is no different. It is important to note that a completely separate application must be made for the extraction ofย gas.

โ€œShale gas is a resource that is of strategic importance to the UK and issues of energy security always have to be factored in. As last week demonstrated, the UKโ€™s energy supply is in a much weaker position than many believe, with sudden adverse weather events bringing the UK to the brink of running out of gas. Not only does this have a knock-on effect on industry, there is the real potential that domestic consumers will be unable to heat their homes in times of energy stress. Shale gas is offering us the potential to have our own native natural gas industry, strengthening our security of supply and making us less reliant on countries such as Russia or the middleย East.

โ€œRotherham relies on manufacturing jobs at places such as at Liberty Steel, but these are not secured or created without investment and there is precious little investment in the North of England in manufacturing at the moment.ย  Recent figures on jobs and investment estimate that the shale industry is expected to bring in ยฃ33 billion of investment into England alone over the next two decades. Furthermore, shale gas offers the potential to bring down energy prices. High energy costs are badly affecting businesses up and down the country and was one of the reasons cited in the recent near closure ofย Liberty.

โ€œThe resources beneath our feet can be used to create jobs, heat our homes, go a long way towards self-sufficiency and improve our balance of payments and the environment all at the sameย time.โ€

This article originally appeared on Drill or Drop.

For more information on INEOS‘ (mis)deeds, see the company’s full profile in DeSmog UK‘s Disinformation Database.

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Mat was DeSmog's Special Projects and Investigations Editor, and Operations Director of DeSmog UK Ltd. He was DeSmog UKโ€™s Editor from October 2017 to March 2021, having previously been an editor at Nature Climate Change and analyst at Carbon Brief.

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