Campaigners hold ‘dirty duck’ protest against Biscathorpe oil drilling plans

As reported earlier this year, Egdon Resources UK Ltd – which was previously granted temporary planning permission for a single exploratory well in the picturesque village in 2015 – is now hoping to obtain permission to conduct a side-track drilling operation, associated testing, and long-term oil production which could last up to 15 years.

The decision on whether to allow this further operation will be made by the county council, although this decision is unlikely to be made before November.

Meanwhile, hundreds of residents in the local area and across Lincolnshire have submitted letters of objection, and over 1,200 people have signed an online petition in opposition to the drilling.

Louth and Horncastle MP, Victoria Atkins, has also publicly opposed the plans.

Last weekend, residents staged a ‘dirty duck race’ on the River Bain in Donington on Bain to highlight their concerns about the plans for nearby Biscathorpe, which falls within the Lincolnshire Wolds’ Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Twenty competitors brought their rubber ducks down to the River Bain to race – but half of the ducks were made to look as if they were covered in oil, to raise awareness about the issue.

Grandparents Ian and Jane Rushby from Hainton posed as the ‘Dirty Oily Drilling Duck Team’, racing their rubber ducks, which they had covered in black oily-looking marker pen.

Jane said: “We’re raising awareness that The Bain, our beautiful rare chalk stream, is at risk from pollution if planners at LCC approve an application for oil drilling at Biscathorpe.

“The latest international climate science report is clear, we must leave fossil fuels in the ground if we are to prevent more than oily ducks.

“The climate emergency is already killing children around the world, if we don’t urgently reduce CO2 emissions we are putting our grandchildren’s future at risk.

“Our MP, Victoria Atkins has publicly opposed the development and now it is time for LCC to reject years of ecological risks and carbon emitting oil drilling here close to the River Bain.”

Merryn Baker, seven, who attends Donington On Bain Primary School, said: “We usually have a duck race but this year because we are worried about oil drilling, we held a dirty duck race. I raced my Clean Future team duck and it won!”

Martin Scutt, from Donington on Bain, added: “Everyone from the United Nations downwards is telling us to stop drilling oil, right now – so, although we are having fun, we are also very serious about it, and very worried”.

Meanwhile, David Dennis from the nearby Stenigot Estate Company wrote to councillors on the planning committee earlier this month to claim that a survey of public opinion in Donington on Bain and the surrounding area had returned results of 93 per cent against the oil drilling.

In his letter, he described the continued use of fossil fuels and single-use plastics as a “suicide policy”, adding that industrialising an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty would be seen as “a breach of public trust.”

Egdon Resources UK Limited has repeatedly insisted that its proposed operation will be safe and well regulated.

Earlier this summer, Mark Abbott, managing director at Egdon Resources, said: “We work very carefully to try to minimise the impact of all of our sites as much as possible, but we are particularly aware of the natural beauty and landscape quality of this sensitive area. We have therefore been working closely with officers at Lincolnshire County Council and the Environment Agency, along with other regulators, to directly address the issues about our proposed operation.

“We are very confident that there will be minimum impact on our neighbours, the chalk stream and the AONB more widely.

“All of the concerns highlighted [by Victoria Atkins] have been comprehensively addressed in the documentation which supports the planning application.

“This is a small site, which would be highly regulated and managed, would be screened from its surroundings and have no more impact in terms of industrialisation than the surrounding farms.”

• If you wish to comment on the planning application during the consultation period, visit Lincolnshire County Council’s planning website and search for the application: PL/0037/21.