Oil-drilling saga at Biscathorpe set for critical stage with full public inquiry
The long-running battle to prevent oil-drilling at Biscathorpe – one of the most attractive areas of countryside in the Lincolnshire Wolds – is set to reach a critical stage when a full public inquiry is held.
The decision by the government to grant the inquiry reflects the national importance of the case, the complexity of the issues involved and the strength of public concern in the Louth area.
It is expected to last four to six days and will be hosted next April at a local venue, yet to be announced, by a planning inspector, who will have the power to call witnesses as well as assess expert information.
The controversial oil development saga dates back to 2015 when the Reading-based oil and gas company, Egdon Resources, submitted its original planning application.
Exploratory drilling in 2019 failed to locate any oil. But Egdon lodged a fresh bid two years later for drilling, testing and 15 years of full-scale production
This was refused by Lincolnshire County Council in 2021 after uproar among locals, who cited environmental, climate-change and net-zero concerns, as well as fears that the Biscathorpe landscape would be severely scarred.
The plan was later approved on appeal by an inspector from the government’s Planning Inspectorate. But then that decision was successfully challenged and overturned in the High Court in June 2024 after legal action from campaign group, SOS Biscathorpe.
The ruling failed to deter Egdon Resources, which has since submitted several revised versions to the Planning Inspectorate, prompting repeated rounds of public consultation.
The next consultation is expected to begin this coming Wednesday (November 5) when Egdon’s updated documents will be published on the planning portal of the county’s council’s website.
Amanda Suddaby, of SOS Biscathorpe, said: “It feels fitting that this consultation begins on a day when fires will be lit across the country for Bonfire Night. It’s a timely reminder that our planet is also burning.
"The climate-change crisis is having a real impact on people’s lives here in Lincolnshire. Flooding, coastal erosions and extreme weather aren’t distant problems. They are happening on our doorstep.
"They affect our homes, our farms, our businesses and our family budgets through rising insurance and food costs.
"Most of all, they threaten the natural environment that sustains us – the land, water and wildlife that make Lincolnshire such a special place to live.”
The public inquiry is a significant step up from the one-day informal hearing that was held in November 2022 at Kenwick Park Hotel in Louth when a planning inspector reversed the county council’s original refusal.
He acknowledged the project could harm the Wolds and might only produce a small, uncertain quantity of oil, which would possibly be exported, but still deemed it “in the public interest”.
That ruling was quashed by the High Court, which found that the inspector had failed to assess the climate impact of ‘downstream emissions’, which are the greenhouse gases produced when oil from the site is eventually burned.
The new inquiry next spring will include a full assessment of such emissions and could set a planning precedent that would shape fossil-fuel decisions nationwide.
Local residents and environmental groups say the Egdon project would industrialise a protected landscape and threaten nearby ecologically fragile and rare chalk streams because it includes the discharge of surface water into local watercourses. There are only approximately 200 chalk streams in the world.
Campaigner Mathilda Dennis, who farms near the site, said: “This development does nothing for our energy security but it risks destroying one of Lincolnshire’s most precious natural areas.
“We’ve known for years what needs to change, yet here we are still approving new fossil-fuel projects while the planet burns.
"Every tonne of greenhouse gas matters. Every new oil site takes us further from the future we need.
"We should be protecting our climate and countryside, not sacrificing them for short-term, outdated fossil-fuel schemes.
“The county council had the sense to reject this development back when COP26 was opening in Glasgow. Now, with COP30 about to begin, we’re still arguing over the same things.
"How much longer are we going to stall while the climate crisis keeps accelerating? The juggernaut of climate breakdown isn’t slowing down. We have to change course.”
Egdon Resources, which is wholly owned by Heyco Energy, a US-based company with interests in fracking, was approached by the Louth Leader for a comment on this latest update to the saga. But a spokeswoman said: “As this is part of a process, we do not feel we should comment at this time.”
Earlier this year, Heyco’s chairman, George M. Yates, attended the Lincolnshire Energy Conference, announcing the firm’s potential plan for fracking the Gainsborough Trough.
SOS Biscathorpe, which is crowdfunding its campaign, is urging members of the public to respond to the consultation by Friday, December 5 and to attend the public inquiry next April.
Although the consultation documents will appear on the council’s website, comments must be submitted via the Planning Inspectorate’s portal at https://acp.planninginspectorate.gov.uk using reference number 3296831.