The small Lincolnshire village of Biscathorpe is in the heart of the Lincolnshire Wolds, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), and the site of one of only about 200 chalk streams in the world. In 2014 planning permission was granted to Egdon Resources plc by Lincolnshire County Council to carry out exploratory drilling for oil near the village.
Biscathorpe will take on the government and its Net Zero policies at the High Court on 5 and 6 June. The case has been brought by the local campaign group SOS Biscathorpe, represented by Mathilda Dennis, who have raised over £22,000 from public donations to fund it.
Biscathorpe steps up
Amanda Suddaby, a member of the group, told Central Bylines:
“Exploratory drilling undertaken in 2018 failed to find the target. The current application for further horizontal drilling and 15 years of production was then refused by Lincolnshire County Council in 2021 amidst a strong public outcry against the development.
“Egdon Resources UK Ltd (now owned by US-based group Heyco Energy) appealed against this decision, which was then overturned by the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in November 2023.
“The planning inspector who approved the development acknowledged that the scheme would harm the landscape of the area and that it failed to comply with local planning policies. He also recognised that any oil found could be exported. Despite this, the small quantity of potential oil was considered enough to justify the development.
“SOS Biscathorpe believes that the impact on the landscape and the climate crisis outweigh any claims that the Biscathorpe site’s uncertain and negligible oil output would contribute to national energy security.”
How we got here
With so much controversy over climate change and net zero, it’s worth remembering how we got here.
In 1992, the Kyoto Protocol committed countries to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the main driver in the rise of global temperatures above pre-industrial levels. The Paris Agreement (2015) strengthened this further, making it legally binding to keep that rise “to well below 2oC”.
In 2021, The International Energy Authority (IEA) concluded that there should be no new fossil fuel development if the world is to stay within safe limits of global heating and meet the goal of net zero emissions by 2050. At the Glasgow climate conference (COP 26) later that year, signatories committed to set out how they would meet these commitments.
But late in 2023, Rishi Sunak’s government u-turned on some of these commitments, including more drilling for oil and gas. This led to a recent government defeat in the High Court over its climate plans which were found to be grossly inadequate to meet its own target to reduce emissions by 78% by 2035 against 1990 levels. The UK Climate Change Committee estimates that the government’s plans will deliver only one fifth of the emissions cuts needed in the next decade.
Opposition is growing
Opposition to government proposals is growing across the UK. A recent consultation in Northern Ireland found that the vast majority of respondents supported a move away from fossil fuels. The Northern Ireland Economy Minister last week announced a proposal to ban all onshore oil and gas exploration and production and fracking in Northern Ireland. This would align with the position taken in the Republic of Ireland and Wales.
Last June, the Supreme Court heard a landmark case brought by a campaign group in Surrey. This case addressed the need to assess downstream greenhouse gas emissions which, it alleged, were ignored by Surrey County Council when granting planning permission. The Court’s decision has not yet been announced.
In Sussex meanwhile, another campaign group has launched a legal challenge, to be heard in the Court of Appeal against a decision to allow drilling in the High Weald, also an AONB.
Details of the challenge
The legal challenge SOS Biscathorpe is mounting is based on five grounds:
- The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) guidance about major development in AONBs, which states that permission should be refused unless there are exceptional circumstances and the development is in the public interest, has been misinterpreted
- There has been an error of law in not considering alternative proposals, including other means of meeting UK energy demand
- There has been a breach of the Environmental Impact Regulations 2017 by failing to consider whether the inevitable downstream greenhouse gas emissions that will arise from burning the oil were relevant to determining the environmental impact of the project
- The great weight attached to the development’s small and uncertain contribution to national energy security is irrational
- There is no evidence for an irrational assertion about the impact of the development on oil output in other countries
SOS Biscathorpe are represented by the environmental team at law firm Leigh Day. The challenge will be opposed by the Secretary of State and Egdon Resources, who will defend the inspector’s decision and explain why they believe it was lawful. If a judge rules that the planning inspector’s decision was taken unlawfully, the decision will be quashed.
Supporters of the case plead for justice
Mathilda Dennis SoS Biscathorpe member
“As the UN Secretary General has said, ‘new oil development is moral and economic madness’. The climate and ecological crisis is irrefutable and becoming more urgent by the day – we hope that the High Court judge will take this into consideration when reviewing the decision about Biscathorpe. New oil development is simply not compatible with Net Zero targets.”
Amanda Suddaby of SOS Biscathorpe
“Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty were recently re-branded ‘National Landscapes’ to reflect the important role they play in mitigating against climate change and ecological breakdown. It is therefore impossible to see how fossil fuel development in these precious areas can be justified. It defies all logic.
“We are pleased that a High Court judge will now consider the balance between a small and uncertain quantity of oil that will probably be exported against the requirement to protect and enhance a National Landscape considered vital in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss.
“It is a great pity that the UK government is hell-bent on extracting every last drop of oil regardless of the direct or indirect adverse impacts on communities, environment and climate. Schemes such as this make a mockery of environmental and Net Zero commitments.”
Dr Andrew Kythreotis, Co-founder, Adaptation and Research Lead, and Commissioner, Lincoln Climate Commission
“The decision by the national planning inspectorate to allow drilling at Biscathorpe is ludicrous, and exposes an outdated planning system in the UK that isn’t climate agile. The decision is certainly not in the public’s interest either locally or nationally given the small amount of oil we are talking about from the site. This is just another political decision that makes a mockery of the science on climate change.”
Leigh Day solicitor Julia Eriksen, who represents Mathilda Dennis of SOS Biscathorpe
“We are really pleased the Court has granted our client permission to advance these important grounds in the High Court. Our client will argue that the Secretary of State acted unlawfully and irrationally in overturning Lincolnshire County Council’s decision to refuse planning permission. This case is one of several dealing with fossil fuel development in protected areas in the name of energy security – it raises important issues around the correct interpretation of national planning policy for these major developments in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.”
Egdon Resources have been asked for comment. To date, they have not replied.
This article has been developed from an SOS Biscathorpe press release and written in collaboration with Central Bylines.
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