Call for oil drilling to stop after test case

A campaigner who launched a legal battle which quashed planning permission for oil drilling near Gatwick is calling for the extraction to end immediately.

In June Supreme Court judges said Surrey County Council should have looked at the climate impacts of burning the oil extracted from the site at Horse Hill, outside Horley.

The council told the BBC it was "assessing any potential next steps", while the company drilling at the site said the judgement did not tell it "to stop producing".

However, Sarah Finch, a campaigner from the Weald Action Group who brought the test case, wants to see the site shut down before a fresh planning application is submitted.

• 'What happens here has a much wider impact'

She told BBC Radio Surrey: "The judgement said the planning permission was quashed - i.e. there is now no planning permission.

"Surrey County Council is the planning authority so it's their responsibility to see that nothing happens that hasn't got planning permission."

Ms Finch said she wanted to see the council put a "temporary stop order on that site" before a potential retrospective application is submitted.

"If they do, they need to do it quickly," she added.

Ms Finch also said she hoped the site would be "restored to agricultural use and woodland".

The Reverend Helen Burnett has protested at Horse Hill for the last five years, and said she had been fined after being arrested and charged with obstruction.

She said: “What happens here in this funny little back road in Surrey and in Surrey County Council offices really has a huge impact for the wider planning permission for oil extraction in the UK."

Horse Hill's wells, run by UK Oil and Gas PLC (UKOG), could produce three million tonnes of oil over twenty years.

A company spokesperson said: “We remain in constant dialogue with Surrey County Council and other regulators regarding the retroactive reinstatement of planning permission at Horse Hill.

"The Supreme Court judgement did not tell us to stop producing but that Surrey should have considered end uses before granting permission.”

They said the company is working with the council over submitting fresh plans.

A council statement said: “Following the Supreme Court decision, the council’s planning enforcement team is actively investigating the development at Horse Hill."

It added: "The county council is continuing its investigation into the matter and assessing any potential next steps."

They said the Supreme Court’s decision meant the application had to be re-determined.

“We are actively undertaking an enforcement investigation, and it would not be appropriate to comment further while that is ongoing," they added.

UKOG was also approached for comment.