Oil-drilling expansion challenge to go uncontested

A legal challenge against the expansion of an oil-drilling site in North Lincolnshire is to be uncontested.

Campaigner Sandie Stratford argued North Lincolnshire Council acted unlawfully by granting permission for Egdon Resources to expand operations at its Wressle site without first submitting an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

Ms Stratford said she was delighted the council had "recognised their error and will now properly consider the environmental impacts of oil and gas expansion".

North Lincolnshire Council has been contacted for comment.

The legal challenge was based on a ruling, Finch v Surrey County Council, made in June 2024 which ruled that downstream emissions from the burning of fossil fuels extracted at a site or development must be assessed as part of an EIA for a planning application.

Mark Abbott, chief executive officer at Egdon Resources, an "interested party" in the legal case, said it would "not be resisting this legal challenge".

He said it "instead will be providing the council with the required information so that it can take into account the consequences of the Finch decision".

Leigh Day environment team solicitor Julia Eriksen, who supported Ms Stratford's legal challenge, said the decision not to fight the legal challenge was "another significant climate victory in the campaign to stop fossil fuel expansion in the UK".

She described it as "a brilliant win for our client and the community in Lincolnshire”.

It is the second Lincolnshire fossil fuel development to be quashed in recent months, with the decision to approve exploratory drilling and extraction at Biscathorpe overturned in July following a legal challenge.

Amanda Suddaby, of SOS Biscathorpe, highlighted recent extreme weather events as "linked to global warming".

She said it meant it was important for "decision-makers to assess developments with full knowledge of the facts" and a "proper understanding of how their decisions contribute to the climate crisis facing us all".

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