Yorkshire villagers celebrate 'momentous victory' as Government rejects fracking site plan

The Government has dismissed an appeal by Ineos to be given the go-ahead for a shale gas exploration site off Dinnington Road in Woodsetts, near Rotherham.

After planning permission for the site was refused by Rotherham Council, a public inquiry was held in June 2019 which resulted in a planning inspector recommending that the appeal should be upheld and planning permission granted.

But in a newly-published Government ruling, the scheme has now been blocked.

A decision made by Housing Minister and Yorkshire MP Stuart Andrew on behalf of Mr Gove reads: “The Secretary of State disagrees with the inspector’s recommendation.

“He has decided to dismiss the appeal and refuse planning permission.”

It said the determination has been made on the basis of factors including harm to the green belt, adverse visual impacts from the scheme and the harm to nearby properties from a 3m-high acoustic barrier that was due to be built around the site.

The report said: “Overall he considers that the material considerations in this case indicate a decision in line with the development plan – i.e. a refusal of permission. The Secretary of State therefore concludes that the appeal should be dismissed and planning permission should be refused.”

Ineos has six weeks to decide whether to challenge the decision in the High Court.

Rother Valley MP Alexander Stafford, who has campaigned against the fracking site getting the go-ahead in his constituency, was pleased by the outcome.

“I am delighted that the Government has stood up for the people of Rother Valley on yet another critically important issue for our area,” said the Conservative MP.

“I have been lobbying tirelessly behind the scenes to have the Secretary of State step in, and I am pleased that my calls have been answered with decisive, positive action.

“No one is a bigger advocate for cleaner energy than me, but fracking is not, and has never been, the answer.

“It is not wanted here in Rother Valley, and this Conservative government has yet again listened to us and represented us robustly. I hope residents in Woodsetts rejoice in this momentous victory that we have achieved together.”

Rotherham Council leader Chris Read said the Labour-led local authority's decision to reject the proposal had now been vindicated.

"The communities in the south of our borough have lived for too long with the threat of fracking hanging over them, so I'm really pleased to see sense finally coming from the government. Throughout the process we have taken the view that fracking would be bad news for our communities, for the local environment, and an unsustainable way of meeting our energy needs.

"That looked particularly threatened recently when parts of the Conservative Party started to lobby publicly for an end to the moratorium. Our planning committee was one of the first in the country to reject an application for fracking and it is finally validation from the government of that call, and of our local planning policy. We all look forward to that threat of fracking being gone permanently now."

There is currently a moratorium on fracking in the UK which was introduced by Boris Johnson after shale gas exploration was previously supported by Theresa May as a way of improving the UK’s energy security.

More than a decade of efforts to develop fracking for shale gas had seemed to be over as authorities ordered the sealing of the only two horizontal drilled wells in Lancashire. But the order to permanently seal the wells was suspended earlier this year and the Government has commissioned a review into the science around the process.

Ineos founder and chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe said earlier this year that it was “ridiculous” the UK was not taking advantage of its shale gas reserves.

Speaking in April, he said: “The UK is in the midst of an energy crisis with ever increasing prices driving people into fuel poverty whilst giving huge sums of money to oppressive regimes.

“It’s a ridiculous situation with so much gas under our feet. As the US has shown, shale gas from home could make us self-sufficient in 10 years.”

But Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng warned that fracking would take years to produce commercial levels of gas.

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