Energy Voice: Shale firm bid ‘should be refused’

A shale company’s bid to explore for oil and gas in a national park should be turned down, planning officials have recommended.

Celtique Energie has put in a planning application for a site near Fernhurst, West Sussex, in the South Downs National Park, to drill a temporary vertical well to test for oil and gas and potentially drill a horizontal well extending out from it.

South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA) officers have recommended that the planning application – which does not seek permission for “fracking” – should be refused when the national park’s planning committee meets next week.

A report by planning officials said that “the applicant has failed to demonstrate exceptional circumstances exist for such exploration and appraisal to take place within the protected landscape and that it is in the public interest to do so”.
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