Campaign activists and Liberal Democrats criticized the government after a minister rejected a Tory-led council to approve gas drilling on the edge of the Surrey Hills, although he believed the scheme would damage the natural landscape.
The decision, officially announced in a written statement by Home Secretary Stuart Andrew, gave the green light to three years of exploratory drilling at a site near the Surrey Hills area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB).
The site is in the constituency of Southwest Surrey of Jeremy Hunt, a former health minister who strongly opposes the project.
Campaigners said the decision showed an “obsession” with finding new fossil fuel developments and was likely to spark protests.
The plan was rejected by Surrey County Council, but a subsequent public inquiry recommended that it continue, a decision that was then assessed by the Equalization, Housing and Communities Department, which approved it.
This means that the energy company UK Oil and Gas will be allowed to operate a non-fracking gas well near Dunsfold, south of Guilford, near the AONB border, with permission for a new road junction, access road and a fence around the border.
The decision – taken by Andrew after Michael Gove, the equalization secretary, withdrew because his constituency is near Surrey – accepted that the drilling would include “significant levels of landscape and visual impacts from the proposal”, including the loss on hedges, something softened by the final period of operation.
Noting that permitting the project was contrary to Surrey’s own guidelines, the decision also acknowledged that “it has not been demonstrated that the site was chosen to minimize adverse environmental impacts”.
The proposal, he added, “will damage the landscape and appearance of the area and worsen the quality of the AONB’s environment”, saying that while the impact on the AONB will be limited, the area is “highly sensitive”.
The ministry’s decision said that “limited” weight should be given to any local economic benefits, but the overall assessment was “exploration and evaluation are a necessary part of mineral development and without them the currently recognized benefits cannot be realized. from production ‘.
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Although the decision is not related to fracking, the permit for exploratory gas drilling in such a place will resurrect memories of previous protests against fracking schemes.
Following significant local opposition, along with fears of earthquakes, fracking has been halted in the UK since 2019. In April, ministers announced a study on its safety, raising expectations that a practice popular with some Conservative MPs could be resumed.
Greenpeace said ministers had an “unhealthy obsession with finding new fossil fuels”. Doug Parr, its political director in the United Kingdom, said: “With this decision, the government is completely undermining local democracy, planning laws that must protect our landscapes and the climate crisis in one fell swoop.
Tom Faience, head of policy at the rural charity CPRE, said the move was “an absurd decision that is guaranteed to provoke anger and despair” and is likely to spark mass protests. He said: “It is extraordinary, given the urgent need to turn away from fossil fuels, that the government finds it appropriate to give green light to a gas field and damage the environment in an area of exceptional natural beauty.
The decision will be made by the Liberal Democrats, who are campaigning hard on the so-called Blue Wall – Tory-held seat belts, mostly around London, where resentment from conservatives and especially Boris Johnson has made them politically vulnerable.
Although Hunt’s place is relatively safe, the site is close to the Guilford constituency, where the current Tory MP, Angela Richardson, has a majority of just over 3,000 over the Liberal Democrats.
Ed Davy, the leader of Lib Dem, said it was “shameful that the Conservatives have ignored the concerns of local communities” and endorsed the scheme. “Michael Gove needs to reconsider this reckless decision, which risks irreparable damage to our precious province, while undermining efforts to deal with the climate emergency,” he said.
UK Oil and Gas was asked for comment.
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