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Nottinghamshire County Council has received formal notification
from energy company INEOS that it intends to undertake a 3D seismic survey
across parts of Nottinghamshire for six months, commencing in early June.
The company has
submitted details about the areas to be surveyed, which extend into Derbyshire
and Rotherham, and how the survey will be undertaken. The survey area covers
approximately 250 square kilometres.
Subject to
certain restrictions and giving prior notification to the County Council,
planning permission is not required for the survey as Government planning rules
state that it is ‘permitted development’.
The survey will
help INEOS to gain a better understanding of the geology and rock formations
below the ground to understand where shale gas might be located. This will help
the company to identify sites where future shale gas development could be
undertaken. Any future development would require full planning permission.
No hydraulic
fracturing would be undertaken as part of the survey.
INEOS owns a number of Petroleum
Exploration and Development Licences (PEDL) across the East Midlands. These
give the company exclusive permission to explore for onshore oil and gas within
each Licence area.
Sally Gill, Planning Manager for
Nottinghamshire County Council said: “Subject to certain restrictions, INEOS is
allowed to undertake the seismic survey without planning permission in line
with national planning rules. However, any further development, including test
drilling to explore for shale gas below ground, will require full planning
permission.
"The County Council welcomes the
decision by the company to avoid undertaking any surveying within the Sherwood
Forest National Nature Reserve and other areas of special environmental
interest.”
INEOS has confirmed to the County
Council that no seismic surveying will be undertaken within the following
areas:
- The Sherwood National Nature
Reserve, including the Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve.
- Special Areas of
Conservation
- Sites of Special Scientific
Interest including Thoresby Lake, Welbeck Lake, Hills and Holes and
Sookholme Brook, Warsop.
In addition, no surveying will be undertaken within any scheduled
monuments in Nottinghamshire and as an additional measure, a 50 metre boundary
zone will be in place to safeguard these protected areas from any nearby ground
survey.
Subject to the
signing of legal agreements, Nottinghamshire County Council has approved two
exploratory shale gas well sites on land off the A634 between Barnby Moor and
Blyth (Tinker Lane, Dart Energy site) and at Springs Road, Misson in Bassetlaw
(Island Gas).
To date, Nottinghamshire
County Council has received no planning applications for hydraulic fracturing
in the county.
View
the INEOS Environmental Statement and letter to Nottinghamshire County Council
online - visit the webpage and click on the Documents tab.
Find
out more about shale gas development.
Minerals
development plan under review by County Councillors in light of new figures for
sand and gravel demand
County Councillors have called for a review on the plan to guide the future of mineral development in Nottinghamshire. You can see the committee papers online.
The Minerals Local Plan is a statutory document which sets out the policies and potential sites for future mineral quarries in the county.
The draft Minerals Local Plan was due to be considered by a Government appointed independent Planning Inspector in June where representatives from community groups and mineral companies would have been able to have their say about the plan’s proposals.
However, new figures cast doubt on the amount of sand and gravel required for development in Nottinghamshire.
Latest figures from the Local Aggregates Assessment for the period 2006-2015 suggest a lower than anticipated demand for sand and gravel from industry.
County Councillors believe that these new figures call into question the need for all of the additional sand and gravel quarries provisionally allocated in the draft Minerals Local Plan including:
• Barnby Moor
• Botany Bay
• Coddington
• Flash Farm
• Shelford.
With even more up-to-date figures about the demand for sand and gravel due to be published in July/August this year, County Councillors believe it is right to pause the draft Minerals Local Plan process.
The draft Minerals Local Plan is a statutory document, which all minerals planning authorities, like Nottinghamshire County Council, are legally required to publish. It identifies potential sites and sets out policies against which any planning applications for minerals extraction, such as sand and gravel quarrying, will be assessed and determined by the County Council.
Work on the plan began in 2012 and has included consultation with the public and businesses, generating more than 8,000 comments.
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