My letter to York City Council leaders relating to the proposed changes to planning law to make exploratory drilling the same as putting up a garden shed and fracking nationally important. Both remove local control over the process.
It is based on a letter you can send via CPRE
As my local council leader, I am contacting you to express my concern about the government consultations launched recently that aim to speed up the planning process for shale gas extraction in England.
The consultations seem to have been deliberately timed so that there will be very few full council meetings across the country where they can be discussed. For instance the next meeting of York Council is two days after the end of the consultation.
Under the proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) the government is intending to treat non-hydraulic exploratory drilling for shale gas as permitted development (PD). This would preclude any democratic oversight as permitted development does not come to the council. As can be seen at exploratory sites fracking is on a different scale to other permitted developments and what other permitted development required approval by several regulatory authorities. This is quite clearly an undermining of local democracy.
At the other end of the process they want to include shale gas extraction in the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects Regime (NSIP).
There is a clear contradiction here. The first part is said to be too small to be covered by planning permission, the extraction process to large to be addressed locally. It would effectively reduce local input all the way through the planning process for fracking, from exploration to production. For further detail, please find a short briefing below.
Planning is at the core of local democracy, and is currently one of the only channels through which local people like me can have a say on what happens in our local area. In that spirit, I urge you to raise my concerns with our MPs.
Further, please submit a local council response to the consultations, specifically calling on the government to drop the PD and NSIP proposals.
The issue of shale gas extraction has led to local people across the country engaging in the planning process on scales rarely seen before, and so I believe the channels through which they can engage should not be removed.
I believe that given the risks posed to our countryside, and the strength of opposition, that there should be greater - not less - scrutiny on decisions surrounding fracking. I am campaigning with CPRE to see that these proposals are dropped.
Yours sincerely
Tom
Tom Franklin
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