NATIONAL park Friends group, the South Downs Society, is still celebrating the outcome of the meeting of the park’s planning committee, writes Steve Ankers, South Downs Society policy officer.

At the end of a meeting members voted unanimously to refuse an application from Celtique Energie for “exploratory drilling for hydrocarbons”.

It had created a lot of controversy, especially as it’s assumed that extraction of oil or gas that might follow on would be by fracking.

Parish councils and environmental groups like the South Downs Society united in opposition, and local residents formed a campaign group, Frack Free Fernhurst.

Objectors filled the meeting at the national park offices in Midhurst and heard a succession of speakers set out the grounds for their concerns.

Committee members stressed that they could consider only the works involved in the current application, not what might happen in the future. But they were clear that the exploratory drilling was in conflict with the reasons the national park was created – to conserve and enhance the special landscape.

Even this application for an exploratory drill would be a major operation with huge impacts above, on and below the ground. This will send a powerful message to any energy company that the national parks is a no-go area for them.

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