Should exploratory drilling for oil and gas be allowed in the South Downs National Park?

Friends of the Earth have welcomed the decision to reject an application to test drill for shale oil at Fernhurst, in West Sussex.

"This is a victory for common sense – there should be no place for shale oil or gas exploration in our national parks.

“But thousands of communities across the country still face the threat of fracking in their back yard.

“It’s time to build a clean energy future based on efficiency and developing the nation’s significant potential for renewable power, and ending our dirty and damaging addiction to fossil fuels.”

Planners have rejected a bid by a shale company to explore for oil and gas in the South Downs National Park. Celtique Energie put in a planning application for a site near Fernhurst, West Sussex, to drill a temporary vertical well to test for oil and gas.

The controversial plan, which attracted more than 5,500 objections, could also have led to the drilling of a horizontal well extending out from it.

But members of the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA) heeded their officers' recommendations and turned down the application overwhelmingly.

Cheers and applause broke out among opponents fearful that the plan could have led to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, taking place if the drilling had been successful.

A decision on whether exploratory drilling for oil and gas can take place at Fernhurst in the South Downs National Park is to be made later. The proposal has provoked protests from some local residents. Exploratory drilling took place in nearby Balcombe last year. The park's planning committee is looking at Celtique Energie Weald Limited's application for Nine Acre Copse - which includes a well, access road and soil bunds - for a temporary period of three years..

Members of the South Downs National Park Authority's Planning Committee are being recommended to refuse planning permission by SDNPA officers as it is a protected landscape and not in public interest.