P-04-648 Amendment to Unconventional Oil and Gas Direction 2015 

Petition wording:

We the undersigned call upon the Minister for Natural Resources to amend the Unconventional Oil and Gas Wales Direction to call in all Planning Applications for Unconventional Oil and Gas development including exploratory drilling for Coal Bed Methane, to the Minister. At present the Direction only states that applications where the LPA is inclined to refuse the application should be referred to the Minister. A recent grant of an application shows that there is a loophole that needs closing.

Additional Information

Oil and Gas companies when applying for planning consent for exploratory drilling for Coal Bed Methane regularly claim that it is not 'fracking' and often Planning Officers support this and recommend that LPA's grant the application.

These claims that CBM is not fracking is misleading and currently the Ministerial Direction contains a loophole which allows LPA's who intend to grant consent not to refer the application to the Minister.

This loophole should be closed forthwith and that is the purpose of this petition.

Further information on Coal Bed Methane extraction can be found following this link http://frack-off.org.uk/coal-bed-methane-the-evil-twin-of-shale-gas/

Petition raised by: Councillor Arfon Jones

Date petition first considered by Committee: 22 September 2015

Number of signatures:362 Currently  Online signatures