A meeting for councillors to consider a planning application which seeks permission to construct a temporary wellsite to assess the potential for natural gas has been postponed.
Our latest strategic planning committee meeting was due to be held at 1:30pm on 30 January at Scarborough Town Hall.
The meeting was set for councillors to consider a planning application from Europa Oil and Gas which proposes to install a 38 metre drilling rig and use a “proppant squeeze” method to extract gas for testing at a site close to Burniston, near Scarborough.
However, it was confirmed on 29 January that the meeting has been postponed.
Our assistant chief executive, Barry Khan, said: “A number of interested parties have written to the Planning Inspectorate requesting that the application be called in for determination by the Secretary of State.
“Yesterday (Wednesday 28 January) we received correspondence from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government asking that no decision is issued in this case while the Secretary of State considers these requests.
“The decision to postpone the meeting has been made as a result of this correspondence, as well as discussions with councillors who sit on the strategic planning committee.
“We will not be in a position to set a new date for the committee until we receive confirmation from the Planning Inspectorate on whether the application is to be called in.
“As this is a live planning application, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this stage.”
The planning application and supporting information can be viewed on our planning system.