Protestors Rally Ahead Of Crucial Burniston Gas Rig Decision

Campaigners from Frack Free Coastal Communities are urging residents to join a protest outside Scarborough Town Hall on April 24th to oppose controversial plans for a gas drilling rig in Burniston.

Campaigners from Frack Free Coastal Communities and Frack Free Scarborough are urging residents to join a protest outside Scarborough Town Hall to oppose plans for a gas drilling rig in Burniston.

The demonstration is scheduled for midday on Friday the 24th of April, ahead of a North Yorkshire Council strategic planning committee meeting where councillors will decide on the controversial application.

Europa Oil and Gas has proposed constructing a temporary 38-metre gas drilling rig to assess the potential for natural gas in the village near Scarborough.

The plans have faced fierce local opposition, gathering more than 1,600 objections from residents, local Member of Parliament Alison Hume, Friends of the Earth, and local parish councils including Burniston, Cloughton, Newby and Scalby, and Scarborough Town Council.

Professor Chris Garforth from Frack Free Coastal Communities said:

"Councillors have a clear choice: reject this reckless scheme – or ignore the voices of the 1,600+ objectors who refuse to let our community become a testing ground for the serious risks to health, homes, environment and climate that fracking brings."

The planning application was originally scheduled for a decision in January, but was postponed after requests for the Government to intervene. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government recently declined to call in the application, passing the decision back to North Yorkshire Council.

Professor Garforth said:

"It has been passed around.  I can understand reluctance to get involved in making the decision because there are so many red flags. On the one hand, planning policy nationally basically says development should be allowed where it's good for everybody and where the negative impacts on people can be avoided. From this proposal, the only people who will benefit from this going ahead are the shareholders and directors of Europa Oil and Gas. There's no benefit to the local community, whatever the company says."

The campaign group has also raised serious concerns regarding the planning process itself, escalating a formal complaint to stage two of the council's complaints procedure.

Professor Garforth said:

"We've had to formally complain about systemic failures in how the council has handled this application. Their response has been inadequate, so we're now escalating to stage two of the council’s complaints procedure. A 'yes' vote based on a fundamentally flawed process would be unsafe and indefensible. This only strengthens our call for councillors to reject this application."

He added:

"We have made representations in the normal way through the consultation process. We have explained to the planners what we feel is wrong about this application. We have written to all 90 North Yorkshire Council members, elected members, to tell them of the complaint we have lodged about the way the planning application has been handled.

We've written separately to the 15 members of the strategic planning committee pointing out the various ways in which the officer's recommendation to them goes against the provisions of their own minerals and waste joint plan.

So we've done what we can to get our message across directly to councillors."

Organisers are hoping for a large turnout at the upcoming protest to demonstrate the strength of local feeling.

Professor Garforth said:

"We do have an opportunity on the 24th to make our voices heard, both outside the town hall and also within the council chamber.

When we had a a protest march at Burniston it's about a year ago now, we had around 250 people there. It was a fantastic turnout. That was a Saturday, the 24th of April is a Friday, so there will be people who can't turn out. But we're confident there'll be a a lot of people there with their placards, with the message to the people who'll be meeting in the town hall.

We also have an opportunity to speak to the committee members on behalf of the objectors, and then representatives from the local parish and town councils will be speaking to explain why locally elected politicians are so adamantly opposed to the proposal."

He said:

"What we're trying to do in the time running up to the committee meeting on the 24th of April is to encourage as many people as can, possibly come to the town hall on Friday 24th of April at 12 o'clock to join what we hope will be a very large body of people who will be letting the council members know in no uncertain terms how strongly we feel about this proposal."

John Atkinson from Frack Free Scarborough added:

"We call on everyone who cares about Burniston, Scalby, and Cloughton, about our coastal communities and about climate change, to join us on 24th April. Councillors need to see and hear the strength of opposition to this dangerous plan. This is our chance to make our voices impossible to ignore."

Professor Garforth says there are a number of reasons why the plans should be rejected:

"There are three sets of reasons. One is the climate crisis. We all know, and the science tells us that any newly discovered gas and oil reserves should not be exploited.

That should stay in the ground if we are to avoid the worst effects of catastrophic climate change. So that's one thing.

Secondly, the technique that the company are proposing to use to persuade the sandstone underneath our coastal villages to give up its gas is fracking. It's a low volume form of fracking that is not currently banned by the moratorium on high volume fracking.

And thirdly the the environmental effects in this area could be catastrophic. We're worried about air pollution. We're worried about the sounds pollution, the dust, methane escaping from the development.

And we also know that although the company and the planners are emphasising the temporary nature of this development. They're saying, oh, it's only gonna be there for a short while and we're not producing gas, we're just appraising what's under there. What the company is saying to its investors and shareholders and the public at large, is that they are planning a 10 to 20 year development of the biggest onshore gas field in the UK here on the Yorkshire coast.

And so the environmental. And the knock on effects on the local tourist economy are potentially huge. And people are really worried "

Related Stories

• 
  New Date Set for Decision on Controversial Gas Rig Plans Near Scarborough

  7 Apr 2026 - He said: “We're worried that, as has happened elsewhere, pollutants and chemicals from the process will find new pathways through the fracked rocks into the ...
• 
  Government Passes Burniston Gas Rig Decision Back to North Yorkshire Council

  26 Feb 2026 - “We all know it's fracking, so treat it as such. It's banned; therefore, it should not be approved.” Europa has previously said the scheme would ...
• 
  Concerns Ahead of Scarborough Gas Rig Decision

  27 Jan 2026 - ​“Proppant squeeze is a form of fracking, and local residents have made it crystal clear that they do not want it in their community,”.
• 
  Burniston Gas Well Plan Recommended for Approval Despite 1500 Objections

  22 Jan 2026 - ​Despite the recommendation for approval, Scarborough and Whitby's MP has said she is “confident that small-scale fracking will not go ahead in ...
• 
  Silence from Whitehall as North Yorkshire Council Awaits Clarity on Fracking Legislation

  12 Jan 2026 - North Yorkshire Council still awaits a formal response from the Government regarding future fracking policy as a planning decision on a new ...
• 
  MP Calls for Urgent Ban Extension to Prevent ‘Fracking in All But Name’ in Burniston

  9 Dec 2025 - The Member of Parliament for Scarborough and Whitby, Alison Hume, has used a Westminster debate to call on the government to broaden the ...
• 
  MP Demands Fracking Clarity as Controversial Burniston Gas Drilling Site Nears Decision

  2 Dec 2025 - We're going to be banning fracking going forward, but I we need to make it crystal clear that this is all forms of fracking. It's the action of ...
• 
  Yorkshire Coast Campaigners Call on Government to Ban All Onshore Oil and Gas Extraction

  28 Sep 2025 - North Yorkshire anti-fracking campaigners have called on the government to ban new onshore oil and gas extraction following the commitment ...
• 
  Scarborough Town Council Opposes Burniston Drilling Plans

  17 Jul 2025 - ... fracking-style hydrocarbon development”. Town Councillor Rich Maw said: "this proposal by Europe in Burniston is wrong on multiple levels ...
• 
  Friends of the Earth Urges Local Authority to Reject Burniston Drilling Plan

  8 Jul 2025 - North Yorkshire Council is being urged to reject a planning application from a fossil fuel company that would use a form of fracking to explore for gas at ...
• 
  Hundreds Join Burniston Protest March

  22 Mar 2025 - “For clarity, Europa will not use the process known as High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing (commonly referred to as 'fracking').” Europa has also ...