®Planning appeal decision
Land adjacent to Dinnington Road Woodsetts Rotherham S81 8RH
the construction of a well site and creation of a new access track, mobilisation of drilling, ancillary equipment and contractor welfare facilities to drill and pressure transient test a vertical hydrocarbon exploratory core well and mobilisation of workover rig, listening well operations, and retention of the site and wellhead assembly gear for a temporary period of 5 years on land adjacent to Dinnington Road, Woodsetts, Rotherham
- Authority
- Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
- Appeal type
- other · Planning Appeal (W)
- Procedure
- Inquiry
- Development
- minerals-waste
- Postcode
- S81 8RH
Main issues, as the Inspector framed them
- Noise impacts
- Green Belt
- Highway issues
What decided it
The Secretary of State found that no very special circumstances existed which clearly outweighed the substantial harm to the Green Belt (from the temporary acoustic fence) and other harm, so the Green Belt balance was not in favour of the scheme.
moderate weight attached to national policy support for shale gas exploration was outweighed by substantial weight given to Green Belt harm together with moderate weight for traffic disturbance and visual impact and limited weight for residential amenity harm, so the balance tipped against the proposal
Framework references: 150, 148, 209, 211, 55
Plan policies cited: Policy SP52, Policy SP2, Policy SP50
Judgments cited: Claire Stephenson v Secretary of State for Housing and Communities and Local Government [2019] EWHC 519 (Admin)
The main issues and the deciding factor are read from the published letter by Town Planner Pro; the letter itself is the record. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Research, not advice.