Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Derek Bastiman (substituted by Councillor Clive Pearson), John Cattanach, David Hugill, Tom Jones (substituted by Councillor Caroline Goodrick), John McCartney (substituted by Councillor Arnold Warneken) and Bob Packham (substituted by Councillor Steve Shaw-Wright).

The Head of Legal Property, Planning and Environment reminded members that if they had already made public comments about the planning application then they may wish to make a transparency declaration to confirm that they participated in the meeting with an open mind. The Chair confirmed on behalf of the committee that all members had been lobbied on the application.

There were no declarations of interest.

Report of the Head of Development Management – Community Development Services

The Head of Development Management – Community Development Services sought determination of a planning application for the construction of a temporary wellsite for the appraisal of gas, including drilling operation, proppant squeeze and flow testing operation and site restoration, land east of the Mill Yard, Burniston Mill, Coastal Road, Burniston, Scarborough, YO13 0DB on behalf of Europa Oil and Gas Limited.

The Development Service Manager, David Walker began by confirming the position in respect of the communication earlier that week from the government that following third party representations, the Secretary of State was considering whether the proposal should be re-screened because of changes in the planning application since his previous decision taken some months ago that the application did not require an Environmental Statement. Mr Walker reminded the committee that notwithstanding the Secretary of State’s previous decision, the applicant had submitted an Environmental Statement in support of the application and that officers continued to regard the contents of the submitted statement to be appropriate in scope and detail. Officers’ advice was therefore that should the committee reach a position at the meeting to determine the application, that this be a ’minded to’ resolution pending the decision of the Secretary of State. Should the government’s decision have a material bearing on the committee’s resolution requiring, say, further information from the applicant, then the application would be resubmitted to the committee for determination. Should the government’s decision not affect the committee’s resolution, then the formal decision of the committee would be issued.

The planning officer then presented the application by first outlining the location of the proposed development and its four phases: site construction; drilling phase; testing and proppant squeeze; and decommissioning and restoration. The planning officer then provided an update to the report since the publication of the agenda in respect of the requirement within the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Legislation (LURA) legislation for planning applications to ‘seek to further the purposes’ of the National Parks. Members were reminded that the committee report clearly recognised the proximity of the site to the National Park and its setting and treated impacts on the Park as a material consideration throughout the assessment. The North York Moors National Park Authority after consultation on the proposal concluded that the proposal would not lead to unacceptable harm to the statutory purposes of the National Park, nor conflict with Minerals and Waste Joint Plan policies intended to protect the Park and its setting. In assessing the development the planning authority had not relied on the ‘no harm’ conclusions of the National Park but had actively added conditions which furthered the Park’s purposes protecting the visual landscape, protecting dark skies with a sensitive lighting scheme and protection of the Cleveland Way and Cinder Track with minor/negligible impacts. In addition, Biodiversity Net Gain requirements secured a net gain from the development which would be required to be monitored for 30 years, going further than harm avoidance and positively contributing to the area, with the site required to be restored after  ...  view the full minutes text for item 149.

Any other items which the Chair agrees should be considered as a matter of urgency because of special circumstances.

There were no urgent items of business.

Tuesday, 19 May 2026 at 10.00am

Tuesday, 19 May 2026