Gove Blocks Shale Gas Project Because Of “Fence”
By Paul Homewood
One step forward, one step back!
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s energy giant Ineos is "apoplectically cross" after Michael Gove blocked plans for a fracking site in south Yorkshire.
The billionaire’s bid to produce gas in Britain was dealt a blow last week when the Secretary of State for Levelling Up overturned approval for Ineos’s planning application for a fracking site near Rotherham.
The company had been seeking to extract rock to examine the concentration of shale gas on the site. The company aimed to frack on the site at a later stage.
But the Government has refused planning permission over concerns about plans to construct a three-metre fence around the well to reduce noise from drilling on the site.
Department for Levelling Up cited Mr Gove’s concern the structure would impact the "openness" of the Green Belt .
Ineos had been asked to construct the barrier by local planning officers and would have removed it after extracting the rock for testing.
Mr Gove’s intervention has gone against the advice of the planning inspector who said the project should go ahead.
The Department for Levelling Up decision said: "The Secretary of State disagrees with the Inspector’s recommendation. He has decided to dismiss the appeal and refuse planning permission."
Mr Gove gave "substantial weight" to fears about harm to the green belt from the temporary fence and gave only "moderate weight" to the benefits the scheme would deliver from encouraging the exploration for shale gas.
Impact on the “openness of the Green Belt”? What, like these monstrosities?
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
It’s a desperate day when an incompetent chancer such as Gove can wield this sort of power.
Has Michael Gove got any grasp of reality?
Have you ever been out in Aberdeen night clubs on a weekend and seen Gove dancing?
If one remembers him worshipping at the feet of the dreaded doom goblin Greta Thunberg a while back then the answer to your question is ‘no’. Alas, Gove has been away with the fairies for quite some time.
I think you will find that the Ministers powers in things like this are all delegated to officials as soon as they are sworn in.
Its an old trick which allows them to ‘step in’ when it really goes crazy in the media. Nothing will change for this as someone like Ratcliffe is seem as unimportant ( when hes the opposite!)
Maybe the fence wasn’t level…
Gove represents everything that is wrong with the Conservatives. Dreadful man. Hope this can somehow be overturned.
Has Michael Gove any grasp of logic, common sense or reality?
I’m guessing the answer to your question is ‘none of the above’. It seems the only thing he has a grasp of is his inflated views of his own importance. 😡
Gove is dead wrong again. We need to let as much Fracking as possible start to explore what the UK can produce. This is so wrong on so many levels. We need a minister for energy to push for local production of all types.
Time for some wagon pioneer type armed action folks
Not good for our futures overall.
Gove stands exposed as an enemy of the people. This weak and petty argument surely will not stand!
Yet another faux pas from yet another incompetent minister in this Whitehall farce called a government
Can a judicial review override a decision by a minister? Perhaps on the grounds of irrationality?
They really must be in deep with the Green Blob and Davos / WEF crowd. What’s on the table for these imposters?
David Miliband did rather well didn’t he? Out of the Labour leadership race, straight into a $600k pa New York job at ‘International Rescue’. How nice.
What’s Gove, Johnson, Hancock et al been offered?
Government ministers can’t make decisions as stubbornly stupid as this in the teeth of an energy and cost of living crisis, without being in pole position for *something*.
Good point. We could create a list of politicians who are enjoying their (un) just rewards. As we’ve already started with Miliband, we could add:
Clegg
Huhne
Davey
Worthington
….
I presume he has investments tied up in Wind/Solar.
He cannot be this thick.
Presumably “Levelling Up” is politician speak for levelling down.
“temporary fence” even…..
It’s administrative obstructiveness – plain and simple.
The Iceland archive has the full Telegraph article
https://archive.ph/R6Ndq
Please where is the new party for Common Sense. I want to vote for it!
As my wife often says “The trouble with common sense is that it isn’t very common”.
I despair for the future of this country.
The Tories seem to be trying their hardest to make themselves unelectable.
The past 2+ years of running around like headless chickens has guaranteed they’ll lose the next election. So now they’ve given up bothering and want to leave the worst possible mess for their successors.
Gove attended the recent Bilderberg meeting in Washington so no surprise he’s in the global scammer’s pockets. This deceitful scoundrel needs to be outed. They won’t allow a fence but permit those disgusting wind turbines to deface half the nation’s beauty spots.
Vested interests again. When will a high profile respected scientist put his head above the parapet to show scientifically that carbon dioxide is a good gas and the tiny, saturated, man-made amount cannot affect the climate. It is the sun over which we have no control.
” When will a high profile respected scientist put his head above the parapet to show scientifically that carbon dioxide is a good gas and the tiny, saturated, man-made amount cannot affect the climate. ”
No, it’s easier than that. MSM needs to ask: where is the proof that humans are responsible for dangerous climate change?
Search for videos of Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace.
We need to use our fossil fuels with clean emissions while we develop optimum alternatives. There is no hurry and there is no climate crisis.
The gummint is holding grimly onto the Net Zero strategy as it is shot to ribbons on cost and futility grounds all round the horizon. Don’t worry – it will pass
Gove really has lost the plot this time. The fence was a requirement of planning officers as a TEMPORARY measure. The Green Belt will still be there when it is removed!
Gove was one of the first to lose the plot as Mays Env Secretary, when he pushed the ban on petrol cars
So the industrial rock removal equipment was fine but the fence was a step too far?
Seriously, we are expected to believe that? This government will do anything to prevent fracking.
Unless it pisses off one of Boris’s enemies! Really, how obvious can you get?!
Correct opinion. Gove is a chancer and will do anything to wreck Boris Johnson’s premiership. A nasty bit of work – but clever.
We are lost as a country…. Last person switch off the lights….
That’ll only be needed on a windy day, otherwise just shut the door
Paul do check this article in House and Gardens – even mentions heat pumps using the moat if it is beep enough – horses for courses and all that! https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/article/heat-pump-guide
Same things have been happening in the USA. The Marxists spent the last over half a century quietly building their power base in order to control, not help, the people. A few people in the right positions can subvert laws and control outcomes to suit their needs. It has been going on longer in the UK but it’s rearing it’s ugly head in America. Many in the USA are aware of what’s happening but with the ruling class and elites so entrenched it will be hard to stop it. But we will.
Gove might find a memo in his in-box real soon……
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ministers-quietly-abandon-green-crap-as-focus-shifts-to-food-security-pzxlggm7p
Whenever I see food security and fossil fuels Quick Dick McDick’s toonie about vegan food chain always comes to mind.
Mr Gove is on manoeuvres.
He is now Minister of De Fence…
🤣🤣
I can think of a better use for a fence…in the US
” to reduce noise ”
Let’s shut down all the sports stadiums and cancel all music concerts.
The only noise allowed will come from the blades of wind machines.
Has no one thought of tilting at the noisy things?
Would a temporary barrier of large (round or square) straw bales be regarded as a fence?
It is quite commonplace to see heaps of straw bales stored in the countryside, and could hardly be accused of spoiling the landscape as they are already a part of the rural scene.
They would be very effective in mitigating noise and could be used for cattle bedding when the drilling had finished.
This gives some idea of what could be done.
http://Www.masterfile.com/image/en/700-00425567
An objector might set it alight
I recall some years ago a local council elf n safertree licensing person demanding fire extinguishers be deployed at a very wet small music festival on a farm where straw (combustible) had been spread to firm up the 200mm deep mud on the main thoroughfares …
A vivid illustration of the quality of this spineless, directionless government.
The fence Gove objected to was actually a requirement of the local planners!