BROADFORD BRIDGE DRILLING SITE
West Sussex County Council Planning Committee turned down the 5th application by UKOG for more time at the oil drilling site at Broadford Bridge in March. This was followed by a 6 month period in which the company could have appealed that decision. No such appeal was received by WSCC so action is now required by the company to undertake the site restoration as promised when the planning application was accepted. However, as reported in the journal, Drill or Drop, Council planners are “in active dialogue” with the oil company over restoring the mothballed exploration site at Broadford Bridge in West Sussex. UKOG does have history and had to be taken to Court over their failure to restore another site in the county at Markwells Wood to the north of Chichester. After 2 years, the company planted 2,000 trees which then died when UKOG failed to look after them.
Thank you to everyone who took part in objecting to this unnecessary drilling site which failed to produce any oil but did produce a failed well and which led to many additional HGVs in excess of those predicted and which adversely affected Adversane, damaging the road necessitating WSCC to pay for repairs and providing a number of near misses.
Jill Sutcliffe, Chair KKWG