by John Prince
Campaigners who have being fighting to stop a company from drilling for oil and gas at a second site in East Yorkshire have said they’re not giving up after permission was granted for the company to continue.
Rathlin Energy (UK) has had an environmental permit for drilling wells and long-term oil and gas production at West Newton B near Burton Constable Hall since 2013.
The Environment Agency has now granted a variation on the permit which will allow reservoir stimulation – which includes fracking – to go ahead at another wellsite called West Newton A in High Fosham.
A public consultation, which closed at the beginning of October 2025, allowed local residents to put their objections forward.
The agency had delayed its decision at the time, and had extended the consultation for a month.
However, it had said it was “minded to” vary the permit before a final decision was made, as Rathlin Energy’s application met legal requirements, and the agency was legally obliged to issue the permit.
That application has now been formally approved.
The Environment Agency only issues permits or permit variations if it is satisfied an operator can comply with the permit conditions.
The appropriate systems must be in place to operate without causing harm to the environment, human health or wildlife.
Kathryn Richardson, area environment manager for the Environment Agency, said: “We have reviewed the comments and evidence from both public consultations into this application.
“I want to reassure people that the permit variation will ensure that robust levels of environmental protection are met.
“Environmental law sets out these conditions, and as a regulator we will issue the permit if we can find no reason that the operator would not be able to comply.”
Campaigner Harry Clark, 82, has been working with fellow residents to oppose the permit variation, and has been in contact with Rathlin and the Environment Agency throughout.
He said he believed the company would continue underground fracking once it was able to extract oil and gas from the well.
Mr Clark said: “Firstly, I’m disappointed. There was a great deal of feeling that the Environment Agency were taking notice of what was being said by local people. There were large areas of concerns being expressed both in writing and at communications events held in Sproatley.
“We felt there might have been some more feedback from them. We had opportunities to put in comments, but we got notice of this announcement through a third party.
“I’m sure we will get a letter from the EA but we don’t know when that will arrive.
“I honestly don’t think Rathlin has the money to carry this forward. My feeling is that in getting this variation in the permit, it now allows them to approach potential investors and say that they think they can get oil and gas out of the ground.
“If they’re going have to do a mini-frack, then what’s to say they won’t do it again? If they have to do it to get an initial flow of gas, my feeling is they’ll probably have to do it on a bigger scale to carry on getting it to flow out of those wells.
“They’ll have to put pumps and tanks in, and all the gas removal systems used to transport whatever they get off site.
“We don’t yet know if there’s any potential yet for a legal challenge. That is something that we are investigating.
“Will Rathlin be able to find an investor? That could take a while. There’s also a question about planning regulations that we have to look at.
“We need to review all this and come up with a plan.
“It’s not the end of this by any means.”
In a short statement on Rathlin Energy’s website it said: “This key regulatory milestone clears a major hurdle in the company’s path toward development and eventual production at West Newton, strengthening Rathlin’s ability to advance its UK onshore assets within a responsible environmental and social governance framework.”
The Government has published a document which explains in more detail how the Environment Agency reached its decision.
It outlines the concerns raised during the consultation and how the Environment Agency has addressed these.
Go to gov.uk/environment/environmental-permits and search under “Rathlin”.