Concerns about West Sussex County Council's position on oil and gas extraction

The Plan, which was prepared in partnership with the South Downs National Park Authority, covers the years to 2033 and sets out policies to help the authority determine planning applications which involve minerals.

It recently underwent a five-year assessment of its relevance and effectiveness, with officers finding no need for it to be reviewed.

But Green and Liberal Democrat councillors felt that policy M7 of the Plan, which deals with hydrocarbons, did not take adequate account of climate change and would continue to allow oil and gas extraction in the county ‘in a way that adds significant emissions to the atmosphere’.

During a meeting of the council on Friday (May 26), Dr Kate O’Kelly (Lib Dem, Midhurst) said it was ‘clear that the hydrocarbons policy does need updating’.

She added: “We’ve agreed as a council to have climate change as an over-arching theme in all our decisions.

“So this is why we need a review now, not some time in the future when the government finally gets round to the next bit of guidance that we’ve been waiting for.”

But Deborah Urquhart, cabinet member for environment & climate change, did not agree.

She said: “This is a high-level technical assessment that considers whether changes to national policy or local circumstances result in Plans being out of date.

“The joint assessment we have undertaken with the South Downs National Park has determined that the Plan remains relevant and effective and does not require formal review at this time.”

Councillors debated the issue for some time, raising concerns such as why climate change was not mentioned once in policy M7, and whether the council could find itself facing legal challenges in the future, such as with the Horse Hill situation in Surrey.

Mrs Urquhart said she had ‘a great deal of sympathy’ with some of the points made but stressed the need for a ‘sound, relevant Plan that complies with national policy’ to ensure that planning decisions did not end up in the hands of the Planning Inspectorate.

A delay for a review would mean the Plan would be out of date after July.