Council staff urged to work from home on day of key planning meeting

COUNCIL WORKERS are being urged to “work from home or an alternative site” as anti-fracking campaigners are expected to descend when a key meeting takes place next week.

Frack Free East Yorkshire has already urged people to object to a bid by energy firm Rathlin Energy UK for another three years to explore reserves at a potential oil and gas well in the area.

An email to staff at County Hall, Beverley, advises that where possible people “work from home or on an alternative site and that no external visitors are booked into County Hall” on Thursday.

The email adds: “Staff within County Hall are in no danger, however to enable us to manage the meeting in a controlled environment we would appreciate your co-operation.”

More than 100 people have objected to the plans, as have two out of four local parish councils, saying the proposals for the West Newton A site at High Fosham set a “dangerous precedent”.

Rathlin was given a “temporary” three-year extension in relation to the site in 2015.

Objectors have raised concerns about noise, light, “obnoxious” smells and disturbance, and wider issues about the impact on climate change, including leaking methane from fracking wells and contamination of the aquifer that supplies drinking water.

Planners have recommended councillors approve the application, saying environmental permit requirements will ensure ground water and the aquifer – underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock – is protected.

They are also proposing 17 conditions, including an anti-fracking clause allowing conventional oil and gas exploration only.