The Finch Rides On24 Dec 2022 09:39
https://www.wealdactiongroup.org.uk/horse-hill-appeal/
"The long-running legal case brought by campaigner Sarah Finch is heading to the Supreme Court. The Court has provisionally listed the appeal hearing for 21–22 June 2023.
Sarah’s case, brought on behalf of the Weald Action Group, concerns the grant of planning permission to Horse Hill Developments Ltd in 2019 to drill four new oil wells and produce oil for 20 years – right up to the net zero deadline.
If the development goes ahead, the oil wells at Horse Hill would collectively extract more than 3 million tonnes of oil over 20 years – the burning of which could produce more than 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. Yet the Environmental Impact Assessment did not consider these ‘downstream’ emissions.
The judicial review claim was rejected by the High Court in 2020. The Appeal was heard in November 2021, just after the COP6 climate summit, and the judgment was handed down on 17 February 2022.
The judges dismissed the appeal, but not unanimously, with one of the three agreeing with Sarah Finch and Friends of the Earth, who joined as an intervenor on her side, that the failure to factor in “downstream” emissions meant that the Environmental Impact Assessment did not comply with the regulations and was therefore unlawful."