Joint Letter to the Prime Minister from DLC and FBPC

Dear Prime Minister,

We are writing on behalf of residents of Foxholes with Butterwick Parish in North Yorkshire and the community campaign “Drawing a Line in the Chalk” regarding the proposed exploratory gas wellsite at Foxholes, located above the Yorkshire Wolds Principal Chalk Aquifer.

While this is a local planning application, we believe it raises issues of wider national importance concerning water security, climate resilience, food production, nature recovery and the future direction of energy policy.

Your Government has spoken of the importance of empowering communities and ensuring that local voices are heard in decisions that affect their lives. We welcome that principle and respectfully ask that it is applied to communities such as ours, where residents are seeking reassurance that decisions affecting essential natural resources are being made using the best available evidence and with proper regard to long term consequences.

The proposed development is located above a Principal Aquifer and within a groundwater protection area. The Chalk Aquifer beneath the Yorkshire Wolds is a vital natural resource, supporting public water supplies for over 900,000 people, agriculture, rural businesses and sensitive chalk stream ecosystems. At a time when climate change is placing increasing pressure on water availability and quality, the protection of these resources must be considered a matter of national resilience.

The Yorkshire Wolds are also a highly productive agricultural landscape. The farms and food businesses that operate here contribute to the nation’s food supply at a time when the Climate Change Committee has highlighted the growing risks that climate change poses to food security and the need to strengthen resilience across our food system.

 Protecting the natural systems that underpin agriculture, particularly clean and reliable water supplies, healthy soils and functioning ecosystems is therefore not simply an environmental concern. It is an issue of economic resilience and national security.

We recognise the importance of energy security and the need for a managed transition to a lower carbon future. Based on the developers own figures, the potential gas resource is 63bcf, the equivalent of 6 days UK gas use in Winter. Hardly energy security, particularly given it will be sold on the international markets. However, communities are entitled to ask whether new fossil fuel exploration in environmentally sensitive locations is consistent with wider commitments on climate change, biodiversity recovery, water resilience and long- term energy strategy.

The proposed site is within the surroundings of the proposed Yorkshire Wolds National Landscape, for which we understand that Natural England will be making (signing and sealing) and submitting an Order to the Secretary of State for confirmation imminently.

 Among the concerns raised locally are:

• whether the latest geological and groundwater evidence, including updated British Geological Survey work  (December 2025) relating to the Yorkshire Wolds, has been fully incorporated into decision making;• whether the risks to a Principal Chalk Aquifer, including potential contamination pathways, surface water risks, well integrity and cumulative pressures, have been adequately assessed;• whether the full climate implications of fossil fuel extraction, including downstream emissions, are being properly considered following the Supreme Court’s Finch judgment;• whether existing planning and permitting frameworks provide sufficient protection for nationally important water resources, landscapes and ecosystems.

The issue is not simply whether one exploratory well proceeds. It is whether our planning and regulatory systems are sufficiently robust to protect the natural assets upon which communities, businesses, agriculture and future generations depend.

In order to enable communities to engage fully with such planning applications, we need to ensure that within the planning process the most up-to-date scientific data is also made available to those affected by the planning applications to create a level playing field. And that equality of representation is further supplemented by increased time at the public planning committee meetings where applications are to be heard.

We would therefore respectfully ask the Government to:

1. Ensure that nationally important groundwater resources, chalk streams and agricultural landscapes receive appropriate protection within planning and environmental decision-making.

2. Ensure that the most up to date scientific evidence is properly considered where development has the potential to affect strategic water resources.

3. Clarify how further fossil fuel exploration is being reconciled with commitments on climate change, nature recovery, food security and resilience.

4. Meet with representatives of the Parish Council and Drawing a Line in the Chalk campaign to hear directly from the community affected.

Given that these issues are directly relevant to the ongoing planning consideration of the Foxholes application, we also request that a copy of this correspondence is placed on the public planning file and made available through the planning portal, ensuring transparency and public confidence.

Residents are not opposed to a secure energy future, although renewables are clearly the way forward here. They are asking that decisions made today do not compromise the water, landscapes, food producing capacity, ecosystems and tourist activity upon which tomorrow’s generations will rely.

 The Yorkshire Wolds are a remarkable natural asset. Protecting them should be a shared national responsibility.

We would welcome the opportunity to discuss these concerns with you or with the relevant Ministers.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr David Eddy, Chair, Foxholes with Butterwick Parish Council

Laura Bell, Campaign Lead, Drawing a Line in the Chalk