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117284 page hits since 22 Feb 09
BBC News puts Coldharbour on TV!
Lunchtime, evening and 10 o'clock!
Click below to view again at bbc.co.uk
Campaign hits national press!
A declaration of war is flapping in the breeze on a gate post on Leith Hill in the picture-postcard village of Coldharbour in Surrey.
On these slopes in 851AD, Anglo-Saxons defeated the Danes, saving England for Christianity and sending rivers of heathen blood flowing down the hillside.
Today there are only a few hundred residents, but they are just as ready to fight to protect their way of life.
Rather than using clubs and swords, they are fighting with technology.
More...
Planet Ark picks up Reuters story...
Thanks to Woodland Trust for their blog
and the mention on their Facebook Group
TheVirtualVillage goes multi-media!
Listen to BBC Southern Counties:
Paul Barrett on behalf of Europa
Stuart McLachlan on behalf of LHAG
Thanks to BBC for permission to publish
Tell your Facebook mates!
1,417 members; many open invites
Click on the image to object - if you don't
want to see this lane damaged by HGVs
Thanks to Dave & Sue Skerritt for these posters
Click, print, flypost!
What are you waiting for? Permission?
OK - The Skerritts can't spell "Outstanding"
Stick it up anyway!
Thanks to Calista for her Coldharbour concert
Thanks to Debby for the fund raising concert
Pick up copies of this poster from Carolyn
at "Rusty Angel" 62a, West St Dorking
Thanks to Janet for her great idea.
Click it, print it, cut it up, hand it out!
But PLEASE tell people March 11th is extended.
Toby told Matt. Matt told James and ...
with thanks to our friends at Muddymoles
this news story
was published in Bike Radar
Tell Your Friends today and just see what happens!
And take some new photos for us!
Geeky bit...
508 have objected through this site
0 have otherwise objected and informed this site
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STOP PRESS - Saturday 16th January 2010 09:40
Europa has submitted a revised application.
You have until 25th January 2010 to object.
Europa Oil & Gas has submitted a planning application to explore for Oil & Gas on
Leith Hill. Full details are available here. If you live in Dorking, you might like to know that this will lead to 30+ HGVs a day via Knoll Road.
Campaigners are working hard to document the grounds for objection. Please register so we can keep you informed and help you submit objections.
Many thanks if you are one of the 1878 who have registered since 25/02/2009. Please ask everyone you know to register, so we can respond to best effect in the face of an outrageously short consultation period..
The application is for exploration rather than production. The site would be "restored" following the exploration stage. Production would be a covered in a separate planning application. Technically,
objecting to applications that have not yet been submitted "does not count", but it would be naive to assume that Europa would not
submit a planning application for production if it discovers hydrocarbons. If this was successful, construction would begin anew. If oil
was discovered this would probably be transported by tanker. If gas was discovered it's possible that this would fuel an on site power plant that
would be connected to the National Grid.
 
Do not assume it can't happen in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
In July 2008, SCC ruled in favour of an oil and gas project in Albury - also Green Belt, AONB, AGLV etc and despite 600+ objections - "in the national economic interest".
Please help mobilise objection to the Bury Hill Wood application by registering and
asking your friends to register. Just you spending 5 minutes e-mailing other people could be the
cause of the weight of objection overriding the "national economic interest" (the only ground for approval).
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| Where is the Proposed Site? |
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The proposed site is in Bury Hill Wood. It is about 100m to the left of Coldharbour Lane (travelling down the hill towards Dorking) and about 500m after the junction between Coldharbour Lane and Anstie Lane (the 'triangle").
Ordnance Survey calls this "Waterden Wood".
See an
Interactive Ordnance Survey map centred on the proposed oilwell.
Europa Oil & Gas has published the following map.
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| Europa Oil & Gas Licence |
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According to the Europa Oil & Gas website:
"Europa and its joint venture partners Egdon Resources, Warwick Energy and Altwood Petroleum, were awarded an exploration licence covering TQ14 in the Weald Basin Oil & Gas Province, south of Dorking, Surrey in September 2004. The acreage lies immediately south of the Brockham Oilfield.
This prospect is highly regarded and is thought to be one of the best undrilled UK onshore structures. Europa is endeavouring to secure planning permission to allow drilling to take place during late 2009 or early 2010."
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| What Would be Constructed? |
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What is proposed is a 120 foot high drilling rig in a prominent position which will be visible from parts of Coldharbour itself, from the area to the west and from the North Downs. Although it will be less than 200 metres from the road, that is the one point of the compass from which it probably will not be visible. It will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and will be lit at night – as will the whole compound for health and safety reasons – and it will be capped by a flashing aircraft warning light. There will be four gas and oil flare units, generators and buildings including storerooms and staff accommodation covering most of the two acre site.
Europa Oil & Gas has published the following mockup image. You can hardly see it, can you?
Strangely enough,
Lucien Pissarro (1863 - 1944)
did not think that the view needed an oil rig.
This is the rig they say they will probably use:
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| Other Impact |
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There will be an impact on traffic wishing to travel between Coldharbour and Dorking. A large number of HGVs, (typically 20 tonne payload, but some bigger) will carry materials, water and equipment to and from the site. For “about 18 weeks” or “probably less than 20 weeks” Coldharbour Lane will be controlled at three separate places by traffic lights which will close sections of the road to allow the HGVs to navigate the narrower sections. On two occasions, for “three or four days” at a time, Coldharbour Lane will be completely closed with “physical road blocks” installed at the Coldharbour/Knoll Road junction in Dorking, at the Coldharbour Lane/Anstie Lane junction in Coldharbour, and at Logmore Lane.
It has been estimated that the damage from 18 weeks of oil-rig related traffic would be equivalent to 11 years of normal traffic.
STOP PRESS - Saturday 18th July 2009 20.15pm
You can object within 60 seconds. You will be registered if you have not already registered.
Object within 60 seconds
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