Communities of Holderness Against On-Shore Drilling

Holderness is situated on the east coast of England in an area of the East Riding of Yorkshire.  Rich in agricultural land and farming traditions the relatively flat, low-lying Holderness Plain is bounded by the Wolds of Yorkshire to the north and west, the Humber Estuary to the south and the North Sea to the east.  In spite of recent population increases over half of Holderness inhabitants continue to live in communities classed as rural.

Marshland until the Middle Ages, Holderness was drained to reveal a Devensian glacial rich fertile soil that continues to support intensive arable cultivation to the present day.

The coast of Holderness suffers from the highest rate of coastal erosion in Europe with approximately 3 miles of land lost to the sea since the Roman era.  However, despite the constant battle to stop the rapid erosion the Department of Energy and Climate Change have granted a licence for Underground Coal Gasification to take place along the Holderness Coast; the impact of which could greatly exacerbate an already serious situation for those residents witnessing their homes falling prey to the sea.

The geology of Holderness has also provided two natural storage forms for gas; underground caverns and offshore facilities.  Developed in the 1990’s by British Gas the system of underground gas storage caverns lie in a salt strata over 1,500m below ground.  The storage caverns can only be created in suitable geological strata such as that of the Zechstein Salt Basin which has been found to occur in only a few locations along the coastal fringe of north-eastern England.

On 01 July 2008 Petroleum Exploration and Development Licence (PEDL) 183 was awarded to Rathlin Energy (UK) Limited with an initial term end date of 30 June 2016.  A second term end date was set at 30 June 2019 with an anticipated licence end date of 30 June 2039.  PEDL 183 blocks cover an area of 241,000 acres.

We Meet The Regulators!

On 23rd March 2016 the Environment Agency held a ‘Meet the Regulators and East Riding of Yorkshire Council’ event in Driffield.  With only 6 days notice to the public, minimal advertising (actually all we could find was a small poster on the EA website) and on a Wednesday in Driffield when the shops are closed the event was not exactly designed to be noticed by us, the residents of the East Riding of Yorkshire.  You needn’t have worried boys we advertised it for you.

On arriving outside Driffield Methodist Church, once again, there was nothing advertising the event.   You needn’t have worried boys we were on it for you.

We spent a pleasant few hours standing outside talking to residents interested in the frackers plans to decimate the North of England and encouraged them to go in and ask questions of the Environment Agency, the Health and Safety Executive, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Public Health England and Natural England.  You needn’t have worried boys we put our side of the argument against the dirty drillers for you.

On entering the event we noticed that no one was signing people in or out.  You needn’t have worried boys we made sure we counted people entering and leaving the event for you.

We had also noticed that no-one was filming the event, you needn’t have worried boys we had that covered as well.

We were only in the hall 30 seconds when we surrounded by representatives of the Environment Agency who seemed extremely envious of our camera and were very insistent that we either stop filming or leave.  Sorry boys but we have waited too long to get to really talk to you and demand from you the answers that we, the Residents of Holderness, deserve.

We know, despite Rathlin Energy’s best efforts to deny the truth, that the film of Caroline Foster, Field Manager and Chief Off-Site Engineer for Rathlin Energy, was genuine.  It was filmed on the 3rd of August 2014 on a beautiful sunny day in what should have been an idyllic setting, except we were standing outside Rathlin Energy’s West Newton A well site where Ms Foster was explaining in great depth that Rathlin were, at that moment, undertaking a mini-frack in the Bowland Shale.

At the time we were unaware of exactly how important this piece of film was to become.

We have patiently waited and watched as Rathlin Energy have repeated over and over again they ‘did not exercise their right to undertake a mini fall-off test within the Bowland Shale‘.  Prior to the Driffield event only 4 people had seen the video in all its glorious, unedited, broadcast quality, HD entirety.  But on that day in Driffield, we had the original, untouched and carefully stored video and were keen, at long last, to be able to share our film with the Environment Agency.

Despite being, what can only be described as extremely reluctant to sit down and talk to us and view the film, they eventually did.  Never more than during those moments had a picture painted a thousand words.

Finally, and at long last, representatives from the Environment Agency understood why we are so upset at being continually called liars by Rathlin Energy.

We also made sure that the Environment Agency comprehensively grasped that it wasn’t just us, Residents and Activists, Rathlin Energy were calling liars they have also been running around frantically calling the Environment Agency into question as well.

We have news for you Mr Montagu-Smith et al, we are not liars and nor, we distinctly hope, are the Environment Agency.

And so we reach our conclusion to events on that interesting day.

The Environment Agency went away with information, how to contact us, how to access the What Went Wrong Report, details of our website, which we are sure they will find fascinating, and we received a promise from them they will investigate this.

We will not say, and have never said, Rathlin were not permitted to test the Bowland Shale we are just very, very interested into why they continually deny they did and what really went wrong at West Newton A.

On that day, 3rd August 2014, was Caroline Foster lying or was she just being grossly incompetent with her knowledge of what exact tests Rathlin Energy were undertaking at that time at West Newton A?

We are holding our breath for the truth, just please boys don’t take to long to let us know.

Exposed; East Riding of Yorkshire Council & Rathlin Energy – In It Together?

That there is a link between Rathlin Energy (UK) Limited and East Riding of Yorkshire Council now appears to be indisputable.  However, whilst we are not stating an ‘old boys network’ is running rife through the Council in the form of Simon Taylor, Andy Acum, Councillor Nigel Pearson and Councillor Stephen Parnaby it does seem slightly odd that despite all the evidence of Rathlin Energy’s poor work practice at the well site known as West Newton A, including 19 breaches of permits and Health and Safety Executive investigations that took 15 months to complete, Activists and Residents concerns are dismissed whilst Rathlin Energy is allowed to carry on, with the council’s full blessing, to drill a gas field that is decimating the lives of residents and destroying the environment.

In 2001 Taylor Syms Public Relations was registered, Company Number 04244506, with Companies House.  Simon Taylor is listed as the Managing Director whilst amongst other listed directors you will find Matt Stephenson and Andy Acum.

On 20 April 2006, following the resignation of William Syms in 2005, Taylor Syms Public Relations officially changed its name to TAS Communications Ltd.  The name was ‘creatively’ composed using the initials of the company’s directors, Simon Francis Taylor, Andrew John Acum and Mathew James Stephenson.

On 21 December 2008 TAS Creative Ltd started life, Company Number 06777740, with Kelly Todd, Simon Taylor’s then-girlfriend, listed as one of only two directors, the other being Gemma Clark.

TAS Communications went into voluntary liquidation on 06 February 2009 leaving a long list of creditors who were owed, in total, nearly £350,000.  Included amongst the list of those TAS Communications were in debt to was East Riding of Yorkshire Council, £1,225, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, £231,409.31 and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations local government group, £4,828.08, which seeks to “promote standards of professional excellence in this field”.

Amongst the list of employees owed “pay in lieu of notice and redundancy payments” can be found Claire Acum, wife of Andy Acum, £2,538.44, Kelly Todd, £2,462.52 and Gemma Clark, £3,000.00. Bearing in mind of course that Kelly Todd and Gemma Clark had both been directors of TAS Creative Ltd since 21 December 2008.

Several reasons were cited as to why the company voluntarily liquidated, including, Mr Taylor said, “having picked up the bad debts of clients such as Westbridge Homes and Wright Group, which both went under owing the company significant amounts and other organisations that were struggling to pay their bills.”

No mention of the above two companies can be found on the Liquidators statements and the only Westbridge Homes that can be found on Companies House listings is a Westbridge Homes of Beverley, currently still trading and, as at their last statement of affairs, showing a profit.  However, what is included in the list of monies owed to TAS Communications was a Director’s Loan of £117,806.36, and the statement “an agreement was reached whereby a percentage of the debt would be paid over a five year period.  The loan repaid totals £26,366.15″.  The Director in question being none other than Mr Simon Francis Taylor.

On 14 January 2009 TAS Creative Ltd changed its name to Mercury Design & Marketing Limited, thereby severing all links with their previous company TAS Communications; the change was registered with Companies House on 30 January 2009.  In 2009 things also began to get ever so slightly messy for East Riding of Yorkshire Council as news broke in the Hull Daily Mail and Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs column of a slightly less than transparent contract awarded to Mercury Design and Marketing Ltd.

ERYC advertised for “an interim Communications Manager (maternity cover)” at a salary of £38,575.00.  The application process saw a shortlist comprising 6 high calibre candidates.  On the day of the interviews a surprise announcement was made to the interview panel that Chief Executive Nigel Pearson would be joining them.  It was reported in Private Eye that “at the end of the day he [Nigel Pearson] declared that none of the candidates was suitable, overriding protests from his colleagues”.

As oppose to re-advertising the vacancy and finding a ‘suitable candidate’ for the role a contract to run the press office for a monthly remuneration of £5,333.00 was awarded to Mercury Design and Marketing at almost twice the cost to us the taxpayer.

Interestingly, both Simon Taylor and Andy Acum have had close relations with East Riding of Yorkshire Council:

• Simon Taylor was the former Head of Communications and Public Relations for East Riding of Yorkshire Council and is self-proclaimed as “one of the country’s leading local government communications experts”.
• Andy Acum former Senior Marketing Officer and “multi-award winning” Marketing Manager at East Riding of Yorkshire Council was also the Editor of East Riding News, East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s newspaper.

Following the furore from Private Eye, Hull Daily Mail, Yorkshire Post and campaign group Hull and East Riding Taxpayers Alliance an external enquiry was undertaken by the District Auditor, Mark Kirkham, at the request of the Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Parnaby.  Details of the events were revealed, following a Freedom of Information Request (FOI), by the Auditor that the Council had broken its own rules when three quotes for the contract had not been obtained.  With a council spokesperson stating in response to the FOI that “Quotations were sought but only one written quotation was received by the council from Mercury Design and Marketing in relations to a temporary contract to run the council’s press office”.

In the report Mr Kirkham described policy director Steve Button’s explanation for only obtaining one quote from Mercury as “unconvincing”. He also said Chief Executive Nigel Pearson had misled a councillor in an e-mail by stating discussions with the PR firm only started after no appointment was made from a shortlist of external candidates who had applied for the advertised vacancy.

In fact, the auditor’s report revealed Mr Pearson had met with a Mercury Marketing and Design representative two days after the job had originally been advertised and subsequently received a draft proposal from the company three weeks before the job interviews took place.

During the inquiry into the contract allegations against Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Parnaby, were also investigated.

Councillor Parnaby was, during the time of the awarding of the contract, listed on Mercury Design and Marketing’s website as delivering communications training to councils starting at £1,750.00, plus VAT, for half a day.  The courses were to be delivered alongside Simon Taylor.  However, on 01 October 2009 a letter, marked Private and Confidential, from Simon Taylor to Stephen Parnaby refuted this strongly stating that “as we both know, you have never worked for or have any business connection with the company….  I have to say that the reference to you can only be put down to over enthusiasm on our part in marketing the courses – none of which have ever been delivered.  We should never have used your name in this way and we can see now how this has been misconstrued.”

The letter starts “Dear Steve”; for a formal letter to a Council Leader we can only comment on the very informal and friendly salutation. Interestingly despite not being listed at the time as one of the directors of the company Simon Taylor signs himself as “Managing Director”.

Mr Kirkham, District Auditor, accepted Simon Taylor’s letter as proof that no courses had been delivered and no money had changed hands between Mercury Design and Marketing and Councillor Parnaby.

The cost to the taxpayer of bringing in the external auditor amounted to £10,435.

In 2010 the contract reached a ‘successful conclusion’ when Ann Woodward was appointed as Head of Performance and Strategic Partnerships.  However, as Private Eye revealed once again in their Rotten Boroughs section all was not sweetness and light in the corridors of ERYC as Ms Woodward had unfortunately aired her dissatisfaction with the council’s handling of this matter on her very public Facebook page.  The offending posts were quickly removed!

Now fast forward to 2012 and look who pops again, oh yes, none other than Mr Simon Taylor, but this time working for Rathlin Energy (UK) Limited in charge of ‘communications’.

On 31 December 2014 Simon Taylor became a director at Mercury Design and Marketing; included on their website in their list of achievements:

• Working directly for five of the ‘big six’ energy firms
• Dealing with two of the country’s most difficult onshore planning applications, coordinating all communications and stakeholder communication (See What Went Wrong at West Newton A for Communities of Holderness Against On Shore Drilling’s section on communications and stakeholder interaction for our opinion)
• Delivering services for two Italian and Norwegian oil and gas companies

However, not content with just Mercury Design and Marketing on 04 June 2015 Mercury Energy and Public Sector Services Ltd, Company Number 09623182, was added to Mr Taylor and Mr Acum’s portfolio of companies.  With their website now showing the lofty heights these people have reached as being:

• Mr Simon Taylor – Group CEO
• Kelly Taylor (formally Todd) – Managing Director Consumer
• Andrew (no longer ‘Andy’) Acum – Managing Director Energy and Public Sector

The energy side of Mercury lists the following amongst its successes:

• Scottish Power Hatfield – onshore gas storage cavern
• Third Energy Ebberston Moor EDS – gas well in National Park
• Third Energy Ebberston Moor Pipeline through National Park
• Drax – extension for biomass co-firing
• E.ON Whitehall – onshore gas storage caverns
• Rathlin Energy – new gas well
• Rathlin Energy – new gas well
• Gassco – Langeled subsea pipeline for Statoil Hydro / Gassco

We, at Communities of Holderness Against, can only leave you, the reader, to draw your own conclusions.  During many hours of research we have reached ours.

What Went Wrong At West Newton A

Residents and Activists investigated what went wrong at the Rathlin Energy (UK) Limited well site known as West Newton A, Fosham Road, High Fosham, Holderness, HU11 5DA.

“On-shore drilling for conventional and unconventional natural gas has been described as a revolution heralding cheap, and plentiful energy that will bring gas independence for the United Kingdom.  New technologies being applied in the extraction process and the impact of these processes are contentious with debates that will continue to rage for many years to come.  However, this report was not written to prove, or disprove, the many arguments, studies and reports already available.  It is a factual report, written by residents living locally to the West Newton A well site, with finding based on the very real experiences and observations of Residents and Activists living in the small, rural communities of Holderness that surround the first well to be drilled in the area around Fosham.”

To read the full report please click on the link.

Have we a stay of execution?

In June 2016 four archaeological test trenches were dug on the footprint of what is to be Rathlin Energy’s second well site, West Newton B.  Much confusion reigned over whether or not these test trenches were breaking planning regulations and in spite of our numerous emails and telephone calls East Riding of Yorkshire Council came firmly down on the side of Rathlin Energy and allowed the excavations to continue.   We put together a timeline of events:

On Monday 22nd December 2014 East Riding of Yorkshire Council Strategic Planning Department received a planning application from Rathlin Energy (UK) Limited (Rathlin Energy) to construct a temporary well site, associated access track and up to two appraisal boreholes. The access track, when completed, will cover a distance of 1.54 kilometres, the well site area will cover 1.25ha, up to 3 water monitoring boreholes will be drilled (depth not stated) and the well(s) will be drilled to a depth of approximately 2,100m.

Humber Archaeological Partnership (HAP) were consulted as part of the application process with the specific remit of commenting on the Archaeological Desk Based Assessment completed by Allen Archaeology Limited.

The desk based assessment to assess the archaeological potential of the proposed wellsite carried the following summary:

“Data was gathered from a range of primary and secondary sources including a search of the Humber Sites and Monuments Record, East Riding Record Office, and Beverley Local Studies Library.

There is very little recorded evidence for prehistoric activity in the search area with only a single flint flake from fieldwalking recorded.

There is no evidence for Roman or Anglo-Saxon activity in the study area.

The historic settlement core of West Newton is to the Northwest of the site, but shrunken village earthworks along West Newton Road indicate that the settlement was once more extensive. However, this activity is some distance from the site, which is likely to have been agricultural land in the medieval period.

There is one listed building and a registered park and garden within the search area, both of which are at sufficient distance from the proposed wellsite to not be adversely affected by the development in terms of setting.

Overall, the site has a negligible archaeological potential of local significance, with the greatest potential being for features and deposits associated with undated cropmarks that may potentially be of a later prehistoric or medieval date.”

In commenting on the Allen Archaeological Desk Based Assessment Mr Dave Evans, Partnership Manager, clearly stated: “We responded to an earlier pre-application consultation for this proposed development on 19th December 2014, and our advice remains unchanged.” Despite extensive enquiries with both Humber Archaeological Partnership and East Riding of Yorkshire Council I have been unable to trace any record of correspondence of the advice referred to by Mr Evans but was informed by Victoria from HAP the advice given may have been by telephone as no trace of any written correspondence could be found. I was also informed by Mr Matthew Sunman, East Riding of Yorkshire Council Strategic Development Control Unit no written copy of the advice had been forwarded to the Council and he was unaware of any pre-application conversation between Mr Evans and Allen Archaeological Partnership.

The comment on the application by Mr Evans is explicit in its appraisal of the site and clearly states “in view of the potential significance of this site…” with the recommendation that “either the application is withdrawn in its present state, or that any decision should be deferred …”

I find it extremely disturbing that despite Mr Evans’s clear evidence of the importance of the site, and the fact he had been consulted on prior to submission of the Archaeological Desk Based Assessment, Allen Archaeological Partnership saw fit to submit a report that clearly ignored the evidence provided by such a renowned expert on the archaeology of Holderness.

On the 13th March 2015 Rathlin Energy responded to HAP’s comments stating “Rathlin Energy kindly requests that the consideration of the planning application by the planning committee be deferred until such time as an archaeological evaluation is undertaken in accordance with recommendation proposed by Humberside Archaeological Partnership.”

On 02 June 2015 the report to the Planning Committee, meeting 04 June 2015, by the Director of Planning and Regeneration was made public. Under Consultation Replies, page 37, Humber Archaeological Partnership the report stated “No objection, Condition suggested”.

However, the advice from Dave Evans was clear the planning decision for the development should be either withdrawn or deferred.

On 12 June 2015 James Goodyear, Archaeological Development Manager, Humber Archaeological Partnership, responded to the additional information submitted by Rathlin Energy on the 13th March 2015 stating “our original advice in our letter dated 18th February 2015 remains unchanged in light of the additional information”.  Quite clearly the original advice from HAP was that the application should be withdrawn or any decision deferred.  It appears East Riding of Yorkshire Council ignored the advice.

We had no doubt of the importance of West Newton B as an archaeological site of international importance with it’s undocumented pre-historic wetlands history and as a result of our conversations and correspondence  HAP are now including Historic England in the decision making process for the Condition of Discharge.  We recently received a copy of an email from Historic England to HAP setting out further requirements before the Written Scheme of Investigation can be discharged and work commences to build the compound.

I have now received a response from the Science Advisor of Historic England , who I approached to review the work undertaken to date at the above site, specifically with regard to the potential for environmental deposits relating to the wetland.

I still need to speak to the advisor to seek some clarification on the scope of the works, but he comments as follows:

I’ve had a look at the Humber Wetlands Project monographs.  It would seem that West Newton should have a more or less complete Holocene sequence of clays, sands and gravels with the potential for organic-rich/peat deposits.  This is broadly supported by data from the closest BGS borehole at NGR TA 2047 3785 see (http://scans.bgs.ac.uk/sobi_scans/boreholes/18539489/images/18539458.html).  The site is therefore important, and could warrant further study.  The HWP monographs suggest the geomorphological and palaeoenvironmental history of Holderness is well-understood, although such a dynamic landscape will have localised variation so greater resolution may be desirable.

The access road is unlikely to have any significant impact, but the well itself could.

I’d suggest that a geoarchaelogist review the data and make recommendations.

We are now keeping a watchful eye as events continue to unfold in the hope that this time East Riding of Yorkshire Council will come down on the side of the archaeology, Residents and Environmental Activists and ensure the area is properly excavated with any findings fully documented, photographed and recorded.  We are also hoping that buried deep in the Wetlands and kept secret for so many millennia is an untold wealth of archaeological treasure so important it becomes an international site of special interest and no drilling will be allowed.

 

 

 

Disputing the ‘facts’

As part of their planning application to East Riding of Yorkshire Council for West Newton B well site, Rathlin Energy submitted supporting documentation, including one piece of narrative they named “Fact and Evidence Based Consultation.”  Rathlin Energy’s documents, despite Residents and Activists protestations to the council, was accepted, as far as we can ascertain, without challenge.  In point of fact on the occasions we spoke to the planning department about the inconsistencies of Rathlin’s documents we are told that it’s not the council’s job to dispute Rathlin’s documentation they leave that to the ‘experts’.  But isn’t that why they are Planning Officers, to scrutinise planning applications and ascertain when facts are not actually facts but blatant mistruths?

We wrote the following in response to the ambivalence of a Conservative-led regional council and planning department who never seem interested in what we, the residents of Holderness, have to say.  A council who seem quite happy to forget they work for the residents and not large corporations who have no interest in the area other than to exploit what they can from it and then depart as quickly possible leaving nothing but destruction and shattered lives in their wake.

Disputing the ‘Facts’

Lorries Leaving West Newton A