On Monday 3 August 2026, the Environment Agency opened a public consultation on its draft decision to grant an environmental permit for Cloughton 2, a temporary exploration wellsite proposed near Burniston in North Yorkshire. According to the agency’s notice, the application was submitted by Europa Oil and Gas Limited and relates to a test borehole intended to assess the potential for conventional gas extraction. The consultation is open for six weeks and is scheduled to close on 23 September 2026. The Environment Agency states that the longer period reflects the summer holiday season and is intended to give residents additional time to review the documents before a final determination is made.
The draft permit covers exploratory activity rather than commercial production. The company is seeking approval to drill a borehole and, if required, to use a well stimulation technique known as a proppant squeeze. In plain terms, that involves injecting a gelled water-based fluid and sand into the well under pressure so that small cracks can open in the rock and gas can flow more freely. The Environment Agency’s explanation is important because the term can be confused with hydraulic fracturing. Its notice says the proposed activity uses similar principles but is distinct from the shale gas hydraulic fracturing that remains subject to the government’s current suspension. That distinction is likely to shape much of the public response to the consultation.
The case has drawn added attention because North Yorkshire Council refused planning permission for the proposal in May 2026. The Environment Agency states that this does not settle the permit application, because planning control and environmental permitting are separate legal processes with different statutory roles. Under planning law, the local planning authority decides whether a development should be allowed in a particular place. Under environmental legislation, the Environment Agency must decide whether the proposed activity meets permit requirements and whether it can operate without unacceptable harm to people or the environment. For residents, the practical effect is that the current consultation is about environmental controls and legal compliance, not a rerun of the council’s planning decision.
According to the agency, the draft decision followed a technical review by specialist officers. That review covered the operator’s application, supporting documents and the responses received during an earlier public consultation. The Environment Agency has also published its reasons for the draft decision, setting out how the evidence has been assessed at this stage. Ian Foster, the Environment Agency’s Area Manager for Yorkshire, said there is significant public interest in the application, particularly after the planning refusal. His statement presents the agency’s role as independent, evidence-based and confined to the legal tests set by environmental legislation.
The legal position described by the Environment Agency is narrow but clear. The regulator may refuse an environmental permit only where the application fails to meet one or more legal requirements, including where the proposed activity would create an unacceptable risk to people or the environment. If those requirements are met, the agency says it is under a legal duty to issue the permit. That point matters for anyone responding to the consultation. Comments can still affect the final determination, but the submissions most likely to assist the regulator are those that address matters relevant to the permit test, including environmental risk, operational controls and the technical material published alongside the draft decision.
All consultation documents are available through the Environment Agency’s Citizen Space consultation site, and comments can be submitted online until 23 September 2026. The agency has also said that people who cannot access the material online can contact it by telephone on 03708 506 506. As a policy case, Cloughton 2 is a clear example of how separate approval regimes operate in parallel on energy projects. A refused planning application does not remove the need for a permit decision, and a draft permit decision does not alter the planning refusal. The next step is the Environment Agency’s final determination after it has considered all relevant consultation responses.