First Community Liaison Group Meeting and Site Visit – Updated

The first meeting of the Angus Community Liaison Group was held on Thursday 20th September at 7pm and closed at 9pm.
FFBRA raised the following points:

• Concerns over traffic – the amount, the traffic management plan, school drop of and pick up avoidance, traffic entering from the South, traffic missing the site
• Confirmation of start date of the works
• Lessons learned from 2013
• Who to report issues with noise to if they arise – the EA, WSCC or Angus?

Minutes from the CLG are now available – Minutes Angus CLG Version 2 Balcombe 20 Sept 18

Further questions submitted by our members were sent directly to Angus to answer There has been a delay to publishing the answers to the remaining questions as firstly Angus replied stating the following:

Please note all OGA & EA permits are published on our website. We would also refer you to the minutes of the Community Liaison Group which are published by the Balcombe Parish Council. All of the key issues you have raised, have been addressed at the joint meeting of the Company, the Parish Council, WSCC and community representatives. Our meetings are minuted for all to see. We do have security cameras at the Balcombe site for the safety of all stakeholders. The Company adheres to all planning guidance concerning their placement and due to your concerns, we will immediately conduct a secondary assessment to ensure we remain in strict compliance.

This was a surprise as FFBRA is a member of the Community Liaison Group and it was agreed that further questions would be sent to Angus to answer. After further emails and a phonecall the following update was received.

We have reviewed your list and will publish on our website this week, for all to see, the information you requested. Please note some of your queries we cannot answer as this subset is considered to be forward looking information under a separate regulatory regime. As a public company, Angus Energy is limited in what it may say to any individual or sub group about future plans or third party statements (including operations, economic performance as well as the assumptions underlying or relating to such statements). 

Angus expects to receive sign off from the Environment Agency and the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) within the next couple of days and will immediately start their 7 day flow test after that. When the flow test is complete, all the equipment will be removed from the site.  Angus will need to have vacated the site by 10th March 2019 in line with their planning conditions, however, they expect their work to be completed within weeks.

Balcombe residents who had applied to be a community representative were first invited to a site visit at Lower Stumble.

If residents have any concerns or questions Angus have setup the following email and information lines:

Balcombe Email: community@angusenergy.co.uk
Balcombe Tel: 0203 974 2991

The next CLG meeting date was set for Thursday 18th October where results would be shared with the group.

The Flow Test Diary page is recording Angus’ Flow Test Operations and keeping our members and supporters uptodate with the latest information and news happening onsite.