Dear Forestry Commission: Do your job. Cultivate forests, not oil derricks.
I live in Dorking. I am a mother and a business owner. I hike with my husband, small children and our silly dog in the beautiful Surrey Hills.
“Get out and ramble! Enjoy nature! Go explore hidden trails and oh look at the butterflies amongst England’s historic places”…like Leith Hill. But we can’t really enjoy it because we know that our government organisations and officials seem to want to exploit the Greenbelt for the prospect of oil. They talk a good game about renewables, but when it comes down to it, drill, baby, drill!
If you hadn’t heard or are aware, Forest Enterprise England (the executive agency of the Forestry Commission, that manages the nation’s forest estate for the UK government) leases the land in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (ANOB) to Europa Oil.
In a 2017 letter to local Cllrs Wellman and Malcomson, Chief Executive Simon Hodgson have stated that agreements like the one with Europa helped to pay the cost of managing the woodlands for the public.
Wait, what?
For ten years, local residents have fought off the drilling and for ten years, they have been successful. They’ve raised hundreds of thousands of pounds. Local residents. Ordinary people. Saying No.
Europa has been unsuccessful in its attempt to conduct exploratory drilling for so long that UK Oil and Gas resorted to filing an injunction against protestors, who are also saying no.
Six very brave women from Surrey and Sussex are in the midst of taking on the injunction. I ran into one of these women, on the 4th of July, and I thought, being a dual citizen, “Here is Jacqui, on my native country’s national holiday, fighting for freedom of speech. In the UK. Incredible.”
Someone must exert backbone and stewardship when it comes to preserving our public lands. Right now it seems to be absent in the Forestry Commission leadership. (I wrote to them and told them this last year and am still awaiting their response.)
We are relying on our local community fighting to protect our public lands from exploitation. Over 100,000 people have told the Environmental Agency that they don’t want to risk water pollution due to the process of “acidisation”, where diluted hydrochloric acid is inserted into a well to dissolve limestone, releasing the oil therein — as well as oil in adjacent shale formations. (They’ll probably approve it anyway.)
Those who are participating in this exhausting, time-consuming effort come from different backgrounds but they are all united by one goal: they don’t want to see oil derricks on Leith Hill. Whether they live on Coldharbour Lane, or are concerned about contamination of our drinking water, or are worried about the recent earth quakes (we have had seven earthquakes in Surrey in the past 12 weeks and yes there drilling has begun near Gatwick), or they don’t think public land should be used for commercial use, or they just want to preserve the Greenbelt for future generations to enjoy — they all have their reasons.
The UK is expected to miss its 2020 renewable energy goals and yet here is the Forestry Commission, supporting onshore drilling. In an AONB. Ancient woodlands. Leith Hill Place, home of composer Ralph Vaughan Williams and a place regularly visited by Charles Darwin.
If the Forestry Commission or its executives believe that by selling out Leith Hill because it will pay to save trees elsewhere, then they lack vision, ingenuity and are neglecting their duty to protect our public land, everywhere.
We need more help — and more leadership — in Surrey Hills. We need our elected officials to listen and to ACT. We do have support from Green Party MEP Keith Taylor who advocates for Leith Hill but we need more people — people who care about England’s public lands — to rise up and say no to drilling.
We need more of our local constituents to speak up and tell our leaders, friends, partners — to join us in protecting our public lands. Currently the oil industry is working through bureaucratic planning permission channels to execute their plan. It is a dying industry that would destroy our land for profit.
If we don’t speak up, it will set a precedent for our forests, national parks and public lands for years to come. Decades.
What side of history do you want to be on?
A Voice For Leith Hill is holding a public meeting on the 27th July — check out the event.
Follow @SaveLeithHill on Twitter
