LETTER: Significance of drilling results

I refer to your article in the County Times this week and to that in last week’s copy which located the site of the proposed drilling site soon to be operated by Celtique Energie Weald Limited.

This I would think was a very important piece of news in relation to the possible effect on the rural environment of Kirdford, Wisborough Green and Billingshurst.

A key piece of information is the location of the proposed drilling site which you attempted to locate in your article last week but a reproduction of plans available in Celtique’s Public Consultation Document would have been more desirable .

This shows the access off of Kirdford road about 100metres west of Barford Bridge.

You alternatively chose to reprint a map from the Celtique pamphlet showing the area where licensing for drilling have been obtained.

The article then made no reference to the plan whatsoever.

The plan does show however where some oil is already being extracted and also where gas does exist but where it is not planned to extract by fracking.

It does however confirm the possibility of the existence of hydrocarbons beneath the fields of this area of West Sussex, possibly at depths in the order of 8000ft. None of the sites shown on the plan published are currently operated by Celtique. Until we have the results from the drilling at Wisborough Green and Billingshurst, Broadford Bridge we cannot determine if this has any effect on future operations in the area.