Hi all, new to the DF today but have been reading all your posts especially with reference to the Guston borehole drilling application. I am the Chair of Guston Parish Council, a long standing resident in the parish and live in close proximity to the proposed drilling site. We are working flat out to obtain as much information on the details submitted within the application by Coastal Oil and Gas. We have put together a comprehensive and detailed report after finding many discrepancies within the documents and have sent this to the Environmental Agency and KCC to request a full investigation. All we can ask from residents and local communities is to request that they log their comments on the planning application by 15th Nov deadline, online
www.kent.gov.uk/planning, by post to Invicta Hse, Maidstone or by email
planning.applications@kent.gov.uk ref: DO/0216/2013.
The GPC website has information, and has had since the first day we were informed of the application, it also holds the minutes from the Residents meeting at Burgoyne Community Centre 19th Sept. We acted immediately to inform as many residents as possible and arranged the residents meeting within days. We also run a Guston.Village Facebook page which was set up 2011 listing information on all aspects of village improvements/concerns within the village. We have hand delivered letters to residents in Guston, Pineham and the Archers Court Rd in an effort to let people know, as KCC effort did not reach a very wide perimeter. We are also hoping to have an article in the Dover Mercury next week.
The GPC website lists our clerks email address, she is very efficient and will respond to queries. She is also happy to forward on constructive comments onto KCC if you would prefer.
We are now also in negotiations with Tilmanstone and Shepherdswell parish councils concerning merging certain members of our teams to act as a separate committee re: all 3 applications, so if something urgent comes to light we can act immediately.
Quite rightly people have concerns and worries about this type of exploratory works and unfortunately Oliver Taylor increased the scepticism rather than abating it during the question session being unable to answer many questions that were put to him. They are a small company but am pretty sure their financial stability will be strengthened by their parent company who is a much stronger contender. GPC are working hard to oppose this application on behalf of our parish and we can only hope that the KCC planning committee will sit up and take notice of our concerns !
