Horse Hill oil drilling High Court challenge fails

The Horse Hill site covers about two hectares of former farmland near Horley

A woman who opposes oil drilling near her home has lost a legal challenge at the High Court.

Sarah Finch, from Redhill, argued that Surrey County Council failed to consider "indirect greenhouse gas impacts" when it granted permission for the Horse Hill well to be extended.

But a judge who considered evidence at a hearing in November dismissed the claim.

Mr Justice Holgate said the council had acted lawfully and rationally.

He said it was impossible to say the council's judgment, that greenhouse gas emissions from the combustion of refined fuels "were not an environmental effect of the proposed development" was, as a "matter of law, irrational".

Marc Willers QC, who led Ms Finch's legal team, had earlier argued that the council "wholly failed to assess the greenhouse impacts of the development arising from the combustion of the oil".

The council's lawyers had said Ms Finch's interpretation of environmental impact requirements was "misguided".

Friends of the Earth, which had supported Ms Finch, said the ruling was " disappointing".