THE Good Law Project announced today that it supports a campaign against the government’s decision to allow exploratory drilling for fossil fuels on the edge of an area of outstanding natural beauty.

The non-profit-making organisation is backing the Surrey activist group Protect Dunsfold Ltd’s (PDL) statutory challenge to the decision.

Ministers’ decision to allow work in the Surrey Hills area came as Britain sweltered this week in record high temperatures of up to 40.3°C and after the High Court ruled the government’s strategy for achieving net-zero carbon emission to be inadequate and unlawful.

Good Law Project director Jo Maugham said: “We have some questions. Why, in the aftermath of the hottest day ever, are we wanting to dig up more fossil fuels?

“Why are we doing it next to an area of outstanding natural beauty?

“And why is government afraid to let the people of Surrey make their own decisions about what works for their community?”

The challenge revolves around last month’s decision by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, headed by Michael Gove, to allow energy company UK Oil and Gas to prospect for gas in Dunsfold, south of Guildford, despite admitting that this would have a “significant” impact on the area.

The move overturned an earlier refusal by Surrey County Council.

Sarah Godwin of PDL said: “Neither local nor national interest is served by imposing a project harmful to one of the nation’s most sensitive landscapes by inflicting such industrial activity whilst brushing the environmental consequences of continued fossil fuel exploration under the rug.

“The muddled logic of the Secretary of State’s decision speaks volumes whilst riding roughshod over local democracy and policy.”