Local residents gathered on Saturday September 8th to protest on Bournemouth beach to protest against what they called reckless oil rig plans.
Corallian Energy, the oil and gas licence operator for the area of seabed some 8km off Poole beach, and a similar distance from Studland, plans to start drilling an appraisal well in the Colter Prospect over the winter, subject to UK Government approval.
If oil of sufficient quality and quantity is discovered it would be extracted via Wytch Farm in Poole Harbour. Save Our Shores Bournemouth organizer Sara Pascoe said that the plans to drill new oil fields were inconsistent with climate change legal commitments and were “false profits, destroying our earth’s life system for corporate gain, when green alternatives exist that can be developed and expanded”.