COUNCILLORS have called for assurances that seismic activity will continue to be monitored where earthquakes have been felt in Surrey after a controversial plan to drill for oil and gas was passed.

Amid concerns that it could set a precedent for further drilling activity in the Dunsfold area, the application for four new hydrocarbon wells and a water reinjection well, which will result in six wells drilling for 25 years at Horse Hill in east Surrey, was approved on Tuesday.

But councillors on Surrey County Council’s planning and regulatory committee added an informative to conditions making applicants Horse Hill Developments Limited, a subsidiary of UK Oil and Gas, carry on monitoring tremors in the area.

The two-hour meeting at county hall started with three-minute speeches from the public and action groups who all raised concerns about a recent spate of earthquakes which they believe is linked to exploratory drilling that has already been carried out at the site near Horley.

Officers said experts had concluded that there was not a link and that the 34 earthquakes experienced since 2018 were down to “natural causes”.

But residents said they feared for the future and for any more damage earthquakes may cause.

Lynette Von Kaufmann, who lives in Newdigate, said: “My experience is we hear a huge explosive bang followed by shaking for several seconds. We have had damage in our own house. Residents are very worried that insurance premiums will go up and house prices will fall.”

Scientists have differing opinions about the earthquakes in Surrey but officers said they have to go with what the Oil and Gas Authority decides.

Helyn Clack, the county council’s vice-chairman, was allowed to address the committee as a divisional member.

She called for monitoring of seismic activity to continue as there was huge concern in the area among residents.

Stephen Sanderson, chief executive of UK Oil and Gas (UKOG), the same company behind the Dunsfold drilling bid, spoke at the meeting and said there had been “unsubstantiated myths and scaremongering” around the impact of the exploratory drilling.

He said there was a national importance for the drilling and for the country to generate its own oil and gas supplies.

He promised to “ensure that the community and local economy” will “share in the wealth” of the site and that he would look to engage more with local residents and organisations. But he stressed the need for more on-shore gas and oil to be produced.