UK
Anger over 'disruption' caused by Esso pipeline project

Chris Yandell
Sun, 29 January 2023 

Mandy Shannon runs Four Marks Golf Course, which has been cut in two by the pipeline work. Photo: BBC (Image: BBC)

BUSINESSES and landowners have hit out at the disruption being caused by the installation of a new underground pipeline between Southampton and London.

Esso is currently constructing a 90km facility that will transport aviation fuel from Boorley Green to an Esso storage facility at Hounslow, near Heathrow Airport.

Described as nationally important, it will replace part of a pipeline that already links Fawley refinery to the capital.

The new section is due to be completed next year and will carry the equivalent of 100 road tankers' worth of fuel each day between Southampton and Hounslow.

READ MORE: Activist who disrupted Hampshire to London pipeline is jailed

Protesters include Mandy Channon, who runs Four Marks Golf Course near Alton. She said the course had been sliced in two by the work, leaving the top four holes inaccessible.

Esso has made an interim compensation payment.

But Ms Shannon said the muddy corridor where the work was being carried out would need to be re-seeded so grass could grow before the section of the course could be reopened.

She told the BBC she would be left with "half a golf course" until next year.

"If it weren't for the members, the locals, the pool team, I'd have no business," she said.

READ MORE: Hampshire to London pipeline given the green light

Other critics include Sarah Oppenheimer, owner of the Headmore Stud, who said a horse was frightened by a digger and bolted from its field, injuring its front leg.

Ms Oppenheimer said the horse was found three-quarters of a mile away "in a very distressed state".

She added: "They should have been out by October. "We're nearly in February and they're still up there with their diggers and it's just going on and on."

Esso has agreed to pay for the horse's veterinary treatment.

In a statement the company said existing agreements with the vast majority of landowners required it to make payments to compensate for any losses.

Local teams were in contact with those affected by the work and it was "grateful for residents' continued patience" during the final stage of the project.