Vow to fight shale gas industry as ‘threat’ of fracking looms

Estimated read time 12 min read


Frack Free Lancashire slam government’s fracking plans

When Cuadrilla first proposed test drilling on the picturesque Fylde coast in Lancashire, it didn’t go down too well with residents. They responded by objecting: fiercely and vociferously. A group of headscarf-wearing grandmothers formed a ragtag group known as Nanas Against Fracking and joined forces.

They lobbied Lancashire County Council’s meeting in Preston with banners and noisy marches through the city watched by amused onlookers.

On a grey day at Cuadrilla’s former Preston New Road well this week, just hours before the chaotic vote in the Commons as PM Liz Truss desperately clung to power, the Nanas returned in force.

Retired school administrator, Jill Walton, from the village of Inskip, said of her three grandchildren: “I don’t want them to live with poisoned air, poisoned water and water poisoned land – that’s before you get to the earthquakes.”

She criticised Ms Truss’s Government for breaking a Tory manifesto promise not to allow fracking unless the science proved it was safe. Ms Walton said: “[The Government] should insulate houses, instal more solar panels and get battery technology going so people can have a power supply when the sun isn’t shining.”

Protest

Nanas Against Fracking and Frack Free Lancashire members outside the Preston New Road site (Image: Jon King/Getty)

Protest

Anti- fracking protesters knit by the roadside at the Preston New Road site (Image: Getty)

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More than a dozen campaigners from Nanas Against Fracking and Frack Free Lancashire returned to the former fracking site in a field off the A583 between Blackpool and Preston on Wednesday (October 19).

Under grey skies and with a chill wind blowing in from the Irish Sea, locals protested by the side of the road yards from a now capped fracking well, playing Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” from a loudspeaker. Brandishing bright yellow “No fracking” placards and a banner reading “No means no”, the group shared homemade chocolate brownies as passing motorists sped past, beeping their horns in a show of support. The message from the campaigners was clear: Don’t expect an easy time of it if you try and frack here again.

The message came ahead of a rough ride for former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s Government which defeated Labour’s bid to ban fracking amid farcical scenes in the House of Commons. The motion was defeated by 230 votes to 326, with a majority of 96.

Conservative whips initially said the vote on whether to allocate Commons time to consider legislation to stop shale gas extraction was being treated as a confidence motion in Ms Truss’s embattled Government.

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Fracking

Police officers stand guard at the site (Image: Getty)

Fracking

A sit down protest at the gates of the Preston New Road site (Image: Getty)

But after a series of Tory MPs signalled they would not take part in the vote, Climate Minister Graham Stuart caused confusion by telling the Commons: “Quite clearly this is not a confidence vote.”

Earlier, Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg sought to limit a rebellion by insisting communities will have a veto on fracking in their area. He said national Government would be unable to overrule the objections from communities, with one option under consideration involving local referendums for areas where fracking is proposed.

Mr Rees-Mogg, in a message directed at Conservative MPs, told the Commons: “There’s an absolute local consent lock. Any process to determine local consent must be run independently and this House will vote on any scheme that we bring forward.”

Supporters of fracking argue it will increase Britain’s energy supply, reduce bills and generate jobs.

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Energy bill rises laid bare (Image: Express)

Andy Mayer, Chief Operating Officer and Energy Analyst at free market think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, said in September the UK urgently needs more gas and every molecule drilled domestically is one that is not imported as well as one which can be taxed to fund long-term solutions to climate change.

He added: “Lifting the fracking moratorium and issuing more licences is a welcome start, but radical regulatory reform of planning, permitting and safety rules are required for there to be serious progress.”

Critics point to risks over climate change and other environmental impacts, including the effect on the water table of chemicals used during shale gas extraction. A Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy survey found just 17 percent of the public in autumn 2021 supported fracking.

Retired civil servant Nick Danby, spokesperson for Frack Free Lancashire, said: “This community has been under siege for more than 10 years. They fracked in 2011 and caused earthquakes. The moratorium has been lifted. It’s just not fair. This Government has to decide how much more political capital it is willing to expend for something which is deeply unpopular.

“Given we have a net zero target by 2050, launching a new fossil fuel industry goes against the grain.”

Jacob Rees-Mogg

Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg (Image: Getty)

Mr Danby added the UK is already one of the most energy independent countries in Europe. He said: “We should be developing renewables. We should have been doing that for the last 10 or 15 years. [Supporters of fracking] always claim because it’s produced domestically it will bring down the price. Cuadrilla is not a charity. They will sell on the open market.”

Describing the area around the Preston New Road site as a Tory heartland, Mr Danby said most of the county’s Conservative MPs have been vocal against fracking. He warned fracking is likely to be an issue at the next General Election, should the lifting of the moratorium continue, particularly for Tory MPs in Red Wall seats where shale gas fracturing is a possibility.

Lancashire County Council had thrown out the initial applications to frack at the Preston New Road site as well as a second site at nearby Roseacre. The Government objected to the local authority’s decision, which was then overruled in the case of Preston New Road.

That site lies empty today, but when Cuadrilla operated from there, campaigners camped out day after day, monitoring vehicle movements and any releases of gas.

Mark Menzies MP, whose Fylde constituency is home to the site, told the Commons his vote against Labour’s motion was conditional on pledges made by Ms Truss and Mr Rees-Mogg. He added: “It’s no secret I would much rather the moratorium remain in place – a moratorium that was a manifesto commitment… We in Fylde will not forget that fracking in our communities has twice led to national moratoriums.

“I continue to take an evidence based approach, but the geology has not changed nor has the science. The industry had more than a decade to show that fracking can be carried out safely in Fylde. Every time they have tried the same thing has happened. We cannot keep doing the same thing and hope for a different outcome. The 2019 seismic events prove this.”

He reminded the Commons the last Labour Government issued the fracking licenses in Fylde without recourse to “gold standard” regulations he secured, including the limiting of fracking’s seismic impact to 0.5 on the Richter scale. He said a 2.9 seismic event in the area in August 2019 was 251 times more powerful than the fracking industry’s own safety limits.

During the Conservative Party leadership campaign, Ms Truss said fracking would only go ahead where there was local support.

Mr Rees-Mogg is reportedly an enthusiastic supporter of incentives and compensation for locals to encourage fracking. Mr Menzies warned: “Do not confuse that with a thought local communities can be bought. The people of Fylde are not for sale.”

As to what lies ahead, Mr Danby said: “At the moment all we know is the moratorium has been lifted. We have got to prepare ourselves for all eventualities. If we have to, we will come back. We’ll do what’s necessary.”

On compensating those who back fracking in their areas, Nana co-founder Tina Rothery said Blackpool is a deprived area, adding: “It’s dangling a carrot in front of a really poor community. Give us a break.”

Ms Rothery said when news of fracking in Lancashire first broke over a decade ago, she believed it was for the good of the local community, bringing jobs and income to the area, but her concerns grew as she became more aware of the environmental impacts.

Fellow Nana, Celia Briar, said: “I’m really hoping fracking won’t start again. It’s insane. It caused damage to homes even when the limit [on how much seismic activity fracking could cause] was very low. The Government wants to raise that limit, which is absolutely terrifying.”

The retired university lecturer, speaking outside the locked gates of the Preston New Road site, added: “I don’t want my air, my water, poisoned or my home affected by earth quakes.”

Fracking

Yellow ribbons tied to read ‘Frack Free’ on security gates at the Preston New Road site (Image: Getty)

In the nearby village of Kirkham one local said fracking was a difficult issue.

Geoffrey Waterhouse, 81, said: “It’s a difficult thing really. On the one hand people are worried about the water table, pumping chemicals into the ground and earthquakes. On the other hand, there’s an energy crisis and people are worried. I’m fifty fifty really. We’ve got to look for alternative energy sources. The whole thing is a bit of a mess.”

In Blackpool, husband and wife David and Dorothy Blakeborough, agreed the public need to know more about fracking. Mr Blakeborough said: “I’m not really in support of it, but I don’t know enough about it. I can see we need more ways of getting energy. Unless it’s proven to be safe, I would be more against it than for it.”

Mrs Blakeborough said: “There’s no history of it. It might be our children’s children who suffer from it, but we don’t know. We don’t know enough about it.”

A 60-year-old carriage driver on Blackpool’s famous Promenade, who asked not to be named, said the town would benefit from the all year round jobs a fracking operation might bring and the UK needed to be energy independent. But he was more in favour of renewable sources of energy, including tidal power. Signalling a total lack of trust in Government, he said: “They’ll just get on with [fracking even without local support], won’t they? We get what we’re served, don’t we?”

Energy

A protest outside Downing Street (Image: Getty)

According to the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, it is not clear how much shale gas is in the UK which would be technically and economically viable to extract. Four places in Britain have been identified as potentially viable for its commercial extraction: the Bowland-Hodder area in northwest England, the Midland Valley in Scotland, the Weald Basin and the Wessex region, both in southern England.

The Government announced in November 2019 it would “take a presumption against issuing any further hydraulic fracturing consents” in England. It based its decision on an investigation by the Oil and Gas Authority after the suspension of fracking operations at the Preston New Road site due to a series of minor earth tremors. An Authority report concluded: “For future operations, the possibility of larger events could not be excluded and these could cause damage and disturbance unacceptable under the current [Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy] policy guidance.”

Last month the Government announced it had lifted the fracking moratorium, publishing a review by the British Geological Survey into the scientific evidence on tremors linked with fracking. It showed on average of about one percent of fracking wells in the United States and Canada could be linked to earthquakes with magnitudes of three or more.

Ron Berks, 68, a retired car components worker from Manchester visiting Blackpool, said: “If [fracking] benefits the country because we have our own energy, it’s worth it, but not if it damages the environment or affects local people. We’ve got to consider the people, but also, these green people need to understand that sometimes we’ve got to give a little bit to save the country from the energy crisis.

“I’m not against fracking – I’m not against wind power – but it’s got to be safe. If we do it, we have to make sure it’s not just people making massive profits out of it. Savings have to be passed on to the people.”

Cuadrilla was approached but declined to comment.





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