Southport residents call on government to drop fracking
Local residents joined Frack Free Southport campaigners in Lord Street as part of a national week of action challenging recent government fracking proposals.
On a very wet Saturday Frack Free Southport members erected a 3 meter tall fracking rig on Southport’s busiest shopping street. This was to symbolise how easy the government is making it for fracking companies to explore for Shale Gas under permitted development rights. Later in the day they donned masks in another protest to symbolise the way the government is trying to stifle local input into the Fracking approval process. In addition signatures were collected from local residents calling for Damien Moore MP to join other Conservatives in calling for the government to drop its plans for permitted development.
The government is consulting on proposals to classify exploratory shale drilling as “permitted development”, a planning category originally designed for sheds and minor home improvements. If changes go ahead, fracking companies could start drilling across England without any local planning applications, threatening community involvement in decision-making.
Paul Bradshaw from Frack Free Southport said: “We’re here today to stand against the government’s outrageous plans. If they go ahead, whole swathes of England could be opened up to fracking development.
“Fracking is unpopular, and risky – these planning proposals are a last ditch attempt to kick-start the industry, and communities like ours will pay the price. We don’t need fracking, here or anywhere.”
“Only this week Conservative Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Claire Perry announced that the government is planning to weaken seismic activity standards at fracking sites in a bid to encourage drilling. If Gold Standards had really been rolled out for shale gas exploration, then the seismic activity standards should have been strengthened not weakened”
The proposals have widespread cross-party opposition, including around 20 Conservative MPs who are prepared to “destroy the government’s majority” if ministers seek to push the proposal through parliament [2]. Hundreds of councillors have signed an open letter opposing proposals
LibDem Parliamentary Candidate for Southport John Wright who supported Frack free Southport’s day of action commented “I have been opposed to fracking from the outset, and it is now official Liberal Democrat policy to ban fracking altogether. Even if the process were risk free – and it isn’t – we should not be investing in producing yet more fossil fuels. This country has the resources, technology and conditions to be powered entirely by renewables in my lifetime”.
Labour Party Parliamentary candidate Liz Savage said “The Conservatives are driving through fracking at any cost, both locally and globally. They are riding roughshod over the wishes of communities who are opposing fracking across the country and trampling on the whole idea of green energy and being carbon neutral. ”
” Labour gives no backing to fracking. It must be stopped and we’ve put the industry on notice that we will do just that when we get into government. “
Green Party Parliamentary Candidate Laurence Rankin said “I am pleased to be able to support Frack Free Southport today in Southport, in their campaign to raise awareness of the hazards of Fracking, and Government plans to reduce regulation of that harmful industry. At a time when the world is reeling from freak weather, already being caused by Climate Change, and the UN report warning that we have less than 15years to significantly reduce our fossil fuel use, it is tantamount to criminal for the Government to propose relaxing planning controls on Fracking. We cannot allow riding roughshod over the views of local communities, the imprisonment of peaceful environment protectors, and the desecration of our countryside, to continue for the sake of the discredited Fracking industry.”
Notably, ‘Fracking’ has been banned or put on hold in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland by their devolved governments. A lesson for the future protection of England maybe! Currently, over 17 thousand square kilometres of England are covered by oil and gas
exploration licences, and if we were to see a fully-fledged fracking industry, it could
mean drilling over 6000 wells in just 15 years – more than one every day.