Responding to news that the Conservative government will overturn the local council vote to proceed with the first fracking well in the UK in five years, chair of Belcoo Frack Free Tom White said:
"Belcoo Frack Free believes the decision by the Tory Government to overturn Lancashire County Council's planning decision and now allow exploration for shale gas using high volume hydraulic fracturing near Blackpool is grotesque, unfair and a breach of public trust.
“A day after the Tory leader stated she wants to ‘change the way the country works and the people for whom it works forever’ we now see just what was meant by that statement. This blatant disregard for local decision-making and local democracy is authoritarian in its nature and wholly unequal in its impact.
“Her Government and that of her predecessor, comprised of a cabinet of millionaires, have decided to blight the lives of ‘ordinary working class families’ in Lancashire by allowing this toxic industry to proceed. It is worth noting that Cuadrilla the company which wishes to frack Lancashire is majority-owned by entities incorporated in tax havens [See note 1 below].
“The decision comes just a day after the threshold for ratification of the Paris Climate Change Agreement passed. This Government is ignoring its own Committee on Climate Change advice - that Carbon Capture and Sequestration is necessary for any Shale industry in the UK to meet its climate change targets [see note 2 below].
“We in Belcoo stand in solidarity with the people in Lancashire in resisting the imposition of this toxic industry onto their communities with all the negative public health impacts it causes to ‘ordinary working class families’. We remain confident that the people of Lancashire will stand together and defeat this and any attempt by Westminster to impose fracking from on-high”, Mr White concluded.
ENDS…
For further information or an interview contact Tom White, Chair Belcoo Frack Free, tel. 07747 010308; or Donal O’Cofaigh, PRO, tel. 07810 157926.
Notes for Editors:
[1] http://energydesk.greenpeace.org/2015/12/16/revealed-cuadrilla-and-leading-fracking-firms-tax-haven-ownership/
[2] https://www.theccc.org.uk/2016/07/07/exploitation-of-onshore-petroleum-requires-three-key-tests-to-be-met-ccc-says/
