Take the advice of Greg Clark, Secretary of State for the Department for Communities and Local Government
"Those who are prepared to organise to be more effective and more efficient should be able to reap substantially the rewards of that boldness ...
Take power now. Don’t let yourself, any longer, be ruled by someone else"
Join the ever growing number of households who have signed up to the Wrongmove campaign!
Tell Cuadrilla and the Government that your house is "Not for Shale"
Balcombe News Flash via Fracking Digest
Balcombe NEWSFLASH! – orginally posted on the http://www.frackingdigest.co.uk/ site
Cuadrilla have withdrawn their applications for modifying their existing application (6 months extra time, and the modified flaring). That’s the good news. The bad news is that they plan to put in a new application, on 27th September.
It might take a day or two to unravel what’s going on here but it sounds as though Cuadrilla and WSCC have got the message that the amendment applications could not be reasonably granted lawfully. In which case congratulations are due to those in Balcombe who have been working on the technical side (as well, of course, to the Balcombe Protection Camp!).
The announcement by WSCC-
“Re: Lower Stumble Hydrocarbon Exploration Site – Planning applications
On 2 September 2013, the two planning applications relating to oil exploration at Balcombe (ref. WSCC/061/13/BA seeking a six month extension in time, and WSCC/063/13/BA seeking increased flare height) were withdrawn by the applicant.
The applicant (Cuadrilla) has confirmed their intention to submit a new planning application by 27 September 2013 to allow for additional time to carry out the well testing at the site allowed under the current permission (WSCC/027/10/BA). They have confirmed that the activity sought under the new application will not involve drill stem testing, additional drilling, or hydraulic fracturing.
Once the new application has been registered, you will be contacted as part of the public consultation process.
Cuadrilla’s emails withdrawing the applications and setting out their intentions for the site, are available on the County Council’s website – see the above links.
For information, the meeting of the Planning Committee on 19 September 2013 has been cancelled.”
The notification from Cuadrilla
“Dear Mr Elkington
I refer to our recent discussions in connection with the drilling operations at Balcombe and the arrangements to secure an extension of time for the completion of these works. As discussed, we have decided to reassess our programme and, in turn, the terms of our current planning application. Cuadrilla has decided to submit a new planning application for its site at Lower Stumble, Balcombe which will include revised boundary lines showing the extent of the horizontal well which is to be flow tested. The application will cover the same well testing that is in the currently permitted activity, subject to there being no drill stem test, additional drilling or any hydraulic fracturing.
We believe that this approach will provide clear benefits to the County Council and the local residents of Balcombe. The replacement scheme will define the terms of our proposal and will make clear that we do not intend to hydraulically fracture the well during this testing operation. The revised scheme will also provide the opportunity for the county council to consult with interested third parties and further public engagement.
In the circumstances, we now intend to complete all drilling operations in compliance with the extant planning permission and confirm that these works should be completed by mid-September. In any event, the site will be suspended before the expiry of the temporary consent on 27 September. In the interim, we will replace the current section 73 application with a full planning application. As discussed, this will be submitted to the County Council in advance of the expiry of the current planning permission.
I hope that this assists in clarifying our position.
Kind Regards
Chris”
What? No yurts!
[A guest blog post from Gary Liggett]
When Margaret Thatcher’s former press secretary, Sir Bernard Ingham branded people who are concerned about fracking: “blinkered totalitarians, who want us live in yurts and wigwams”, I was somewhat taken aback. [Ref: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2399955/Fracking-protestors-blinkered-totalitarians-want-live-yurts-wigwams-says-Thatchers-press-secretary.html] My immediate reaction was: this description doesn’t fit the many hundreds of people I have met, listened and talked to. Amongst their ranks are businessmen, estate agents – who are too scared to speak out, and many ordinary men, women and young people. Top of the list of their concerns are such things as the safety of the water supply, house prices, noise and pollution from fracking rigs, high volumes of heavy traffic, damage to wildlife and the beautiful countryside on the Fylde Coast. In short, the whole concept of bringing large scale oil and gas exploration within close proximity of local communities and peoples’ homes.
So it was with great interest that I attended the launch of Greenpeace’s campaign in Lancashire, on the Flag Market in Preston. Sir Bernard might be surprised to learn that I didn’t see any lentil-eating, sandal-wearing totalitarians. What I did see were large numbers of ordinary members of the public expressing their concerns and signing up to the campaign: Wrongmove – Lancashire is not for Shale.
The campaign is aimed at targeting local and country councillors, through the democratic process, to wake them up to the fact that beyond their own party lines, there are huge droves of people – ordinary voters, like you and me – who are deeply concerned about the prospect of Lancashire being turned into alarge gas field. This is no exaggeration, because the operating company, Cuadrilla Resources, have plans for around 100 well-pads, each of which would support in the order of 40 wells each. Of course, the backdrop to all of this is the indisputable fact that of the two ‘fracks’ conducted at Cuadrilla’s well at Preese Hall, both resulted in earthquakes and structural damage to peoples’ homes. Indeed, I discussed this very topic with a representative from Cuadrilla, at their recent public meeting in Freckleton. They were in no mood to deny this. One the contrary, they said they had paid compensation on properties they decided warranted it.
It is in that very area of concern that Greenpeace has decided to centre their initial campaign. These are some of the points from their literature:
Experts say that UK shale gas would not reduce your energy bills. Even the company that wants to frack in Lancashire has admitted that the impact would be “basically insignificant.” Meanwhile, shale gas extraction has been linked to reduced house prices.
In respect of the environment, they say steady streams of trucks laden with chemicals, fracking fluids and waste liquids would be travelling to and from drilling sites. In the US, Duke University found that homes within 1km of a fracking site were up to 23 times more likely to have contaminated water.
On the economy they say Cuadrilla is deliberately exaggerating the number of jobs fracking would create. Meanwhile, 88,861 people in the North West are already employed in local green industries. Fracking threatens to undermine this rapidly growing sector.
What can be done about this? You can tell your local councillors that you want to say no to fracking by visiting www.wrongmove.org entering your postcode and sending them an important message that you do not want the UK to become a fracking site.
Public Meeting on Fracking – Tuesday June 25th – 7pm
There will be a public meeting at Lytham Assembly Rooms on Tuesday, 25 June 2013 at 7:00 pm organised by Defend Lytham
They have called it “Fracking – Asking the Questions”
At this meeting there will be a series of short presentations on the background to fracking, the issues that may concern us all, and the current state of regulation around the activity.
After these you will have the opportunity to ask any questions that you may have about fracking.
We think it should be a lively and interesting evening.
We hope you will be able to attend. Please be kind enough to share this information with anyone you think might be interested.
Bribery – a bad misjudgement by the government
It’s fairly obvious that the proposed offer of community bribes wouldn’t be necessary if what was being proposed with fracking wasn’t a bad thing for the area. However, we think that the government may have miscalculated very badly in making it clear that they think they can buy off any opposition.
Say No To Bribery
Consider this story, taken from the book What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets by Michael Sandel.
For years, Switzerland had been trying to find a place to store its radioactive waste…. One location designated as a potential site was the small mountain village of Wolfenschiessen (population 2,100). In 1993, shortly before a referendum on the issue, economists surveyed the residents of the village, asking whether they would vote to accept a nuclear waste repository in their community if the Swiss parliament decided to build it there. Although the facility was widely viewed as an undesirable addition to the neighborhood, a slim majority (51 percent) of residents said they would accept it. Apparently their sense of civic duty outweighed their concern about the risks. Then the economists added a sweetener: suppose parliament proposed building the nuclear waste facility in your community and offered to compensate each resident with an annual monetary payment. Then would you favor it?
The result: support dropped to 25 percent. What’s more, upping the ante didn’t help. When the economists increased the monetary offer, the result was unchanged. The residents stood firm even when offered yearly cash payments as high as $8,700 per person, well in excess of the median monthly income.
It’s a classic example, Sandel writes, of the way that putting a price on something — in this case, civic virtue — can actually change and even destroy it. Apart from the market, accepting the location of the storage site is virtuous; with the market, it’s simple bribery. In fact, “83 percent of those who rejected the monetary proposal explained their opposition by saying they could not be bribed.”
Seeing the way in which grubby politicians like Peter Lilley assume that we are for sale to the highest bidder makes people extremely angry.
We feel that he is judging me by his own dubious standards and we don’t like it.
Let’s make sure that we in the Fylde show we are not for sale either.
If fracking is so wonderful they need to come here to explain why. They need to try to persuade us not to buy us.
We think they know they can’t do that so instead we have the prospect of Conservative party grandees sitting in Whitehall offering grubby little sweeteners in a misplaced attempt to short-circuit the democratic process.
Shame on them!
Post Script – we thought it would be amusing to work out how much it would cost the government each year to try to bribe each and every resident of Fylde, Wyre, Ribble Estuary and Blackpool with a sum equivalent to $8,700. It turns out to be £2.1 TRILLION.
Ignorance is bliss – at least where our potential councillors are concerned
Yesterday we attended the event hosted by Frack Free Fylde at which prospective Lancashire County Councillors from Lytham were quizzed about fracking and their views on it by local people.
Well we say their “views”, but what was depressing and revealing was the lack of interest that most of them professed.
What follows is a personal reflection on what I heard and saw:
Conservative candidate, Tim Ashton appears to have been able to ignore all of the furore over the last year or so as he claimed almost total ignorance of the subject. This is surprising as he sits on Fylde Borough Council so he surely can’t be unaware of FBC’s Task & Finish report on Fracking, and I know he has received the Refracktion newsletter as I delivered it to his house personally. Whilst this “ignorance” might excuse him for not expressing a view, it would suggest a total failure, as councillor currently representing Lytham, to engage with one of the biggest issues which will impact his constituency. He’ll have to forgive me for wondering if his ignorance was real or feigned, as I refuse to believe he is as dim as all that. Cllr Ashton left after the discussions and before the meeting finished, probably secure in the knowledge that as a Conservative candidate in Lytham he doesn’t need to bother over much with such trivial matters to get elected.
Liberal Democrat Carol Gilligan gave a no nonsense more business-like impression, telling us that she was new to all this but wanted to learn, and she wanted to know more about fracking, a subject which she knew little about. I found it hard to credit that she then told us that she lived on Division Lane. If I lived a mile from the fracking well at Anna’s Road then I think I’d have made it my business to learn a little about what fracking is. Again, it was hard to avoid the suspicion that a claim not to know much about the subject was intended to deflect awkward questions about opinions and positions. Perhaps I am being unfair – she did seem genuinely interested and not a little shocked by what she learned. We will have to keep an eye on how her position develops should she get elected.
UKIP prospect Martin Bleeker looked more than a little uncomfortable when confronted with a table of voters. When asked what his position was, he said he was broadly for it because he’d attended a UKIP meeting where Cuadrilla and an anti-fracking group were supposed to debate, but the anti-frackers hadn’t turned up. As a result they only got one side of the story which “they had to believe”. As a result, he says, local UKIP policy is pro-fracking. To be fair to Mr Bleeker he did say at the end of the meeting that he felt his eyes had been opened and that he would go back to his local party and try to persuade them to look more deeply into the issue. We wish him luck. If local UKIP MEP Paul Nuttall is anything to go by he’ll have a thankless task. To give him his due at least he expressed a view, which is what I would expect a councillor to be prepared to do.
Labour candidate Marjorie (Janet) Sherwood had an easier ride. She has already gone public with her opposition to fracking so she was, to an extent, on home territory. She did speak knowledgeably on the topic and had clearly done her homework – The only one of tonight’s candidates to have done so it would appear. She seemed comfortable on the subject and her opposition to it was obviously genuine. It was a relief to see that there is at least some awareness of the issue amongst the candidates.
Finally, Irene Patterson for the Green Party came to speak to us. There is something about the local Green party which makes them a little hard to love. In a world where politics is spin we should all be refreshed to see a less polished presentational style and more substance. The problem last night was that Ms Patterson didn’t give us much of substance and appeared more keen to take credit for having introduce 20mph signs in Lancashire than discussing fracking (and there was me thinking we had Tim Ashton to thank for that particular waste of £9 million).
It is really quite amazing that not a single one of the candidates mentioned any knowledge of the motion that was unanimously passed by Lancashire County Council (to which they all hope to be elected) last December
Lancashire County Council recognises that:
The UK will face energy supply problems in the next few decades which are unlikely to be solved by current efforts to promote renewable sources of energy supply. Moreover, particularly in terms of security of gas supply, the UK is vulnerable to political actions in its sources of overseas supply.
It follows that new sources of energy supply that involve controversial technologies and methods should not be rejected out of hand but be subject to careful scrutiny and regulation. One such process is Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking) of shale type rock to release entrapped gas in commercial quantities.
Unfortunately there are no specific onshore exploration or extraction regulations for natural gas and the offshore regulations developed in the 1990s are not sufficient to address all the issues that arise from moving the process onshore especially in populated areas of Lancashire.
Lancashire County Council welcomes the new controls on seismic activity announced today, but calls on the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change to introduce industry specific regulation of hydraulic fracturing for the UK shale gas industry and to ensure that there are regular on-site inspections by the regulatory body with rigorously enforced regulations and considerable sanctions should any breach of regulations take place. Such industry specific regulation must ensure that local planning control is maintained.
On the way out I heard one member of the audience saying “I despair. Is this what we have the choice of?” (I have edited out a couple of short anglo-saxon words there).
Maybe a bit strong but I do know what she meant.
Anyway, we hope that the candidates will keep in touch and find out more, even if not elected, because they live here and it affects them regardless of whether they end up representing us
An Unwelcome Gift
I was reading Tina Rothery’s blog and came across her notes for last night’s presentation in Lancaster. It struck a real chord, as somebody who has been labelled as an “activist” over the last few days because of my complaint to the ASA about Cuadrilla’s newsletter. I am not an “activist” – that word carries too much baggage. I am a concerned citizen, and I will not stand by doing nothing whilst I see something wrong happening before my eyes. Like Tina , I received an unwelcome gift last year – I can identify with everything she says here.
The Unwelcome Gift
The words matter & the delivery matters ~ these are indicators of non-glossy, bare-naked truth
Where shale gas extraction is happening ~ insurance is nearly impossible to obtain
didn’t I start here? Because I WANTED to believe …and I didn’t want this struggle …to be my reality; I didn’t want this problem to be as big, as ugly and as downright real as it is.
(Ribble Estuary Against Fracking), BIFF (Britain & Ireland Frack
Free), Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, the Green Party, FRACK FREE FYLDE, REFRACKTION, Occupy and so many others throughout not just the UK – but the world.
I find myself in the best of company ~ for the worst of reasons
and political promises – it is impossible to UN-know it.
This ISN’T conspiracy, it is tragic truths and if we don’t act now, in some distant future a glossy brochure will emerge that explains how some other harmful form of energy extraction, is nowhere near as bad as fracking was.
*please act by looking further into this unwelcome gift and doing whatever you personally can to raise awareness in your community, tell your MP and Councillors you don’t want this, join with others, sign up for newsletters, march if you want to, devise your own opposition or unite with others because now you have the truth, there is no going back.
Press Reaction to the ASA ruling on Cuadrilla’s newsletter
It has been interesting to see how far the news of the ASA ruling, which effectively bans Cuadrilla from making certain claims about the safety of fracking, has travelled.
The Guardian was the first paper to publish an article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/apr/24/caudrilla-censured-fracking-safety-claims
Curiously this article suggested (incorrectly) that the ASA had suggested changes to Cuadrilla’s claims
Cuadrilla was also criticised by the ASA for asserting that “we know that hydraulic fracturing does not lead to contamination of the underground aquifer”. That must be changed to: “To ensure that there can be no route for fluid or gas to leak from the shale rock up to the aquifer, we use multiple layers of steel casing sealed by cement.”
That was factually incorrect but the article was sympathetic, pointing out that
The censure by the Advertising Standards Authority will force a significant watering down of some of the company’s claims and is a further blow to Cuadrilla, which has halted fracking at all of its UK sites following a series of setbacks.
Locally the Lancashire Evening Post picked up very quickly on the story
http://www.lep.co.uk/news/business/watchdog-censures-cuadrilla-over-fracking-leaflet-1-5608726
The BBC picked up the article shortly afterwards
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-22284340
and Reuters
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/04/24/uk-cuadrilla-fracking-advertising-idUKBRE93N0PZ20130424
sent it worldwide so we ended up with coverage as far away as Africa!
http://africanoilandgasnews.com/news/uk-cuadrilla-must-tone-down-fracking-safety-claims-uk-watchdog
We were also pleased to see that the Gasland Facebook page picked up on the story.
Here is a sample of the coverage we got elsewhere.
http://www.utilityweek.co.uk/news/news_story.asp?id=198447&title=ASA+orders+shale+gas+fracker+Cuadrilla+to+mind+its+language
http://www.naturalgaseurope.com/cuadrilla-warned-about-exaggerating-safety-claims
http://www.lse.co.uk/FinanceNews.asp?code=pcpscd9v&headline=Cuadrilla_must_tone_down_fracking_safety_claims_UK_watchdog
http://stopfyldefracking.org.uk/latest-news/the-claim-that-cuadrilla-used-proven-safe-technologies-has-not-been-substantiated-asa/
http://www.frackingdigest.co.uk/
Jessica Ernst – Witnessing fracking first hand
Jessica Ernst – Public Meeting
Tomorrow night (Thursday 7th March) there is a meeting where we are going to have the chance to learn from the first hand experience of Jessica Ernst.
Jessica has worked in the oil and gas industry for 30 years and has direct experience of the real impacts of fracking.
After Encana fracked in central Alberta, Jessica Ernst reported so much methane flowing from her kitchen tap that it whistled like a freight train and could be set on fire. Bathing burned her skin.
She is currently suing the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB), the Alberta Environment and Encana for contaminating her water well with methane and other chemicals
Her lawsuit, the first of its kind in Canada, has given Ernst, a shy and private researcher, folk hero status throughout rural communities in Ireland, New York, Michigan, New Brunswick, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Western Canada.
Jessica will tell us what it is like living in a fracking area, how the companies try to buy off the communities and how those communities are hoodwinked into believing that fracking is safe. She will explain how her own well became contaminated during the fracking process. There is plenty of information about her on the web, such as this You Tube clip:
Jessica is only speaking at two venues in England, one in St Annes and the other in Sussex, so we feel very privileged to host her. Jessica is currently in Ireland where she has been visiting potential fracking areas and talking to local communities. Feedback from the meeting in Leitrim was very positive, with one person saying:
“Standing room only for Jessica Ernst last night in Leitrim Village Community Centre, a standing ovation for five minutes, people in shock, a lady in tears. What an honest, brave, funny and terrifying presentation. We salute Jessica Ernst.”
Venue: United Reformed Church, St George’s Rd. St Anne’s FY8 2AE. Thursday 7 March at 19:00
Admission is free, but this meeting is attracting considerable press attention and space is limited – Please arrive early to ensure that you get a place.
All of us in the local groups look forward to welcoming you tomorrow night.
Cuadrilla “information” day
Cuadrilla is about to submit a planning application for horizontal fracturing at Annas Road site, but they say “Before Cuadrilla submits the planning application to Lancashire County Council, the company would like to give residents living in the area around the site an opportunity to find out more about what is involved in the hydraulic fracturing and flow testing process.As part of this, Cuadrilla is holding a Public Information Day on Friday, 1st February, at Pipers Height Caravan Park in Westby, from 16.00 to 20.00, where members of senior management will be on hand to talk with residents on a one-to-one basis.”
Now why can’t they hold these events somewhere where people can get to more easily like Lytham town centre – it’s just as close to Anna’s Road after all.
"What you have to be able to do when you decide you want to hydraulic fracture is make sure there are no faults in the area. That's really very very important"
Professor Mike Stephenson - Director of Science and Technology - British Geological Survey
If you only read one book on fracking this year make it this one!
"Untrustworthy, unbalanced and potentially brain washing." - Amazon Review - Yes the industry hates this book that much :-)
Available as a free download from the Defend Lytham web site Click here to download
Frack Free Lancashire
Preston New Road Action Group
Refracktion
Defend Lytham
Ribble Estuary Against Fracking
Frack Free Fylde
Fracking Free Ireland
Fracking Digest - a summary of the week's news
Frack Free Balcombe Residents Association
Frack Free Sussex
If you would like your group to be added please contact us
