Left to right: Jim Marsh, and John Tootill with his daughter Samantha. Photograph: Lorne Campbell/Guzelian
NOTE: Ministers in the UK are on the verge of awarding dozens of new shale exploration licenses, opening up around 1,000 square miles of England to the controversial process, according to media reports. Another 100 further licenses – spanning around 5,000 square miles – are also expected to be awarded in a second batch later this year, subject to further environmental consultation. But while the government is pushing forward with plansto fast-track fracking across the UK – including new measures to bypass local communities altogether – support for the process has hit an all-time low and it is unlikely the new plans will be taken lying down by local communities, many of whom are already preparing to dig in and resist the fracking frenzy.
– PopRes
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Resting a hand on the shoulder of his nine-year-old daughter, Samantha, John Tootill shakes his head as he gazes over the lush green fields near Lancashire’s Fylde coast that have become the new focus in Britain’s battle over fracking.
“It’s for her and her brother that we’re fighting them, really,” says Tootil, 61, who fears that plans to drill on a number of local sites, in what would be the UK’s biggest round of fracking so far, will destroy his farm and garden nursery business, as well as poison the wider area forever. Such are his concerns that he recently withdrew Samantha and her eight-year-old brother from their local school.
While he and other local campaigners were popping open champagne corks just over a month ago when Lancashire county council rejected a planning applicationby shale gas explorer Cuadrilla, they are now coming to terms with the prospect of an even greater struggle as the government last week unveiled a new fast-track policy that would strip local authorities of the right to decide fracking applications unless they approve them swiftly.
To Tootill, the government intervention is nothing less than a subversion of democracy: “They are actually changing the laws to suit themselves, to suit the industry and the lobbyists.
“Basically, the democracy that we believe we have is being disregarded just so that they can have their way because they are obsessively pushing for it, almost to the point of a tantrum when they know they are not getting their way.”
Located five miles from Blackpool – its tower can sometimes be glimpsed over the horizon – the site closest to Tootill’s farm is at Preston New Road, near the village of Little Plumpton. Cuadrilla had hoped to drill four wells there and undertake exploratory fracking for shale gas until county councillors rejected the applicationon grounds of visual impact and unacceptable noise.
Counting on the support of an alliance ranging from environmental activists to celebrity supporters such as Vivienne Westwood, locals are now gearing up to resist Cuadrilla’s appeal. They were taken by surprise last week, however, with the issuance of the new planning guidance by a government frustrated at the slow rate of progress of exploratory work intended to pave the way for a US-style “shale gas revolution”.
In future, councils will be strongly encouraged to meet the existing deadline of 16 weeks to approve or reject fracking applications and will be labelled as “underperforming” if they fail to act quickly enough. Greg Clark, the secretary of state for communities, will now systematically be able to call inapplications and decide himself.
Welcoming the changes, Cuadrilla described the current planning process as “unwieldy”, saying: “There is no good reason why an application for a shale gas exploration site should take three to four times longer to determine than an application for a major housing development, a supermarket or a large-scale quarry.”
Under its plans for fracking at Preston New Road, and another Lancashire site – Roseacre – drilling would extend half a mile under the surrounding land to tap into the underground shale beds. Every 30 metres or so along the horizontal wells, water, sand and a lubricant called polyacrylamide will be blasted in at high pressure to fracture the shale and release the gas it contains.
For the first 60 to 90 days after fracking, the gas flow will be burned off in flares that will light up the night sky while its composition is checked. After that, the wells will be plugged into the National Grid.
Judging by the sheer number of anti-fracking signs bearing the red rose of Lancashire on lawns and homes in areas like the Fylde, the issue remains highly contentious politically, even if the constituency remained in Tory hands after May’s election. In addition to fears about ground pollution, local opponents of fracking cite concerns about its impact on tourism and house prices, which the government’s own estimates suggest could drop by as much as 7%.
Still, supporting views exist. At the Eagle and Child Inn a short drive from Little Plumpton, landlord Michael Baines says some heated evening discussions have taken place among his clientele. He believes that fracking would be good for the area, saying: “In the short and medium term there would be jobs, and in the long term it would help to tackle energy-dependence issues around, for example, the oil that Russia pipes to Europe. The anti-fracking side is substantially more vocal, but you always shout loudest if you don’t like something, and I think there are some people from outside who are involved and have quite extreme views. They don’t endear themselves to me.”
Extreme or not, reaching out for help appears to be a priority for local anti-fracking campaigners. Jim Marsh, 69, a retiree in the Plumpton area, tells of receiving support in the last couple of days from Bianca Jagger, among others. He is excited about the prospect of a Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour party, though less so about an Andy Burnham one.
“I wrote to Burnham after he seemed to give us a bit of hope with something he said about fracking, but then his office just sent us this,” he says, showing an email from the MP’s office saying: “It would be more appropriate for you to continue to seek support through your own constituency MP at this stage.”
Patience with the political system appears to be wearing thin. Marsh says: “David Cameron said not so long ago that he believed in localism and it should be up to councils to do it in the democratic way … but when they have done it in the democratic way, this is what they are coming back with.”
While ready to continue fighting in the courts, Tootill is insistent that they won’t just stop there. He says: “We will oppose it by whatever means, because what we’re talking about is the health and safety of our children and their future. It’s exactly the same as if we are fighting an occupying oppressor.
“We’re up against a goliath now, but they’ll find they’re facing many Davids.”