You can help by taking the following actions:
Send Your Objections To Cuadrilla’s Planning Application for Elswick.
Cuadrilla are back!!
After two crushing defeats at the Public Inquiries we hoped that we had heard the last of Cuadrilla. But they are back with another planning application, this time for the Elswick Generation Station off Roseacre Road, a conventional gas well. They want a five year extension for the site. This may seem a fairly innocuous request but it contains a 61 page Planning Statement and a 76 page Transport Plan! The site has been dormant for five years and everything in the new application could have been achieved had Cuadrilla really had the will to do so. So, why? It might be suspected that this is just a front: a smokescreen, a reason to be seen working in this area still. We would urge you to make an objection to this application. Two Public Inquiries pointed out what is obvious to all of us: Elswick and Roseacre Road are not suitable or safe for industrial scale traffic . The number of objections matters so please object to the plans if you are concerned. How? http://planningregister.lancashire.gov.uk/PlanAppDisp.aspx?recno=7425 • by e mail to devcon@lancashire.gov.uk PO Box 100 Full details are available on the planning website under the reference number LCC/2020/006 . Objections need to be with LCC by Friday 14th of February It’s easy! Just tell the committee how you feel about additional traffic going through the village and along Roseacre Road. Remind them of all the traffic problems highlighted in the Public Inquiry: children crossing the roads, school buses, customers at the village shop, the playground, the bowling club, the cars parked on the road and pavement, the sheltered housing, the crumbling Roseacre Road edges, the potholes, the pedestrians and dog walkers, the cyclists, the blind spots, the stables, he accidents and near misses, the flooding, farm vehicles, ……you know best and probably much more. Two Inspectors agreed! And now it’s another extension to a production site in the countryside left idle for over 5 years. Cuadrilla’s last application said it would be restored in 2019. It should have been done. It was not, and now this. Please say “No. I object!”
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And, interestingly and ominously, Cuadrilla has resurrected the idea of taking construction traffic through Elswick village and along Roseacre Road. At times, proposed traffic would be comparable to their plans for fracking traffic for Roseacre Wood!! And if this gets permission, the way would be open to say “we’ve done it once” in any future fracking application.
• online via the LCC planning website at
• or letter to: The Development Management Group
County Hall
Preston
PR1 OLD
Send Your Objections and sign the petition for Altcar Moss.
Notwithstanding the moratorium on issue of OGA permits to frack, Aurora Energy Resources are pressing ahead with their planning application to explore and frack at Altcar Moss! The LCC Development Control Committee could be asked to determine the application as soon as end of March. The Moss Alliance needs your support.
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There are over 700 objections lodged with LCC, please send in your objections if you have not already done so. It doesn’t need to be a long list of objections, just your own concerns.
You can find the application here:
http://planningregister.lancashire.gov.uk/PlanAppDisp.aspx?recno=7359
and comment here:
https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/council/planning/have-your-say-about-a-planning-application/
The application reference is LCC/2019/0037
If you have not already done so, please sign this online petition which will be presented to LCC as part of the objection to the application.
Email your MP Re Fracking-Induced Earthquakes.
About this action
This model email is designed to help you contact your MP and urge them to write to the Minister demanding the full cessation of hydraulic fracturing across Lancashire, following the recent record fracking-induced tremors that have hit many parts of the county.
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Mark Menzies, MP for Fylde, recently wrote to the Minister of State (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) noting “it has become abundantly clear that the Fylde coast is not suitable for the shale gas industry” and “calling for a full cessation of hydraulic fracturing on the Fylde Coast.” Other MPs have made similar statements, including Paul Maynard, MP for Blackpool North and Cleveleys, who called for fracking to remain suspended “until such a time as Cuadrilla is able to operate within the established regulations.”
Now is the time to urge other MPs to follow suit and call on the government to both stand firm on earthquake regulations (the traffic light system) and demand the full cessation of hydraulic fracturing across Lancashire.
What can you do?
If you live or work in Lancashire, you can contact your local MP asking them to write to the Minister of State (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy), Kwasi Kwarteng.
You can use the model email below to write to your MP, or better still, why not ask for a meeting? It can take some time to receive a formal response from an MP so the sooner you contact them, the better. Some MPs hold regular surgeries, while others will meet with constituents on a more ad hoc basis. Ringing the constituency office is a good way to find out when the earliest appointment slot is available.
If you get a response, please share on social media.
Not sure who your MP is?
Enter your postcode here to find out who your MP is and access their contact details.
Model email:
Subject: Please write to government demanding a full cessation of hydraulic fracturing across Lancashire
Dear _____________ MP,
I am writing to you following the record fracking-induced tremors that have hit many parts of Lancashire in recent days. There have been over 100 seismic events since Cuadrilla began fracking their second well earlier this month, with a significant number breaching the 0.5M limit. These were felt as far afield as Blackpool, Lytham St Annes, Preston and Chorley. The UK’s most powerful fracking-induced earth tremor yet hit on 26 August, measuring 2.9 on the Richter scale. This is almost four times bigger than the earthquakes in 2011 at Preese Hall that led to a moratorium on fracking.
This is a worrying development for the local community. Residents are alarmed by the quantity and magnitude of induced seismic activity over a very short time frame and the numerous environmental breaches that have taken place.
We are not a ‘sacrifice zone’ and do not accept any compromise to our welfare. Our environment and well-being must be paramount.
[Add a sentence or two to introduce yourself, explain why you are concerned about this issue or reference any previous contact you have had with your MP. Lobbying emails are more impactful if you personalise them.]
Fracking has already been forced on local communities, accompanied by the promise from government that it would be subject to ‘gold standard’ regulation. The oil and gas industry accepted these limits when they were introduced and didn’t protest until they found late last year that they couldn’t frack profitably within them. The Traffic Light System rules state that fracking must stop if earthquakes reach a magnitude 0.5. However, the Oil and Gas Authority approved Cuadrilla’s recent application to frack a second well at Preston New Road, despite the fact they predicted operations may induce seismic events in excess of this.
The OGA has now rightly suspended fracking at Preston New Road while the recent earthquakes are investigated, but I do not accept that fracking will ever be safe or can be regulated effectively.
I was dismayed to learn that the BEIS has shifted position and recently stated they are now not ruling out a review of the TLS. The government must not give in to industry demands and move the goalposts.
I welcome the recent statement by Fylde MP, Mark Menzies, committing to “writing to Ministers and the Oil and Gas Authority to call for full cessation of the shale gas industry operating on the Fylde Coast.” Other MPs have made similar statements, including Paul Maynard, MP for Blackpool North and Cleveleys, who called for fracking to remain suspended“ until such a time as Cuadrilla is able to operate within the established regulations.” [Or if you are a constituent of either Menzies or Maynard, welcome his statement and ask him to go further by demanding the full cessation of hydraulic fracturing across Lancashire]. I hope more of the MPs in Lancashire can add their voice to this demand that our communities’ welfare is put ahead of the fracking industry.
I urge you to write to the Minister of State (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy), Kwasi Kwarteng, demanding the full cessation of hydraulic fracturing across Lancashire.
I thank you for your support and ask that you keep me informed of any action you take on this matter.
Yours sincerely,
__________________
[Add your address and contact email]
Ask your MP to demand the publication of the suppressed “Implementation Unit Report on Shale Gas”
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The Daily Telegraph revealed on 11 February that the government has suppressed a report which forecasts a dismal future for fracking in the UK, while government ministers have continued to quote reports which now appear to be hugely exaggerated.
Please write to your MP demanding that he or she insists on the immediate publication of this report.
See “Contact your local political representatives” below for details of how to contact your MP.
Sign this petition
“Make Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking) illegal in the UK”
… we all get petition fatigue but this one is important so please sign and share!
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/200307
And this petition too!
“Support Kirby Misperton Protection Camp”
… this one is in response to the astroturfers’ cynical attempt to use 38 Degrees against fracking protest – they really do need teaching a lesson so please sign and share 🙂
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/support-kirby-misperton-protection-camp
Contact your local press
…if you are not happy with their coverage of the fracking debate. The more letters they receive from locals the sooner they will realise that their commercial interest lies as much with those who buy their papers as those who advertise in them. Details below:
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- Blackpool Gazette – letters@blackpoolgazette.co.uk
- Lancashire Evening Post – lepforum@lep.co.uk
- Lancashire Telegraph – lt_letters@nqnw.co.uk
- Lytham St Annes Express – news@lsaexpress.co.uk
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If you have any further contact details we should add here please let us know by email at welcome@frackfreelancashire.org
Contact your local political representatives
…to let them know your feelings about fracking and to influence their position on fracking.
You can find instructions on how to find your representatives and contact them very easily on this page.
Join A Group
For a list of your groups please follow this link