Call it practical or incredibly cynical but just weeks before a General Election, and days before it loses power, the previously pro-fracking Government has announced a halt to the practice in the UK. A stance already taken by the other main political parties.
It follows a report by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) on the tremors around Cuadrilla's fracking site in Preston New Road, Lancs, which hit 2.9 on the Richter scale. Government Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom said that "After reviewing the OGA's report into recent seismic activity at Preston New Road, it is clear that we cannot rule out future unacceptable impacts on the local community."
The Government has now put a moratorium on fracking "with immediate effect" – but it falls short of an outright ban. Even so, the move has been cautiously welcomed by anti-fracking campaigners...
"Today's announcement of the end of gratuitous government support for fracking is not a moment too soon" says Claire Stephenson from Frack Free Lancashire "Residents are delighted that the fracking industry will no longer receive unlimited favours and free passes from a previously pro-fracking government. Our communities deserve to be put first before big business, and we have battled against this dirty industry for far too long.
"The Oil and Gas Authority have rightly stated that the industry has no ability to predict nor control, seismicity during and after fracking – this was evident after the property-damaging 2.9ML earthquake that hit the Fylde Coast on Bank Holiday Monday on August 23rd 2019" she explains.
"Our position, however, is unchanged: we believe that only an outright ban is appropriate to protect the residents and the communities they live in, and our campaign will actively continue until one is implemented" she adds "With all the other major parties now committed to an outright ban on fracking, the Conservatives are late to the party with their political equivocating over one of the most damaging industries to force themselves into our community. But today, we are celebrating and believe that the fracking industry in the UK is finished."
The news will come as great relief to campaigners in Salford who were expecting another planning application from Ineos to frack in the city. It follows months of concerted campaigning and demonstrations at Barton Moss five years ago, when dozens of people got arrested trying to halt IGas in its fracking tracks.
Susan Holliday, chair of Preston New Action Group, which has joined and initiated similar actions in Lancashire, says: "We cautiously welcome this news of a moratorium, but a total ban would have been even more welcome. The residents of Preston New Road have suffered a great deal over the last three years since Cuadrilla began work at the site. We will only feel able to celebrate once Cuadrilla start work on decommissioning and the site is restored.
"We have said all along that we have been Guinea Pigs for this process, and the experiment has failed, just as it did in 2011 when the last moratorium was put in place: hopefully this time it will not be lifted" she adds "It must be a huge relief for those communities that are currently under the threat of planning applications for fracking, knowing that they will now no longer need to go through what we have."
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