We thought fracking in England was over after the government banned it in 2019. So the call by more than 30 Conservative MPs, along with the fracking company Cuadrilla, to reopen exploration in Lancashire is disappointing. It is also desperate: a last-minute attempt to use the recent energy crisis to save a dying industry.
And the people of Lancashire won’t stand for it. Nor will other communities threatened by this damaging industry. Neither the company nor this minority of MPs seem to understand how united people are against fracking. It’s telling that nobody who is publicly backing the letter is from an area directly threatened by fracking. Most are from the south, not the “industrial” north, as it is perceived to be. These MPs and their allies are at best misinformed and at worst delusional.
The issue should be settled: fracking isn’t safe, it isn’t sustainable, and it simply isn’t supported, certainly not by local communities and local government. Even former backers like George Osborne have recently said it would have little impact on energy prices or supply.
This is all familiar ground for us. One of the main reasons companies like Cuadrilla are on the back foot – forced to plug their remaining wells in the area and prevented from opening more, lobbying for thin support in Westminster – is the local protest movement that played a huge role in securing the 2019 moratorium.
When Cuadrilla first announced plans to frack in Lancashire in 2014, most people in the community – myself included – had an open mind. I was an ordinary retiree who had never protested about anything in my life. I heard about the proposed gas exploration at the Preston New Road site, just outside Blackpool, and at Roseacre Wood, just 600 metres from my home. I wasn’t necessarily against it at first. There was lots of company PR and plenty of glossy brochures. I resolved to do my own research and make up my own mind – reading papers, speaking to scientists, and contacting the British Geological Survey and other experts.
I realised other residents were also anxious, so we formed the Roseacre Awareness Group that March to share our concerns and let people know what was going on. This led to us contacting other local groups, and we formed an umbrella organisation, Frack Free Lancashire. We really started to understand how much damage fracking could do and became resolute in stopping it.
The thing is, the more you learn about fracking, the more you realise how potentially damaging the effects are, at every level. Locally it’s obvious we would be concerned about the large numbers of HGV vehicles, the noise, the lights, the potential for air and water pollution, along with possible earthquakes. Then we began to realise that there would be cumulative impacts across the whole country. Hundreds of sites and thousands of wells would be needed to have any significant effect on the UK gas market; so that’s hundreds of communities, mainly across the north, that would be affected. Then there’s the impact of fossil fuel projects on climate change, affecting not just the UK but the whole world in terms of carbon emissions. You start to see how important this is in the big picture.
So we fought it on every level. Local people who had never protested before got involved in direct action, holding protests and blocking site entrances. We raised money to support our campaign, producing information leaflets, banners and other materials. We lobbied at every level of government, from parish councils to local planning authorities, targeting MPs directly and even giving written evidence in parliament – including two all-party parliamentary groups on shale gas in 2016 and 2018.
At first we had trouble getting attention, but we were committed, and we kept building more and more local support, holding rallies and public information events. National groups with green credentials, like Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, took an interest and helped our campaigning. Other environment and nature groups like the countryside charity the Campaign to Protect Rural England, the National Trust and the Wildlife Trusts also started to get involved. We made people realise it was the wrong time and place for fracking, and that creating a whole new fossil fuel industry was a move in totally the wrong direction.
And we saw real political change. Lee Rowley, the Conservative MP for North East Derbyshire, openly opposed fracking in his constituency. He told the party in 2018 they could lose seats over it. Our own MP, here in Fylde, is Mark Menzies, as true blue a Conservative as there is, but he agreed Roseacre wasn’t a suitable site. I believe he realised how damaging this could be politically, seeing how many people were opposed and the depth of feeling of local residents. Boris Johnson wants to be seen as green now. At the end of the day they don’t want to lose votes over fracking, and they know they will if they pursue it.
When we won the moratorium in 2019 we were elated. I had a chance to relax and spend time with my family. Fighting fracking and winning had already taken up five years of my life. I was still a bit skeptical. I don’t trust the industry, and I knew they would be trying to convince the government to lift the moratorium.
So I was despondent but not surprised to learn that Cuadrilla is leading the charge to frack again. I want to feel we’re safe, and I want to see a real positive energy policy that will address the climate crisis and bring us net zero. Instead we get a desperate industry clutching at straws, trying to turn back time.
I was especially incensed to see us referred to as “the green blob” by Andrew Neil in the Daily Mail. That’s an insult to all the communities and campaigners who rose up to fight this. But overall, I feel positive. We’ve already won before, and we’ll do it all over again if we have to.
Barbara Richardson is a retired IT professional and a member of Frack Free Lancashire and Roseacre Awareness Group