Salford anti-fracking campaigners were out in force last week to emphatically denounce plans to drill for gas in the area.
‘We don’t need it, we don’t want it, even if it has knobs on,’ was the message delivered by the campaigners who met in Eccles.
National and local campaign groups have pledged to continue stepping up the ante against British company IGas as it plans to start 12 weeks of exploratory drilling in Barton Moss this month .
The groups have cited a serious regional health threat among their major concerns and are dissatisfied with the amount of information being provided.
Helen Rimmer, a spokesperson for Friends of the Earth, said: “The application doesn’t state that they will frack the site but the diagrams in the documentation shows that that they could drill 300 metres into the shale gas area.
“This will go into NORM (Normally Occurring Readioactive Material) which will have possible radioactive risks and would require IGas to have a radioactive permit.”
Miss Rimmer also stated that coal bed mining – which is what IGas would be doing at the Irlam site – is shallower than drilling for shale gas and it could actually increase contamination risks.
However, she said the possible health impact on residents is yet to be fully understood.
“The problem is that we don’t know the effects of that the drilling has. In Australia where there has been mining people reporting skin problems and irritable eyes.”
She also questioned why there was very little focus on these issues when the council first signed the contract with IGas:
“The council made a contract with IGas in 2010 yet nobody even really knew about it or the dangers. It is interesting that the council didn’t draw any attention to it at the time.”
The British company was permitted to explore the possibility of gas extraction in a multimillion pound deal, signed by Salford City Council in 2010.
The council claim that the drilling will provide jobs and could reduce the price of domestic fuel; however, the anti-fracking campaigners suggested the benefits are grossly exaggerated.
The chairman of Greater Manchester Authority Trade Union Association (GMATUC) Stephen Mill said that Manchester doesn’t need the jobs IGas could provide and that the government need to focus on investing in renewable resources so that Britain is ahead of the energy curve.
“I’m approaching this from a purely jobs perspective. Some people are treating fracking as if it’s a life bread and going to create all these jobs,” he said.
“But there’s no need for it, we shouldn’t want it. Whether it’s safe or not, it’s a finite resource. Whether its 20, 30 or 40 years, when it’s all gone we’re left exactly where we are right now.
“We should be focusing on green jobs, not cutting them.”
Judy Paskell from Campaign Against Climate Change in Manchester also questioned the long term sustainability of any benefits.
“One of the main criticisms of campaigns is that fracking can provide us with a good transition fuel.
“However, this is not taking into account what we will have to do in the future. We should be looking ahead and making the most of our natural resources to make renewable energy.”
The company issued a statement saying they intend to keep the local community informed of their future plans for the site and invited residents to ask about the drilling at an open day on September 17.
However, local campaign group ‘Say No to Fracking on Barton Moss’, who protested outside the event at Salford City Stadium, said the company’s responses to residents were unconvincing.
“It was like their staff were just reading off a script. Once you deviated from the questions they couldn’t answer them.”
Campaign manager John Catterall stated that it actually increased support for anti-fracking.
“It was a failure on their part. We stood there all day. Between 5 and 7.30, when people could have come after work, only five people turned up. We gained 25 members. “
The Barton Moss campaign has also received the support of Barbara Keeley, MP for Worsley and Eccles South who has been an outspoken critic of the environmental and economic effects of drilling in the region.
“This isn’t just about Salford. It affects people in Stockport and Leigh. We have been helped by Barbara Keeley but now we need to take this issue further.”
Rachel Thompson, a Salford resident, who arranged the anti-fracking meeting in Eccles said she was overwhelmed by the local and regional turnout, despite giving people a week’s notice.
She said that there has been an application this week to drill in Davyhulme which the protestors will do their utmost to campaign against.
“If IGas thought they would get it easy in the ‘desolate north’ they have a big shock coming.”
For further information see the Say No to Fracking on Barton Moss Facebook page or click here
Image courtesy of Wiki Commons, with thanks
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