Anti-fracking protesters from across the country are travelling to Greater Manchester to join forces with local campaigners in a mass protest in Eccles this weekend.
Starting at 12.30pm on Sunday, they will march from Salford City Reds Stadium along the cycle path of the A57 Liverpool Road to Barton Moss, where they plan to stage a protest outside the gates of the energy company iGas.
The company have a site off Barton Moss Road and have been given permission to undertake exploratory drilling for shale and methane gas by Salford Council.
A spokesman for Frack Free Greater Manchester, who have who have organised the event, said: “We want to help demonstrate that the fight against exploratory drilling at Barton Moss, which is a precursor to a potential double whammy of fracking for shale gas, and the extraction of coal bed methane by IGas, is strongly opposed.”
Concerns have been raised that the process of fracking can contaminate water supplies and cause earth tremors. Local councillors and academics have condemned plans to drill on the site in Barton Moss, which they say could pose a danger to the area. In the past few weeks, campaign groups have been launched across Greater Manchester in Bolton, Tameside in the past few weeks, with others soon to be established in Wigan, Bury and Rochdale.
The spokesman added: “The protest is a chance to show that the drilling is not only opposed by the permanent protectors at the Barton Moss camp, local Salford residents, environmental activists and others, but by a broad range of individuals and organisations representative of the Greater Manchester population as a whole.”
Image courtesy of Charles Veitch via YouTube, with thanks.
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