A 3,600 signature petition was handed in to Sefton Council today
Formby residents petition Sefton Council to make area ‘Frack Free’. Today at noon, a group of Formby residents handed in a Petition at Bootle Town Hall containing over 3,600 signatures. The petition calls on the Council to make Sefton a frack-free zone. The Council is expected to debate the petition at its meeting on 25th January, when a spokesperson for Frack Free Formby will address councillors on the issue. A great number of Formby residents and visitors have supported the petition, both in person and online. Recent publicity surrounding Aurora’s intention to build a well pad and drill two exploratory wells near Great Altcar has generated significant support amongst local residents, alarmed at the very real possibility that fracking could now come to Formby.
Online responses are still being accepted, so if residents have not yet had a chance to register their views, they can do so at https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/make-sefton-a-frack-free-zone
The exact wording of the Petition is as follows: “We the undersigned urge Sefton MBC to put an immediate ban on any type of conventional or unconventional oil or gas exploration, to protect our environment and promote renewable energy. We urge the council to make Sefton a frack-free zone.”
Frack Free Formby would like to place on record its gratitude to all those people who took the trouble to sign the Petition.
An energy company has begun a process that could lead to it making an application to drill for shale gas near Formby. Aurora Energy Resources hopes to drill two exploratory wells in Altcar Moss, north of Great Altcar.
It has submitted a scoping request to Lancashire County Council which would identify environmental assessments needed for any planning application. Letters have been sent to residents by the company.
The proposed location (pictured above) is about 850m (0.5 miles) from the nearest properties with residents in West Lancashire being contacted.
Frack Free Formby, is warning against the proposal, arguing that it is an unsafe and unsuitable location. The process would affect a three-mile radius underground, taking it towards areas including Liverpool Road and Formby village, as well as Haskayne and Barton in West Lancs. The request is a pre-cursor to a planning application to begin fracking, a process which is considered unsafe and untested by campaigners.
The new site would see one horizontal drill and one vertical drill placed at Altcar Moss, which is also close to Formby , in Sefton, to explore what shale gas is available below. If the search is successful, a planning application to begin fracking is likely to be placed.
John Wilkinson, a member of the group, argued as well as fears over the safety of underground drilling, which is believed to increase the frequency of earthquakes, there is going to be problems with transport, risks to the ecology and a danger of unsettling older wellsites.
John said: “The first thing to consider is how are you going to get the vehicles. You are going to have to deliver water to the site, the stuff that comes out the pipe will have to be taken away.
"If there’s no gas pipe to connect to then tankers will be needed as well. All those vehicles will have to access it and the most logical way to do that is on the Formby Bypass so you’re talking about a lot of extra heavy traffic in Sefton.”
“We believe that the site that they’re proposing is most inappropriate because of the geological conditions under the ground. There are, or have been, a whole variety of wells that have been drilled over the years - you’ve also got fault lines that run below the shale and these are potential conduits for the ones which haven’t been capped to modern standards and these could make their way to the surface.”
John also argued that as the site is on a flight path for migrating birds who stop to feed on the moss makes the site inappropriate. He says the group is confident that it has strong enough arguments to convince Lancashire County Council not to grant permission in the likely case of a full planning application being placed.
There has now been a petition set up against the application which already has over 550 signatures. You can sign the petition by clicking he link below.
The petition says:
We the undersigned urge Sefton MBC to put an immediate ban on any type of conventional or unconventional oil or gas exploration, to protect our environment and promote renewable energy. We urge the council to make Sefton a frack-free zone.
Ian Roche, Managing Director, Aurora Energy Resources said: “The discovery of shale gas has opened a new chapter in the hydrocarbon story of NW England that stretches back to the discovery of the Formby oil field, almost 80 years ago. The UK will require gas for decades to come and the potential to develop a new source of indigenous supply will bring benefits, both nationally and locally, though the provision of tax revenues, skilled jobs and opportunities for local businesses in the supply chain."
“The UK has a long and exemplary record in the regulation of oil & gas activities both onshore and offshore and residents can be reassured that the proposed activities will be conducted safely and with minimal impact on people or the environment.”
What is fracking?
Fracking is the process of drilling down into the earth before a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside. Water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure which allows the gas to flow out to the head of the well.
There has now been a petition set up against the application which already has over 550 signatures. You can sign the petition by clicking he link below.
The petition says:
We the undersigned urge Sefton MBC to put an immediate ban on any type of conventional or unconventional oil or gas exploration, to protect our environment and promote renewable energy. We urge the council to make Sefton a frack-free zone.
Why is this important?
Unconventional oil and gas extraction (“fracking”) will have an impact on our countryside, climate and local communities. It uses vast quantities of fresh water and chemicals and, as we have seen in America and Australia, this type of extraction has a detrimental impact on our natural resources, the environment, health, noise and air pollution, traffic and local communities. Fracking has also been known to cause earthquakes. The people of Sefton do not want this type of extraction taking place in any part of the borough.
