The tide is being sucked out. The ‘Tsunami’ of fracking in the UK is about to begin.
There are presently applications for exploratory wells in Broadfield Bridge, West Sussex, Bramleymoor Lane at Marsh Lane in Derbyshire and Common Road, Harthill in Derbyshire.
Applications for exploratory wells are inextricably linked to future plans for hydraulic fracking of shale gas. These applications cannot be considered in isolation, but as part of a staged process towards eventual fracking.
To consider an exploratory well as a stand-alone development is analogous to considering the development of the foundations of a house separately from the house construction. One inevitably leads to the other when economic viability of the wells dictates such. Profit is the driving force, not people, landscape or future. These companies are not fools, they do not explore gambling their resources, they will drill where they expect to make the most profit. An exploratory well is not a shot in the dark, for them it is a needle into a thick vein of anticipated profit.
At exploratory well phase councillors have a choice. Do you want fracking and the thousands of wells to blight the landscape and potentially poison the water and environment, or do you want to retain a rural idyll for future generations. That is the choice with an exploratory well.
To all councillors we say:
‘ Do not go into the planning application meetings blind to the real meaning of an exploratory well. Once you cut the artery, it bleeds. The landscape will bleed. Is that what you want?
