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Unanimous support for Cherwell fracking ban
19/10/2022
Councillors demonstrate the “reckless activity” isn’t wanted here
The Cherwell District has been declared a ‘no fracking zone’. A motion proposing the council take an official stance against the process was put forward by Labour Councillor Matt Hodgson at Monday night’s full council meeting.
He told the meeting that fracking was known to have caused pollution in water supplies in America alongside earthquakes there and here in the UK.
Councillor Hodgson also pointed out anything which increased the extraction of gasses which could add more methane into the atmosphere also went against the Council’s green targets.
Fracking involves injecting large quantities of water, together with sand and other substances at high pressure into bedrock in order to force open fissures to extract the shale gas that is trapped between them.
Fracking was banned in 2019 by the Conservative government as part of the manifesto which saw Boris Johnson elected as Prime Minister. In recent weeks new Prime Minister Liz Truss has indicated that developers could be given permission for fracking “where there is local support”.
Councillor Hodgson said: “As Cherwell District Council declared a climate emergency in 2019, and published the Climate Action Framework in 2020, which includes statements on moving towards net-zero carbon by 2030, there is no logical reason for the Council to support this reckless activity.
“Yet, we now have a Prime Minister who believes fracking is fine again and has reversed the decision to ban it. Inexplicably so when investment in renewals is both more cost effective in the long term and, need I really say it, much, much better for the environment. It is inexplicable that any government anywhere in the world should be considering such wanton environmental and climatic destruction at this point in our human evolution.”
The Council’s Conservative Leader Barry Wood said his group were happy to support the motion, noting the banning of fracking had been a promise made when his party was re-elected to power.
The motion was passed unanimously.
Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam