Tory Sajid Javid gives green light to fracking in Lancashire, despite 18,000 objections
It seems Mr Javid is keen to see Lancashire suffer a few earthquakes.
But the decision isn’t as clean-cut as that. He upheld a decision to disallow fracking at another site, nearby.
So, do the Tories actually have some reasonable criteria stating where fracking may be carried out?
Or is it just that a party donor lives near the other site?
What do we think?
Tory Communities Secretary Sajid Javid has given the go-ahead to fracking in Lancashire, overruling the local council’s decision to block it.
Fracking company Cuadrilla was initially denied permission to drill in Preston New Road, following more than 18,000 objections from locals.
Lancashire County Council blocked the plan over concerns about noise and traffic impact.
But the firm appealed against the decision with former Communities minister Greg Clark stepping in.
Today the Government announced they were to overrule the council, and green-light drilling at the site.
The decision to block drilling at a second site, Rosacre Wood, near Kirkham, was upheld.
Fracking in the UK was suspended in the UK after early drilling in Blackpool caused Earth tremors.
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I firmly believe that if *anything* goes wrong, Javid ought to be held personally responsible.
it wants looking into whether any MP’s have shares in this company or indeed any other connections !!
Remember that this is just one single, isolated incident that’s been highlighted due to it’s controversial nature.
Simply Google “despite objections from locals” and you will see thousands of examples of Local Tory Councils “railroading” through commercial projects but don’t make national headlines.
Has it ever occurred to anyone that the Tory policy of empowering Local Councils is actually a form of outsourcing the responsibility, where like with using private contractors the Government can not only absolve themselves of blame but also keep the publicity at a local, not national level resulting in limiting their exposure ?
This case is simply an exception only because of a Government intervention, otherwise only those in Lancashire would have known and cared about it.
But the council had ruled against fracking.
This is important because Mr Javid overruled the local authority.
So your comment about outsourcing responsibility fails, in this case.
Personally, I don’t think there’s a lot of empowering going on. The Tories have removed councils’ ability to make decisions on a great many matters, simply by cutting funding.
I agree wholeheartedly with what you say, although I did say this case is an exception.
I may be wrong, but I’m basing my opinion upon the actions of my own Tory controlled area who seem to overturn most objections in favour of commercial enterprises.
Building on greenbelt, Replacing Social Services etc with private companies were all strongly objected to but all pleads were ignored.
None of our concerns were brought before Parliament because all of our Councillors and MPs towed the Party line.
Perhaps fracking, making huge holes in the earth, is the Tories way of digging mass graves that people can fall into and be killed…. that way they can say it was accidental, and not a purposefully made mass grave….