There is now no doubt that the potential harm for any community who are victims of fracking is significant. The evidence from across the world reflect many, in positions of authority, regretting previous decisions and turning away from it. The effect on health; landscapes; property prices and the long term security of the environment have all been identified as significant enough that for many the risk is simply not worth it.
Why the Tory government and the right wing elements of the Labour Party are seemingly supportive has more to do with ideology; pay backs for electoral support; greed and desperation. A long term energy strategy is what is required that minimises damage to populations and the local environment. As this evidenced document Fracking for shale gas and oil demonstrates the road to ruin can be avoided by not swallowing other people’s very questionable agendas and researching thoroughly a topic before looking a fool and ruining it for the others (both now and in the future).
One of many groups across the county (and country) who are attempting to help others to learn are ‘Frack Free Lyme Regis’. A member of this campaign is Tracey West whom amongst a fast growing number locally is passionate about protecting the area from profiteers and dirty great trucks and machines that would become a common part of the locality if the frackers get their way.
Tracey states:
‘All Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Sites of Special Scientific Interest and National Parks in the UK are open for licensing, Lyme Regis was not excluded from David Cameron’s list. Our members are trying to prevent fracking happening outside of the borders and in Lyme, because this extreme extraction process simply shouldn’t be allowed to get a foothold anywhere in the UK. The water chemist in this short film explains the chemical and technical side in layman’s terms and you might find it interesting. If nearby water sources are contaminated beyond repair, our neighbours could potentially be seeking water from our sources in North Devon and that will impact us. Further, the water required to drill one single fracking well would fill 5-10 Olympic sized swimming pools. There are commonly between 10-60 wells per fracking site and the tanker deliveries of water alone per well amount to 1,000-4,000 tanker movements, traffic we do not need on any of our roads. Flare stacks burn the unwanted gasses carrying toxic pollutants well over town and county borders. These are a tiny handful of the reason why I and many other people are exercising our right to oppose fracking both in and around Lyme. This is not an issue that goes away on the Devon border.’
Following an event yesterday (22nd January 2016) in Lyme Regis Tracey went on to summarise their day:
‘It’s fabulous to see so many new folks swelling our number.
Simon and I are just warming our bones again, after having spent a day on Broad Street collecting signatures on our petition to the local and district councils to publicly state their opposition to fracking.
We had an incredible day and stuck with the task, even though the weather first thing was less than welcoming.
Tourists and locals alike queued at some points to sign our petition and the results from our efforts make interesting reading:
We collected 140 signatures.
Approximately 50% of those were Lyme or Dorset residents.
Approximately 20% were residents in the neighbouring counties.
Approximately 2% were tourists from overseas.
The rest were made up from tourists from around the UK.
Around 80% of the signatories saw what we were doing and made a bee line towards the petition.
About 5% were in the, ‘I know a bit about fracking but not enough, tell me more’, camp.
About 5% were, ‘I know about fracking and I don’t believe there is any other way’, but they wanted to engage conversation. Approximately half of them signed the petition before they departed and the rest were happily encouraged to do their own research and were grateful for the discussions we had.
About 10 people completely ignored us when we greeted them and said we were collecting signatures for LRTC and WDDC asking them to oppose fracking and a further 10 waved, smiled and said, ‘That’s great/Not today’ or similar, but didn’t stop to sign.
Only one member of the public was incredibly verbally abusive and ran down the road shouting (I kid you not), ‘How disingenuous you are about fracking, we’ve been fracking for over 60 years at Wytch Farm with no problems! What’s the matter with you? You know nothing!’… which of course we haven’t been – it’s a completely different extraction process there, but unfortunately, despite our best efforts, he only wanted to run down the street shouting his opposition… such is life…
We are enthused and will rise up again another day… for now, it’s a hot chocolate and an early night… x‘
If you would like to join with the locals in Lyme and you are on facebook then this page may be helpful:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/FrackFreeLymeRegis/
There is a meeting on 31st January: https://www.facebook.com/events/909855272438035/ as well as many other events across the county and country.
For those who support fracking please look in to it with an open mind (as with any topic). If you come away still believing you are right then at least you will be able to debate it more successfully.
