Govt gives the ok to Frack in Lancashire.

I am totally opposed to this fracking lark, until it is known to be 100% safe. USA have had many issues which do not really give confidence.
However, if we need another form of energy I suppose all things have to be considered. Personally, I can see disasters happening at some point. Only after a disaster do things improve to a better standard i.e. Apart from coal mining,I suppose.
Once one or two sites have been given the go ahead, they'll pop up all over the place. The river Dee is also on the mapping, as is masses of Peel Holdings land along the canal, and more.

Open season then, on this green and pleasant land.

I think the problem with fracking is that too many people compare it with the US. Its a completely different operation over there to here, just like coal mining.

Their mines can obliterate huge swathes of land, where ours were a little more inconspicuous.

SO, bringing it closer to home, take a look at this fracking site in nearby Elswick. Its been operating since 1993. Yes, 1993, when it was set up by British Gas.

http://www.cuadrillaresources.com/our-sites/locations/elswick/

There's been no death, destruction or pollution in the 23 years its been operating.

Same with the other fracking site in Warrington.

Much of the protests against fracking is because of the increased road usage, not the pollution. The overturned application was originally denied because:



But the protesters will make any claims to back up their case. They were even saying that the towers would blight the area - totally ignoring the fact that Blackpool Tower and the rollercoaster are huge structures in the vicinity, not forgetting the massive aerials of the Inskip submarine communications base!

Exactly why Cuadrilla bought the site to use it for PR purposes. The Elswick site was nothing to do with fracking--it was a single conventional gas well.

Elswick was initially hydraulically fractured to open up the gas well, many UK onshore wells have been hydraulically fractured (about 200) and its even more common in offshore wells.

Those opposed to fracking are of the same mind set as those who walked ahead of motor cars with a red flag in the early 1900.

Ah ha - then its all right for us to use fuel from other countries to power our cars, planes (and don't tell me the people of Little Plumpton never fly or own cars), our industry, and as a raw material for all sorts of materials we use - so anything plastic, drugs, etc etc. So using their resources, polluting their countries - you ever seen how Shell behaved in Nigeria?

And why all the fuss about fracking- its basically the same approach used to get all the oil out of the ground anyway. Its only the naive who think that you drill a hole in the ground and the oil magically appears - all sorts of other process very similar to fracking are used

Its about time we became a bit more self sufficient in our use of fuel, whilst of course doing as much as we can to build alternatives and be more efficient, but those things are a long way off being efficient.

Totally agree, if Russia (who we are trying our best to piss off) pulls the plug we are in trouble.

This is the problem with the media and the national anti-frack campaigners, they distort the truth.

The main opposition was because of increased traffic, traffic noise and lorries:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-35522919

A few years ago there were massive protests in Balcombe, with protesters descending on the site from across the UK:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-23547861

According to this official Parish council document:

https://balcombeparishcouncil.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/121020-letter-to-wscc.pdf

850 households received the poll document.

And according to this official Parish council document:

https://balcombeparishcouncil.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/fracking-poll-results.pdf

only 284 polling cards had been returned.

If it's such an important issue to the people of Balcombe you'd have thought more than a third of the people would have responded.

And the top result for why people were against the Fracking was because of an "Increase in road traffic through the village".

If you use electricity it's production has inconvenienced someone, somewhere, somehow. If you don't use it then you are entitled to drip about it being produced via a site near you. Just a thought.

Well the General elections are an important issue more so, but look at the low turnouts.