Fracking could start in North East Derbyshire after PM lifts ban

Campaigners fear for the future of sites such as Marsh Lane, near Eckington, which has previously been granted permission for exploratory drilling, after newly-instated Prime Minister Liz Truss lifted the moratorium, or temporary prohibition, on fracking in a bid to lower energy bills and end the country’s reliance on foreign energy imports.

Councillor Ross Shipman, who leads the Liberal Democrat group at North East Derbyshire District Council, has warned residents that if they ‘don’t stand up now it’s going to be too late’.

“The gas that they’re going to take out is not going to scratch the surface of bringing down energy bills,” he said.

Coun Shipman commented that a large proportion of the shale gas taken from North East Derbyshire by chemical company INEOS would be used to manufacture specialised plastics and would not even go into the National Grid, thus having little to no effect on energy prices.

“First and foremost you’re going to be burning fossil fuels to create these plastics, you’re going to end up with more pollution in the atmosphere,” he continued.

“The traffic movements of these sites are quite large and the vehicles themselves are large – they’re trucks and tankers.”

INEOS was granted permission to carry out exploratory drilling at the Marsh Lane site in 2018, but failed to do so within the allotted three-year time frame.

Coun Shipman warned that if a company was successful in finding shale gas beneath North East Derbyshire it would be likely to expand its operation south.

Carol Hutchinson, of Derbyshire Community Mineral Planning Action Group, which has been formed from members of the various anti-fracking groups to monitor the county’s mineral plan, expressed concerns over the PM’s attitude to fracking.

She said it was unclear whether Ms Truss’s pledge to only carry out fracking ‘where there is a clear public consensus behind it’, meant residents would have a say in the decision or whether it would be left up to councils.

“We have always been concerned at how close it is to people’s properties,” she said.

“One of the main things we have been calling for is a set back distance of more than 500 metres from any person’s home.”

Mrs Hutchinson said the North Yorkshire mineral plan had included this criteria, but she had been ‘disappointed’ to see no such protection had been included in Derbyshire’s draft mineral plan.

“If a precedent has been set we don’t know why that can’t be used in our area,” she commented.

Shale gas fracking involves drilling boreholes into shale rock and pumping a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into them at high pressure to fracture it and release gas or oil.

The decision to prohibit the procedure was made by the Government in 2019 after a scientific study stated ‘unacceptable’ consequences for those living nearby could not be ruled out following tremors near fracking sites in Lancashire.