Residents in one part of Merseyside are concerned fracking plans just one mile away may still go ahead despite a government halt on the controversial process.
People living in Formby are worried about plans to frack for shale gas at Great Altcar – submitted by energy company Aurora – just a mile from the area and a few miles from Ainsdale, Hightown and Lydiate will cause ‘damage to their health’ and ‘cost jobs’.
In November 2019 the government stopped fracking across England saying it would only allow its resumption if communities and scientists were in favour of it.
But the plans to to drill exploratory wells at Great Altcar in West Lancashire – just 900 metres from the historic Formby Oilfield is not included in the suspension as it didn’t affect fracking processes that were already in.
However, Lancashire County Council sent a statutory letter (regulation 25) to the energy company asking for more information on a number of issues such as:
Formby resident Andree Lynch previously told the LDRS how she worried about the health for the community.
She said: “We need to rally our local community and voice our objections.“This is hugely bad news for the health of our community and our wildlife, and has other very serious implications for the region as a whole. “If fracking comes to Merseyside it will be hugely damaging to our environment and very hard to stop it being rolled out across the region in future.”
