East Yorkshire residents are holding a march through Beverley town centre on Saturday 5th July to show their opposition to fracking.
Earlier in the month a poll conducted but the local Labour Party highlighted the concerns people in the area have over fracking, and despite calls from residents local councillors have failed to address the issue instead choosing to ignore the views of residents.
The march will congregate at 10.30am outside County Hall and work its way through Beverley. This is a peaceful march to send a message to East Riding County Council that residents don’t want fracking in their area.
This has recently been brought to more peoples attention since the set-up of ‘Community Protection Camps’ outside Walkington and West Newton where the gas company Rathlin are about to start ‘mini fall off tests’.
Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release natural-gas inside, something the prime minister David Cameron is keen to push through.
In this area, it is highly likely that the tests conducted have indicated the presence of gas in the Bowland Shales beneath our villages. Rathlin’s own website states “The Bowland shale is recognised regionally as a source rock for conventional oil or gas reservoirs, as well as a potential unconventional target for shale gas (DECC/BGS Shale Gas Report 2013).”
Rathlin has had the next stage of their actions granted by the Environment Agency and will move on to what they refer to as a ‘Mini Fall Off Test‘. The ‘Mini Fall Off Test’ will involve injecting high-pressure water into the Shale Rock, possibly underneath our houses, to obtain test data to ascertain what pressure the shale fractures at to release gas.
Rathlin have publicly given their ‘assurance’ that THEY will not be fracking. It would seem it is possibly their intention to obtain the test data required to sell their exploration licence onto a larger gas production company. The technique that will be required to release the gas will be HYDRAULIC FRACTURING.
Fracking is highly controversial, because it is polluting. It has polluted water courses and sources, killed trees and live stock, and ruined previously good land. Fracking operations have also adversely affected the health of human beings living in these areas through drinking water pollution.
Rathlin will say that there is no PROVEN link. Chemical testing of polluted aquifers abroad indicates otherwise. Rathlin’s licence area is 241,000 acres in the East Riding of Yorkshire, not just at Walkington.
Rathlin/EA/ Yorkshire Water cannot guarantee water aquifer contamination will not occur.
Concerned residents are encouraged to bring their parents/children/pets along to the educational march and can also sign this petition:
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/east-riding-of-yorkshire-council-oppose-fracking
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