12 January 2016
Despite the agreement reached in Paris, there was disappointing news just a few days later, when the UK Government not only voted to allow fracking to take place under national parks, but also announced a new round of licences allowing exploration for unconventional oil and gas sources, including fracking.
These Petroleum Exploration Development Licences (PEDLs) include eleven newly licenced areas in Somerset and Wiltshire. Four of these areas, shown here, lie just to the east of Frome, and include Beckington, Rode, Trowbridge and Warminster. We are extremely concerned at the prospect of fracking taking place in the Mendip area (or anywhere!) as there is growing evidence that fracking causes air pollution, water contamination, toxic and radioactive waste, damage to people's health and an industrialised countryside.
Astonishingly, one of the licence areas in North Somerset covers Hinkley Point, the site of the proposed new nuclear power station, a project which has already been widely lambasted as a hugely expensive folly. We couldn't think of anything more likely to destabilise this white elephant still further than potential seismic events and other effects caused by fracking under the site!
We will continue to campaign against fracking and for clean energy alternatives. Find out more from Frack Free Somerset.
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