Overwhelming opposition to the government's plans to expanding fracking across Britain was expressed by interest groups during an official consultation, whose results were released a day after ministers signalled a go-ahead for shale gas drilling around the country.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change's report on the government's Strategic Environmental Assessment of its nationwide fracking plan recorded a wide range of objections, including from bodies such as Public Health England and the Natural England.
In conclusion, the document stated: "An analysis of the responses indicated that a substantial majority were against the licensing plan being adopted because of concerns over environmental effects."
It added that most of those responding to the consultation "did not agree that the report had identified the likely significant effects, [with] concerns centred on the effects on landscape, biodiversity, water resources and traffic."
Public Health England, a part of the Department of Health, said that "the report does not address all of the potentially significant negative environmental and subsequent health impacts that shale gas extraction could have on groundwater if operations are not properly run and regulated."
Natural England, the environmental protection agency, objected on the grounds that no assessment had been made of how the fracking plans affected European laws that protect important habitats.
However, the government rejected these concerns and pushed forward with the plan, briefed out over the weekend, which does not exclude national parks from fracking and has no special protection for wildlife sites of international or national importance.
But this did not affect the government's decision to push on with the plan for "comprehensive exploration" of Britain, with ministers announcing on Monday that it was open to bids from fracking companies to explore large areas of Britain.
That was apparantly qualified by the statement that fracking in national parks would be made more difficult by "new" planning guidance.
However, it has emerged that the new guidance repeats almost word-for-word the safeguards that had already been in place.
The only significant new measure is to empower Communities secretary Eric Pickles to overrule planning authority decisions to either force fracking to go ahead in national parks, or to halt it.
Furthermore, only about 10% of the vast area open for licensing is covered by national park or other protections, leaving the rules covering the remaining 90% of the country where fracking can take place unchanged.
The large areas now open for fracking include 10 of the UK's 13 national parks, 24 of the 31 constituencies of ministers attending Cabinet and all 10 of the UK's largest cities.
One new measure put in place on Monday directs planning authorities to refuse – except in "wholly exceptional circumstances" – permission to frack at World Heritage sites.
The UK has 27 World Heritage sites, including Canterbury Cathedral, the cities of Bath and Edinburgh, Stonehenge and the Houses of Parliament.
Marcus Adams, who lives near Celtique Energie's proposed fracking site in the South Downs national park near Fernhurst in Sussex, said: "The new planning guidance is very little different from what was in there before."
But he said the change in rhetoric from ministers was significant: "This is a recognition that certain areas are much more sensitive than others. I hope this will stiffen the resolve of the South Downs National Park Authority to reject Celtique's proposal."
"Strategic Environmental Assessments should be a tool to build better policy, but to do that the government have to take the responses from others seriously," said Harry Huyton, from the RSPB, another of the groups consulted by the government.
The government rejected the idea of capping to total area of Britain that can be explored for fracking: "This would be likely to reduce the overall impact of the negative environmental effects of activities ... but might reduce the contribution which might otherwise be made to appraisal of petroleum resources."
In January, the government was criticised for quietly pushing through legal changes that meant fracking companies no longer having to inform everyone in an area of their plans, while the removal of the right of someone to use trespass law to object to fracking under their home has also been criticised.
Caroline Lucas, Green party MP, said: "This PR ploy was designed to sweeten the only 'new' news: that half of Britain is, now, open to business for fracking firms. What's clear is that the government is resolved on fracking and while it cares about votes, public interest matters not a jot."
theguardian.com
The Department of Energy and Climate Change's report on the government's Strategic Environmental Assessment of its nationwide fracking plan recorded a wide range of objections, including from bodies such as Public Health England and the Natural England.
In conclusion, the document stated: "An analysis of the responses indicated that a substantial majority were against the licensing plan being adopted because of concerns over environmental effects."
It added that most of those responding to the consultation "did not agree that the report had identified the likely significant effects, [with] concerns centred on the effects on landscape, biodiversity, water resources and traffic."
Public Health England, a part of the Department of Health, said that "the report does not address all of the potentially significant negative environmental and subsequent health impacts that shale gas extraction could have on groundwater if operations are not properly run and regulated."
Natural England, the environmental protection agency, objected on the grounds that no assessment had been made of how the fracking plans affected European laws that protect important habitats.
However, the government rejected these concerns and pushed forward with the plan, briefed out over the weekend, which does not exclude national parks from fracking and has no special protection for wildlife sites of international or national importance.
But this did not affect the government's decision to push on with the plan for "comprehensive exploration" of Britain, with ministers announcing on Monday that it was open to bids from fracking companies to explore large areas of Britain.
That was apparantly qualified by the statement that fracking in national parks would be made more difficult by "new" planning guidance.
However, it has emerged that the new guidance repeats almost word-for-word the safeguards that had already been in place.
The only significant new measure is to empower Communities secretary Eric Pickles to overrule planning authority decisions to either force fracking to go ahead in national parks, or to halt it.
Furthermore, only about 10% of the vast area open for licensing is covered by national park or other protections, leaving the rules covering the remaining 90% of the country where fracking can take place unchanged.
The large areas now open for fracking include 10 of the UK's 13 national parks, 24 of the 31 constituencies of ministers attending Cabinet and all 10 of the UK's largest cities.
One new measure put in place on Monday directs planning authorities to refuse – except in "wholly exceptional circumstances" – permission to frack at World Heritage sites.
The UK has 27 World Heritage sites, including Canterbury Cathedral, the cities of Bath and Edinburgh, Stonehenge and the Houses of Parliament.
Marcus Adams, who lives near Celtique Energie's proposed fracking site in the South Downs national park near Fernhurst in Sussex, said: "The new planning guidance is very little different from what was in there before."
But he said the change in rhetoric from ministers was significant: "This is a recognition that certain areas are much more sensitive than others. I hope this will stiffen the resolve of the South Downs National Park Authority to reject Celtique's proposal."
"Strategic Environmental Assessments should be a tool to build better policy, but to do that the government have to take the responses from others seriously," said Harry Huyton, from the RSPB, another of the groups consulted by the government.
The government rejected the idea of capping to total area of Britain that can be explored for fracking: "This would be likely to reduce the overall impact of the negative environmental effects of activities ... but might reduce the contribution which might otherwise be made to appraisal of petroleum resources."
In January, the government was criticised for quietly pushing through legal changes that meant fracking companies no longer having to inform everyone in an area of their plans, while the removal of the right of someone to use trespass law to object to fracking under their home has also been criticised.
Caroline Lucas, Green party MP, said: "This PR ploy was designed to sweeten the only 'new' news: that half of Britain is, now, open to business for fracking firms. What's clear is that the government is resolved on fracking and while it cares about votes, public interest matters not a jot."
theguardian.com
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