“We are winning” says Green Deputy Leader before visit to Yorkshire fracking site

14 December 2017

Deputy Leader of the Green Party Amelia Womack says that campaigners are winning the fight to stop fracking for good ahead of her visit to the proposed fracking site at Kirby Misperton [1].

A decision to allow fracking to start at the Yorkshire site was expected last month but the Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy Greg Clark, who has faced heavy lobbying from campaigners, has delayed giving the green light.

Womack believes a vital point in the fight to stop fracking across the UK has been reached as momentum is now with environmental protesters.

Womack said:

“To the people on the frontline against fracking in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and across the country I say thank you and just look at what you have achieved. A delay of even a few days or weeks might not seem like a great deal but it is so so important. It shows hesitation on the government’s part. It’s given us more space to make the arguments against fracking. It’s shown that the likes of Third Energy and Cuadrilla who are determined to get rich off the destruction of communities and ecosystems cannot have it all their own way. It shows we are winning.

“We might look back at this moment in future as a time when the tide turned against the frackers. I’m looking forward to thanking you in person and to being with you once again in the fight to stop fracking.”

Both Cuadrilla and Third Energy have faced legal challenges against their attempts to frack in Lancashire and Yorkshire respectively [2]. Local residents have raised concerns that the companies are not carrying out necessary environmental monitoring and in Lancashire the government’s move to force through fracking against the wishes of the local council has caused outrage.

Notes

[1] Amelia Womack will arrive at Kirby Misperton at 12.30pm on 15th December 2017

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/29/campaigners-launch-last-ditch-appeal-to-stop-fracking-in-lancashire

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/09/04/no-uk-fracking-this-year-as-yorkshire-legal-challenge-drags-on/

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