Cuadrilla’s shale gas site, Preston New Road, 12 June 2017. Photo: Lady Bones
People who want to find out more about fracking in the Fylde area of Lancashire are being urged to attend the first town hall-style public meeting on the subject for more than two years.
The event, organised by Fylde resident and oil and gas engineer Mike Hill, comes as Cuadrilla prepares to begin drilling at its Preston New Road shale gas site near Blackpool.
The meeting is described as an information event – not a pro or anti fracking meeting. It is expected to address issues including drilling and fracking techniques, regulations, monitoring of air and water, and consequences for local people.
Mike Hill said he would talk about the fracking process and its history in the Fylde so far. A retired medical consultant will talk about environmental and health issues. The event will also include an extended question and answer session, he said.
Mr Hill said
“With Cuadrilla about to start drilling at the first major test site in the Fylde, there is an urgent need for information.
“There are many questions being asked, about the process, how will the wells be drilled and fracked, what protection do we have, what regulations are in force, how will they be enforced and fracking monitored, and what are the consequences for those who live here, and our air and water.”
Preston New Road shale gas site, Little Plumpton, 31 May 2017. Photo: Frack Free Creators – Knitting Nanas Lancashire
Mr Hill added:
“The meeting is intended largely for those coming to the subject for the first time, and the focus will be on providing facts, not presenting opinion.
“This is a vital issue for our area, and I hope all those who want to take a fact-based and balanced view on this new potential industry in the Fylde will come along.”
He said he particularly hoped people who had moved to the area in the past two years would attend the meeting. He urged people:
“Please come, bring your questions, find out what’s going on and what is likely to happen next”.
Representatives of police, farmers, tourist facilities, supermarkets, churches and schools had been invited, Mr Hill said, along with supporters of fracking from the business community. A number have already confirmed attendance.
More details
The event is on Tuesday 27 June, at the 450-seat Lowther Pavilion Theatre, West Beach, Lytham St Annes FY8 5QQ. Admission is free, doors open at 7pm and the meeting begins at 7.30pm.
Categories: Diary
DRILL OR DROP? 
It would be interesting if no frackers turn up and only the anti frackers show up. It would turn out to be a cult gathering.
What, like the secret cult gatherings behind locked doors the anti anti’s have on a regular basis?
I see dialogue is not in your interests TW. Anyone raising questions can see from your statements that you will seek to shut them down by identifying them as cultists or cranks. That is not going to win them over for sure.
I’ll be reporting on this meeting for DrillOrDrop. I look forward to meeting anyone who is attending. Please come and say hello.
I would have thought SafetyCatch would have started the walk, to attend this event, that whilst a long distance away, she would attempt to get to. Maybe practising and preaching have to be sacrificed for the cause?
Woohooo! Martin silly boy! I didnt know you cared! Actually I thought I would step from one failed and discredited tory/o&g policy to the next, there are enough of those to stretch to the moon and back several times, I’ll probably bump into Rex on the way while he is moongazing and trying to employ the DUP to blow away Neil Armstrong’s bootprints to fit his conspiracy theory that they never went there. And then I’ll probably return powered by the laughter generated by the worlds derision for the autodestructing right wing o&g oligarchy rapidly decaying before our very eyes? Then I will return and bask in the knowledge that people are waking up to lies of the company spies and giving the proverbial middle finger to mr fish finger and lord bucket head, otherwise known as Donald and Boris.
You gonna turn up in your frack gas powered flawed fiasco doing 0 miles to the gaviscon?
[Typo corrected at poster’s request]
TW- yes, you have a point – but my concern is the audience being misled by the anti-frack activists who refuse to be corrected when they make false claims and continue to repeat said false claims even after being publicly corrected… Refraktion – not much point just turning up- I doubt very much that I would be given fair opportunity as a professional chartered geologist from NW England, who has more than 40 years experience on the Bowland,, Sabden and Worston (Hodder)Shales, including mapping them and exploration in Carboniferous rocks in Europe, N. America, etc., . as well as experience in underground containment of gases (including co-ordinating the European Network of Excellence on Co2 storage) as well radioactive waste udnerground storage etc), to talk about fraccing, It seems instead that an engineer (electronic?) who is not even a petroleum engineer is much more authoratitive.. Anyway – the anti-frackers always say they represent the overwhelming view of the people of the Fylde about fraccing, as well as the people of Lancashire. The General Election result on the Fylde suggests otherwise.- Tina Rothery Votes 1, 263 vote_share 2.7%. in the June 2017 General Election. No point posting Mike Hill’s votes in the previous GE.
The usual fear mongering from the “no one loves me” “cant talk, wont talk” brigade, for heavens sake stop keyboard ranting, get there and say your truth and stop moaning and prevaricating about it!
You could always travel in Pauls personal ballotproof humvee and be under the protection of his personal hired bodyguards, otherwise known as the tax payer funded police?
Or you could always turn up, look at the building and leave without talking to the residents “on security grounds”?