Freelance writer and author, member of the campaign groups East Kent Against Fracking and Mothers Against Fracking.  She also sits on the Environment Committee of Kent’s Campaign for Protection of Rural England.

Edited transcript of her presentation

In 2013, Mr Williams’ company, Coastal Oil and Gas submitted applications for exploratory drilling in Kent. East Kent Against Fracking fought a fierce campaign, with local people, but also with the Kent Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, whose hydrogeologist, Graham Warren highlighted a particular threat to local water. Now Graham Warren is highly respected. He worked with the Environment Agency for almost 30 years and in his opinion there was a risk of the irreversible contamination of the aquifer which serves up to 70% of our county’s water.

When pressed, finally, by the Environment Agency, as to how this copany could protect that vital they actually withdrew their applications and went off to collate the information.

So here’s a question, if Mr Williams has the answer as to how he can drill and protect that resource why has he not submitted that information to the Environment Agency in the last year?

And here’s another question: If so many people had not campaigned against those applications would Coastal Oil and Gas be drilling right now?

It is my belief and that of many others that they would. But believing isn’t enough. And I’m not here tonight to deal in the un-knowables. Campaigners against fracking are often accused by our government of putting forward an emotional argument. We are labelled by the media as a bunch of irrational eco-freaks. But actually we are purely a microcosm of society in general and if you were to go to any campaign fracking meeting up and down the country you would find lawyers, teachers, factory workers, engineers, and also politicians. On EKAF’s committee in that campaign, we had two councillors, the Green that you might expect but also a Conservative. And what joins us together is very simple. It is common commitment to fight this industry on the facts, before it takes hold, because once it does, I promise you, it will be too late.

So why do we oppose fracking? Precisely because of the knowables: the facts that are so often shamelessly skewed and distorted by the government and the industry to support the government’s overriding commitment to shale.

Not too long ago, I actually heard Professor Stevens here at a debate repeat at statement that had been put forward continuously by the former Energy Minister, Michael Fallon, that 200 wells had been safely fracking in this country. Here we go again. The fact is, that is a disingenuous statement. Those 200 fracks were non-shale fracks that took place in conventional wells. The unconventional gas and oil industry is concerned with slick water high pressure hydraulic fracturing – HVHF. Those 200 fracks are not at all comparable to what is going on with this industry. That is a fact. I have the letter from the Department of Energy and Climate Change to show that.

That shale is going to safely act as a bridge across an energy gap to renewables is also unknowable. The simple fact is that it is not known how much shale gas is producible. It is also not know how much of it is safely accessible. Why? Because it hasn’t yet happened.

DECC also confirmed the only place in the UK that has experienced HVHF in Lancashire when in 2011 it caused two seismic events. That caused damage to part of the well but it also led to a suspension of fracking in this country until very recently. That hiatus caused many people to research the quite frankly omni-shambles of Cuadrilla’s operation there. But also for the rest of us to lift the veneer from the government’s case for fracking and to find it wanting. Really, that is all you have to do.

The government insists that what’s required is a proper debate to inform ill-informed campaigners like myself and many others. But the simple fact is that they neither initiate that debate nor do they participate in it when it is provided like tonight. Where is the Energy Minister, Matthew Hancock or anyone from the All Party Parliamentary Group on shale? The sad fact is that when invited to attend public debates, they are never anywhere to be found. Ask yourselves why.

And here’s another knowable. The majority of people in this country did not vote for David Cameron. They did not vote for Clegg. They certainly did not vote for fracking. But we live in a democracy so our voice will always be heard, we think. But 99% of the respondents to the DECC consultation recently objected to the government’s plans to drill beneath our homes without our consent. Those objections were ignored. The bill is going through the House of Lords right now.

The knowables of this industry have emerged very clearly from every single country where HVHF has taken place. “No air and water contamination from fracking”. Tell that to the 6,000 people listed on the Pennsylvania Clear Water Alliance List of the Harmed. Tell that to the Parr family in Texas, who fought and won $2.9m in damages this year from Aruba.

In American and Australia at the moment you will hear the term “sacrifice zones”, referring to the areas that are totally given over to these companies. Where are the sacrifice zones going to be in this country? Blackpool?

We are labelled conspiracy theorists but the government is conspiring to deny you the truth of fracking. Why else were there so many redactions to the DEFRA report recently on the negative effects of drilling on house prices.

The fact is if you live near a fracking site expect your property to lose its value. Expect noxious fumes, air pollution, water contamination, heavy truck movements and subsidence. And as to waste water, the billions of gallons that emerge from these wells which require treatment for radioactive materials and salinity, Dr Jim Marshall, of Water UK, said this year: “We have no facilities to deal with this. The risk is unquantifiable.

In the words of the UN toxins expert, Dr Marianne Lloyd-Smith: “You can regulate fracking to make it safer but you cannot make it safe.”

I challenge the pro speakers tonight to guarantee for us all that this industry will not be toxic. They cannot do it. I say stand up for the most important things you will ever have: your health, your family, your homes, your environment, tell Mr Williams and the government tonight and the rest of this industry that we are not for shale or CBM.