Lancashire campaigners call for permanent fracking ban

Anti-fracking campaigners in Lancashire have urged the government to fulfil a manifesto pledge to ban the process “for good”.

It comes after the Liberal Democrats committed to outlawing the practice permanently, rather than just maintaining the current moratorium – or temporary halt – that was introduced in 2019 after concerns about fracking-induced earth tremors in Fylde.

The party’s annual conference approved a policy that would ban all new onshore coal, oil and gas exploration and production – which would include shale gas extraction from fracking.

Labour said in its manifesto ahead of last year’s general election that it would implement a permanent fracking ban – but it has yet to be brought into law.

Nick Danby, from Frack Free Lancashire – the group that fought against the fracking site operated off Preston New Road, in Little Plumpton, between 2017 and 2019 – said he hoped Labour would be spurred on by the Lib Dem decision.

“We are very pleased to see this motion passed at the Lib Dem conference. The Labour Party has yet to make good its manifesto commitment to ban fracking and will, hopefully, take note.

“We must move to cleaner and greener energy as a matter of urgency – and we will be pressing this message at all levels of government.”

A Labour Party spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Labour is investing in homegrown clean energy to end our dependence on fossil fuel markets and create the good jobs of the future.

“We listed the ban on onshore wind within 72 hours of taking office – and we will ban fracking for good. “

Pippa Heylings, the Liberal Democrats’ spokesperson for energy security and net zero, described her party’s new policy as “a line in the sand”.

“The Liberal Democrats are stepping up where others row back. We are banning new onshore fossil fuels to protect communities and drive a just transition. While the Reform party turn to fracking, the Conservatives to dwindling fossil fuels and Labour to dithering, we’re making a bold stand for the future.

“Clean energy, community resilience and climate justice aren’t negotiable – they’re overdue.”

At a national level, Reform UK has championed shale gas as an untapped energy source.  However, the ruling Reform group on Lancashire County Council has said it believes local conditions are “not conducive” to the process – and that any return to fracking in the UK would likely be focused on the East of England.

The Conservatives flirted with the idea of reintroducing fracking during Liz Truss’s short-lived premiership, but the party ultimately maintained the nationwide moratorium implemented after drilling at the Little Plumpton site – operated by Cuadrilla – was associated with tremors in the vicinity six years ago.

In the Tory general election manifesto last year, the party committed to “back up” renewables with new gas power stations and also to “annual licensing rounds for oil and gas production from our own North Sea”.

Meanwhile, the Green Party is also committed to a fracking ban.