Lytham St Annes Express: Gas firm ‘pleased’ despite protestors

HUNDREDS of people packed into a St Annes centre when a controversial shale gas drilling firm staged its first public information event on its activities in Fylde.

Cuadrilla Resources’ invited folk to the Church Road Centre on Saturday - the first of three planned events.

The company has sites in Singleton, Weeton and Westby and has just unveiled plans to carry out a geophysical survey of the Fylde to detect where best to drill.

The firm has been slammed for its fracking process – pumping water under-ground at high speed to fracture the rock and release gas.

Outside, members of Residents Action on Fylde Fracking (Raff) handed out leaflets and asked people to sign a petition against further development at the sites.

The group’s Ian Roberts, of Hope Street, St Annes, said: “Our fear is there is no over arching scrutiny of this process, we want more expert input before anything is allowed to proceed which could damage our local environment.

“People are worried about pollution and tremors, and none of the people we’ve spoken to seem to have left this information day feeling reassured.”

Fracking at the sites is currently suspended while an investigation into local earth tremors is conducted by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC).  MORE