ChronicleLive: Fracking Industry Needs to Engage With Affected Communities, Say North East academics

With the UK shale gas industry stuck in the starting blocks a team of North East academics is calling for a new approach which aims to break down the barriers between supporters and opponents.

The new Government is expected to unveil measures to support the development of a UK shale gas industry after previous attempts were scuppered by well-organised protests and nervous local politicians.

Despite getting the approval of planning officers, Cuadrilla’s proposals for a test well at a site in Preston New Road, near Little Plumpton on the Fylde, Lancashire, was thrown out last month, with councillors saying it would lead to the ‘industrialisation of the countryside’.

Condemning a two-metre high shale gas well-head as industrial may well be a moot point, says Prof Richard Davies of Newcastle University, who is the lead in the ReFINE (Researching Fracking in Europe) project which is an independent consortium focusing on research into fracking for shale oil and gas.

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