Chester Chronicle: Anti-fracking campaigners in Chester and Ellesmere Port clash with council
Cheshire West and Chester Council didn’t ask for environmental impact assessments (EIAs) before granting consent for underground gas drilling near a population centre, a nuclear facility and oil refinery.
Campaigners were aghast on hearing EIAs were not required when permission was granted for coal bed methane (CBM) production at Ince Marshes and Ellesmere Port.
There are fears about possible water contamination and so-called fracking – a process linked to earth tremors in the shale gas industry. Both IGas sites are close to residential areas, the Mersey estuary, the Capenhurst nuclear facility and Essar oil refinery.
Protesters from Upton, Farndon and Malpas gathered at the council HQ in Chester to listen to an all-party working group developing the authority’s policy on unconventional gas extraction.