The Guardian: Lancashire fracking debate: 'they are changing the laws to suit themselves'

Resting a hand on the shoulder of his nine-year-old daughter, Samantha, John Tootill shakes his head as he gazes over the lush green fields near Lancashire’s Fylde coast that have become the new focus in Britain’s battle over fracking.

“It’s for her and her brother that we’re fighting them, really,” says Tootil, 61, who fears that plans to drill on a number of local sites, in what would be the UK’s biggest round of fracking so far, will destroy his farm and garden nursery business, as well as poison the wider area forever. Such are his concerns that he recently withdrew Samantha and her eight-year-old brother from their local school.

While he and other local campaigners were popping open champagne corks just over a month ago when Lancashire county council rejected a planning application by shale gas explorer Cuadrilla, they are now coming to terms with the prospect of an even greater struggle as the government last week unveiled a new fast-track policy that would strip local authorities of the right to decide fracking applications unless they approve them swiftly.

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