Fracking starts in Lancashire despite campaigners' blockade

Fracking has begun in Lancashire for the first time in eight years, despite protests by campaigners

Energy firm Cuadrilla confirmed it had started hydraulic fracturing at the Preston New Road site in Little Plumpton today, and activities will continue for three months.

It is the first time fracking has taken place in the UK since 2011, after a moratorium was put in place in response to two minor earthquakes near the same site in Lancashire.

A spokesman for the company said: "Cuadrilla is pleased to confirm that it has started hydraulic fracturing operations at our Preston New Road shale gas exploration site.

"Hydraulic fracturing of both horizontal exploration wells is expected to last three months after which the flow rate of the gas will be tested."

Earlier police closed off the site as about 50 protesters gathered ahead of the start of the process and a team had to cut a man and woman out of a set of tyres which they had apparently cemented their arms into.

And there was a mood of disappointment among activists as their direct action proved fruitless.

Protester Ginette Evans, 60, from Fleetwood, said: "I'm gutted really. It's such a dangerous industry and it shouldn't be here.

"We'll be monitoring the site 24 hours a day. It is definitely not over, it has just got serious. The fight's just really started."

Lancashire Police said two people had been arrested at the site for "wilful disruption of a highway", a 45-year old man of no fixed abode, and a woman from Blackpool, aged 34.

In the direct action, one activist sat on top of a scaffolding structure fixed to a white van in the way of the site entrance, and another attached herself to a weight made of tyres and concrete. Some 50 other people joined in the protest from anti-fracking groups around the country.

The re-starting of activities marks the first test fracturing in the UK since 2011.

Cuadrilla said after their three-month frack, which involves pumping a high-pressure mix of water and chemicals into deep shale rock, they will move to establish if the site is viable for full commercial operations.

And it comes swiftly after a high court battle was thrown out by Mr Justice Supperstone on Friday.

Bob Dennett's application for an injunction asked to prevent the company from fracking over claims that Lancashire County Council's emergency response planning and procedures at the site were inadequate, but the judge ruled there was not a "serious issue" to be tried which would justify an interim order.

And the project's initiation was described as being quite ironically apt, as it falls on the day the government launches its Green Great Britain campaign for environmental awareness, and exactly a week after the release of a new UN report warned of the urgent need to cut emissions to avoid dangerous climate change.

Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth chief executive, said: "The world's leading climate scientists have published findings that couldn't be starker: to have a hope of containing global warming we must take action now.

"Yet, ironically, on the same day the government boldly asks how it can reduce carbon emissions to zero, fracking begins.

"It is morally bankrupt to be heralding the start of a whole new fossil fuel industry when climate catastrophe awaits. You can deal with climate change or you can have fracking - you can't do both."

Green MP for Brighton Caroline Lucas told the BBC's Today programme: "We're giving notice today that his protest is going to go on.

The vast majority of people in the country don't want fracking. The government is trampling over local democracy.

"Lancashire County Council turned the application down. The government's obsession with the "will of the people" soon evaporates when it comes to fracking.

"This is basically a whole new fossil fuel industry at exactly the time scientists are telling us we need to leave around 85 per cent of known fossil fuels in the ground."

Fracking is a "huge distraction from what is needed," she added.

Francis Egan, chief executive of Cuadrilla told the programme: "Natural gas is going to be used in this country for many decades to come. Of course we'd all like not to be using fuels tomorrow but we'd also like to be able to heat our homes and cook our food."

He declined to say how much global warming he would be prepared to see happen, but said it was "ridiculous" that people on the site were being used as guinea pigs.

He added: "There is absolutely no problem living on the site. There is no data to support the assertion that there are difficulties with living near the site."

The UN's Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change launched a new report only two weeks ago bringing forward the dangerous limits of climate change and calling on world leaders to take immediate action to bring global warming under control by 2040.

The extensive list of measures required includes a diverse energy mix of 85 per cent renewables and practically no coal, oil or gas.

The report pushed ministers to engage climate change scientists to advise on setting new targets to achieve zero emissions of greenhouse gases.

Targets currently stand aim for a 80 per cent reduction by 2050 - falling far outside the new UN recommendations.

"On the global stage, the UK is driving forward action on climate change through our work at the UN and with our Commonwealth partners" Prime Minister Theresa May said in a letter to the Climate Change Committee.

"To ensure that we continue to lead from the front, we are asking the experts to advise on targets for net zero emissions."

But the government has meanwhile driven forward with policy's to open up our energy sector, including taking away local authority control on planning applications as it claims fracking is essential to improving our energy independence.

Last week UK energy minister, Claire Perry, said the tight regulations put in place after the Blackpool earthquakes could be relaxed. She said that monitoring systems were “set at an explicitly cautious level," the Guardian reported. "As we gain experience in applying these measures, the trigger levels can be adjusted upwards without compromising the effectiveness of the controls.”

In a statement on Friday, Cuadrilla chief executive Francis Egan said: "We are delighted to be starting our hydraulic fracturing operations as planned.

"We are now commencing the final operational phase to evaluate the commercial potential for a new source of indigenous natural gas in Lancashire.

"If commercially recoverable, this will displace costly imported gas with lower emissions, significant economic benefit and better security of energy supply for the UK."