Here's what I said to the NYCC planning committee at Northallerton last Friday:
‘ I
live in Knaresborough, but I’m speaking to pass on the views of the many people
in Boroughbridge with whom I spoke whilst standing as a Green candidate
for Harrogate Borough Council before the election earlier this month.
The vast majority of those I spoke with are against fracking.
It’s clear that if the precautionary principle were to be adhered to, the risks
are far too high to go ahead, since cleaning up a contaminated underground
water system is impossible when the chemicals used for fracking are
carcinogenic at parts per billion.
To
say we can trust regulation in the UK is laughable: I attended the Minerals and
Waste Action Plan Joint Health and Transport scrutiny meeting here on January
22nd where elected members questioned the agencies responsible for
regulation of fracking – agencies such as the Environment Agency, the Health
and Safety Executive, and Yorkshire Water. What was completely
clear at that meeting was that the ‘responsible agencies’ were not at all
confident that they could regulate this secretive, dangerous, deep and dirty
industry. Those ‘responsible agencies’ have been severely cut and
do not have the capacity or scope to do the job of regulation – especially when
they would be under immense pressure from a government determined to frack
Yorkshire.
The
image that came to my mind was of rabbits in the headlights – each pointing at
the others – passing the buck. So much for much-vaunted
regulation! ‘
