Government moves to persuade councils to support fracking have been condemned as giving them "contradictory roles" and undermining trust in local government decisions, according to anti-fracking campaigners and an MP whose constituency has a site that is being explored for drilling.
The prime minister, David Cameron, announced on a visit to a site close to Gainsborough in Lincolnshire on Monday that councils would be allowed to keep 100% of business rates from fracking operations rather than 50% as before, on top of other local incentives already announced. Cameron said that Britainis "going all out for shale"' as the French oil major Total announced it was taking a 40% share in the drilling operations in the Gainsborough trough.
But Barbara Keeley, the Labour MP Worsley and Eccles South, which includes the Barton Moss site that hasbeenthetargetof major anti-fracking protests , told the Guardian: "To me, it [100% business rates] muddies the water to give councils two contradictory roles. One is a protective role, to check companies have safeguards. On the other hand, you have a cash strapped authority that's lost £100m off its budget, like ours, that gets offered this cash incentive in business rates. The public involved in this, who live near the site, how can they trust the local council will make the right decision on this?"
She also raised concerns about that government had not factored in the policing costs for the controversial extraction method. Sussex police said protests at a Cuadrilla-owned drilling site near Balcombe in West Sussex last summerhadcost more than £3m, and Keeley said Greater Manchester police was spending £40,000 a day on the Salford protests, which have seen dozens of arrests, largely for obstructing a highway. "The process is so controversial, that the policing costs are much, much higher than anything that comes back. The policing side has just not been thought through."
Source: theguardian
