Cuadrilla Moves In On Planned Lancashire Fracking Site

Contractors (AE Yates Ltd) working for Cuadrilla Resources have moved in on land where it has permission to construct the largest fracking development in the UK. Cuadrilla needs to construct an access road and large frac pad on fields north of Preston New Road before drilling can begin. Local communities are massively opposed to this invasion, which has been force through by central government, and are mobilising to resist.

Cuadrilla’s planning permission is being challenged in court but it clearly assumes that the result is a foregone conclusion. If allowed to happen this one site would be by far the largest fracking development in the UK to date, with 4 horizontal wells which would be hydraulically fractured in 30-45 stages along there lengths. The site would produce millions of gallons of toxic and radioactive waste and would spread a web of impacts across the country.

The good news is that Cuadrilla was hemorrhaging cash before they even started pad construction and need to not only demonstrate the it is technically possible to exploit the Bowland Shale but that it is economically possible in the facing of massive opposition. Without billions more in investor cash this is Cuadrilla’s last stand. Over the last five years communities across the country (and beyond), from Balcombe and Barton Moss to Belcoo and Woodburn Forest, have made sure that the frackers think twice about coming back.

While the scale of the threat here is larger, so is the scale of the potential victory!