SIR – Friends of the Earth write interestingly if worryingly about whether the Government can keep its promises about being on track for green Brexit?

They identify five most important tests to which we must hold:

1.  Whether you are a Leaver or Remainer, 80 per cent of us voted for the protection of our wildlife. We must aim for a healthier UK for people and animals.

2.  Replace all EU environmental laws.

3. Create a watchdog body to enforce laws.

4.  No loophole to lower standards.

5.  Protections for lawful goods and services.

The Government’s legislation is known as the Withdrawal Act.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England urges us to stop the Government from trying to fast-track fracking. 

Seemingly it wants to hand out blanket permission for exploratory drilling for shale gas in England’s countryside and strip local decision-makers and communities of a say on plans to frack.

There are two deeply concerning policy proposals on the table:

1.  To allow the fracking industry to drill exploratory wells without the need to apply for planning permission.

2.  Calls for fracking to be defined as “nationally significant infrastructure”  so it would go though a similar planning consent process to airports and power stations. 

This will severely reduce local control on fracking  leaving national Government with all the cards.

This is a deeply undemocratic attempt by the Government to force fracking in England and it threatens serious long-term consequences for our countryside and in the face of massive local opposition based on well-reported environmental and health risks.

Our landscapes could become an industrial testing ground leading to full-scale fracking, convoys of HGVs thundering down country lanes and unsightly drilling rigs scarring the countryside.

Fracking could damage our environment, climate and health. 

The British Geological Survey states that the process of injecting a cocktail of chemicals underground to fracture rock and release shale gas and oil has the potential to contaminate groundwater. 

In England one third of our drinking water comes from groundwater. 

In the British Medical Journal 20 of the U’Ks leading medical experts have said: “the arguments against fracking on public health grounds are overwhelming”.

The process can also cause earthquakes and  flies in the face of the UK’s legally binding carbon reduction targets.

Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Bulgaria have said a clear NO to fracking.

The British Geological Survey states that the process of injecting a cocktail of chemicals underground to fracture rock and release shale gas and oil has the potential to contaminate groundwater, in England one-third of our drinking water comes from groundwater.

In the British Medical Journal, 20 of the UK’s leading medical experts have said: “the arguments against fracking on public health grounds are overwhelming”.

Wendy Hands

Upton-upon-Severn