Migrating pink-footed geese and whooper swans have forced Cuadrilla Resources to beat an unplanned retreat from one of its fracking sites in Lancashire.
Migrating pink-footed geese and whooper swans have forced Cuadrilla Resources to beat an unplanned retreat from one of its fracking sites in Lancashire.
The presence of the birds, which winter in the area, would have prevented the shale gas explorer from drilling at the Anna’s Road site in St Annes between October and March. The company said that it would restore the site, which is surrounded by farmland, to its previous condition.
Anti-fracking campaigners claimed the withdrawal as a victory, after Cuadrilla’s problems at Balcombe in West Sussex over the summer. Last month, the company was forced to suspend operations there after it had failed to follow the correct procedure for consulting on its plans.
Mike Hill, a local chartered engineer who has advised the council in Lancashire on hydraulic fracturing — fracking — and wants regulations to be tightened up, said: “It’s a battle won, but the war is a very long way off.”
Francis Egan, the chief executive of Cuadrilla, insisted that its plans to resume fracking in Lancashire next year had not been blown off course. “We’re looking at a number of possible locations and have decided to rule out Anna’s Road so we can focus on other sites, which we believe show greater potential at this time … we are continuing our site selection assessment and will continue to keep local communities fully informed and engage with them on our plans as they develop.”
Cuadrilla came to national prominence in April 2011 when its fracking near Blackpool — the first to take place
in the UK — set off small earth tremors. This led to a moratorium on the practice, which was lifted in December.
Cuadrilla, with its new partner Centrica, is applying for consent to drill at up to six new sites in the Fylde region of Lancashire, which is famous for its bird life.
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