Fracking in Audlem?

The Parish Council has been made aware that Audlem is one of the areas which may be subject to exploration for hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking.

You may remember an AudlemOnline report of the Audlem History Society meeting on February 19th 2015, where Professor Peter Styles, Geophysics Professor at Keele University, stated that "the shale deposits under Audlem were too deep and therefore too hot to develop", but clearly this does not mean that fracking won't take place here.

A list of 132 areas included in the 14th Onshore Oil and Gas Licensing Round was issued by the Oil and Gas Authority, part of the Department for Energy and Climate Change, yesterday. These areas will be awarded licences for oil and gas exploration, subject to further environmental assessment and conditions to protect wildlife and habitats.

One of these areas (Block SJ64) covers Audlem, Buerton, Hankelow, Lightwood Green, Burleydam, Aston, Wrenbury Heath, Sound, Stapeley, Walgherton and Hatherton.

Other parts of Cheshire that are included are the areas around Nantwich, Crewe, Alsager, Sandbach, Knutsford, Middlewich, Winsford and Northwich.

This is a consultation document issued by the Government which is seeking comments on the proposals. Any comments have to be received by 29th September 2015. There are two questions posed in the document. These are:

• "Do you have any comments on the Habitats Regulations Assessment carried out for the 14th onshore oil and gas licensing round?"
• "Do you have any comments on the assessments carried out for individual licence Blocks? (You may wish to comment on more than one Block.) Please provide the reference for the Block you are commenting on (e.g. SJ64)"

The proposals allow for:

• Non-intrusive exploration, including site identification, selection, characterisation and seismic surveys;
• Exploration drilling, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of some exploration wells and seismic monitoring
• Production development, including facility construction and installation, hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and possibly re-fracturing and the provision of pipeline connections.
• Production, operation and maintenance including gas/oil production, production and disposal of wastes/emissions and environmental monitoring.

The Parish Council has already contacted our Ward Councillor Rachel Bailey, seeking further information and will be considering its response to the proposals at the next meeting on September 7th.

Residents are urged to look at the document, which can be found here.

Information about how to respond can be found under 'General Information' here.

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