LIB DEMS SLAM FRACKING PLANS AS "AN ATTACK ON DEMOCRACY"

Posted by Robert Banks | Updated 2016-02-08

Lib Dems slam Tory fracking plans as "attack on democracy"

Following the leaking of government plans to take decisions over fracking sites away from the hands of local councils, Sarah Osborne, Leader of the Lewes District Council Lib Dem Group said:

"Just six weeks after Lewes Tory MP Maria Caulfield voted to allow fracking in National Parks, we now know that the Conservative government doesn't want local people to have a say at all. Their plans to remove the decision from local councils is nothing short of an attack on democracy".

"Fracking poses environmental risks to groundwater quality, waste and air emissions, and health and biodiversity and to the geological integrity of the areas involved. These are risks likely to be exacerbated by the Conservative government’s cost-cutting and deregulatory approach to compliance with environmental standards." said Cllr Vic Ient, a keen environmentalist.

"Why are the Tories so keen to allow fracking and mess up our planet but at the same time close down the Lib Dem initiatives on Renewable Energy just when we were turning the corner on replacing polluting CO2 fuels with green energy sources?" Cllr Ient asked.

"Local Lib Dems are also alarmed by the Tory government’s premature withdrawal of support for the renewable industries that is now undermining the UK’s climate change commitments which we signed up to in December 2015." Cllr Osborne added.

ENDS.

Notes to editors: A document leaked at the weekend has confirmed Ministers plan to take decisions over fracking sites away from the hands of local councils - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/energy/fracking/12130801/Ministers-plot-to-foil-anti-frackers.html

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