Lewes District Council agrees new policy to oppose fracking

At a meeting of the full Lewes District Council on Monday, November 21, co-operative alliance councillors and one Conservative councillor also endorsed the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The council also committed to writing to UK government ministers and local MPs to ask them to maintain the ban on fracking.

Councillor Emily O’Brien, introducing the motion on behalf of Green Party councillors, said: “Fracking is dirty, it's damaging, and it's unpopular.

"Fracking won't help with soaring energy bills as it takes years to make happen. The tiny contributions such activity would make to supplies would have almost no effect on the global markets in which these commodities are traded.

“Yet just last month, the ill-fated Truss-onomics experiment saw the fracking moratorium lifted, paving the way for fracking to restart in Sussex.

“But it's not just fracking, it’s any fossil fuel. We need to keep fossil fuels in the ground. The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative is a campaign for a global treaty to end new fossil fuel exploration and to phase out existing production in line with the global commitment to limit warming to 1.5°C.”

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, is the process by which shale gas and oil is released from deep underground. Water and chemicals are pumped quickly through rocks to release fossil fuels trapped beneath.

There are fracking licences allocated to Balcombe in Mid Sussex, Billingshurst in the Horsham district and Wivelsfield in the East Sussex region.

Fracking was first halted in England in 2019, amid opposition from green groups and concerns about earth tremors.

In September, then Prime Minister Liz Truss stated she would lift the ban on the mining technique, but this decision was reversed by current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

HAVE YOU READ THIS?

Locked up in Sussex: These are some of the criminals jailed in November

One in seven people worried about affording Christmas in Lewes as campaign launched to end hunger

All but one Conservative councillor abstained on the vote, despite the view expressed by councillor O’Brien that not voting for this motion would represent a vote in favour of fracking.

She reasoned: “There is no ban in place, there is a moratorium which can be overturned at any minute. We need to show that we don't accept that.”