KEEP Wiltshire Frack Free (Kwiff) attended the Wiltshire Councils Scrutiny Committee meeting on July 5.

The scrutiny committee are there to examine the council’s existing policies and decide if they need updating/amending. Kwiff were there to highlight to the committee the shortcomings of the minerals policy which is from 2009 and does not include adequate provision for hydrocarbons and fracking. The councillors clearly didn’t want public participation and used the committee rules to obstruct the Kwiff speakers to the point of being rude to them. (A complaint has been lodged.) The vote to revise the policy to include hydrocarbons and to update it was, by a block vote of Conservative councillors, rejected. (It was clear the decision had been made before the meeting.) At this point the conspiracy by the Wiltshire Conservative councillors to pervert the planning process became obvious.

Kwiff had pointed out that in North Yorkshire the reason permission was given against overwhelming public protest was because the council’s mineral policy did not cover fracking, as a result fracking applications have to be passed. The Wiltshire Conservative councillors of course know this and so by deliberately keeping the minerals policy inadequate against fracking they can silence and ignore all local opposition come the day fracking comes to Wiltshire. So your own councillors are more interested in furthering a Westminster agenda than considering the proper protection of Wiltshire citizens. It’s like asking the fox to look after the chickens.

Kwiff research has highlighted the most likely areas in Wiltshire to be fracked. Based on the Wiltshire Council Minerals map 2004, the only area of known coal deposits (for coal bed methane extraction, a form of fracking) within the 40km square licensed block are from Studley Green and West Trowbridge, including Southwick, to Westwood and to Rode, with additional possible deposits north of Westbury around the industrial estate and the Ham.

So, come the day you find a fracking complex next to your house, which will make it worthless, and you and your children’s health deteriorate (there is an established link between increasing sickness and living close to fracking stations), you will know who to thank – your local Conservative councillors. And there won’t be a thing you can do about it legally.

For the more information see keepwiltshirefrackfree.org.

Peter Side, Little London , Heytesbury