Methane gas drilling in Shropshire 'bonkers'

More than 100 people packed into the Miners' Institute in St Martins near Oswestry last night, to hear from those against fracking and other forms of unconventional methane extraction.

They heard from Kevin Walsh, from the Geological Society, who talked about the international objections to coal bed methane extraction and the effect that it could have on climate change.

"It we don't cut back on using carbon and fossil fuel by the time we reach the year 2080, temperatures could rise by five per cent and we could lose 40 per cent of species in the world," Mr Walsh claimed.

He also talked about the geology of north Shropshire and the potential effect on the area.

He said the aquifer of the area, that supplied water to the community and to the farmers could be affected.

"Groundwater abstracted from the land is used to supply farms close to the borehole at Dudleston," Mr Walsh said.

"We also know that the best seams to look for coal bed methane are thick seams and we know that this seam here in St Martins are not thick seams.

"It would be absolutely bonkers to look for coal bed methane here," he said.

"We are in a village that had the biggest coal mine in Shropshire.

"Ifton only closed in 1968. Methane is dangerous."

He added: "In nearby Gresford Colliery in 1934 260 miners lost their lives because of methane."

There were warnings from another speaker, Mr Chris Hesketh, who lives in Dudleston and is one of the leading lights in the Frack Free Dudleston organisation.

He said that because the coal seam at St Martin was higher than at Dudleston there could be dangers from subsidence.

"Ifton Colliery the biggest in Shropshire now all flooded. Dart wants to pump two million gallons out of the vertical borehole , hoping that it will not interfere with that flooded colliery.

"There are plenty of other options for energy and other countries are going for them. The UK is instead going for a different method of extraction fossil fuels.

"There will only be about 10 years or so of this method of fuel but the consequences will be with us for centuries.

"Other options such as tidal energy can provide energy forever. Many farmers signed up to this before there was available evidence for the downside of this extraction.

"We don't want others to be hoodwinked into signing up to this."

St Martins resident, Ron Jones said he would have liked to have heard from the Dart Company.

"This seems to be a very one sided presentation to me," he said.

Parish councillor, Sue Schofield said whatever the views about the drilling, she was worried about the lorries that would travel to and from the borehole as the road from Criftins to St Martins was the most direct to the main traffic routes.

The meeting was told that between 500 and 1,000 lorries would be needed during the exploratory drilling.