Shropshire included on UK fracking map
Large swathes of Shropshire have been identified as potential fracking areas in a new Government report.
A new 'road map' for shale oil and gas developers has suggested much of the county would be suitable for the controversial drilling process.
Fracking, the extraction of gas from shale deposits deep underground, is popular in former coal seam areas from Pennsylvania in the USA to Poland.
A report produced by consultancy Amec has listed the Meres and Mosses area - stretching from Shrewsbury up thorough north Shropshire and up to Cheshire in the north, Wrexham in the west and central Staffordshire in the far east - as a potential area for exploration.
The Oswestry Uplands area has also been included on the road map.
The Government is pushing fracking as a potential way for the UK to generate energy in the future.
In August, Environment Secretary and North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson said he could see "no reason" why the county could not benefit from the process.
But a Shropshire Star poll found more than 80 per cent of those who were responded were against the idea of fracking taking place in the county.
Friends of the Earth today hit out at the Government road map, saying it "casts a dark shadow" over many communities who may become home to fracking sites.
But energy minister Michael Fallon today said that widespread shale gas production across the country is an "exciting prospect" that could create thousands of jobs and plough almost £1 billion back to local communities.
Local economies would benefit from receiving an initial contribution of £100,000 per hydraulically fractured site. They could then receive a further one per cent of the revenue of each well over its lifetime.
The Government is also predicted up to 32,000 jobs could potentially be created by shale gas production, which would be likely to reach a large-scale in the 2020s.
Star comment: Openness is only way for debate on fracking
