Green Party wants moratorium against Shropshire drilling applications
The Green Party in Shropshire is calling for a moratorium on planning applications for drilling in the county for coal bed methane and other underground gas supplies.
The party has said more needs to be done to prevent a repeat of plans to drill for gas in a field in Dudleston Heath, near Ellesmere.
A year-long campaign against the plans at Brooklands Farm has been won after developers IGas Energy confirmed they were no longer interested in the site.
Duncan Kerr, a member of Oswestry Town Council who stood for the North Shropshire seat on behalf of the Greens in May, said radical steps needed to be taken to protect the county's green spaces.
"We are not going to sit back now. We want to build on this success and press for a moratorium on fracking and drilling for coal bed methane," he said. "This is not the last we will hear from these companies I am sure. Oswestry sits on a coal bed and there will be those who want to drill for the gas underneath our feet.
"It is not legally binding but if Shropshire announced that it would not allow drilling, it would put the message out there that the county was not interested.
"Energy companies would know that they had a fight on their hands if they wanted to drill here."
Mr Kerr said he now feared that the Government would bring in new legislation to take the question of fracking out of the hands of local authorities.
He said that the campaign calling for a halt to applications being considered would involve the Green Party and other organisations such as Friends of the Earth.
