A community  leader for a town impacted by heavy industry has clarified his views after telling a pro-fracking conference he was ‘on their side’.

Cllr Andrew Dawson, who represents Frodsham on Tory-led Cheshire West and Chester Council, was criticised by opponents of shale gas fracking after a YouTube video emerged of him addressing last year’s Shale Gas World conference in supportive terms.

Some residents are concerned IGas Energy has permission for the exploration, extraction and production of coal bed methane gas at Ince Marshes, near Elton, where shale gas has also been discovered.

There are fears the shale gas fracking process could lead to earthquakes or even the contamination of the water supply.

Conservative Cllr Dawson told Shale Gas World delegates: “You guys need to help people like me, who are very much on your side, get it, we actually want to be a team and sell the benefits of your industry and like-industries to the communities.”

The video is no longer publicly accessible.

Earlier this month Cllr Dawson returned to chair the Cheshire session at Shale Gas World 2014  attended by Eddisbury MP Stephen O’Brien and council leader Mike Jones, who were part of a delegation of mainly Tory representatives whose admission was complimentary.

Cllr Dawson told The Chronicle his views were evolving all the time but in general he was ‘a pragmatist’, keen to get the best deal for the community given so many industrial developments had been imposed on the area over the years.

He said: “I’m not pro-fracking. I’m not a cheerleader for it. I’m a councillor for a community that has had loads of inappropriate development forced on it and around it without our views being taken into account. My approach is: stop, get community buy-in, with industry looking after the local community, but the starting point is, if you can’t do it safely, forget it, I’m not interested.”

CWaC has no policy on fracking but is examining the issues through a cross party working group on which Cllr Dawson does not sit. However, fracking opponent Carl Elston told Dee 106.3 Cllr Dawson’s previous comments about wanting to ‘be a team’ with pro-fracking companies did not give him confidence the issue would be treated neutrally.

“That doesn’t look very impartial and very open-minded to me,” he said.