A fracking company is to appeal Cheshire West and Chester Council’s decision to vote down its plan to ‘flow test’ an existing well in Ellesmere Port .
Protesters were delighted when planning committee members refused the IGas application targeting Portside North by 10 votes to one back in January.
They feared consent would have meant a step in the direction of shale gas production with all the associated concerns around fracking such as pollution, health and earth tremors.
But the council decision went against the advice of their professional planning and legal officers leading IGas to believe it would have a strong case at appeal.
In a brief statement to investors, IGas said yesterday (July 25): “IGas today announces that it has now lodged an appeal against the decision made by Cheshire West and Chester Council’s planning and licensing Committee, on 25th January 2018, to refuse planning consent for routine tests on a rock formation encountered in the Ellesmere Port-1 well, drilled in late 2014.”
Meanwhile, IGas has been holding public consultation events at Elton with the intention of eventually seeking planning permission for Cheshire West’s first and highly controversial fracking site at Ince Marshes to assess ‘flow potential’.
The fracking debate
Back in 2012 IGas estimated more than nine trillion cubic feet of shale gas at the Ince Marshes site and other North West sites – the equivalent of 1,600 million barrels of oil.
Frack Free Upton said in a recent newsletter: ”We have not heard anything on this application since the IGas open day on the 6th June. Hopefully the Ellesmere Port application was good experience for us, and we are well prepared for the Ince application when it does appear. You may recall this is for several new wells at the same site (no upper number specified) inclusive of fracking and flow testing.”
