JR Ewing 'if you can't get in the front door, just go around to the back'

Last edited 19 December 2013 at 12:18pm
19 December, 2013

Government changes to planning laws so companies can frack under people’s homes without telling them doesn’t change the fact this is unlawful if the landowner later says no, says Greenpeace. 

 Planning minister Nick Boles announced yesterday that fracking firms will be able to drill for gas and oil under peoples’ homes without notifying the owner personally, because telling them would be too burdensome.

 “Let’s be very clear about this – landowners can say no to fracking under their land,” said Greenpeace’s Anna Jones. “There is a difference between planning laws, which the Government is changing to pave the way for wholesale fracking across England, and common law, under which drilling is unlawful under people’s homes without their consent.(1)

 “Over 22,000 people around the country are now signed up to Greenpeace’s  fracking legal block (2) to do just that. Many will go to court if necessary to defend their property rights.”

Nearly 2,000 people have joined the legal block in the last 48 hours, since the Government announced plans to frack two thirds of England.(3)

 “JR Ewing once said: ‘if you can't get in the front door, just go around to the back’,” said Anna Jones. “And that is exactly what the Government is trying to do – hope no one notices that fracking companies are firing chemicals and water at high pressure into the ground beneath their homes.

 “But communities are switched on to where drilling is planned locally and they do not want it going on under their land. Who would? Even Energy Minister Michael Fallon would not answer the question on Tuesday as to whether he’d want it under his home.”

 “I met with one of the landowners affected by fracking plans in Fernhurst, West Sussex the other day, and he described the Government’s behaviour as ‘almost Stanlinesque’. Communities are not going to stand by and allow multinational drilling companies to exploit them like this.”

ENDS.

For more information contact Kathy Cumming on 07801212959

(1)    The Supreme Court held in 2010 in Bocardo SA v Star Energy [2010] UKSC 35; [2011] 1 AC 380 that these rights apply when someone wants to drill underneath your land

(2)    www.wrongmove.org and press release from launch: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/press-releases/greenpeace-launches-nationwide-legal-block-fracking-20131010

(3)    http://news.sky.com/story/1184042/fracking-plans-for-two-thirds-of-england

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