Anti-fracker serves notice at Number 10

Anti-fracking campaigners have served a legal notice on Prime Minister David Cameron over bids to frack on the Fylde.
Gayzer Frackman serves legal notice on the Prime Minister about health risks of fracking and how legal action will be taken if  Communities minister Greg Clarke allows fracking to go ahead on the Fylde. Also pictured is and Emily Shirley  of SaFE, the Safety in Fossil Fuel Exploitation AllianceGayzer Frackman serves legal notice on the Prime Minister about health risks of fracking and how legal action will be taken if  Communities minister Greg Clarke allows fracking to go ahead on the Fylde. Also pictured is and Emily Shirley  of SaFE, the Safety in Fossil Fuel Exploitation Alliance
Gayzer Frackman serves legal notice on the Prime Minister about health risks of fracking and how legal action will be taken if Communities minister Greg Clarke allows fracking to go ahead on the Fylde. Also pictured is and Emily Shirley of SaFE, the Safety in Fossil Fuel Exploitation Alliance

Lytham resident Gayzer Frackman, who is in the 25th day of a hunger strike protest outside Downing Street, handed in the document at Number 10.

He also handed in a report by Medact which he said highlighted threats to health posed by the controversial shale gas extraction process.

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Mr Frackman, who says his Lytham house was damaged by the fracking-induced earthquakes near Blackpool in 2011, warned that legal action will be pursued should Cuadrilla’s fracking appeals be granted by Communities Secretary Greg Clark.

The energy company appealed against Lancashire County Council’s refusal last June of two bids to frack on fields at Preston New Road near Little Plumpton and at Roseacre Wood.

A six-week appeal hearing was held at Blackpool Football Club earlier this year and a report will be presented by public inspector Wendy McKay to minister Greg Clark in July for him to make a decision.

David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne have both repeatedly stated the Government was supportive of the shale gas industry.

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Mr Frackman said: “I am now entering the fourth week of a hunger strike outside Downing Street.

“My intention is to make the Prime Minister address the dangers this process presents to health, food and farming, our environment, our water and air, and to climate. My ultimate aim is a total ban on fracking. Where fracking is concerned, this Government is blind to science, democracy and the public interest.

“We suspect that the fracking industry has exerted strong influence on Government policy. Cameron has said he is going to make Blackpool the shale capital of Europe.

“We, communities united together, will stop him.”

A spokesman for Cuadrilla said: “No-one should take the conclusions of this Medact report seriously as by its own admission ‘it does not provide a detailed systematic review of the health impacts of different aspects of fracking’.

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“It fails to provide any robust, independent, detailed evidence that exploration for shale gas in the UK cannot be undertaken safely and securely.

“The authors failed to heed warnings by recognised experts of the dangers of incorrectly and inappropriately applying experiences from other countries to the UK; and are at odds with recognised, authoritative experts.”