Shale Gas Development Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities
Alec Shelbrooke
Main Page: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)Department Debates - View all Alec Shelbrooke's debates with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities
Shale Gas Development
Alec Shelbrooke Excerpts(5 years, 6 months ago)
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Mark Menzies
The companies concerned argue that there are substantial reserves of shale gas. The issue, and the difference between the United Kingdom and large swathes of America, is population density. We are not Dakota or rural Pennsylvania, where people can travel for hundreds of miles without seeing a farmhouse.
Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con)
My hon. Friend makes an important point. It is about not just population density, but unique areas. In my constituency, the villages of Allerton Bywater and Great Preston have many unmapped mine shafts. Looking at what is happening in Lancashire with seismic movement, there is a real concern with the exploratory licence that has been granted that, in areas with unmapped mine shafts, seismic movement will cause collapses and sinkholes at the top. Decisions at the local level are, therefore, more important in this kind of planning application.