Draft Onshore Hydraulic Fracturing (Protected Areas) Regulations 2015

Gordon Marsden Excerpts

Tuesday 27th October 2015 General Committees

[Mr Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood, other Lancashire MPs and I are here because we are in the eye of the storm. The impact on our tourism and green spaces, and the lack of confidence that our constituents have, due to the duplicity of the Government, have brought us here today. [Hon. Members: “Hang on.”] No hang on. When the Government were under heavy pressure across the Chamber, the Labour amendments were accepted. They were then nibbled at in the Lords and finally we have what we have today.

The Minister failed to answer any questions about the visual impact of drills around areas of natural beauty, such as the Forest of Bowland, that would be affected. She and others took refuge in the fact that they would be outside. What an enticing vista to welcome visitors and residents to national parks—all the apparatus of fracking. The reality is, as my hon. Friend the Member for City of Chester said, that this is a process that goes on above in the sky and not simply below. We need to go back to the spirit and intention that was agreed by all parties in the Commons on 26 January.

[The Chair]

Order. I apologise to the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood, but I promised the Minister five minutes to wind up.