by Emma Biginelli Macchia, reporter

 

Fracking operations have been temporarily shut down in Lancashire after earth tremors were detected.

The seismic activity started a little more than a week after the government decided to start fracking again.

The energy firm Cuadrilla started the operations last week, after the High Court ruled there was no evidence to show fracking posed more than a “medium risk”.

The drilling began despite an attempt by Reclaim the Power activists and protesters to blockade the entrance to the site.

It’s the first time in the UK since fracking was banned in 2011.

But along with the drilling, earth tremors have started too. The town of Blackpool has been hit by at least 5 earthquakes just days after the start of the operations in the area.

The Green Party has launched an appeal calling for people to send their objections to MPs. Clive Gregory, PPC for Rochester and Strood, said that the government decision was dreadful, as well as their attempt at trashing local democracy.

Clive Gregory, PPC for Rochester and Strood, said that the government decision was dreadful.

He said: “It’s an opportunity lost. The whole problem we have at the

moment is that instead of embracing renewable energy we go on persisting on pursuing these tired and outdates modes of energy production.”

He also said that the government’s reaction to the protests showed their willingness to trash people’s local rights: “It just shows the establishment power to just ride roughshod over any local interest whatsoever.”

Andrew Haggart, principal lecturer in Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Greenwich, said that the only right thing we could do was focus on renewable energy sources.

He said: “Shale gas is a fossil fuel and so we’re putting more carbon into the atmosphere, which is not a good thing.”