At last week’s full council meeting, members considered and voted upon a motion to keep the Isle of Wight ‘Fracking Free’.
The motion put forward by Labour councillor, Geoff Lumley, read,
Council agrees to declare the whole of the Isle of Wight to be a Fracking Free area.
Whilst planning applications must be considered on their merits, we agree that our policies on this subject need to be developed to ensure Members can respond to any future proposals in line with this general position.
Concern for urban areas
Cllr Lumley pointed out in greener areas of the Island that weren’t in SSSI or AONB areas, there were concerns from residents that Fracking could go ahead. He said he was joined by others with concerns about the environmental impact and safety concerns of Fracking.
Cllr Lumley said he felt it was irresponsible of the Government to encourage and promote massive investment in Fracking, when, he said, “the clear message from climate scientists is that we need to reduce carbon emissions to protect our long-term future”.
He said, “It’s time we set out our general position to help our members of the Planning Committee.”
Pre-determination concerns
Chair of the Planning Committee, Cllr Julia Baker-Smith, expressed her concerns that declaring the entire Island Frack Free would be seen as taking a line of pre-determination.
She suggested an amendment to the motion (that “This council agrees that our policies on fracking need to be developed to ensure members can respond to any future proposals in line with the general position”) would remove any risk of pre-determination. Cllr Lumley refused to accept the amendment, so Cllr Baker-Smith urged members of the Planning Committee to “think carefully about the first line in the motion before any pre-determination occurs”.
Setting up the council for judicial review
These concerns were echoed by the leader of the council, Cllr Jonathan Bacon, who said he was concerned “we’d need a much bigger legal department with the path we’re going down this evening”.
Having already made a public statement on Fracking, he said he couldn’t abide the idea of Fracking on the Island. However, he said the wording of Cllr Lumley’s motion showed clear pre-determination and was setting up the council for judicial review.
The vote
Cllr Lumley said he felt that people were “twisting a little bit to get out of making a clear statement”. Adding that other councils up and down the country were passing similar motions, “all the time”.
The motion did not gain enough votes to be passed, eight members voted in favour, eight against and 12 abstained. The Chairman, Cllr Ian Ward, had the casting vote and voted against the motion.
For: Cllrs Blezzard, Fuller, Gilbey, Hillard, Hollands, Lumley, Priest and Stephens.
Against: Cllrs Bertie, Bloomfield, Eccles, Hollis, Howe, Hutchinson, Pitcher, Warlow and Ward.
Abstained: Cllrs Bacon, Baker-Smith, Barry, Downer, Medland, Nicholson, Persk, Seely, Smart, Stubbings, Whiteby-Smith and Whittle.
Petition against Fracking
A petition to Stop Fracking on the Isle of Wight is currently gaining support over on the 38 Degrees Website. At time of publishing it had 1,445 signatures.
Image: posterboynyc under CC BY 2.0
