Exxonmobil has been hosting a series of public consultation events across the Isle of Wight as part of its plans for a Solent CO2 Pipeline.
The American multinational oil and gas corporation says the events are for members of the public to meet the pipeline project team, learn about its plans and ask questions.
On Thursday, the firm hosted its sixth consultation event which ran from 10.30am to 5pm at at Shalfleet Village Hall.
Media blackout
No photographs, video recordings or interviews were allowed within the hall’s event space which was filled with exhibition stands laying out pipeline plans.
A large, briefed team of ExxonMobil staff were on hand to speak with visitors.
Thistlewood: Better knowledge of why it’s being proposed
Retired Isle of Wight Council statutory scrutiny officer Paul Thistlewood attended the Shalfleet Village Hall event and described it as “very informative”.
The 67-year-old from Thorness said,
“I know companies get accused of producing glossy brochures – since I’ve been home I’ve been looking through all the plans and reading it more in detail after having the opportunity of discussing it with representatives and it’s given me what I hope is a better knowledge now of what is being proposed and why it’s being proposed.”
Paul did not however think the firm had fully explained what benefits would be accrued to the Island from having pipeline works which he found “slightly disappointing”.
Other meetings
Previous sessions on the Island have taken place in Brighstone, Newport and Yarmouth.
ExxonMobil also had events scheduled in Cowes’ Phoenix Knights Centre on Friday, and Tuesday 3rd September, as well as this Saturday in Niton Village Hall.
The corporation claims over 1,000 people have attended the events so far.
Stuart: “Minimal” material given to the press and no advertising campaign
Councillor Nick Stuart, a staunch opponent of the pipeline who represents Brighstone, Calborne and Shalfleet on the Isle of Wight Council, has attended three of the events.
He said ExxonMobil had made a “very strong effort” to not put out the consultation too much with “minimal” material given to the press and no advertising campaign.
The former civil servant said,
“There are a lot of questions which they are unable to answer.
“They will not answer any questions about the methodology, about the various possibilities for the pipeline routes because those are their decisions.
“They basically won’t give you the criteria by which they chose the pipeline route apart from to say: there were 13 previous ones and for various reasons we decided not to but they won’t actually give you the full, complete criteria under which they selected.
“Fundamentally it does come down to cost and they made it very clear to a number of people in a number of the settings that they just want to drive it across the Isle of Wight.”
Explaining the events at Shalfleet Village Hall, Ralf Rashbrook, ExxonMobil’s Solent Project venture manager, said: “This is part of the development consent order process – we’re running 12 consultation events across the Island and the mainland, of which this is one of them.
“We’re really interested to get feedback from local residents to help us as part of that consultation process, to get that input.
“Ultimately the people who live in the area know more about the area they live in than we do – we’re very keen to get peoples’ views and then to feed into that process as part of that development consent order process to understand which is the most favoured route.”
Find out more about the Solent CO2 Pipeline Project.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may have been made by OnTheWight. Ed
