Community Update Meeting on Zoom, 20 October 2020

Community Liaison Panel, March 2020

Well, it had been over a year since the last one but the NPL Group that bought Halite Energy held a Community Liaison Panel in March 2020 to inform the community of the latest news. NPL is investing its own money to start the access road and finalise the consent:
a) so they don't lose the consent; and 
b) because they say this will attract other investors to the scheme.

The current aim is to start building the access road in Preesall (the section between the A588 and Back Lane at some time between March and July 2020 depending on when they finalise the last three requirements for their consent (dust, noise and drainage) and presumably on the Corona Virus. 

The full notes of meeting are here (prepared by NPL/ Halite).
You can see the slides from the meeting here (again prepared by NPL/Halite). 

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Community Liaison Panel January 2019

At the Community Liaison Panel in January 2019, Halite presented its plans for the project development starting with road construction in Preesall from late summer 2019. Attached in the links below are the documents that were distributed including the official notes. 

​NPL background document. 
Halite slides including timeline. 
Halite factsheet on brine discharge. 
Official minutes by Halite. 

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Local Community Meeting 2018

Our last community meeting on the gas storage project was on Friday December 15th 2018 at the Knott End Golf Club. Halite presented information about their new owners, NPL. They also gave an update on their position on the brine outfall, the need for gas storage in the UK and a map of stages of cavern construction. The local community expressed concerns about the safety of the scheme, the brine outfall and the safety of the access road given its proximity to a very unstable brine well. 

Launch of Brine Watch

A group of  marine professionals has been launched to monitor the brine outfall plans in Halite's proposals and to protect the environment. You can follow them on Facebook or contact No Gas Storage who will put you in touch with a representative.

Their current focus is following the Marine Monitoring Group and other monitoring of the brine outfall process and design to minimise harm to marine life and our coast line. 

Meeting with Wyre Council

On 20th March 2018 No Gas Storage met with local councillors and members of the planning team from Wyre Council to discuss the next stages of the development and Wyre's role. Our short report is here.

If you would like to follow Halite's submissions to Wyre Council as part of the Development Consent Order process then you can search for HALDIS on the Wyre planning page. 

Meeting March 2nd:
Flood, roads, noise, safety.

This meeting of local community members looked at the issues of flood risk, traffic and roads, noise and light, and safety, what is in the Development Consent Order on each issue as well as the most recent submissions to Wyre Council and other bodies. 

A list of action points was compiled by the local community to take forward. You can read them here. 

The picture above is a flooded field that will one day potentially be the site of the access road to the project. 

Other 'No Gas Storage' Community Meetings

Our meeting on 19/01/18 was attended by representatives of Halite who answered community questions for over two hours. It was a lively meeting with a lot of passionate debate. Read the full notes here.

Over 100 local community members input their concerns at our meeting on 10/11/17. Read our notes here. 

Our meeting in Fleetwood in December 2017 focused on the brine outfall and fed into our community brief on the issue.

Halite Community Liaison Panel 

We are pleased to be able to participate in the Community Liaison Panel organised by Halite as it is a good source of information for the community. You can find our  notes on the meeting here.

Halite has also published slides on its website here along with notes from a previous meeting.

Although meetings were due quarterly they have been postponed since the summer of 2018 by Halite Energy due to a lack of movement in key areas. 

EVENTS

New Year's Eve "Hike Against Halite", 31st December 2017

17th March 2017

​Film night at Knott End Working Men's Club, 7.30pm.

"Before the Flood" is a great film by Leonardo DiCaprio who travels to the five continents to witness climate change first hand. It was also a chance to catch up on our No Gas Storage campaign too.

September 2016

Preesall Gasfield Walk II

The walk took local people to see the area where the main elements of the £600 million underground gas storage project will be constructed, as well as  sites from Preesall's salt mine past. Thanks to our excellent guide, Nic Fogg as well as Green Party Lancashire County Councillor Gina Dowding, who attended.

July 2016

​Preesall and Knott End Gala

In a time-honoured tradition our community group took part in the Preesall and Knott End Gala.

The  theme was TV. We said "No Big Bang" in Preesall and got second place, as well as the chance the remind local people that this project is still ongoing.... unfortunately....