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Petition to the Rt Hon Alok Sharma, July 2020

PicturePhotocredit Pete Godfrey, with thanks.














​Nearly 3,500 of you signed our petition to the Rt Hon Alok Sharma MP, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to ask him to review Halite's project for underground gas storage in July 2020 - Halite's 5th Anniversary of being granted the Development Consent Order. 

We received a detailed reply from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy that although they believe there is no grounds to review the project at the present time, there is going to be a Habitats Regulation Assessment of the area due to the extension of the Liverpool Bay Special Protection Area (SPA), that will include public consultation. This will be a good opportunity for us to voice our concerns about the dangers to our marine life. Issues related to the question of the legal start and whether enough was done by Halite Energy Ltd can be followed up with our local council.


The reply states that the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 requires that where a new Natura 2000 nature conservation site is put forward, certain existing consents must be reviewed to ensure that they take into account the protection afforded to the new site. BEIS is currently undertaking a Special Protection Area (“SPA”) Review of Consents which will include reviewing the implications of the extension of the Liverpool Bay SPA. At the conclusion of this review BEIS (as the competent authority) may affirm, modify or revoke the existing consents. The review will take the form of a Habitats Regulations Assessments (HRA). During the Review of Consents, BEIS officials will undertake formal public consultations which will enable interested parties to comment. Concerns that the developer may not have done sufficient works to keep the permission valid are a matter for Wyre Council to consider. For BEIS, the order may only be reviewed without the developer’s consent in the very limited circumstances of the development breaching certain legal requirements or if there were other exceptional circumstances. The points we raised in our letter were considered, but at this time the Minister, on behalf of the Secretary of State, does not consider that either of these circumstances have been met and will not therefore revisit or review the consented development consent. 

​You can find the petition on change.org here. 


​Petition UK Parliament, January to June 2018

Debate effect of pumping out brine at Fleetwood on marine life and livelihoods


We needed 10,000 signatures to receive an answer from the government. In the end we received nearly 3,000 which sadly wasn't enough. Thanks for all your support. Our petition can be found here.
​


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​Petition to the EU Parliamentary Petitions Committee
ACCESS TO JUSTICE IN ENVIRONMENTAL DECISION MAKING

The Development Consent Order was approved in July 2015. Local inhabitants are the ones who know the land best, who know it is not suitable and who have to live with the impacts of this decision.Many people had grave concerns but the only option that the local community had to appeal was through judicial review. A judicial review would have enabled us to appeal how the decision was taken but not the decision itself. There was a very short time period of 6 weeks for appeal and the costs of putting in an appeal were prohibitive for local people with no access to influential backers or time to fundraise to challenge what was a quick and unexpected decision for the whole community. In addition, people who bring a legal challenge unsuccessfully might face having to pay the costs of the winner, which could be even more substantial. 

The UK government has trumpeted its policy of localism – empowering local communities and making planning more democratic. There have also been specific provisions introduced to ensure that local communities have the final say in onshore wind power developments. This, however, does not apply in nationally important infrastructure project, such as underground gas storage, which are linked to the government’s policy on gas which it has described as “central” to an energy secure future.
 
The residents of Preesall and Wyre now find themselves in the absurd situation of being able to have a final say in any onshore wind farm development that may be proposed in the area, but having no effective ability to appeal a decision to store 19 caverns of a hazardous substance, in land local people know to be unstable, that will have a significant impact on the environment and their communities, less than half a mile from their homes. 

We wrote to the European Parliament Committee on Petitions in February 2016 to ask them to look into the judicial review procedures in environmental decision making in the UK as we believe it is unfair. A full text of the petition is here:
 
/uploads/7/5/5/2/75524523/annex_1_access_to_justice_in_environmental_decision_making_full_text.pdf

The UK of course voted to leave the European Union in June 2016 and the terms of our exit are still unclear. For now, the petition is being processed as we are currently still members of the EU.

We received notification in November 2016 that the issue is admissable. The Committee has requested that the European Commission conduct a preliminary investigation into the matter. ​
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  • HOME
  • About
    • DECISION
    • Contact
  • OUR CAMPAIGN
    • Meetings and Events
    • Stoned Love
    • Petitions Past
  • MONITORING
    • Wyre
    • BRINE OUTFALL
    • Flood Risk
  • Blog
  • HOW TO HELP