Doomsday alert over fracking as minister warns of rectory walls quaking across Middle England if drilling continues

The Tory Minister responsible for fracking has conjured up a chilling image of swathes of rural England shaking with the sound of drills as a result of the drive for shale gas.
Referring to people living in the countryside who have supported fracking, Energy Minister Michael Fallon said at a private meeting in Westminster: ‘We are going to see how thick their rectory walls are, whether they like the flaring at the end of the drive!’
His unguarded comments follow angry protests in Balcombe, Sussex, last week in the first clashes between police and anti-fracking protesters.
And they are in stark contrast to a public statement Mr Fallon made last week when he said claims that fracking will ruin the countryside were ‘nonsense’.
Mr Fallon is a huge enthusiast for fracking, arguing it offers the promise of lower energy bills and millions of pounds in compensation for local communities.
But in the private briefing, he candidly admitted that prosperous homeowners who find fracking on their doorstep in the Tories’  Middle England heartlands could be in for a shock.
Mr Fallon, MP for Sevenoaks in Kent, said that exploratory studies for fracking were already poised to start in the North of England and are set to spread the length and breadth of southern England.
He said: ‘The second area being studied is the Weald. It’s from Dorset all the way along through Hampshire, Sussex, East Sussex, West Sussex, all the way perhaps a bit into Surrey and even into my county of Kent. It’s right there.’

 

He then referred provocatively to support for fracking among what he called the ‘commentariat’ – meaning opinion formers who live in the South East.
‘The beauty of that – please don’t write this down – is that of course it’s underneath the commentariat.
‘All these people writing leaders saying “why don’t they get on with shale?” – we are going to see how thick their rectory walls are, whether they like the flaring at the end of the drive!’

Historic: The rectory owned by David Cameron's father, and where he was bought up

A test drilling site for shale gas near Banks on the outskirts of Southport, Lancashire

Fracking experts have already admitted that the practice could result in flares several feet high  as leaked gas is burned off rather than being allowed to leak into  the atmosphere.
Mr Fallon did not specify to whom his comments referred, but it is thought he meant writer and commentator Charles Moore, biographer of Margaret Thatcher, who lives in a £1.5 million rectory in Etchingham, Sussex, and backs shale gas extraction.

MINISTER'S EXPLOSIVE OUTBURST

'The second area being studied is the Weald. It’s from Dorset all the way along through Hampshire, Sussex, East Sussex, West Sussex, all the way perhaps a bit into Surrey and even into my county of Kent. It’s right there.
‘The beauty of that – please don’t write this down – is that of course it’s underneath the commentariat.
‘All these people writing leaders saying “why don’t they get on with shale?” – we are going to see how thick their rectory walls are, whether they like the flaring at the end of the drive!
'That's where the second great belt of shale is.'

It is 35 miles from Balcombe. Mr Moore is also chairman of the The Rectory Society, which seeks to protect old rectories.
Ironically, David Cameron was brought up in a rectory in Berkshire that belonged to his father.
Mr Moore wrote last month that shale gas is ‘a great advance’ though it was ‘lucky’ that much was in the North where there were ‘not many spoilt rich people to complain’.
But he added that there was said to be ‘lots more under the Sussex Weald where I live’ and he faced having to be ‘true to my beliefs’.
Only last week, Mr Fallon – who lives in a manor house near Sevenoaks – swept aside environmental objections to developing shale gas.
‘Claims that exploration involves ruining the countryside are nonsense,’ he said. ‘A typical shale gas pad is expected to be little larger than a cricket ground.’
He said he had visited a conventional drilling site ‘tucked away in the South Downs National Park, which shows how oil and gas operations can work even in the most sensitive environment’.
Mr Fallon conceded that there was bound to be ‘some disruption’ but said this could be overcome with compensation of £100,000 for each exploratory well site.
Fracking would only be allowed if it was safe and did not damage the environment.
He said that in the US, where fracking is well advanced, ‘there is no evidence of fracking causing any groundwater contamination.’