A NUMBER of Cotswold residents have contacted the Standard to throw cold water on circulating rumours that fracking could come to the district before long.
Local fracking experts had predicted that the drilling could come to the Cotswolds in as little as six months but others seem less convinced.
Matthew Millett, managing director of the Cotswold Water Park, explained that he has yet to hear of any possibility of fracking coming to the Water Park.
He said: “I haven’t heard of anything to do with fracking. I can only say that if it did come here, I hope it would be safe and measured with a full consultation process beforehand.
“We’d have to wait and then make our minds up before we can see if it would be a good or a bad thing.”
The Standard was also made aware that despite the comment provided by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in our last story, drilling has actually taken place in numerous locations across the Cotswolds.
“I know that Shell have drilled in the Cotswolds when they were looking for oil and gas,” said a retired Shell driller, who chose not to be named.
He said: “You can see on maps that are easily available on the internet that drilling has taken place all over the Cotswolds, a lot of drilling happened in Minety.”
In fact, the drill head from the exploratory drilling in Minety has even been on display at the Wild Duck Inn at Ewen since 1975.
A spokesman for DECC blamed the mistake on the ambiguous definition of areas within the Cotswolds.
The spokesman said: “There may be different definitions of what areas the Cotswolds actually covers.
“Our records show that from Bath to Chipping Camden there has been no previous shale gas exploration drilling and there is no evidence of prospective shales in the area. However, there has been oil and gas drilling but not during the last 20 years.”
The former Shell worker was also quick to dismiss the possibility of fracking in the Cotswolds.
He said: “There are no hydro-carbons in the Cotswolds. There’s nothing there, it’d be like hammering into a concrete block.
“I think a lot of people are firing off on inadequate knowledge.”
A meeting to discuss possible fracking in the Cotswolds by Dr Jonathan Whittaker will take place on Friday, September 27 at 7pm in the Bingham Hall.
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