Balcombe parish council was contacted by letter in January 2010 by the West Sussex County Council planning officer, informing them that if no comments to the planning application were received, ''it will be assumed that the Parish Council has no objection''
In March after a reminder, the Parish Council clerk confirmed that ''the matter was discussed at the last regular meeting''''and there was NO objection''. There is no record of any ''discussion'' in the minutes of the Balcombe Parish Council for February 2010. Only a fleeting reference was made after a debate on an application for a carport, a short sentence noting that Simon Greenwood, a parish councilor, ''mentioned'' a recent application at a site off London Road.
This appears to be all that was said about the Cuadrilla application. This cannot in any way be construed as ''public consultation''? There was NO vote and no declaration of interest from Mr Greenwood, who stood to earn thousands of pounds from Cuadrilla.
This whole application process reads like something from The Vicar Of Dibley, with Mr Greenwood becoming David Horton.But there are lessons that can be learned from this and they are that you MUST follow the application process of fracking companies ALL THE WAY, until you know that they havent been given permission.
For Cuadrilla to say they have been given ''lawful'' right to drill there is stretching the word ''lawful'' to its farthest limit, a more fitting description might have been ''we have duped the people of Balcombe, by promising to handsomely reward a member of their own Parish Council who helped us to hoodwink his own Parish, so that we now have permission to drill'' If this is how Cuadrilla conduct their business they do not deserve to be in business and huge shame on them for their shabby underhand treachery of the people of Balcombe, that they will NEVER forget what they have done to them and from this point on NOBODY else will either.
As one we join with Balcombe in saying to Cuadrilla ''FRACK OFF OUT OF BALCOMBE, FRACK OFF OUT OF THE UK!
Go here for the full story
http://www.private-eye.co.uk/sections.php?section_link=news&
Comments