The battle to stop shale gas exploration (fracking) on Barton Moss, Irlam, City of Salford has finally come to an end.
Star Energy (formerly called IGas) announced yesterday that it has decommissioned its well and will begin restoration work this year.
Over the winter of 2013/4 Barton Moss was the site of dramatic confrontations between protesters, who had set up a temporary camp on the moss, and police as IGas carried out exploratory drilling. Hundreds of arrests were made as protesters, who called themselves Water Protectors, obstructed IGas operations by ‘slow walking’ in front of lorries entering and leaving the site, and by the use of ‘lock ons’ to block the entrance.
Environmentalists opposed fracking because the gas contributes to climate change, and because fracking usually takes place in rural environments and leads to increased noise and traffic, and the risk of air and water pollution.
In 2015 Lancashire County Council voted against allowing Cuadrilla Resources to frack at Preston New Road, near Blackpool. The decision was overturned by the government in 2016, but after fracking caused earth tremors in 2019 the government announced an ‘indefinite suspension’ of fracking. In October 2019 Prime Minister Liz Truss tried to bring fracking back, but the backlash against the bill brought her brief premiership to an end.
In April 2024 veterans of the campaign on Barton Moss had a reunion on the site
Amongst those attending was Ann Power, now 90 years old, who in 2014 won the Observer Ethical Award for her part in the campaign.
Martin Porter, who was the press coordinator for Frack Free Greater Manchester during the campaign, said “Fracking on Barton Moss was defeated by the brave protectors who camped out in some of the worst weather imaginable, but they were sustained by local people who were outraged that their community was to be sacrificed for a new and dangerous fossil fuel.
“The campaign was a small part of the battle to defeat shale gas, but an important one. The campaigners who ended fracking in Lancashire learnt their trade by coming to Barton Moss, and the brave councillors who voted against Cuadrilla did so after seeing our campaign on their TVs. When the camp left in 2014 we had won. Public opinion was behind us and the Greater Manchester mayor was speaking out against shale gas. But I am still glad that it is now finally over. Barton Moss has already returned to nature. The future is renewable energy.”
