Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Haringey goes frack-free
At the Full Council meeting last night 24 March, Haringey council declared its opposition to fracking in the borough, following a deputation from local Friends of the Earth supporters.
Speaking in reply to the deputation, cabinet member for climate change Councillor Joe Goldberg announced that the council would oppose fracking, and ask its planning officers to adopt appropriate measures in its planning policy. “Fracking will do nothing to reduce our carbon consumption” councillor Goldberg said, “it’s being promoted by a government that abandoned a carbon reduction target in the last Energy Bill. We will commit to saying to to fracking, we will work up the policies needed, and we will use any means necessary to prevent fracking in Haringey”.
Leading the deputation, local Friends of the Earth supporter Quentin Given pointed out that the government’s own map of potential fracking areas includes most of the borough, south of a line between Coldfall Wood and Markfield Park and so encompassing most of Muswell Hill, all of Hornsey and Harringay, and south Tottenham. “If we’re going to prevent catastrophic climate change we have to get used to the idea of leaving fossil fuels where they are – in the ground. Fracking might seem unlikely in Haringey – but you only need a small site to drill from. Mayor Boris has called for London to leave no stone unturned to frack everywhere. Let’s make it impossible. If enough councils say no to fracking, investors will take their money away from fracking and invest in something more benign”.
Fracking is the popular name given to the extraction of shale gas by deep drilling, and pumping down water under pressure to create fractures in the rock (hence “fracking”) and driving the gas upwards.
For more info contact:
Quentin Given
Co-ordinator
Tottenham & Wood Green Friends of the Earth
75 Kessock Close
N17 9PW
0208 801 9490
07946 535656
www.foe.co.uk/tottenhamwoodgreen
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dave on
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I'd like them to ban slacking as well. A slack - free council would be very nice indeed.
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I think we'd all like to see better HMO enforcement. Can I also take this opportunity to correct my own typing above - Councillor Goldberg said "We will commit to saying no to fracking" .
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Amazing the council can stop fracking by big powerful companies but when it comes to simple HMOs, unscrupulous landlords and satellite dishes blighting our areas, they simply can't be bothered.
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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That's a no brainer Richard- they can happily do this because there is pretty much no land left in the borough to build the multiple fracking sights needed- certainly there will not be after the latest 20 year housing plan goes through. Oh, except playgrounds and parks & the odd large garden.
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Permalink Reply by Martin Ball on
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Well said Quentin. Yes, we should be protecting Haringey's environment from fracking. But am I the only person surprised that Cllr Goldberg and Haringey Council are on-side on this issue?
He is the 'chancellor' of the Council that is aggressively renting out Finsbury Park to commercial concert organisers. As well as being part of the Council leadership that is happy to propose building on green space across the borough and plonking skyscrapers next to parks.
I am also struck by how hostile he is to fracking exploitation of Haringey while opening the area to plunder by international property developers.
Cllr Goldberg's support on fracking is welcome. But his position would be more creditable if the Council stopped policies that damage our green environment now and threaten it in the future.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Your views sound slightly conservative... Joe is a member of the Labour Party. I completely agree that something is not right here but the thing that feels not right is his opposition to Fracking. More cheap energy for the workers! Up the workers!
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Er, it wouldn't be cheap energy - even the pro-frackers are admitting it won't have much effect on gas prices.
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Permalink Reply by Lydia R on
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Oh god--listening to the Council pontificating about saving the environment is like listening to Jimmy S. urging us to give more to Charity. If the Great Environmentalists are so bothered about saving the Earth, maybe they should stop all this concreting over green spaces, as in St. Ann's and other parks, or allowing building companies to erect huge ugly skyscrapers in the already crowded Wards Corner.
After that, Oh Great Environmentalists, look to the children and the elderly in your care.
The only objection to fracking would be that it has the potential seriously to disturb the subsoil and cause property damage. I am not referring to Aunty Ethel's wedding present being shaken off the mantelpiece but to substantial structural problems that can make dwellings unsafe and cause dangerously uneven pavements. We all know how well the Council manage the pavements round here, even without fracking.
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Actually subsidence is not the only possible objection to fracking, as even five minutes' research would tell you - many communities in America and Australia have been devastated by the water, ground and air pollution it often causes. If Haringey have said they are against it, that's good in my view. To be cynical, they must be aware that the Tory/Liberal government is intending to ride roughshod over opposition to fracking if they can; they are already reducing the scope for local planning control and public enquiries and have just announced that they will change the law so that people cannot take advantage of the law on trespass to block fracking under their properties - so on a formal level the Council probably know that to a large extent it won't be in their hands, to choose to frack or not to frack in Haringey. I am sure that mass popular opposition will be the only thing to stop fracking anywhere, and if it comes to it, people who don't want to see it in Haringey will be able to call on the Council to honour their pledge and help oppose it. More immediately, yes, let's oppose the reckless plans for encouraging property developers to take over community assets and put up probably poor quality and expensive housing for their own profits, rather than carefully planned social housing with lots of green spaces nearby, which might actually be useful.
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