Fracking site to shut decade after protest clash

An exploratory shale rock drilling site where police clashed with anti-fracking demonstrators has been decommissioned more than a decade later.

Tests were carried out by energy firm IGas at Barton Moss in Salford between 2013 and 2014, while environmental campaigners set up a protest camp nearby.

Successor company Star Energy has announced that the controversial wells at the site, which has not been operational for a decade, will now be plugged and the area will be restored.

Martin Porter, who was part of the Frack Free Manchester group which campaigned against the drilling, said he was "glad that it is now finally over".

Fracking, a technique for extracting gas and oil from shale rock, was banned in 2019 by the UK government, though the embargo was temporarily lifted while Liz Truss was prime minister in 2022.

The method prompted widespread alarm for causing seismic tremors, with 120 recorded at the Cuadrilla fracking site in Blackpool where repeated protests were held.

IGas was granted permission to build a test well and explore the potential energy reserves at Barton Moss in Irlam in 2013.

Groups including Frack Free Manchester sought to disrupt the firm by obstructing lorries and locking themselves onto to the entrance.

Many were arrested by police who clashed with protestors at the site.

Star Energy has confirmed via its 2024 annual accounts that the Barton Moss site, along with other non-operational wells, would be decommissioned.

The company said about £1.1m will be spent to restore the site alongside others in the UK.

Mr Porter said the Frack Free campaign was a "small part of the battle to defeat shale gas, but an important one".

He said: "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."

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