Fracking is bad, photo by Casey Hugelfink (Creatvie Commons)

Fracking is bad, photo by Casey Hugelfink (Creatvie Commons)   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Elaine Evans, Chesterfield Socialist Party

“No fracking way” was the chant by the hundreds of people from groups all over Derbyshire and Yorkshire at the end of a three-mile march between Clowne and Bolsover on 24 February.

Even nearby Sherwood Forest and Clumber Park, which have huge numbers of visitors who come to enjoy the beautiful countryside, are threatened. The National Trust is resisting seismic testing, stating fracking company Ineos had not considered the environmental impact.

Fracking is very unpopular with the public, forcing Derbyshire council to recently refuse planning permission for a 60-metre-tall rig to drill a bore hole to take samples of shale rock.

In these former coal mining communities, there are solar farms and wind farms appearing that are providing clean energy with none of the harmful waste that fracking produces. Renewable energy is rapidly growing – let’s invest in that instead.