Star date: 9th January 2015

PEEL `GAS AND OIL' DIVISION TEAMS UP WITH IGAS ET AL

Peel Holdings – hardly the most popular company in Salford and the North West – is now promoting itself within the fracking industry as being able to help get community consent and licenses for shale gas exploration.

Victoria Merton from Peel Gas and Oil says that the company "has a strong track record in site development and public consenting". Peel tried and failed to get anti-fracking protesters at Barton Moss evicted from its land, while virulent community campaigns against its housing developments have been a feature in Salford over recent years.

Full details here...

Peel Holdings, which rented its land to IGas Energy for exploratory drilling at Barton Moss, is currently positioning itself, via its `Oil and Gas' division, as being able to help the fracking industry "move quickly through the licensing and consenting process and secure a supply chain in the UK which will underpin its success".

Fracking companies are all chasing the so-called `social license' – community consent – to begin controversial shale gas exploration in Salford and elsewhere, and Peel is attempting to cash in on the new energy sector by offering a service wooing the community as well as the authorities which give out planning permits.

Peel Gas and Oil's Victoria Merton, told the Shale Gas Investment Guide recently: "In 2008 IGas wanted to develop unconventional gas and Peel as a major landowner and infrastructure group, has a strong track record in site development and public consenting. That's what Peel Gas and Oil offers: a development partnership providing IGas and companies like them with a trusted partner."

Many people in Salford would take issue with this statement. In recent years, big community campaigns have been launched against Peel Holdings, including its plans for a racecourse in Worsley, building on green belt land at Burgess Farm and Barton Moss, peat extraction at Chat Moss and house building at Broadoak and Worsley, as well as its partnership with IGas at Barton Moss last winter, when the company tried unsuccessfully to evict anti-fracking protesters from the Barton Moss Community Protection Camp.

Peel's `community consent' methods also got the company investigated by the police when caught out by the Salford Star trying to influence local Salford elections to `turf out' local councillor Roger Jones whom it disagreed with over the congestion charge. At the time, Salford Council Leader John Merry called it an "abuse of democracy...trying to buy an election".

Peel Oil and Gas has now joined new fracking lobbying operations, the Onshore Energy Services Group and the United Kingdom Onshore Oil and Gas Group (UKOOG), while Ms Merton told the Shale Gas Investment Guide "I've had conversations with Members of Parliament from all parties and they don't want to miss the chance to lock in the economic supply chain benefits for the UK in upstream shale gas production..."

In the last community survey, 80% of local residents in Barton Moss were against fracking in the area, while over 3,000 Salford people signed an official petition urging the Council not to allow fracking in the city...

* See also Peel Holdings Wins Wrecking Salford Award - click here

Main photo by Steven Speed