Fracking unearths posh rumblings

THE FRIDAY THING: I SEE the frackers are back in the news.

It was of course all right and a great opportunity for lowering gas and oil prices when fracking was focused on Blackpool and the general Fylde area.

And who gave a toss about the threat to local folk up north, especially Blackpool and its kiss-me-quick hats and hen-night punters? What would be the loss if the whole of Blackpool, its tower, beach, less-than-pristine sea, donkeys and boarding house ladies all disappeared into a great big hole?

Even when there were Blackpool earthquakes (well underground rumblings, anyway) the politicians and the posh folk who live in areas where they rub shoulders with the great and the good, Lords, knights, barons, bankers, the horsey set and newspaper and radio and TV moguls knew that it could not happen to them.

But since the focus has switched to parts of the South-East, the local gentry are up in arms, defending their beloved landscape in places such as Sussex, Surrey, Balcombe, the South Downs and super-posh Black Down Hill.

In a debate in the House of Lords (it was after lunch time so much snoring was probably in the air) one red-faced former Army type piped up with a sound contribution.

“There are plenty of empty places up in the North-East for fracking. There’s no point disturbing people.”

He meant real people like him.



I CONFESS to some uncertainty about this so-called free school which is, it seems, to be owned by the Collective Spirit Trust (whatever that is) and is taking over the former South Chadderton School site.



Oldham Council wanted this site for much-needed money-making developments to ease the burden on the cash-strapped borough and had good reason to believe that under the “localism” agenda that was the brainchild of Eric Pickles, Oldham Council could do what it thought best with any land, developments or even cash that came its way.

Apparently localism does not apply to Oldham, because big Eric can change the rules whenever it suits him and despite the fact that it runs contrary to Eric’s big idea that local councils should be able to spend their money on whatever they decide is in the best interest of the people they serve.

Council leader Jim McMahon is right to ponder on how this new school could ever be described as being “free” when it is robbing Oldham of millions by way of a lost opportunity to develop the land for the good of the borough.

At a stroke of Eric’s no-doubt gold pen, a golden opportunity for major redevelopment has been lost.

For the sake of the children who will attend, I hope it all goes well and that the children thrive both academically and in their personal development. But I retain significant doubts.