In less than two weeks, two sites in north-west England could become the test bed for the shale gas revolution. But while some on the Fylde welcome the prospect of jobs and money, others fear possible damaging effects on health and the environment.
• Graphic: Fracking – the facts and the faults
• Graphic: Fracking – the facts and the faults
Robert Sanderson, a strapping dairy farmer, is standing in his muddy yard. He is in tears. Sanderson’s family and his Lancashire farm have, thanks to geological chance, ended up on the frontline of fracking in the UK.
“I’ve never wanted to do anything but farm,” says Sanderson, part of the third generation of his family to farm near Kirkham. “All my young lad dreams about is farming. Last night he said to me, ‘When I grow up I want to have the biggest tractor in the world’. How can they just take away generations of work? It’s not bloody fair.”
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