Fracking and the local development plan

Fermanagh & Omagh District Council tonight agreed to reinsert a 'presumption against' fracking in its draft Local Development Plan. 

This was a position adopted unanimously by councillors previously but had been inexplicably overturned by persons unknown. An internal investigation within the council is to be conducted on how this happened. 

Throughout the process - both before and after being elected - indeed for almost ten years I have argued for an outright ban on fracking. On the committee I was not allowed to bring that position forward as it was adjudged to be contrary to the regional planning guidelines set by Stormont and none of the major parties would support me on it. So we have a 'presumption against' instead.

This does set the bar pretty high and like all the other councillors I voted for it but made clear at the time and subsequently that nothing less than an outright ban would provide real security to the community. In addition I have highlighted that the failure to extend the 'presumption against' to exploratory planning applications (it only applies to what is known as the exploitation phase) leaves the door open to the council being forced to provide planning for the exploratory drilling as almost happened in Belcoo back in 2014. 

Given the legal set up, it is up to the parties in Stormont to ban this poisonous industry. They have the powers and they have the responsibility. 

Tribute to all the fracktivists

I want to pay tribute to all those who have stayed the course in the campaign against fracking. It's nearly ten years since a handful of us publicly challenged Tamboran in the Westville Hotel - when Department officials sat shoulder to shoulder alongside the corporate heads. After that meeting I called the first meeting to form an anti-fracking campaign group in Fermanagh House and it was pretty chaotic. We spent weeks arguing over the name and what our focus would be as a group. Maybe one day someone will write a book about the twists and turns - if told truthfully it will make for a cracking and very amusing story as well as one that confirms the power of people when they stand together.

It's amazing just how many of those who attended that first meeting are still involved and still committed. We've had our ups and downs collectively but the anti-fracking movement is more together today than ever before and I'm sure it will remain together now until we secure that elusive ban on fracking.

It is unnecessary and frankly embarrassing that some politicians now want to pretend that they were the ones to spot the error - it is entirely untrue; indeed everyone involved knows just how untrue it is. They are fooling no-one.

Local democracy?

In wider terms, the entire process of designing a local planning framework has been complex, confusing and it seems to me debased.

Since being elected I've sat and participated on every committee dealing with the local development plan. Almost all of them have been behind closed doors. I'm not in any way an expert on planning but I've had to study and learn to understand hundreds upon hundreds of pages of analysis from planning experts and submissions from the public. I've listened and tried to participate in circuitous arguments for hours often on the very same issues on different committees. All this, only to find that alongside the policy relating to fracking, most of the (few) changes that I and a handful of other councillors worked so hard to insert in the final draft were also inexplicably left out. In the main these sought to include environmental and socially-progressive suggestions put forward in previous consultations. 

In our council area like many others, we have to deal with the consequences of houses being built in places that they shouldn't have been allowed; or planning permission being given and houses sold before basic drainage or road works are finished. 

It is right to note at this stage the contribution of Cllr Emmet McAleer who throughout has sat on all committees and approached things with sharp uncompromising anti-capitalist and environmentalist politics, genuine intent and great intelligence. We were not alone in the fight but collectively we stood united throughout trying to raise the bar on environmental and social protections but as recent events demonstrate publicly it has a labour of Sisyphus. 

The entire process has brought home to me, if further evidence was needed, just how undemocratic is local democracy. 

Tonight three councillors: independents Emmet McAleer and Eamon Keenan, and myself voted to bring the process back and involve the public in a genuinely participative manner. Nothing could be less likely frankly - we were defeated overwhelmingly but I think it was important to lay down a marker of our opposition.