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Fracking faces land rights challenge from Lancashire farmer and Greenpeace
Andrew Pemberton joins forces with green group, saying he fears contamination of water
A Lancashire dairy farmer has joined forces with Greenpeace to launch a challenge to fracking in England.
The environmental charity is working with people in Lancashire and the West Sussex village of Balcombe whose homes are near sites where the energy company Cuadrilla is looking at using hydraulic fracturing to extract shale gas and oil.
Andrew Pemberton, who supplies milk to 3,000 households in Lytham on the Lancashire coast, said he had joined the campaign because he would lose his livelihood if the local water became contaminated.
The divisive technology of fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, has been associated with air and water pollution, radioactive waste and the despoliation of vast tracts of land, as well as methane emissions, in the US, where it was pioneered.
Cuadrilla, which is currently the UK's only company engaged in fracking, has suffered a series of setbacks. Last week the firm announced it was is closing one of its five exploration sites, at Anna's Road in Lancashire, citing concerns about wintering birds.
Greenpeace's case is based on fracking companies' plans to drill horizontally under people's homes; something the group says would be unlawful without permission.
"Under English law, if you own land, your rights extend to all the ground beneath it. That means if someone drills under your home without permission it is trespass," said Greenpeace senior campaigner Anna Jones, citing a supreme court case from 2010 which ruled against an energy company called Star Energy UK.
Jones added: "To avoid being liable for trespass, drillers would need landowners' permission. And this case is about people explicitly declaring they do not give that permission. This will make it extremely difficult for companies to move ahead with any horizontal drilling plans.
Full Story Guardian."