IN January this year, the House of Commons’ environmental audit committee recommended a moratorium on fracking but MPs chose to ignore this advice.

As stated in the report, fracking is “unlikely to be commercially viable unless developed at a significant scale, to be able to compete against a growing renewable energy sector.”

The government has made it clear that it wants to undermine renewable energy in the UK to make fracking more economically feasible.

Evidence of this is the scrapping of subsidy for renewable energy, compared with fracking companies receiving a tax allowance equal to 75 per cent of the capital expenditure on projects (Autumn Statement, 2013).

Here in the Forest, the Severndale wind turbine planning application, which was passed with 10 in favour, 3 against and 1 abstention, has been called in by the government following lobbying of Greg Clark by a mere 30 people.

The government wants large-scale fracking, therefore it doesn’t want renewable energy to make energy prices too low for fracking to be financially viable.

Which would you prefer? Don’t be taken in by the fracking industry rhetoric. Fracking is bad for health.

According to the environmental audit committee report “fracking is an inherently risky activity with associated pollutants including carcinogens, mutagens, teratogens, respiratory irritants and neurological, endocrine and haematological disrupters/toxins and industrial-scale fracking would pose unacceptable risks to the health and well-being of local residents”.

In America studies show an alarming increase in hospital admission rates in areas being fracked. There are videos of residents in Australia, (where fracking is well underway), dem­on­strating that their water supply is polluted by methane by setting fire to the running water – it burns like a torch.

During the rainy season they can see the methane bubbling up through the ground. These are sparsely populated countries – imagine this in England where population is far more densely packed.

I say England, rather than UK, because Wales and Scotland currently have a ban on fracking.

Do you want fracking near your home? Besides the very real (and unpredictable) risks of pollution and the huge amount of water used up, there would be the noise of drilling and a lot of lorry movements – European Commission research warns of up to 250 lorry movements a day to a single drilling site.

Four of the fracking licence sites recently announced are within the Forest of Dean. It’s time to make up your mind. Which are you going to support, renewable energy or fracking?

– Nicola Packer, Cinderford.