United Kingdom:--->From Minehead to Trowbridge - 27 new licences for fracking tests revealed

The 17 squares which have been individually licensed for exploratory work. 

The Government was severely criticised for giving the green light to fracking at the same time as slashing subsidies for renewable energies like solar power.

The individual licences have been broken down into separate blocks that cover map areas, and gives the right to the firms to 'search and bore for and get petroleum', and not to frack itself – yet.

In west Somerset, there are nine individual squares that run from just inside Exmoor National Park, near to Minehead, across the northern part of the Quantock Hills' Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, around Burnham and Highbridge and into the Somerset levels, and north up to Weston-super-Mare and right to the edge of Clevedon.

Another block of four individual licences have been granted for west Wiltshire and east Somerset, covering an area from the edge of Frome and taking in Trowbridge, Westbury and Warminster, and running north to Bradford on Avon and south east into the Wylye Valley, as well as a large part of the western side of Salisbury Plain.

In Gloucestershire, the area to the east of the River Wye has been broken into four parts, and includes Lydney, Cinderford, Coleford and Mitcheldean as well as a small section over the River Severn, just north of Berkeley.

A spokesman for Wiltshire Council explained that licences had been awarded, but it did not mean fracking could start. "The award of a Petroleum Exploration and Development Licence does not automatically give permission for operations to begin," he said. "Before the licensee can begin any operations they must apply for and be granted a number of further permissions and consents.

"These include planning permissions, environmental permits from the Environment Agency, Health and Safety Executive scrutiny of well designs, and further consent for drilling operations from the OGA. We have had no planning applications or pre-application consultation from the licensees to date," he added.

OGA chief executive Andy Samuel said the awarding of 97 new licences across the country was a big step forward. "This round enables a significant amount of the UK's shale prospects to be taken forward to be explored and tested," he said.

"Upon acceptance of these offers, applicants will be issued with licences and will be able to begin planning their future strategies for exploration activities. These will be subject to further local planning, safety, environmental and other authorisations," he added.

A range of groups of local residents have already been set up in different parts of the West, and they have vowed to continue to fight individual planning applications, in a bid to get local council chiefs to refuse permissions.

Greenpeace's Hannah Martin said the Government policy was 'bizarre' given it had just signed up to a 'historic' agreement on climate change in Paris, just before Christmas.

"Just days after a historic agreement at the Paris climate summit to move towards a renewable energy future – the UK government's gung-ho approach to a new fossil fuel industry is bizarre and irresponsible," she said.

"The future economic benefits of fracking are often touted as a key argument for investment in shale gas drilling. But when companies like Cuadrilla are majority owned by firms based in offshore tax havens, it raises serious questions about where the profits would go."

"Even worse, the government seems to be saying it's open season on the UK's rural landscapes, forcing fracking on a reluctant public and on our most precious areas. Now that fracking under national parks and other protected areas has been pushed through, it seems that nowhere is sacred," she added.

Read more: http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Minehead-Trowbridge-27-new-licences-fracking/story-28431010-detail/story.html#ixzz3vhr3nJup