Why Should Villagers Pay For Government Policy?

Why Should Villagers Pay For Government Policy?

Star Energy has tried twice to push the proposals to store natural gas under 1,000 homes at Sudbrooke and Scothern.

Having failed to get approval using the democratic process of planning applications through local government, it is now trying to get approval directly from the Energy Minister, who is keen to promote gas storage by private companies in the UK.

More than 99 per cent of the residents living directly over the depleted oilfield at Sudbrooke and Scothern are concerned that gas will escape to the surface and into their homes.

This risk has been confirmed by gas industry experts from the US, who state that populations should never be located above or near underground gas storage, as it is impossible to prevent the gas migrating to the surface at some point during the life of these installations.

We all understand the UK needs to store gas to cater for demand variations, but sites must be developed with health and safety issues paramount.

If the Government can show that the Welton depleted oilfield is absolutely necessary to the UK for gas storage, then the Government, or Star Energy, should pay the cost to have the present residents moved to a safer location and not expect them to accept the risk without objection.

As a resident, who has lived in a coal mining village in the past, I fully understand the price paid by such communities for UK energy resources, but the miners have a choice to be near these industries, in the same way as oil/gas rig workers have a choice to accept the risks for the benefit of their livelihood.

However, the residents of Sudbrooke, Scothern and Reepham are not being offered a choice to move away from this high risk industry, which is likely to be imposed on them by the Energy Minister. Would anyone with any sense want to live above a gas storage reservoir and next to a dangerous gas processing plant? Not very likely. So what will the existing homes be worth if the scheme is pushed through?

Let's get one point very clear: Star Energy has one primary objective and that is to make as large a profit as possible for its directors and shareholders.

The shortfall in UK gas storage facilities is only of interest to this company because of the potential for profitable investment. The concerns, interests, health and safety issues raised by the local community are just obstacles that they now intend to bypass, having predicted that their proposals would be lost at the appeal stage in the democratic approach.

The Star Energy press release on its own website claims that "the company has worked with the DTI for the last two years to enable the use of the 1965 Gas Act for gas storage applications, this Act never having been previously used".

Could it be that it has been given assurances that an application via the 1965 Gas Act is more likely to be approved by the Minister with the DTI as the determining authority?

It would appear that the residents of these villages will become a victim of Government policy to increase gas storage facilities at all costs, and as quickly as possible, and these costs will fall only on the local population, who will have to live with the risks to their lives and property for many years in the future.

J. WOODWARD Sudbrooke.

(article first appeared in the Lincolnshire Echo, 28 October 2006)