Last week I was on BBC Somerset radio’s Claire Carter show talking about why I and thousands of other councillors objected to the Government’s proposal to take decision making on fracking projects away from local councils and into Government control.

I argued that the Government should not bypass local democracy, and should be putting their efforts into supporting (rather than putting up barriers to) renewable energy industries instead. Please tune in to the show here from 2:00:00 and from 2:07:50. A good clip is also on the news in the Simon Parkin show at 2:20 and 2:01:45 here.

Please see also the Government consultation paper here, the Local Government Association’s objection here, Drill Or Drop’s summary here, and how we got Mendip to oppose this sort of development in 2013 here and here.