People living near proposed fracking sites could be offered ‘consent’ payments of up to £1,000

PEOPLE living near proposed fracking sites could be offered “consent” payments of up to £1,000.

The government is planning on proposals to provide financial inducements that could be worth between £4 million and £400 million per site.

The payments could be over 20 years to households living in a set radius around planned sites. 

‘Local consent’ could circumvent the planning process and allow projects to go ahead if they met environmental criteria which would be assessed by local planning inspectors.

This would be rather than having to be approved by council planning committees.

The payments would still be made to all residents in the area — even if they had opposed the development.

Fracking in the UK has been a controversial subject within local communities and among MPs due to concerns over earth tremors.

Fracking is short for “hydraulic fracturing” and is the process that sees sand, water and chemicals injected underground at high pressures to crack open shale rock.

This is done to release any oil or gas trapped beneath the earth’s surface.

The wells can be drilled vertically or horizontally in order to release the gas.

The term fracking refers to how the rock is fractured apart by the high-pressure mixture.