{"id":63790,"date":"2025-04-30T20:06:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T20:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/63790\/"},"modified":"2025-04-30T20:06:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T20:06:10","slug":"the-battle-is-finally-over-twelve-year-fight-ends-after-energy-firm-abandons-greater-manchester-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/63790\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The battle is finally over’: Twelve-YEAR fight ends after energy firm abandons Greater Manchester site"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twelve years ago police and anti-fracking protesters clashed amid plans to drill for shale gas at Barton Moss\"TradeAnti-fracking protesters pictured at Barton Moss in 2013(Image: Vince Cole)<\/p>\n

An energy firm has finally abandoned plans to drill for shale gas in Salford<\/a>, 12 years after large anti-fracking protests resulted in clashes between police and demonstrators<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Star Energy has this week announced it is to abandon its wells at Barton<\/a> Moss, near Irlam, and begin work to restore the site later this year.<\/p>\n

In its annual financial results the firm, formerly known as IGas, said: “Five wells have been abandoned at our non-operated Doe Green (in Warrington) and Irlam sites, with site restoration work planned for 2025.”<\/p>\n

The firm said it was part of a plan to ‘rationalise our portfolio of exploration licences, relinquishing early-stage exploration and shale licences’. The M.E.N. has contacted Star Energy asking if it wished to comment further.<\/p>\n

Campaigners have welcomed the decision, saying the ‘battle is finally over’.<\/p>\n

Martin Porter, who was the press coordinator for Frack Free Greater Manchester during the campaign, said: “Fracking on Barton Moss was defeated by the brave protectors who camped out in some of the worst weather<\/a> imaginable, but they were sustained by local people who were outraged that their community was to be sacrificed for a new and dangerous fossil fuel.<\/p>\n

“The campaign was a small part of the battle to defeat shale gas, but an important one.<\/p>\n

“Public opinion was behind us and the Greater Manchester mayor was speaking out against shale gas. But I am still glad that it is now finally over.<\/p>\n

“Barton Moss has already returned to nature. The future is renewable energy.”<\/p>\n

\"Search120 people were arrested during the six month-long protest(Image: Sean Hansford)<\/p>\n

In late 2013 and early 2014, campaigners camped at Barton Moss for around six months, protesting against drilling being carried out by IGas to explore the potential reserves of shale gas.<\/p>\n

A total of 120 people were arrested as demonstrators obstructed IGas operations by ‘slow walking’ in front of lorries entering and leaving the site and locking themselves to the entrance.<\/p>\n

iGas stopped drilling at Barton Moss in April 2014 and the site has remained dormant ever since.<\/p>\n

In 2019 fracking, a technique for recovering gas and oil from shale rock which involves drilling into the earth and firing a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals to release the gas inside, was halted in England amid opposition from environmental groups and concerns about earth tremors.<\/p>\n

Liz Truss briefly reinstated the practice during her short time as PM before it was once again halted by Rishi Sunak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twelve years ago police and anti-fracking protesters clashed amid plans to drill for shale gas at Barton MossAnti-fracking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,3042,393,4884,2465,1290,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-63790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-eccles","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-salford","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114428718950468020","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}