Casework reflects continued debate over energy minerals applications

摘要

The role of elected councillors in local government is complex. They need to balance the needs and interests of their ward residents, those of the wider borough, their party and the council as a whole. Casework this month reflects councillors' concerns about proposals for shale gas and energy minerals as tracking continues to hold the news headlines. In August, protestors glued themselves to the doors of a government building in London in protest against a report they said had played down the impacts of fracking. In a linked action, a new university building in Swansea was blockaded by a group angered by the use of public money, they claimed, to fund research into fracking at the university's Energy Safety Research Institute.