RESIDENTS opposed to fracking are invited to attend this week’s meeting of Frack Free Northwich.

The anti-fracking group is meeting at The Bowling Green pub in London Road, Northwich, on Wednesday, June 22, at 7.30pm.

Group members have been talking to residents, delivering leaflets and hosting information evenings over the past few weeks, and are urging people opposed to fracking to lobby their councillors and MP.

“We were surprised how many people had no idea fracking would be happening in this area,” said a group spokesman.

“The first thing they wanted to know was where exactly it would be happening around here, to which we have no answer as yet.

“Presumably more will be known following extensive seismic surveying in the coming months, which will provide the fracking company, INEOS, with more detailed geological data.”

INEOS Upstream is to operate a licence to allow it to explore for oil or gas possibly trapped in commercially viable quantities below ground.

The company has been awarded ‘acreage’ in Yorkshire, the East Midlands and Cheshire, the latter including Northwich, Winsford and Knutsford.

It said in December it was likely to submit planning applications during 2016 with a view to drilling up to four vertical wells across the Cheshire and East Midland basins in 2017, with the option to extend the wells horizontally and perform a fracking operation if initial results are encouraging.

Frack Free Northwich is seeking to raise awareness about how it says fracking could affect the Northwich area.

The group’s spokesman added: “We are concerned about many things, like the risk of earthquakes and subsidence in such a structurally unstable area, health risks to the population from toxic substances leaking into the air and water, the visual impact on the countryside of drilling rigs, well pads and all the other industrial infrastructure which will appear as the industry rolls out, about how lorries will be carrying huge quantities of toxic waste down our country lanes.

“We’re not trying to scaremonger or mislead. We’re well researched and well able to discern between myths and genuine peer-reviewed scientific evidence.”

INEOS Shale boss Gary Haywood told a meeting with town and parish councillors that “almost all genuinely independent scientific reports say shale gas can be produced safely, without damage to the environment.”

In terms of earthquakes, INEOS' website said if carried out properly people should not notice fracking at the surface.

The site states: “The rare examples of water contamination in the US were caused by issues such as poor well design, poor disposal of process water and poor capping of wells at the end of useful production; none of which will occur in the UK, because of the development of the technology, lessons learned from the US and the strict regulatory regime that will be in place.”

Frack Free Northwich is urging people against fracking to lobby their parish, town and county councillors, and write to their MP.

The group’s Facebook group is www.facebook.com/FrackFreeNorthwich, and the group can be emailed on FrackFreeNorthwich@gmail.com and followed on Twitter @FrackFreeNwich.