YP Letters: Fracking raises questions of democratic right

From: Paul Morgan, Canberra View, Barton-Upon-Humber, North Lincolnshire.
Should the Government or local councils determine fracking applications?Should the Government or local councils determine fracking applications?
Should the Government or local councils determine fracking applications?

IT was interesting to note that most people who responded to my recent letter asking who had the democratic right to decide on fracking – the Government or local councils, chose to answer a slightly different question, i.e. who should decide.

However, putting that 
aside, and accepting the 
general consensus of respondents that it should be local people, raises further questions.

What is the definition of local people in this context?

Who would decide that definition?

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What would the process be, and how would it be organised and controlled?

You can see where the difficulties lie.

At one level, if fracking is of national importance, we are all local people.

At the opposite level, local people could just be those 
living within a certain distance of a proposed well. And then a whole range of options in between.

You could see as many arguments over the definition of local, as there are over fracking itself.