On the day in which I visited an innovative new solar powered energy scheme just outside of Lancaster it’s been revealed the gas storage company Halite have sold out to Cheshire Energy Ltd ‘safeguarding’ their plans to dump 19,000 tonnes of brine into the sea at Rossall every single day.

I’m very upset and concerned by these developments. Cheshire Energy is owned by NPL who’ve been given permission by the Tories to build a gas fired power station a few miles down the road at Thornton.

In their press release NPL say they are delighted to be “working with all stakeholders to deliver this important project in Lancashire, the industrial heart of the Northern Powerhouse.” What a joke. We’re not at the heart of the Northern Powerhouse. We’re at the heart of a Tory plan to turn our beautiful part of Lancashire into a fossil fuel industrial complex that none of us want and most of us have opposed. NPL’s comments are insulting and if their plans go ahead will be environmentally devastating.