I’ve once again written to the government raising my concerns about the gas storage project in my constituency.

Over 3,300 people have signed a petition because of serious concerns about Halite’s £660m scheme, which was awarded a Development Consent Order (DCO) on 17 July 2015, and which includes pumping out 80,000m3 of hypersaline brine into our local seas every day for up to ten years.

I strongly believe this development should be reviewed by the government and should not go ahead. I have set out my reasons in my letter to Alok Sharma, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

In respect of the five-year consent deadline of 17 July 2020, it appears Halite has completed the bare minimum to try to keep the permission valid. DCO requirements had been completed to start the access road, but the actual ‘start’ of the £600 million project in fact consisted only of a small area of gravel laid in a field.

It’s time the government did the right thing and concentrated its efforts on protecting the environment – not agreeing to the creation of dead zones and the destruction of complex marine eco-systems.