Stormy reception for fracking firm in Cumbernauld

Company bosses were harangued at a stormy meeting in Greefaulds High School, where the firm’s bid to make a case for safe unconventional gas extraction (“fracking”) met a hostile reception.

The Grangemouth-based firm (Ineos’ plant, pictured) has been staging “public engagement” meetings across a wide swathe of Central Scotland, where it has acquired licences to carry out unconventional shale oil extraction,

It hopes a Scottish Government-imposed moratorium on fracking will ultimately be abandoned, and has said householders in what seem to be promising areas will be offered cash to allow drilling to take place.

The company says its public meetings are an opportunity to clear up what it argues are misconceptions about fracking and how it’s said to put the environment at risk.

But many present saw the Greenfaulds encounter as the first skirmish of a long and fractious local campaign against the Ineos plans.

See Wednesday’s News for a full report.