Hypocrite! Anti-fracking lord wants to start mining
A LORD who led a campaign to stop fracking in his village has been branded a ‘hypocrite’ after revealing plans to mine millions of tons of sand from a nearby beauty spot.
Lord Cowdray, owner of the 16,500-acre Cowdray Park Polo Club and estate, has caused outrage by applying to excavate across ‘a vast area’ in the South Downs National Park.
It comes six years after he fought fracking plans on his doorstep in the village of Fernhurst, West Sussex.
At the time, he said: ‘It’s hardly what people expect when they come to a national park – to see flares and nodding donkeys.’
But now Lord Cowdray’s lucrative project to open ‘two giant sand mines’ on land he owns five miles down the road is being condemned by residents, who say it will destroy a unique area teeming with wildlife.
Lord Cowdray, 64, has proposed to mine near the village of Bepton, near Midhurst. Locals say it will cause untold disruption and could pollute the nearby River Rother. The land is a recognised ‘wildlife corridor’, and home to endangered nightjar birds, of which there are just 4,600 left in the country.
Mother- of-three Katherine Steele, who has lived in Bepton for 15 years, is aghast at Lord Cowdray’s project.
The beauty therapist, who walks daily with her children on the land, said: ‘The contracmiddle tors have said this will be a positive thing for the community, which is crazy.
‘ There’s nothing positive about digging into the South Downs National Park.
‘A big thing about this is how hypocritical Lord Cowdray is.
‘He completely opposed fracking on his doorstep – and for very much the same reasons we are opposing this quarry plan.’
Mrs Steele, 43, who lives about 300 yards from the proposed site, added: ‘ The noise would be unbearable, I’m sure. And health-wise, I don’t want my children growing up breathing in debris and particles from a quarry.’
Loppy Gibson, 49, who bought a five-bedroom house in the centre of the proposed site with her husband Alex in September last year, said the plans were ‘a nightmare’.
The mother of three added: ‘ It is completely mad. Our house is like a bulls-eye in the of the site. It would be devastating for us if these plans go ahead.
‘The noise and lorries going up and down will be terrible. I don’t see how it’s going to work – our road is so narrow, they might have to build a new road to access the site. It’s just outrageous.
‘This is devastating for us – we moved from East Sussex to start a new life, we have three children and we wanted to raise them in the countryside.’
In 2013, Lord Cowdray, the major shareholder of FTSE 100 company Pearson plc, was vocal in his opposition to Celtique Energie’s plans to drill for oil and gas in Fernhurst.
He refused permission for Celtique to lease his land for exploration, saying: ‘If they find the reserves they are looking for, naturally they will go on to frack to extract the gas. I don’t support fracking at all.’
A public consultation on Lord Cowdray’s sand mining application ended last Monday, and West Sussex Council is expected to make its decision known imminently.
A spokesman for Lord Cowdray said: ‘While the perception of mineral extraction is emotive, the Cowdray Estate have deliberately partnered with a firm [Raymond Brown Quarry Products Ltd] who demonstrate a track record of both proactive engagement with the community and responsibility and respect for the environment and landscape.’
‘This proposal is completely mad’