Before and after the installation of pipeline

BIG oil companies are not exactly flavour of the month. This is particularly the case in Spelthorne, Surrey where Esso’s new Heathrow pipeline project is resulting in the devastation of a much loved recreation ground (see pictures below) and indeed much else.

How, you may say, has it come to this?

Perhaps through the unlisted links Esso and other oil firms have with parliament where lobbyists are running groups giving PR support and other assistance to oil friendly MPs.

Or perhaps, along with the pathetically weak response of Surrey and Spelthorne Councils, it was just the whim of ‘Eco Tsar’ Alock Sharma when he was Business Secretary.

The reality is that the pipe is not needed. The present pipe is working perfectly well and shows no signs of deterioration.

Also the airport is quite capable of getting all the fuel it needs from other sources.

So it would appear that in Spelthorne and elsewhere people are being put through months of disruption and the loss of our green lungs just to boost Esso’s overflowing bank account. Andrew McLuskey

Spelthorne