Councillor vows to lie naked in mud over carbon capture pipeline

A councillor has offered to "lay in the mud naked" in order to prevent a carbon capture pipeline being built.

Wirral Councillors unanimously voted on Wednesday against granting developers access to council land for a major gas pipe project, Peak Cluster, that could cut through the full length of the borough.

Councillors were told before the debate if they had already made their decision and did not have an open mind they should not take part in the vote.

Reform UK's Kathy Hodson told the meeting she therefore would not vote because she "would be voting against it no matter what", adding that she was willing to "lay in the mud naked" to prevent the land being dug up.

Peak Cluster is a £5bn carbon capture project backed by the government.

The proposed underground pipe would take carbon dioxide from lime and cement manufacturing sites in Derbyshire and Staffordshire and transport them to be stored off-shore under the Irish Sea with the pipe traversing the length of the Wirral Peninsular before heading into the sea.

Peak Cluster has previously said it would work with experts to minimise the environmental impact of the pipeline and when operational, the project would prevent three million tonnes of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere every year.

Wirral Council's Policy and Resource committee heard there was a request to grant land access to Peak Cluster to carry out a number of surveys.

A report to the committee explained that following refusal: "Peak Cluster will be in a position to authorise staff and contractors to access the land and if the council were to in any way impede access, then Peak Cluster would be entitled to seek a warrant from a magistrates court."

The rest of the committee, who did take part in the vote, unanimously rejected Peak Cluster's request.

There was cross-party consensus at Wallasey Town Hall, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Labour Party councillor, Mark Skillicorn, said that ever since the papers for the meeting were released, there had been a lot of anxiety among residents.

Lib Dem, Green, and Conservative councillors also all opposed the request and project in general.

Coucillor Paula Basnett, leader of the council's Labour group who chaired the meeting, thanked residents for sending their views.

Green councillor Gail Jenkinson said after the vote: "Sadly, Peak Cluster is still likely to be able to proceed with them relatively quickly through other legal powers but our opposition remains resolute.

"We do not support this pipeline or the construction of a huge Above Ground Installation here.

"We will continue the fight to protect Wirral, its residents and its environment."

Once built, the Peak Cluster underground pipeline would transport harmful carbon dioxide emissions from Derbyshire to the Wirral Coastline

From here, the gas would be compressed and stored within a former gas reservoir deep under the Irish Sea, off the coast of Morecambe in Lancashire, where the emissions would not be able to do any damage to the environment

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