Peak Cluster asks Wirral for land access
A request from the controversial pipeline scheme’s promoters to carry out surveys will be discussed at a council committee next week.
Peak Cluster as a project was revealed to the world with a consultation process early this year. It is a scheme put forward by four cement and lime producers, who want to capture the carbon dioxide they produce and store it permanently under the Irish Sea.
Carbon capture technology would be used to lock away CO2 emitted at Holcim’s Cauldon plant, Tarmac’s Tunstead cement plant, Buxton Lime and Breedon’s Hope plant.
The CO2 would then be transported in a purpose-built underground pipeline through Cheshire and the Wirral to Morecambe Net Zero, a central CO2 storage facility under the seabed, to be operated by UK energy company, Spirit Energy.
Should plans progress to a fully worked-up proposal, Wirral will not be the deciding authority – this would be classed as a nationally significant infrastructure project, and thus would require a development consent order from the secretary of state.
Opposition has been vocal – from all the areas to be affected, and from groups such as Action Against CCS, which counts Liverpool Friends of the Earth and the Wirral Society among its supporters.
In addition, and of some importance here, is an extraordinary session of Wirral Council on 9 March, which resolved – near-unanimously – to oppose Peak Cluster, and called on then-energy secretary Ed Miliband to call time on the project.
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The plan, however, remains in play. Peak Cluster has now requested that Wirral Council grants a licence to allow its and its agents to conduct surveys over council land.
Although this would normally be a delegated officer-level decision, the controversy around the plans mean it has been bumped up to committee level, and the matter will be discussed by Wirral’s policy and resources committee on 9 September.
Officers recommend that members consider the approach, and if agreeable, authorise the interim director of capital programmes and assets to make the arrangements around issuing a licence. As explained in the report, surveys could include topographic surveys, environmental surveys relating to ecology and species, through archaeology to ground investigations amongst other surveys and inspections.
Should the council not agree to a licence, the applicant still has recourse to other means – those pursuing development consent orders are empowered by legislation to serve notices to access land without troubling the secretary of state – a warrant from a magistrates court would suffice, meaning there is little to gain in refusing the request.
Notice has already been served to enable seasonal surveys on foreshore areas, but officers report that Peak Cluster’s preference for the land surveys is to work with rather than against Wirral.
