Residents 'scared' over 200km pipeline project

People living in Wirral say they have been "blindsided" by plans for a 200km pipeline under the peninsula.

The Peak Cluster Project is looking to move carbon dioxide emissions from four cement and lime producers around the Peak District, and store them under the Irish Sea in what the government has said is the world's largest cement decarbonisation project.

The company involved says it will reinstate the majority of land, once construction of the pipeline is complete.

However local people have set up a Facebook group in opposition - No CO2 Pipeline Wirral - and say many have been left feeling "angry and scared".

Anna, who helped set up the group, told the BBC residents within the proposed pipeline catchment area had received flyers through their letterboxes informing them of the proposals and public meetings about them.

"Some did get [the flyers] and some didn't, and that was in a week or so before the meetings last weekend," she said.

Anna said: "So everybody was worried, everybody turned up at the meeting and people couldn't get in, people were very angry and scared, and they felt alone.

"They were shocked at the proposals and they didn't know who to turn to."

The project is being put forward to help the industry cut down on emissions and tackle climate change, and is expected to create 300 jobs.

An onshore facility is also being considered in Meols to compress the gas before it is stored.

Max Booth, a Conservative councillor for Hoylake and Meols, said councillors had attended a webinar with Peak Cluster about the plans, but he said it amounted to a "sales pitch".

He said: "I think the main concern is the fact that this is very new technology and there's lots of stories from the US, from China, other parts of Europe, around the world, where this new technology goes wrong. It ruptures.

"CO2 is a very heavy gas, so if it leaks or breaches, it will settle around residential areas where people live, where we've got wildlife."

He added: "It benefits nobody in the Wirral, but we get all the disruption and all the chaos."

Peak Cluster has said the "majority of the land" would be restored to its former state after work to install the pipeline.

However both Anna and Booth said they were concerned that statement is "contradictory", with the company also planning to install above-ground architecture over a "football pitch" sized area including a 50m chimney vent.

Booth said: "That's not land reverting back to type, that is a complete coastal eyesore overnight or however long it takes to build."

In a statement, Peak Cluster's chief executive, John Egan, said: "When construction ends, we will reinstate the majority of the land so it can be used in the same way as it was before and, just as with other pipelines under our feet, the land will look and feel just as it did before."

He said the pipe would run at a lower pressure than the UK's National Transmission System, but would be higher pressure than the wider gas network providing gas to homes and businesses.

"I understand it's our responsibility to reassure people on that point," said Egan.

"We will be regulated by the Health and Safety Executive like all other gas pipelines and under the same regulations."

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