AN SNP campaign group has hit out at their party leadership after a grassroots bid to push for a fracking ban in Scotland was blocked.
More than a dozen SNP branches had backed a motion ahead of the party's Spring conference that would have asked delegates to support a ban on unconventional oil and gas extraction.
However, a powerful party committee blocked the motion from being discussed despite the significant support from members.
SNP Members Against Unconventional Oil and Gas, known as SMAUG, issued a statement in which it said it was "deeply disappointed" with the decision not to approve a debate.
Had the motion been selected and backed by members, the party leadership would have come under intense pressure to go further than its current position of putting moratoriums in place on fracking and underground coal gasification.
A spokesman said: "This debate could have helped ensure that Scotland was no longer under threat from the damage and pollution caused by highly dangerous techniques such as fracking and underground coal gasification.
"They have ignored the voice of nearly 20 SNP branches, representing thousands of members, who joined together to support a resolution from Edinburgh Eastern calling for this debate. We would like to thank the grassroots SNP members for all their hard work in organising discussions and votes on this matter, and for their continued support. We would like to assure them, the fight will continue."
The Scottish Government has said that it will be led by evidence on the question of whether to allow fracking, with a decision expected to be taken in 2017 at the earliest.
Some SNP members fear that the continued prevarication will see the party lose support to the Greens, which back a total ban, while some party activists have been stung by attacks from other pro-independence parties over the ambiguous stance on the issue.
A spokesman for the SNP said that fracking had been discussed at the party's conference in October and that it therefore was not necessary to revisit the topic.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel