CONCERNED residents in Whitby in Cheshire have stopped an energy firm from trying to force everyone to participate in a scheme to power homes with hydrogen, a MP said.
Justin Madders said his constituents were anxious about being compelled into participating in a demonstration project to turn it into the first village in the UK to be powered largely by hydrogen.
Mr Madders told GB News: “One of the unfortunate things that’s happened during this process is that people have had the impression that there was no choice.
“And certainly my understanding at the start of this was that it was a trial that the local residents were going to be asked about whether they want to proceed with it, and if it went ahead there would be a genuinely free choice about whether people took part or not.
“Now as time went on, it became clear actually that there wasn’t going to be that choice, when other hydrogen trials in the country have enabled people to remain on natural gas.
“Eventually the penny has dropped…that forcing people into this trial without agreement wasn’t going to work, that people weren’t happy with the element of compulsion, and therefore they have now, at last, and thankfully, given people the option to remain on natural gas.”
In a discussion with Bev Turner, he said: “Our biggest regret is that it’s taken us an awfully long time to get to this point and a lot of stress and anxiety could have been avoided if they’d put this forward as a proposal in the first place.
“I think it’s fair to say that, whilst there are a lot of people very keen to play their part in reducing carbon emissions, they weren’t happy at all with the idea of having someone come into their homes and forcibly change their gas supply.
“So, it’s good news that that is not going to be on the agenda now and that people will have a genuinely free choice about whether they participate or not.”
He added: “They’ve been lobbying myself, they’ve been writing to government ministers, they’ve been attending consultation sessions with [energy firm] Cadent.
“They’ll be talking to the local council, there was a was a whole range of issues that came up.”
Marc Clarke, Cadent’s head of hydrogen consumers, said in a statement: “Our new proposal means that you will have a choice to participate or not, and there will be two options to choose from.
“You can either choose to get involved with the hydrogen village programme, and pave the way to a greener future.
“Or you can choose to stay on natural gas if you do not want to participate.”
