The Wirral – our home – is potentially going to be treated as something it is not and must never become, England’s carbon dioxide exhaust pipe.

A major scheme, the Peak cluster CC project, is proposing to drive high‑pressure CO₂ pipelines through our communities, our farms and our nature reserves on their way to the Irish Sea. We are told this is “needed”, that it is “for the national good”, and that it is “only a temporary disruption”. But WE live here. WE know better.

I, and many more - stand firmly opposed to the Wirral being used as a dumping corridor for other people’s emissions, and I want to set out why these pipelines must find alternative routes to the Irish Sea – routes that do not sacrifice our residents, our land and our wildlife.

First, let’s talk about fairness.

The Wirral does not produce the emissions these pipelines intend to carry. The whole purpose of Peak Cluster is to collect emissions from the East Midlands and the Peak District industrial belts. Yet the plan is to carve through OUR peninsula so that other regions’ pollution can be pushed out under the seabed.

This Carbon Capture storge technique has been used successfully ( even winning awards ) in Norway and other Scandinavian countries for over 30 years into the spent North-Sea gas fields. The difference is, the polluting industries there, are mainly in coastal areas minimising the risk to public and nature - they do not carve pipelines through 200kms of land to reach the sea. Peak Cluster WILL do this!

It is the classic pattern: benefits and profits are concentrated elsewhere, while the risks and burdens are dumped on our communities that are seen as convenient, or easier to ignore.

Second, the impact on people’s lives will be enormous – and it is being downplayed. A CO₂ pipeline is not a harmless piece of buried plumbing. These are large‑diameter, high‑pressure pipelines carrying a substance that can be dangerous when released in quantity. CO₂ is colourless and odourless. A major leak can displace oxygen; at ground level it can be lethal to people and animals before they even know what’s happening.

Even if there is NEVER a major accident – and that is a big “if” – the construction phase alone will bring years of disruption. Roads dug up. Fields ripped open. Hedgerows torn out. Heavy lorries rumbling through our villages. Noise, dust and vibration next to people’s homes. A Blight on property values and uncertainty for families trying to plan their futures.

For what? So that companies hundreds of miles away can continue emitting and “future proof themselves” while our communities pay the price.

Third, these routes threaten our farms, our food security and our rural economy. I have spoken to a local tenant farmer that received NO compensation for the Windfarm power cable that was installed several years ago… but the landowner DID!

Fourth, the routes proposed are a direct attack on nature and biodiversity at a time when we urgently need to restore them.

Thus the reference to our nature recovery strategy that is being presented to you tonight.

Wirral still has precious pockets of high‑value habitat: wetlands, woodlands, grasslands, coastal margins and wildlife corridors that link them. These are not spare, empty spaces: they are home to birds, bats, pollinators, small mammals and rich plant life. They are carbon stores in their own right.

Pipeline construction means stripping out vegetation, trenching through fields and woodlands, draining soils, fragmenting habitats, and slicing through wildlife corridors that may have taken decades to establish. Once gone or severed, these are not easily or quickly replaced, whatever soothing language appears in an environmental statement.

We are committed, as a country and as a council, to biodiversity net gain and nature recovery networks. Driving CO₂ pipelines through some of our last remaining high‑quality habitats is the opposite of that commitment. 

Fifth, there are alternative routes – and the fact that we are not being properly shown or consulted on them is deeply troubling.

Engineering constraints are real, but they are not an excuse for lazily choosing the most convenient line. The Irish Sea can be accessed from multiple coastal points. Pipelines can follow existing industrial pathways: power station corridors, motorway verges, railway lines, existing petrochemical routes in already‑heavily industrialised areas, and offshore routes that avoid densely populated or high‑value ecological zones.

So, what do we want?

We are not standing here to say “do nothing” about climate change. We are not climate deniers. We support effective, science‑based action to cut emissions. But that action must be fair, transparent, and minimise harm to our communities and nature.

I therefore call for:

A clear commitment from Wirral Council, Councillors and MPs to speak up for residents so we are not to be used as the primary onshore corridor for Peak Cluster and other future CO2 pipelines to reach the Irish Sea.

I am asking that Wirral councils’ response to government is NOT delegated solely to officers - but fully informed by Wirral Councillors representing their constituents 

We are saying: yes to climate action, no to sacrificing Wirral. Yes to a just transition, no to turning our peninsula into a hidden CO2 EXHAUST PIPE for other regions’ pollution.

THANK YOU FOR READING AND SIGNING -

Cllr Mark Skillicorn of Greasby, Frankby and Irby

Cllr Grahame McManus

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