Oil Be Damned

Will our love for all things oil-driven eventually erode Hampshire’s green and pleasant land?

- Alice Cooke

Were you to have scratched the surface of the Esso Hampshire oil pipe story that hit the national newspapers two months ago, you no doubt would have been shocked, horrified and aghast in equal measure to hear that Esso want to build a giant pipe underneath the South Downs National Park to get fuel to Heathrow and Gatwick more easily. The pipe links the oil giant’s Fawley Refinery in Southampton with its West London terminal storage facility in Hounslow, which provides fuel for several major airports.