There can be no doubting that fracking and shale gas are now key to the Government’s energy plans.

It is now estimated that there may be 1,300 trillion cubic feet of shale gas under the north of England alone — that is double the previous estimates. With the prospect of an energy boom bigger than North Sea oil, and the prospect of gas prices tumbling as they did in America after energy from shale took off, the Government has not been slow to clear the way for more shale gas drilling.

Those who imagined drilling would be limited to the Blackpool area, where residents now fret about falling house prices following two tremors two years ago, are very mistaken.

North Oxfordshire has been included in the 14th round of assessments being undertaken across the UK to establish which land might be offered up for future fracking — or at least establish where licences should be granted — for planning consent would still be required before the digging begins.

But campaigners in the county have not been slow to highlight that north Oxfordshire, with its plentiful supplies of shale, should be taking the issue of fracking seriously from now on.

The Coalition and indeed future governments simply have too much to gain from this potentially massive source of energy to be put off by talk of earthquakes and fears of contaminated water.

To sweeten the prospect of clogged up roads and spoilt countryside, communities could even stand to benefit from £100,000 payments and one per cent of production revenues. Assessment in other areas is already well ahead.

Yet, it seems that fracking in Oxfordshire is far closer than many imagined. It is a good time for the debate to begin in Oxfordshire, with the stakes frighteningly high: a cheap, readily available source of energy for future generations, or a perhaps high-risk energy strategy that could scar our countryside, pollute our water and shake our unsellable homes.

We can be sure in Oxfordshire the debate will be committed, rational and unusually well informed. Fortunately, with a information roadshow already being lined up in Oxford this month, the fracking debate will not be rushed.