Tina Rothery supporters outside Preston Combined Court this afternoon
Anti-fracking campaigner, Tina Rothery, has avoided a two-week jail sentence, following a long-running dispute with the shale gas firm, Cuadrilla.
A judge at Preston Combined Court ruled this afternoon that Ms Rothery should not go to prison for contempt of court and discharged the order against her.
Supporters in and outside the court cheered the outcome.
The private hearing was listed as Cuadrilla V Rothery, despite a claim yesterday by the company’s lawyers, Eversheds, that the case had nothing to do with the company. A lawyer from Eversheds was representing the company during the hearing, most of which was in private.
Ms Rothery had been found in contempt of court earlier this year when she refused to give details of her financial circumstances. She had been ordered to pay costs of more than £55,000 incurred by Cuadrilla, in a legal dispute dating back to 2014.
She was sentenced to two weeks in Styal Prison in Cheshire but today she had a final chance to complete a financial questionnaire.
At a private hearing this afternoon, the judge ruled that she should not go to jail.
The case is linked to a long-running dispute about legal costs.
In 2014, Cuadrilla sought an injunction at the High Court preventing access by groups and individuals to sites in the Fylde area of Lancashire.
Ms Rothery, the only named defendant, asked for an adjournment. When the injunction case returned to court she offered no evidence and legal costs of more than £50,000 were awarded against her.
She later offered to pay £500 but Cuadrilla rejected this and since then costs have been increasing at a rate of 8%.
Yesterday, Eversheds, Cuadrilla’s lawyers, said today’s hearing was about the contempt of court finding. But the case was described as “Cuadrilla versus Rothery (order/questioning)”.
More details soon
Categories: Legal
DRILL OR DROP? 
Excellent news Tina as i said, this battle is won however the bigger issue continues, i cant see Cuadrilla taking this public defeat lying down, they will try to have some revenge, that is their mindset.
In USA, The Black Snake issue in North Dakota protest has not finished yet, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied an easement permit to Energy Transfer Partners. The 1,172-mile pipeline, crossing four states and designed to deliver 470,000 barrels of oil per day from the fields of North Dakota to processing facilities in Illinois, was almost complete before the Corps acted. All that remained was to drill beneath Lake Oahe, a Missouri River impoundment a short distance away from the border of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. A temporary win, the situation continues.
Native protesters have been asked by the police to leave the site as it is now winter, the natives are used to the winter, the cops want to stay in their warm vehicles,
Meanwhile the oil pipe company has stated they will go ahead and defy Obama and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and carry out their original pipeline route and accept the $50,000 PER DAY fines! rather than re-route the pipeline. Lets make this clear as so many posts crow about staying within the law, they will break the law to continue the pipeline.That is the attitude of these companies, do you really think it will be any different here?
Not only that the pipeline has all ready been breached and is leaking, the latest being an unknown quantity of oil into the local creek, see below.
“The health agency said the spill was discovered on Monday and an unknown volume of oil leaked from the pipeline operated by Bell Fourche Pipeline Company into Ash Coulee Creek, 16 miles northwest of Belfield in Billings County. The leak is 200 miles away from protests taking place over the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline.”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhlYRwSbe7w)
This confirms why the protection movement came here in the first place and why many protectors are choosing to stay, in spite of the freezing weather.
Maybe councils should reconsider their contracts with Eversheds?