In this week’s events listing: continued protests at Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road site, consultation opening, presentations, debates, meetings, film screenings and training.
Please let us know (click here) if any of these details are incorrect or if other events should be included. And click here for our event listing for the rest of January and beyond here.
Monday 16 January 2017
Preston New Road rolling road protest, 9am-3pm, Preston New Road, A583, Little Plumpton, Lancashire PR4 3PJ. Details
Final consultation opens on Joint Minerals and Waste Local Plan for West Sussex and the South Downs National Park. Runs until 13 March. Details and links
Ban Fracking Now: join Labour MSP Claudia Beamish to consult on her Scottish Parliamentary Bill to ban fracking, 7pm-8.30pm, Portobello Baptist Church Hall, 185 Portobello High Street, Edinburgh, EH15 1EU. Details
Presentation by INEOS, 7.45pm, Letwell Village Hall, Letwell Village, Rotherham S81 8DF. Invitation only Details
Tuesday 17 January 2017
Latest on Gayzer Frackman legal challenge, 7pm-9pm, Lytham Cricket Club, Church Road, Lytham FY8 5QD. Details
Frack Free Ashfield event: Basic introduction to fracking followed by a film screening of Groundswell Rising, 7.45pm, Acacia Centre, Acacia Avenue, Annesley Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire NG17 9BH Details
Wednesday 18 January 2017
Meet the Regulators drop-in session, with representatives of Environment Agency, Health and Safety Executive, Oil and Gas Authority, and Public Health England. Melton, Leicestershire. Time and venue to be confirmed. POSTPONED
South Yorkshire regional anti-fracking meeting, 7pm, CPRE Offices, 37 Stafford Road,Sheffield S2 2SF. Intended for South Yorkshire and East Midlands region (Not a public meeting) Details
Frack Free North Somerset Open Meeting, 7.30pm, The Bristol Hotel, 29 Locking Rd, Weston-super-Mare BS23 3BZ. Details
Action plan Dronfield. Meeting called by Dronfield Against Fracking to discuss shale gas plans by INEOS for the area. 7.30pm-10pm, The Green Dragon, Church Street, Dronfield, S18 1QB. Details
Thursday 19 January 2017
South Downs National Park Authority planning committee meeting. Agenda includes report on the joint minerals site plan. 10am, Memorial Hall, South Downs Centre, North St, Midhurst GU29 9DH. Details
Are we going to be fracked? Presentation by Frack Free South Yorkshire to Sprotbrough & Cusworth Parish Council, 7pm, Goldsmith Centre, Sprotbrough Rd, Sprotbrough, Doncaster DN5 8BP. Details
Unstone Parish Council meeting at which the INEOS application will be discussed, 7.30pm, Moorland View Meeting Room, near the Barracks Pub, Apperknowle, Derbyshire
Saturday 21 January 2017
Civil law for activists training opportunity, organised by the Weald Action Group, 2.30pm-4.30pm, St Matthew’s Church Hall, 71 Station Road, Redhill, Surrey RH1 1DL. To register and details
None violent direct action training, 11am-5pm, The Crescent, off Blossom Street, York YO24 1AW. Details
Sunday 22 January 2017
Fracking information event with film and presentation, 2.30pm, Bempton ad Buckton Community Hall, High Street, Bempton, Bridlington YO15 1HS
Please let us know (click here) if any of these details are incorrect or if other events should be included. And click here for our event listing for the rest of January and beyond here.
Categories: Diary, Uncategorized
DRILL OR DROP? 
Surely showing a few relevant films like Voices from the Gasfields Fields would also be a good idea. Many church groups or similar would welcome this.
Once again it’ll be interesting to see how the UK, and indeed Europe as a whole, copes this week with a high pressure zone covering the UK and the continent from Wednesday to Friday at least, with consequent low wind speeds. I think it’s the sort of scenario that tests the potential of renewables to truly replace fossil fuel electricity supply. You might call it a naturalistic experiment. The temperatures will not be desperately cold with little snow. It looks like we’ll cope OK but the interesting points will be the price of electricity with little or no wind input and also the division of electricity generation sources. See the website Gridwatch for real time data on our electricity supply. BTW in Germany today wind is generating 3.83Gw while “conventional” sources are generating 46.32GW. In the UK, wind 5.7% of total electricity, Biomass 4.59%, Gas 45%, Nuclear 14% and Coal 21%.
It’s there anyone going to Letwell Ineos PR meeting tomorrow
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Hope this isn’t too tangential to the general thread of the board. I happen to live near the pleasant East Sussex town of Uckfield which people may remember was visited by floods in 2000 and this week features on the cover of Prince Charles’ Ladybird book on climate change with I presume implies a causative connection. PC was kind enough to visit the town at the time of the flood for which we were grateful.
Looking at the history of Uckfield shows that Uckfield has had flooding problems dating back at least to the 18th century. A map of 1784 showed raised walkways – on the town side of the river bridge, one of the areas most likely to flood. An adjacent meadow was known as Clappers. Once when the river broke its banks two men standing near the bridge were swept away and drowned.. The early development of Uckfield sensibly occured on nearby higher ground away from the flood plain.
Apart from the disaster of October 2000 there were floods in 1929, 1952 and 1960. It is likely that flooding has in increased in frequency in the last century but this is likely to be due to the construction of a road bridge which acts as a constricted throat to river flow and a Victorian mill which similarly reduces flow 100 metres upstream. I think I’m right in thinking that the mill is a protected building (part of our heritage beloved by PC – and myself actually). Overall it’s likely that making any persuasive connection between flooding in Uckfield and climate change is unwise at best.