Leith Hill Protection Camp. Used with photographer’s permission
An eviction is underway at a protection camp at the site earmarked for Europa’s oil exploration well at Bury Hill Wood, near Leith Hill in Surrey. We’ll be updating this post with information as it comes in. The camp was established on 28 October 2016 and an eviction order was issued by the High Court on 23 January 2017.
9.30pm
People in tunnels have been underground for more than 16 hours.
Images from throughout the day
Thanks to Dan Harvey for permission to use pictures below
Thanks to Kim Tee for permission to use pictures below
4.55pm
Eviction underway 12 hours
No reported arrests or extractions from tunnels.
4.46pm
Forestry Commission: “Genuine visitors not affected by injunction”
Statement from the Forestry Commission:
“Genuine visitors to the public forest at Bury Hill are not affected by the Europa Oil and Gas court order, which applies solely to those on land the company has leased. Our work to manage the rest of the forest is also unaffected.”
4.10pm
“Protectors deserve medals” – MEP
Keith Taylor MEP during a visit to the camp in November 2016. Photo: DrillOrDrop
Statement from Keith Taylor, Green Party MEP for southern England:
“The extraction of oil at Leith Hill risks damaging our local environment and health and it is absolutely right that local residents and environmental activists should be concerned.
“When I visited the protection camp in November, I was very impressed by the courage, fortitude and dedication of the people living there who have literally placed their lives on hold to be on the frontline of the fight against fossil fuel extraction and the new and little understood technologies planned for extracting tight oil in the Weald Basin, including horizontal wells and matrix acidisation.
“Profit driven oil companies like Europa might be happy to gamble with our future and our environment but I am not.
“Peaceful, non-violent direct action is often the only means of protest left available when the government consistently fails to listen to the legitimate concerns of ordinary people.
“Despite the very clear opposition to oil exploration in the Weald, permission to drilll an exploratory well in this pristine ancient woodland was granted on appeal by the planning inspectorate, ignoring the views of many of the local people.
“When the democratic deficit is this great, people are left with only one option – peaceful protest, as is their right.
“It is of paramount importance to democracy itself that this right is facilitated by the police. The safety and wellbeing of the protesters currently in tree houses and locked-on in tunnels at Leith Hill must be prioritised above all else and I am urging the authorities to exercise restraint in the handling of this eviction so that we do not have a repeat of the accusations of violence seen at Balcombe in 2013.
“The people at these protection camps are defenders of the earth and they deserve medals. We simply must keep oil in the ground, no amount of pragmatism about our reliance on fossil fuels will save us from the impact of climate change when rising global temperatures hit a 2 degree increase.
“That is the reality. We need to be investing in substitutes for oil and oil products now, not sometime in the future.”
3.55pm
Eviction underway 11 hours
3.50pm
Support on Twitter for protectors
3.11pm
New photo from the site
3pm
Eviction now been going on for 10 hours
BBC News reporting 20 people are in tunnels.
2.31pm
Aerial photo of the site from this morning
Leith Hill Protection camp filmed this morning. Tower constructed by protectors still standing. Photo: NED
2.28pm
BBC Surrey video from the site
This is the fort & tunnels built by protesters at #LeithHill oil drilling site. Bailiffs have been trying to evict them since this morning pic.twitter.com/e1kh45eJyt
— JackFiehn (@JackFiehn) June 21, 2017
1.53pm
“Fencing is part of permitted development”
Surrey County Council says the fencing installed by Europa at the site is part of plans for groundwater monitoring boreholes. This is classed as permitted development which does not need planning permission. The council says it will be attending the site only to check whether the fencing is in line with the plans.
Fencing installed at Bury Hill Wood site, 21 June 2017. Photo: still from video by Danny Vc Llew
Fencing installed at Bury Hill Wood site, 21 June 2017. Photo: still from video by Danny Vc Llew
1.26pm
Rescue staff at the camp
Photo: SGI
Photo: SGI
A spokesperson for SGI said:
“Specialist Group International’s role is to safely and respectfully remove the protesters. The safety of the people is our number one priority at all times.”
1.21pm
Surrey Mirror reporting that no Surrey County Council staff are on their way to the camp. A spokesperson is quoted as saying the eviction does not concern the council’s role as planning authority.
1.15pm
DrillOrDrop readers points out that bailiffs are using the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (CROW) to move people off the land. The brown-coloured land is CROW land, over which people are free to roam.
12.47pm
Local person reports Surrey County Council enforcement team on the way
A local resident reports:
“I have been told that SCC planning officers are on the way to camp with an enforcement team to make it clear that erection of the fences is illegal and has no planning permission, but they weren’t there when i left at about 10.30am.
“Theoretically, they could be made to take the whole lot down, but the police don’t seem to be very interested in the law and stated to my face ‘The Bailiffs are taking the lead here, we are here to support them’.”
12.08pm
“Not seen likes of tunnels for many years”
The Surrey Mirror quotes Peter Faulding, the CEO of Specialist Group International, says that he has not seen the likes of the tunnels built at Leith Hill “for many years”
11.35am
Eyewitness account: “Bailiffs using common law as reason for eviction”
An eyewitness, Jack Dark, reported that bailiffs were stopping any access to the woods, regardless of boundaries of the exploration site or the injunction area.
The eyewitnesses said the only paperwork being shown by bailiffs was a letter to unknown persons requiring them to leave and a map indicating an area, described as larger than the well site. When asked what powers were being used, the bailiffs said “common law”, the eyewitness said.
Jack Dark added that the police were not intervening but reported that officers said anyone attempting to get closer would be arrested for a breach of the peace.
11.01am
“Protesters’ lives are at risk”
Statement from Dorking-based world specialist tunnel rescue and forensics company, Specialist Group International, which is at the site:
“A fifteen-person rescue team from Specialist Group International are currently onsite to ensure the safe removal of environmental protesters from tree houses, a large manmade fortress and a complex network of tunnels.
“Peter Faulding is leading his rescue team to ensure that people are safely and respectfully removed without injury.
“The tunnels are very dangerous and the protesters lives are at risk. Life support air is being supplied to those protesters deep inside tunnels. At this stage, we do not know how many protesters are underground.
“The safety and welfare of the protesters are the number one priority.
“Peter Faulding has led all the major protester removal operations since the Newbury Bypass in 1995 and personally removed “Swampy” from the A30 Honiton Bypass in 1996. Peter has not seen tunnel systems like this for many years.
“The team will carefully search all the tunnels and dismantle the fortress piece by piece to prevent injury.”
10.58am
Police in attendance
Statement from Surrey Police:
“Surrey Police officers are in attendance while a security firm, Specialist Group International working for the leaseholders of the land and appointed bailiffs execute a High Court eviction order to remove people occupying an area of land.
“This is a civil matter where the leaseholders and bailiffs [took the lead in the operation]. Police are in the vicinity to prevent a breach of the peace or criminal offences.
“Surrey Police recognises the rights of people to assemble and protest in a public place and will always seek to facilitate peaceful protest while balancing the rights of those protesting with the rights of others.”
10.47am
BBC Surrey reporting an impasse between protectors locked-on and bailiffs. The station quotes Europa’s chief executive, Hugh MacKay, that four people had been evicted but others were underground locked-on. “Our priority is to make the tunnels safe”, he said.
Mr MacKay said the protectors were “aware of the injunction order”.
10.08am
Scene from edge of Leith Hill protection camp
9.49am
Jenny, a protector at the camp, told DrillOrDrop that a number of people were in tunnels under the site and were locked-on. She said there may also be people in tree houses.
She said Heras-style fencing had been installed around the site. Protectors who were not locked-on or in tunnels or tree houses had been removed, she said. Some people were dragged but no protectors had been physically injured.
Jenny confirmed that protectors had been removed from a section of the camp outside the area covered by the injunction.
She said protectors, legal observers and local people were watching from the opposite side of Coldharbour Lane. No legal observers or photographers had been allowed into the camp area.
Jenny said three Police Liaison Officers were at the site, along with about six tactical support unit officers.
She added that the eviction began at 4.55am and confirmed that about 50 bailiffs were taking part in the operation.
9am
Reports of lock-ons at the site and that staff from Surrey County Council and police officers are heading towards the camp.
6.55am
Livestream from the eviction site
Still from livestream by Leith Hill Protectors
https://bambuser.com/v/6778037
6.30am
Reports that people were being removed from outside the court injunction area. Reports say there is no police presence but possibly up to 50 bailiffs
4.55am
Eyewitnesses report the eviction began at protection camp established at the site earmarked for Europa’s oil exploration well near Leith Hill in Surrey.
Categories: Legal
DRILL OR DROP? 
What a disgrace these people are. They are literally putting peoples lives at risk.
What if kids had access the tunnels and one had collapsed?
Whichever way they attempt to dress it up they are only interested in their own selfish ideals.
These are the very same people that managed to get May to water down her manifesto and remove fracking. The business world will now make her toast. Leadership bid very shortly. Money still runs this country. A rise to the right has long been my prediction.
You Russian bots are hilarious.
I built those tunnels 😉 its safe trust me. And plenty of warning signs are in place for safety. I studied disco daves guide to tunneling.
That defines tho o&g invasion neatly in every respect dont you think? Oops!
Sounds like the first eviction attempt at Yorkley Court – many of the “bailiffs” turned out not to be as claimed. That paperwork is not legal – get some legal beagles down there NOW.
These people are cavemen or what. They are creating a subculture that dont follow health and safety standards.
Regarding May our PM I think her credibility is toasted. She can’t get DUP on board. She is a typical British flaw of thinking just having a British charm will get everyone to agree and give in to your command.
There will be leadership bid within weeks. She has zero support from her party. I always said she was weak, her initial speeches talked the talk but they weren’t written by her and she has completely failed on all counts. Didn’t think it was possible someone could be worse than Cameron.
So have you seen the tunnels? How were they built. I can, cos i built them.
Rough gas storage to close. Fracking will proceed. Even hydrogen production, to be trialled in Leeds, looks as if it needs gas as a resource.
Maybe the CO2 will be piped into Rough, if it could be sealed but I suspect that would be difficult?
I believe so Martin. I gather pumping CO2 leads to catastrophic failure of normal steel as any water will make carbonic acid and it eats into the metal. Maybe its possible but its not simple.
Possible but the high chrome steel alloys required are very expensive and cost prohibitive. CO2 flooding as a tertiary recovery method has been in use onshore US for a long time but taking this offshore and with the high partial pressures and compression requirements for large volumes of CO2 this is not likely to happen. The Rough infrastructure does not have the metallurgy for C02. It would be cheaper to build a facility from new rather than convert Rough.
The reason Rough is being wound up is because of failing well integrity. The production casings maximum allowable burst pressure is resticted due to corrosion. This obviously leads to lower storage volumes.
The platform and wells were never intended for gas storage and should have been decommissioned years ago. We have hardly any gas storage in the UK; much less than France or Germany. Lack of strategic thinking. Without Rough we probably only have a few days storage.
Of course if there is onshore gas available then the need for storage is reduced……
Yeah. Fracking will go ahead but there will be no industry. It will be case by case. And that is not enough certainty for investment I think.
It will inevitably become an industry should we find test wells are positive. Years of weak government have created a looming energy crisis that will only hurt the poorest in society hardest. People like PhilC are happy sitting at home benefiting from their triplelock but they don’t have any understanding what’s required to pay for it.
Have you seen the historic sunken lanes tankers are going to destroy, lights on 24/7 bad for wildlife, risk of landslide, local village water supply at risk and ground will be contaminated. Health and safety criticism of protectors is naive especially when the burn off could cause forest fire with risk to all life there
It appears all the Secretary of State land coloured brown and leases to the Foristry Commission is CROW land. That is Countryside Right of Way. So everyone is permitted to roam over this land.
They are permitted to roam and little else. Certainly not permitted to squat or camp there.
A predictable flurry of the same old same old frackflak from the unreconstructed carnivorous howling wolves self interest party, about to rip apart their own pack leader and squabble amongst themselves over her bloody carcase.
Are these the sort of people we can expect to act honourably in their efforts to frack and carve up the earth and poison our water, air and land? To destroy our health and fill our land with their infernal noise and poison? Who squabble amongst themselves in the rush to partition off and control vast areas of our precious beautiful land and enforce their ravenous appetites on the local people and residents?
What a disgusting display of greed and avarice and sheer lack of humanity.
Look at these frackers posts and see what sort of mentality is about to bite deeply into our countryside and feed off it, and then ask yourself if they should be allowed or denied to slake their ravening thirst at our expense.
Looking at these posts, anyone would think that they won the election? But this is actually just the pent up frustration at being refused that opportunity to whoop from the rooftops and howl at the moon when they lost not only the election, but any semblance of a fracking mandate as well.
Better out than in i guess, but noisome even then.
The BBC Surrey Video link doesn’t work, but this one does:
http://www.surreymirror.co.uk/live-updates-as-oil-protesters-are-being-evicted-from-leith-hill/story-30402109-detail/story.html
I know we diverted a little to talk about fracking but this is not a site to be fracked. I know many will not understand this, but those who post usually do.
Not sure why PhilC is so concerned about the recent election. Bit like a football manager trying to convince the league that although they lost they should get the points for playing a good game-if it was that good they would not have lost! I think you will find PhilC that the Tories won by far the most seats and were supported by more voters than any other party. Yes, they lost their majority but Labour could not get a majority unless the DUP supported them, which will not happen. So, the UK system says we are where we are and with the DUP supporting fracking, nothing has changed. I suspect the status quo will continue for some little time, maybe without May in 2018, but I recognise there are few in any of the parties who want to take over Brexit.
I will gain out of the current situation as I will keep the “benefits” of the triple lock, but I didn’t want to as I remember that was rightly a short term move to correct a situation that has been corrected, and the extra cost now will be passed to my children and grandchildren. Social Care MIGHT now benefit from some consensus, but I suspect not because it will still fall on the split between whether it goes onto general taxation, or not. We will probably stay with the current mess, which is a lot worse than what the Tories proposed, which is not what is expected to come from a minority government but will do so whilst others can not agree a better proposal. Shame really, as it is also messing up the structure and function of the NHS.
This isn’t a frack site.
Phil. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
[Edited by moderator]
Aha! A Rene Magritte fan?
La trahison des Grignoter Pipi “Ce n’est pas la santé mentale”
Vous ne savez jamais de quoi vous parlez Insultes ridicules.
Instigateur Insulte ridicule d’un petit esprit vide
Nous protégeons la terre, tu veux la détruire pour un profit misérable??
I see Mr. Taylor is, once again, confusing the use of English within his comments. I trust he will be a little more accurate on his CV when needed shortly.