Green Party protest outside Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road site. Photo: The Green Party
Cuadrilla has secured a 40-day injunction against protests at its fracking site near Blackpool.
A judge at the High Court in Manchester allowed an application by the shale gas company to prohibit trespass and obstruction at and near the site at Preston New Road, Little Plumpton.
His Honour Judge Pelling QC also approved the company’s request for an order preventing unlawful interference with contractors and suppliers.
The injunction is now in force and will last until a two-day hearing due to end on 11 July 2018. This will examine Cuadrilla’s application in more detail.
It covers the Preston New Road site and a section of the A583 from 50 metres east of the site entrance to the junction with Peel Hill (near the M55 junction 4).
It also applies to the site entrance, known as the bellmouth, which is regularly used for rallies and speeches by campaign groups, trades unions and politicians.
The order additionally covers the premises of 19 named companies. These include the equipment supplier P R Marriott Drilling, the haulier Grampian Continental, Peter Marquis Contractors, Lytham Skip Hire, Standard Fuel Oil Ltd and Greens Environmental Ltd, as well as 11 companies in the Cuadrilla group.
Funeral Friday protest outside Cuadrilla’s shale gas site at Preston New Road, 6 April 2018. Photo: Refracktion
The order specifically prohibits a range of anti-fracking protest techniques including:
- Blocking the site entrance
- Slow walking
- Lock-ons
- Climbing on to vehicles
People who breach the order could be found to be in contempt of court and may be at risk of a prison sentence, fine or seizure of assets.
Cuadrilla told the court yesterday that it faced an “imminent threat” from a planned blockade of the Preston New Road site at the end of June, promoted by the national campaign group, Reclaim the Power. DrillOrDrop report
A group of four anti-fracking campaigners sought to challenge the injunction, which was originally against persons unknown.
Yesterday, they questioned whether the evidence provided by Cuadrilla justified the injunction. They argued that the company’s proposed order would be an abuse of human rights and that the injunction should not have been brought against “persons unknown”.
But Judge Pelling rejected their challenge. He said Cuadrilla had provided evidence that there was likely to be “a significant increase” in protest activity. The company had referred to an escalation in direct action at Preston New Road and supply companies during last July’s Rolling Resistance campaign supported by Reclaim the Power.
Judge Pelling said:
“That conduct has involved in the past, and is likely to involve in the future, behaviour including locking on to gates, obstructing entrances, slow walking and interfering with vehicles travelling to Preston New Road.”
He said there had been “substantial interference” to people using the A583. Referring to comments from the local chamber of commerce, he added:
“That activity has in the past resulted in damage to local businesses.”
He said he was satisfied that Cuadrilla’s case had passed a test in the Human Rights Act. This restricts granting of this type of interim injunction unless it was likely to succeed at trial.
But the judge required the company to change some wording of the injunction order. This would, he said, focus the injunction on specific unlawful activities.
He also said the order should apply to actions against the supply chain only if it could be proved beyond reasonable doubt that they were intended to cause delay or inconvenience to Cuadrilla.
Emma Thompson at a Women in White protest at Preston New Road, 21 March 2018. Photo: Refracktion
A weekly Women in White procession and gathering at the site entrance on Wednesday was excluded from the injunction.
After the hearing, Cuadrilla’s Chief Executive, Francis Egan, said in a statement:
“We are pleased that the High Court has seen fit to grant this interim injunction which provides further reassurance to our employees, contractors, and suppliers and the general public using the Preston New Road that they can go about their lawful business without intimidation and illegal unlawful blockades from activists.
“This injunction does not restrict lawful and peaceful protest but is an important deterrence against unlawful protest which we have witnessed to an extraordinarily degree high level at Preston New Road.
“Those activists that continue to contemplate persist in unlawful activity against us or our suppliers should strongly consider the serious penalties that a breach of this injunctions could bring.”
Ian Crane, the only one of the four challengers to the injunction in court today, said:
“This injunction hearing was primarily brought about as a direct result of pronouncements of intended actions. Whether deliberately or inadvertently, these pronouncements effectively gifted the unconventional gas industry the opportunity to seek a far-reaching and chilling injunction.
“While I would be the first to applaud direct actions and recognise the sacrifice of those who participate in direct action, I believe the key element is spontaneity and surprise. Sadly, pronouncements of intended action is regarded as an imminent threat and it is very difficult to challenge the industry’s request for an injunction.”
Mr Crane described the anti-fracking movement as “nothing if not creative”. He added:
“Anyone who participates in any of the proscribed activities must be aware that their assets and potentially their liberty are put at risk.”
A spokesperson for Reclaim the Power declined to comment.
The injunction application will be reconsidered at what is known as a return hearing on 10-11 July 2018 at Manchester Civil Justice Centre, Bridge Street, Manchester M60 9DJ.
Links
The interim injunction order and other papers in the case will be available on Cuadrilla’s Dropbox page: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/isnre2562esz43h/AADxx_pbLq31WC8dyEA2M-71a?dl=0
Green and Black Cross has a downloadable guide to injunctions: https://greenandblackcross.org/guides/injunctions/
Reporting from this court case was made possible by individual donations from DrillOrDrop readers
Categories: Legal
DRILL OR DROP? 
The premature anticipation over the last few days has shown that being excited over the Internet is far removed from real life. Ever thus.
Whilst the real culprits resulting in this injunction are easy to identify, those spreading false information on behalf of the protestors are equally culpable in creating a fantasy simply to mislead. I suspect it will be a case of “the ref. had a shocker” for the next few days. Good luck with that.
Meanwhile, back in the real world this weekend, 7 million households will be receiving/about to receive increased gas and/or electricity bills, and petrol is back to £1.30/litre so that many elderly people are limiting their car journeys to a single shopping trip per week (if they have one.)
Maybe fit in a visit to the NT this weekend, before they are forced to increase their prices.
Well well, how sad, of all the protagonists for this filthy industry, it had to be this one didn’t it?
You really don’t get it do you martin?
Your crowd will no doubt crow and crow and crow about this ill perceived and ill conceived pathetic pyrrhic victory.
But what this really is, is the gross theft of your own human rights, right in front of your noses, and the really funny thing is, you did it to yourselves….
You connive in this industry which will destroy your health, your ecology and your country and eventually the entire planet.
You condemn your own children to a life of misery and corporate greed and slavery and think that is a pretty neat thing? How much did it cost every single person in this country to achieve this little debacle?
Your masters must have such a high regard for those who connive in their own downfall so readily [edited by moderator]
Congratulations, welcome to your own, your very own, demise.
May it please you as much as it does your masters, who must be laughing all the way to their offshore tax haven banks [edited by moderator]
Sorry to disappoint you old thing, but it is far from over.
We may yet save you from the fate you so readily wish upon us and eventually yourselves.
Its not a human right to commit criminal acts to achieve your end [edited by moderator]
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That is reflected right back at you Boris, with bells on.
Never forget, it was your industry that invaded our countryside and demanded to be allowed to ride roughshod over our civil rights,
it was your industry that, when they did not get what they wanted by stealth and lies and obfuscations and ignoring planning controls and what miserable gilded fantasy world standard regulations that do actually exist,
it was your industry that attempt to overturn protest and human rights by high jacking and corrupting the government and using the legal system into destroying everyone in this countries human rights in order to prevent protest from normal people just trying to stand up for themselves for once.
We never asked for this invasion and assault on democracy [edited by moderator]
I am only surprised that “most people” took so long to realise the dangers of this filthy industry and say why did we not realise before that Cuadrilla et al represents the most pernicious danger to ourselves and our children in recent history?
You are opposed, and that is now a permanent state of opposition.well done, way to go, the further away the better.
HOW MANY TIMES MARTIN ???
I thought we had laid this topic to bed , regarding the reasons WHY energy costs are so high in the UK
To put it briefly once again…… With world crude prices pegged to the dollar and oil previously at record lows for very long periods of time …. To anyone with the intelligence above your common garden earth worn, it would if been quite obvious that we have been getting well and truly shafted with our energy costs ……
These high costs are are mainly down to government taxation and the eye wateringly slow reluctance of Oil companies to pass on any genuine , REAL AND MEANINGFUL PRICE REDUCUTIONS …..
AS FAR as fracking goes Martin , even one of the most powerful energy figures , Lord Browne doesn’t think fracking will have ANY meaningful impact on the reduction of energy prices in the UK…….
Lord Browne: fracking will not reduce UK gas prices
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/29/browne-fracking-not-reduce-uk-gas-prices-shale-energy-bills
But it will generate jobs, insulate against price hikes, and generate tax revenues, as well as supply work in the supply chain Jackthelad.
We are paying 18 million pounds a day to foreign suppliers. Our main one, Norway doesnt need out money and their gas is running out.
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Its called trade, t.r.a.d.e. get it? Essential for a country emerging fitfully and reluctantly from the EU, though some would have that otherwise?
Lord Browne’s 2013 prediction and here we are in 2018 with the US fracking industry driving down World prices.
Martin ,
This very small victory, and a very small victory is what it is will not stop the inevitable …..
Without a social licence, the Fracking industry is set to suffer ” death by a thousand cuts ” you know it, I know it , every man and his dog knows it..
You know what’s sad about all this, is if US style fracking hadn’t been rammed upon the British public against there will , I’m certain that your more conventional forms of onshore oil and gas extraction would of continued as it has done, quietly in the background for over a century without drawing attention to itself….. The industry could of quietly expanded and grown without much obstruction ..
Generally , fracking has been deeply damaging to the UK onshore Oil and Gas industry….. It has brought unwanted and unwarrented attention to the industry in such a way , that it’s difficult to see how it can ever recover it’s lost ground……
I acknowledge that oil and gas will continue to play an important part in our energy mix , but like other people , I’m now asking that 100% renewable energy be brought forward more quickly and that it’s role in the mainstream energy sector be greatly increased.
You do realise that 100% renewables is an unachievable pipe dream at present Jackthelad? Yesterday wind and solar was generating almost nothing, and its summer! Good old gas filled in the gaps so we didnt have power cuts.
As for the injunction, great news. Why a few bussed in activists should stop a safe and legally approved activity from going ahead [edited by moderator] is beyond most sensible people’s thinking. Systematically organising a blockade means the courts have no choice but to issue an injunction and the evidence base of criminality is strong.
My only question would why did it take them so long?
JOHNSON,
For the Fracking Industry, MONEY AND PROFITS is obviously a driving force.
I can easily of the top of my head, think of half a dozen ways you can LEGALLY WITHIN THE LAW , financially impact the industry/company or put pressure on a person/persons involved in the industry .
LETS CONSIDER THIS
Injunctuon against person/persons unknown ……… How are they going to decide who has breached the terms of that injunction ?????? IT’S CLEAR that such a sweeping law is going to end up with large numbers of people queuing up outside courts to fight their cases …. Doctors, Nurses, Vicars, Grandmothers, CAN YOU imagine what a PR NIGHTMARE this will turn out to be for the industry. ( Not good for PROFITS ) ….. The fracking industry will have to fight their side of of the case in court, that will be EXPENSIVE and will also hit their bottom line , PROFITS .
What about people using their wallets to fight the industry ????? …. With supply chains of the Fracking industry feeling the impact of ordinary people on mass, boycotting their services and products, you will continually see these supply companies cancelling their contracts ….. These never ending supply chain problems, will hit hard on Fracking industry PROFITS.
Picking a fight with the National Trust , the industry is going to lock horns against some very powerful individuals … Coupled with the fact that there are millions of NT members who take conservation very seriously. The National Trust WILL and CONTINUE TO BE a serious on going problem for the Fracking industry. This will also hit industry PROFITS.
Also, lets take note of the fact that at the moment the Cuadrilla site on its own, is proving to be very difficult to police. …. JOHNSON, TELL ME PLEASE , who is going to police , hundreds if not thousands of fracking wells ?????? If you say the industry, that’s going to heavily hit their bottom line, PROFITS….
WHO IS GOING to finance this industry ??????? Big backers like banks and pension fund managers won’t want to be seen backing an industry that is deeply controversial with the public. This will have an adverse effect on borrowing interest rates for the industry . This will also hit their PROFITS.
Politicians follow the wishes of the people as that brings them votes . People are giving a resounding NO to the industry wherever it pops up …. This is NOT a vote winner , therefore politicians will continue to challenge the industry every step of the way. ( This to will impact industry PROFITS. )
With large numbers of bankruptcies in the US fracking industry and that’s in a country with LAUGHABLE regulations…… JOHNSON please explain how with the eyes if the country carefully watching and challenging every minor infringement and with such tight regulations on such things like waste management and operating practices…… HOW can the Fracking industry ever possibly hope to make a profit ?????
………SOCIAL LICENCE……… without this , the industry is set to suffer a slow and painful ” death by a thousand cuts “
JOHNSON ………… I VERY MUCH look forward to your detailed response to the above.
GARRY and JOHN HARRISON………
WE ALL on thus forum, would be very interested to hear your opinions on what I say in my above statement
I’M VERY SORRY to leave you two out , PLEASE forgive me ………
YES ……. MARTIN and KISHENY we would all like to hear your opinions on my above statement aswell.
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Ian Crane, the only activist to turn up on the day… Well, they really threw their heavyweight experts at it then.. I hope he gave the court a full accounting of his ideas [edited by moderator]
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This won’t end well…
Sounds ominous Dutchman [edited by moderator] the past antics of “the protectors” have come back to bite you fair and square on your bottom, but alas, you tried
The fun and games are finally over for the disrupters. They now face the possibility of more serious consequences instead of getting a slap on the wrist and a fine paid for by public donations.
The genuine peaceful protesters have nothing to fear, this includes TLR and the ladies in white who will continue to hold their weekly gathering outside the gates.
Nonsense John, the police will treat everyone the same, with violence arrests and contempt, we were not born yesterday, this is nothing less than corporate overthrowing of democracy, everyone will be seen as potential “persons unknown” and you know it.
To Cuadrilla we say this –
EXPECT US.
Meanwhile elsewhere on planet earth at senator Harry Reid geothermal plant in Hawaii has made millions from fracking at the Kilauea geothermal plant and appears to have triggered the eruption which has now engulfed the plant, fountains of the hottest lava so far recorded are shooting 200 feet up into the air.
( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK45Ddi6u8g )
Fracking is all quite safe of course? Nothing significant to see there is there? Move along please! Oops! There goes your house?
You need to do some research on the difference between fracking Geothermal wells and fracking Hydrocarbon wells.
There is a big difference in the risk of causing seismic events between the two.
Unfortunately the renewable one has the greater risk. Cornwall may demonstrate this.
I don’t need to do anything of the sort John.
That is just a martinism and is thoroughly discredited far and wide, no cigar.
Fracking is fracking, regardless of the end product, the penalties are clear for everyone to see.
I respectfully return the complement with bells on and suggest it is you who must do your own research and not foist this filthy destructive poisonous industrial process on the rest of us out of sheer greed and profiteering.
And while you are about it, you can take this fascistic industry with you and go find somewhere on this green earth where the sun doesn’t shine and frack that.
Because it ain’t gonna happen here, and screaming from the rooftops and dragging the entire population of this country to the courts to strip them of their hard earned money and possessions will gain you nothing but the contempt it so richly deserves.
Rule number one.
Never piss off an entire country.
Sadly your comments show a very closed mind Phil C. There is a massive difference between the operations at a geothermal plant and shale gas extraction but it would appear that these are lost on you.
Are you even aware that Hawaii is a volcanic island? ie, its volcanic eruptions that have created it? Just like the Canaries…Its called nature.
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Fracking is fracking, that is it, logic chopping won’t save you, the process is destructive and destabilises strata. Be it volcanic or gas, the result is the same.
Devastation.
Let’s just remind ourselves that Geothermal is a renewable type of energy production that is being pushed for by environmentalists.
Why except in desperation and ignorance, would you claim that the process is the same, and that the Oil and Gas industry needs to jump in to defend the process?
It is nothing like Shale gas or oil exploration which involves drilling the well, completing a high pressure frack and then moving on to the Hydrocarbon production stage.
Geothermal relies on constantly pumping cold water into hot volcanic strata to form steam, which then flows to the surface to drive a turbine and generator.
It’s the combination of cold high pressure fluid meets hot rock, that shears and fractures the rock.
The continuous changes of pressure within the rock formation as water is flashed off to form steam, is where the high risk lies for triggering seismic activity.
Just to remind you that it’s not a worryingly simplistic label we are talking about, renewable or not renewable, its irrelevant, wrong is wrong whatever label you simplistically put on it, it’s the process of fracking which is thoroughly discredited and proven everywhere to be patently dangerous and poisonous and disruptive of human and animal health and also to accelerate global climate change, it contaminates and destabilises air and water and land and countryside and the operation of which also destroys democracy and freedom and centuries of human rights.
Extracting gas, or oil, or for geothermal is not in itself the point, or indeed the problem
What is the problem however, is that the very process itself is a desperation cobbled together pseudo engineering attempt at short termism and expediency.
The process itself is dangerous because of the methodology used and the effects that fracking have on the surrounding strata and water.
Fracking produces a rapid expansion and contraction of the target strata and the surrounding strata.
Water a chemicals and additives that are poisons and carcinogens get pumped at high pressures into the resulting strata.
Sand needs to be quarried to be pumped in to keep the fractures open. Vast amounts of clean water are removed from the landscape which is all ready short of water, and wasted and turned into a toxic soup which has to be disposed of.
So millions of gallons of clean water are extracted from vital sources vast amounts of sand are required to be quarried from heaven knows where, vast amounts of toxic poisoned fluids needs to be disposed of, surrounding strata are weakened and destabilised, toxic fluids are pumped by the pressure positive and negative pumping effect into surrounding strata, water is contaminated, fractures weaken further and deteriorate, strata’s connect to other strata connect to other strata’s.
The whole knock on effect is disastrous and poisons leak everywhere. Casings and cement plugs break down and deteriorate over time and with successive fracks, more contamination is pumped ro reduce the extracted toxic fluid being brought to the surface.
The earth is not a single stable solid element, it is flexible resulting from hundreds of millions of years of deposition, tectonic movements, fracturing fissuring, overlaying and subduction, volcanic activity earthquakes and crustal shifts and realignments.
It changes, pressures are built up and released in successive movements, water flows pressurised and released, and is affected by changes and becomes solutions and highly variable, materials break down and change structure, fluids change position and flow to other weak points. It’s all in flux, it’s not a stable solid.
it’s more like a slow motion fluid being stirred and mixed and liquidised.
Fracking comes along and upsets millions of years of relative equilibrium, both below and above ground. everything changes, wells will break down with age and further operations, the result is chaos in it’s mathematical sense, that being highly complex order, like the butterfly effect but with very high pressure fluids in rocks and water, the result is utter unpredictability, the result will be contamination of water, failing structural integrity, and centuries of poisoned land air and water.
Fracking, the process has always been the problem, all else is just politics and avoidance and obfuscation of the teal issues.
It is very simple.
Fracking is neither safe nor acceptable.
Fracking destroys everything, as much in it’s operation as its resultant greed, profiteering, extortion, poisoning, and last but not least, its totalitarian enforcement politics.
It is opposed vehemently and that will never change.
We said no.
End of story.
Calm down… Shale gas in the U.K will succeed and provide everyone including you with a stable supply of natural gas for decades to come.
A small minority of people against it will not stop what the Country needs…
No.
“Shale gas not an option”
https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2018/02/dutch-minister-confirms-ban-on-drilling-shale-gas-not-an-option/
Different geology but as we have conclusive proof that small frac jobs in UK shale cause earthquakes I think we can safely say that if we had developed shale gas in Lancashire we would have ended up with the same nightmare.
Perhaps an injunction against Cuadrilla as it is extremely likely they would cause material damage to property as proven by their failed Preese Hall well with 50 recorded seismic events.
More bad news for investors. Even more spending with no returns.
Cuadrilla appealing against the suspension of it’s licence in the Netherlands
https://www.schaliegasvrij.nl/2017/11/15/rechtzaak-quadrilla-om-schaliegas-exploratie-vegunning-minister-wiebes-ziet-af-van-proefboring/
The UK shale gas industry.Desperate and running on fumes.
Phil C. I watched to the youtube link ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK45Ddi6u8g ) that you posted. I can see nothing in that link that claims that the Kilauea geothermal plant appears to have triggered the eruption which has now engulfed the plant (indeed some 4 days after the eruption started & spewed out a fast moving lava flow!). Could you please give more conclusive evidence which makes geological sense to substantiate your claim????
Then you weren’t paying attention were you Dr Nick, I said appears, for substantiation then that is your own concern.
Always a pleasure
Have a great Sunday it looks like a beautiful day for a long walk along the coast.
Phil C – Oh, I see, it only appears to you that the geothermal plant caused the volcanic eruption. I thought you were making a serious evidence-based claim by providing the you- tube link.
Personally, I think it’s time for the guys to dress up in white and wear a flat cap, the judge included.
Both Martin Luther King and Gandhi spent time in jail for their disruptive peaceful civil disobedience. This industry disrupts peoples health, pollutes air, water, soil, obstructs our roads with their filthy convoys. There will be more disruption to this industry until they go away. People went to prison over the poll tax before it was abandoned: people opposing fracking now may be locked up to show how important we feel it is to stop this industry. We count the cost, Cuadrilla, not us, have decided to escalate their war against the local community who don-t want this, and I predict it will be local people who now risk jail to protect their local community, and all the other communities threatened by fracking.
Feel free to lead the way Ian.
I am sorry Ian but there is no evidence that the frack industry ‘disrupts peoples health, pollutes air, water, soil’.
Its one of the bits of fantasy that activists say, but it has no scientific evidence base. [edited by moderator]
Bo(!!)ocks, evidence of real harm is everywhere, unfortunately outside you blinker view.
[Edited by moderator] go DYOR.
Most of the time there are about two people at pnr. Most local people want Cuadrilla to just get on with it. During nice weather out of town protestor turn up now and again, no fixed abode etc etc. If some people don’t want the U.K to produce it’s own natural gas that’s up to them. Millions of people in the U.K enjoy the benefits of gas, how many are willing to go to prison to oppose it?
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Kisheny. If, as you say, most of the time there are about two people at PNR and during nice weather out of town protestor ( your word ) turn up now and again, it sounds as if Cuadrilla are demonstrating a great deal of threatening overkill in seeking this injunction against the Human Rights to free speech and protest of so few. A further demonstration of Cuadrilla’s strange idea of being a good neighbour, as they claim.
Cuadrilla is slow to make progress and npt very well planned or organized by the time they get their sheeet together the injunction will expire just like their permit.
Oh dear Jack!
Lord Brown, from the Guardian in 2013!! AGAIN.
We have discussed this before. If you really think people do no research and are fooled by such “links” then I am surprised. But, that is not the case, and it is all you have so you keep trotting it out. It really is a bit like quoting the performance of a Model T Ford and suggesting that motorways are not required! Technology moves on Jack-and with regard to fracking it certainly has since 2013.
Perhaps it may dawn on some, that people do actually do some research before engaging in a subject-including Judges. If Judge Pelling was one of this group, he could just have viewed DOD discussion over the last few days, rather than rely on the data submitted by Cuadrilla.
But then, it could be there are moles at play?
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The MARTIN merry-go-round
IT’S A BIT RICH MARTIN , to accuse others of continually recycling the same information …….. I’m sure you have given a good laugh to people on this forum with more than 30 days membership….. AS THEY will know the truth.
The opinions of such a powerful and influential figure in the Oil and Gas industry, like Lord Browne are still as relevant today as they were back in 2013.