48 replies »

1. [Edited by moderator] sounds like Oil & Gas style .

2. If there’s an injunction in place, why were these people there in the first place?

   Interesting that it was the police who called the ambulance once they had arrived. Clearly the man’s injuries weren’t so serious that his friends (and seemingly one relative) hadn’t already done so.

   • I don’t know you from Adam, R8 or whoever you are, but your comment shows you to be uncaring, insensitive and with an axe to grind. I really amateur a loss as to why you should care to post this here.

     • Uncaring? Insensitive? If the man needed an ambulance, why didn’t his friends and relative call it for him? Perhaps their focus was less on the man’s welfare and more on simply ‘getting the police there’. It’s their caring, or apparent lack of, that should be brought into question. If I were there I’d have called the ambulance if I saw that someone was injured.

       You’re right, you don’t know me from Adam.

   • People were at the site because this is our home and we are going to protect it. Thanks to corruption and greed it is the only option open to us.

     • Thank you Dianne to you and your fellow protectors. Solidarity from KM8 x

   • R8LMX. “If there’s an injunction in place, why were these people there in the first place?”
     The spokesperson for Derbyshire Police gave the reason,
     Our officers were sent to the site to facilitate the RIGHTS of those protesting and ensure the event passed off peacefully.”
     It appears the tractor driver did not recognise these people’s rights and decided to take the law into his own hands. The Injunction is irrelevant in this.

     “The Ineos reps came over and asked if he was OK. The tractor driver then turned the tractor round and drove through a hedge to get away, ripping the hedge and fencing out. He left the scene and so did the Ineos guys”
     Martin. As far as “Farmers being the salt of the earth.” A tractor driver ripping down a fence and hedging [edited by moderator] is hardly the action of a responsible person. When he arrived he was clearly intent on moving the protestors, even though they were already making way for him to pass. As the witness says, “We were all moving to the side to let the tractor through. The tractor driver revved his engine like he was in a sports car, shouting something, then let the clutch out and charged through the gate, hitting Trev Butt and knocking him to the ground.”
     As I said, hardly the action of a responsible person.

     “We phoned the police. When they got there they phoned an ambulance to come and check him over.”
     I imagine the people protesting didn’t call one because the man had said he was not badly injured. No doubt, if the protestors had called an ambulance someone on DoD would have complained that ambulances were being called unnecessarily. When they arrived, the police acted in a professional manner and called an ambulance to check the man over as a precaution.

     One look at the photograph shows that these people are peaceful, whereas the actions of that farmer were anything but peaceful.

     • Pauline…I would have thought that an injunction preventing protest overrides any right to protest for the period that the injunction is in place. If not, then what purpose does it serve? These people should not have been there – full stop.

       A photo provides a point in time snapshot – in this case it shows protestors in front of the tractor, potentially violating the rights of the farmer to go about his business? Hard to say without a wider view.

       The photo neither confirms that the protest was peaceful or otherwise, it simply shows some protestors in front of a tractor and then posing for a smiley snap.

       At the time the police were there, they assessed that everything was peaceful (even if those protesting were flouting the injunction). What about when the police weren’t there? Was it also peaceful then?

       What the farmer does to his own hedge is his prerogative. If indeed he deliberately aimed his vehicle at someone and caused them harm, that is of course unacceptable. We can only speculate as to his motive. It may have been down to frustration at protestors breaking the injunction – who knows?

       None of which has anything to do with Ineos.

       Maybe a more accurate headline would have been “Villager hit by tractor whilst flouting protest injunction in Derbyshire”.

   • The injunction covers a part of the land the victim wasn’t on. Yes, they are siblings. They are protesting against the destruction of their community.
     Does the matter of who did or did not call an ambulance make the hit and run any less illegal and totally unacceptable?

3. [Edited by moderator] Will be interesting to see if a prosecution happens

   • [Comment removed by moderator]

   • [Comment removed by moderator]

   • Paula, it would also not be the first time activists have tried to intimidate companies and people who have some form of connection to the exploration activities.

     Do you know if the farmer allegedly involved in this terrible incident where the local man was injured, have any links or connections to the Ineos site?

     Let’s hope the man makes a full and speedy recovery and the police investigation uncovers the facts.

4. What decent person tries to make political capital out of someone getting injured? I don’t care which “side” you’re on R8LMX – you lack any class whatsoever.

   • “What decent person tries to make political capital out of someone getting injured”

     And the reason this deserves an article on DoD is? Yup, making political capital out of someone getting injured.

5. Oh goodness, the virtue signalling can be seen for miles around!

   Have I missed the point? Was the tractor operating for INEOS? I suspect not looking at the photo which showed harvesting was in progress, and the tractor was operating in a neighbouring field.

   Farmers are the salt of the earth, but they have had a pretty awful year to date. I would have thought some of these protestors could have shown a bit of empathy and left them to try and catch up. But, of course, that is against the philosophy of if you don’t agree with us, we will get in your way. The main photo quite clearly shows protestors standing in front of the tractor, ie getting in the way.

   Locals in support claimed. Certainly not exclusive, is it?

6. A 50 year old man standing in the way of a man trying to earn his living. There is a lesson there, but not the one the antis would like. Perhaps the area needs some more jobs so 50 year old men are at work also?

   Roll on muck spreading season.

   • Muck spreading season won’t smell nearly as bad now all those extractor fans are in the area…

   • There we go the old get a job jibe. The vast majority of people up there work and those that don’t have had a long and productive work life and are now retired. I am an hr manager just so you don’t throw that one back at me. I don’t know what people run this one out all the time shows a distinct lack of imagination to me to think of new lines to use.

7. Oh Pauline!

   Do you not know the difference between fact and hearsay?

   You have no idea at all what happened. Have you considered it equally possible the tractor driver lost control of his vehicle? Err, no, of course you haven’t because that would not fit your agenda.

   The police stated it was a collision between a man and a tractor, not the other way round. So that clearly implies what happened? It seems to contradict your repeated statement.

   [Edited by moderator]

   • You weren’t there [edited by moderator], Martin. Please, explain how a human being can “collide with” a tractor. [Edited by moderator] do you want to suggest the human being charged the tractor, in the belief that he could actually make some impact on it?😂 And, the picture of it parked behind the protestors? It was parked there for exactly the reason you have raised a point about. It wasn’t using that gateway initially. You silly 🐑 .

   • Martin were you there you talk about heresay as if you were, I suspect not because if you were you would be telling a very different story!

8. Martin, if you believe every press release put out by the police, then I’m sorry to say that you are a very ignorant man. Many false and misleading statements have been released to the press who have repeated them. The police act as a free security company for the oil & gas industry. Football clubs by law must have police attendance and pay for it. Oil & gas companies on the other hand get full cooperation have private meetings as well as benefit from the press releases that gullible people like you read and accept as gospel.

   • oo58ron

     I realise that what you say above is your opinion.

     I disagree with that opinion.

     There are a large number of Oil and Gas sites in the UK with no police presence required. And that is not because no one is playing football at those sites. Lots of offices in Aberdeen with no police acting as a security company. Hmmmm. I also visited a BP petrol station today, and hey presto, no police providing security services.

     Now then, what additional activities at a number of oil and gas sites have required the presence of the police?

     Answers on a postcard, but when Cuadrilla and the protestors play a football match then I too would fully expect any required police presence to be paid for by both parties.

9. These protesters do not speak for all residents of the area at all, they are a badly behaved minority. They have been harassing a farmer going about his own business for days. The film’s clearly show how they have been obstructing those working in the field. Clearly they were obstructing the entrance otherwise they would not have to have been moving to the side as they claim . There is nothing peaceful about their protests. [Edited by moderator]

   • [Edited by moderator] People have every right to be up there on that lane. If you are indeed local how are you going to feel about your mate getting money whilst your house is devalued. How do you feel about parents being scared to take their kids to a school so close by. How do you feel about people not being able to sleep properly for three months due to the drilling noise, just to line the pockets of one very selfish man. There are a lot more issues here too but only one person locally will benefit, that one you are defending, he has made the decision to take money in a way in which it makes life worse for every single other person in the village. I won’t feel sorry for him if he wants to take money out of our pockets to line his own whilst risking our health and security surely we are not supposed to sit by and doing nothing. If you want to support him doing this to you then more fool you.

   • So where do you get that most of the village support what [edited by moderator] is doing that would be really interesting!

10. What a terrible waste of scarce police resources, An absolute scandal, how many officers and vehicles? I suppose the more there are the more type space is given. A bobby on a bike would have done.