Balcombe, West Sussex. Photo: Repower Balcombe
In this week’s listings
- First full meeting of community liaison group for Angus Energy site at Balcombe;
- “Tour de Frackshire” bike ride around shale gas sites in East Midlands and South Yorkshire;
- Lobbying workshop on climate change;
- Deadline for comments for interested parties in Ellesmere Port planning inquiry
- Plus meetings and information events.
Full diary for September 2018 and beyond. Please let us know here if you’d like us to add your events or if any details are wrong.
Monday 17 September 2018
Green Monday at Preston New Road shale gas site. 10am-1pm, Maple Farm, Preston New Road, Little Plumpton, near Blackpool PR4 3PE. Details
Bolsover Against Fracking meeting. 7.30pm, Bolsover Assembly Rooms, Hill Top, Bolsover S44 6NG. Details
Special meeting of Balcombe Parish Council to choose members of the Angus Energy community liaison group. 8pm, Parish Room, Stockcroft Rd, Balcombe RH17 6HP. Details
Tuesday 18 September 2018
Candle-lit vigil outside Third Energy’s KM8 site. Habton Road, Kirby Misperton, North Yorkshire
Frack Free Tinker Lane meeting. 7.30pm, Red Hart Hotel, Bawtry Road, Blyth S81 8HG. Details
Wednesday 19 September 2018
Women’s Call march and vigil. 9.30am-10.30am, Maple Farm, Preston New Road, Little Plumpton, near Blackpool PR4 3PE.
Local democracy and you. Meeting about government plans on permitted development and Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects for the shale gas industry. 7pm, Hovingham Village Hall, Main Street, Hovingham YO62 4LF.
Barlborough Against Fracking meeting. 7.30pm, Barlborough Miners Welfare, 1 California Lane, Barlborough S43 4EX. Details
Thursday 20 September 2018
Frack Free Misson weekly meeting. 7.30pm, The Angel Inn, Dame Lane, Misson, Nottinghamshire DN10 6EB.
Are we going to be fracked? Cresswell against Fracking meeting with guest speaker, Ian R Crane. 7.30pm, Church Rooms, Duke Street, Creswell S80 4AS. Details
First full meeting of Angus Energy community liaison group for Balcombe oil site flow test. No time published and not open to the public. Bramble Hall, Balcombe, Haywards Heath, RH17 6HR. More details
Friday 21 September 2018
Black Friday outside Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road shale gas site. 10am, Preston New Road, Little Plumpton, near Blackpool PR4 3PE. Details
Deadline for comments from interested parties and for Cheshire West and Chester Council case in public inquiry into refusal of planning permission to IGas for testing at Ellesmere Port well. Ref: APP/A0665/W/18/3207952. Planning Inspectorate page for the inquiry
Saturday 22 September 2018
Route of Le Grand Tour de Frackshire. Source: Strava
Frack Free Wakefield District information event. 10am-1pm, market entrance, opposite Argos, Pontefract town centre.
Solidarity Saturday at Preston New Road. 10am-2pm, Maple Farm, Little Plumpton, near Blackpool PR4 3PE. Details
Climate change and fossil fuel divestment – lobbying workshop. 11am-1pm. Quaker Meeting House, 2 Church Street, Reading RG1 2SB. Details
Le Tour de Frackshire outside Tinker Lane. Photo: Frack Free Tinker Lane
Tour de Frackshire bike ride. Planned to take in proposed and current shale gas sites in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and S Yorkshire. Three routes: 90 miles (all six well sites), 30 miles (Tinker Lane to Misson Springs and back) and 5 miles (Tinker Lane to Daneshill and back). Details
Sunday 23 September 2018
Frack Free United fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference on government proposals to change the rules for shale gas developments. Speakers include Sir Kevin Barron MP, Liz Hutchins of Friends of the Earth, Matt Thomson of CPRE and Professor Keith Barnham of Imperial College. 12.45pm, ACC Room, Concourse Room 3.
Categories: Diary
DRILL OR DROP? 
The Times notes this week that the rise in the cost of wholesale gas has made coal cheaper than gas as a electricity generating fuel. Coal is increasing it’s share of the market and that is likely to continue with the expected spike in gas prices over the winter.
In other words restricting the possible increase in gas supplies from fracking may result in letting coal, a far dirtier fuel, back into the market and thus increase CO2 emissions. So reject gas, get coal. We’ve got to have a back-up fuel to unreliable, weather dependent wind and solar power; to my mind the best choice is natural gas, partly from the billion year old compost heap we call shale rock.