Still from a video by Stressed Out, 24 September 2018
Opponents of Cuadrilla’s fracking operation in Lancashire complained that they were “kettled” by police while two convoys delivered equipment to the site early this morning.
The road to the site at Little Plumpton near Blackpool was closed during the delivery.
Cuadrilla said one convoy, of 23 vehicles, arrived at about 4.20am. Another convoy, of about five vehicles, arrived at 4.30am.
All the equipment needed by Cuadrilla to carry out the UK’s first frack of a horizontal shale gas well is now on site, the company confirmed.
A spokesperson said:
“The convoys were carrying all the frac equipment which is now on site – pumps, coiling tubes etc.”
A spokeswoman from Gate Camp, which has been monitoring operations at the Preston New Road site, said:
“With people dying around the world as a result of climate change, it is insane that our government pushes ahead with its destructive fracking policy.
“Seeing the police state facilitating a fracking company with over 30 heavy goods vehicles during the night, is a feeling of utter betrayal. It is hard to find words.”
Chief Insp Keith Ogle, of Lancashire Police said:
“Following Cuadrilla’s decision to carry out deliveries in the early hours of this morning, a policing operation was put in place to ensure safety and to minimise disruption to the local community.
“The delivery to the Preston New Road site by Cuadrilla was within its traffic management plan agreed with Lancashire County Council.
“A small number of protesters were subject to containment for their safety and safety of others due to the size of the vehicles involved and nature of the delivery.
“Our aim as always is to ensure is a consistent and coordinated policing response and ensure a balance between the rights of people to peacefully protest, together with the rights of the wider public, including local businesses, to go about their lawful activities.
“We aim to prevent, where possible, crime and disorder, but if it does occur we will provide an effective, lawful and proportionate response.”
A spokeswoman for Frack Free Lancashire said:
“Yet more disgraceful scenes of violence and assaults from Lancashire Police have shocked us once again. The pure facilitation of this dying industry, desperately being kept alive by a misguided government, is beyond acceptable.
“Threats of the use of pepper spray against peaceful protestors, closing the A585 in both directions, repeatedly and assaulting campaigners to force this industry into an unwilling community, only serves to remind us that corporate interests come before community safety and democracy.
“We would also like to remind Lancashire Police that our community will still be here, even when the fracking industry has long gone. The fractures to our community through the betrayal of trust, infliction of violence and continued poor relations, are irreparable and will never be forgotten.”
Lancashire County Council said it was satisfied that the delivery was within the terms of the planning permission for the site.
Categories: Industry
DRILL OR DROP? 
So it was Cuadrilla’s decision and informed the police ? How does that work ?
Well done guys 👍🏽
Much better to enable smooth delivery whilst roads are quiet than to add HGVs to rush hour traffic. Delivery during rush hour or even other daylight hours would have been slower and therefor produced more emissions. Cuadrilla, protectors of the environment!
That was the safest way to protect the protesters from themselves. Job well done.
So what other industry requires huge convoys and a huge police presence, and closure of a main highway, in the middle of the night? Hiding away from public scrutiny at night time when they do their dirty work. It is a last ditch desperate effort to try and reassure twitchy investors that fracking is back on track after disaster after disaster elsewhere. Rebellious Tory MPs will defeat permitted development and Labour ban fracking. Smart money is now moving to renewables. Clock is ticking and has already struck at the collapse of this industry. Only mugs left….
Ahh the latest delivery complied with the “amended” TMP which of course was amended following Caudrillas breach when delivering the drilling rig to site (again aided and abetted by Lancashire’s finest).
The original TMP restricted deliveries to between 7.30am and 6.30pm to spare locals the disturbance of deliveries out of normal hours. Obviously that didn’t suit Cuadrilla who had been caught with their pants down so the planners agreed to change it. But then it’s only the receptors sorry locals that suffer and they don’t actually matter anyway.
This is permission creep at its finest and you have got to love those Gold Standard regulations including planning conditions that are not worth the paper they are written on.
All that over-time for the police and the HGV drivers! Happy chappies.
Progressing now, rather than processing. Always going to happen. Might actually get some real, factual output now.
It’s like waiting for that moment as the roller coaster tips over the edge, and then up down, up down with less and less height and ever decreasing speed…..shakey shakey;hope the wheels don’t come off!
Martin as a local council tax payer I can inform you I am not a happy chappy at all that unnecessary Police overtime.
What’s the cost of facilitating ( read policing) the big Cs activities on the Fylde to date?
MARTIN,
( 1 ) Peanuts ( MONEY ) fron central government , only covering a fraction of the Policing costs.
( 2 ) Police having to be drafted in from over areas to cover security at the Cuadrilla site.
( 3 ) Increased , ongoing security costs for Cuadrilla.
( 4 ) North Wales Police Commissioner refusing to send Police to help Police at PNR fracking site.
( 5 ) Centricas investment in Cuadrilla, ALL USED UP, without a whiff of gas being extracted .
( 7 ) ONLY £ 218,000 taxable UK profit made by Cuadrilla in 2017.
( 8 ) PNR residents, Councillors and Lancashire MPs strongly opposed to Fracking.
( 9 ) Conservative MPs warning their own party leaders about their intention to vote against the drilling amendment Bill……. Combined with the votes of Labour, Lib/Dens and the Green party , there is a strong possibility of the Conservative party top brass losing the vote
( 10 ) ONLY with INJUNCTIONS can the the Fracking industry hobble forward .
IS THERE HONESTLY ANY HOPE of the Fracking Indusrty getting a firm foot hold in this country ?????
Does anyone really think they will make a profit ?????
Nearly forgot ……….
( 6 ) With Fracking bankruptcies at a HIGH , in the land of joke enviournment regulations ( USA .) Do you honestly think they will make a profit in a country with tighter waste regulations and costs??????
Hang on a minute Ask yourself why all the extra policing is necessary in the first place Im sure Cuadrilla would be happy if it didn,t need police protection.
“Cuadrilla, speculators abusing the environment!” more like. £66m and not so much as a bottle of gas between them. Costs more to get it out of the ground than it is worth in financial terms. Fracked gas is so 20th Century. Even Franny admits this is a massive gamble. One well site in 7 years is remarkable. It really is a good job that we were not relying in it. Talk about intermittency of solar and wind, but the possibility of some gas every 7 years is really staggering. They could perhaps have a second well site by 2025, by which time we should have moved substantially away from onshore hydrocarbons.
OK, I have a question. It seems that this was Cuadrilla’s decision to bring in a convoy of vehicles at 4.20 am, and the police had to just accept this. However, isn’t this a breach of the traffic management plan that Cuadrilla had to agree with the council before beginning work? Surely they don’t have a traffic management plan in place that allows huge convoys of trucks in the middle of the night – so they much be in breach. And, assuming they are in breach, how come the police just accept it? Surely they could tell Cuadrilla that this is not allowed – and perhaps report them for trying to breach the traffic management plan. Can anyone shed some light on this?
The didn’t originally but after the rig debacle they basically got the planners to screw up the original TMP and for all intents and purposes they now have carte blanche to do as they please, all with a public funded police escort of course.
I would have thought for symbolic reasons Cuadrilla would have brought the convoy in on a Wednesday morning whilst all their employees in WHITE bowed down to them and begged for their 30 pieces of silver.