Anti-fracking groups are expected to converge on Blackpool tomorrow for a protest outside the Conservative Party’s spring conference.
Campaigners from across England are responding to the renewed calls for fracking from some members of the government.
The shale gas industry in the Blackpool area was suspended in 2019 after a series of earthquakes caused by fracking at Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road site. This was followed by . Ban England-wide moratorium on fracking.
Cuadrilla has been preparing to plug and abandon the Preston New Road wells. But the Oil & Gas Authority has offered to consider a request to postpone the operation for a year.
Barbara Richardson, a campaigner from Frack Free Lancashire, said:
“Making sure we have a voice – that’s why we’re going to the conference. We want the government and industry to hear us.”
Other campaigns are expected to call for insulated homes, humane response to the refugee crisis, fair wages and support for the NHS.
Jem Bendell, professor of sustainability leadership at Cumbria University, said:
“We want a just transition to low-carbon living for everyone. And we know that corporate greed is the enemy of peace, health, freedom and our families.
“The view that starting gas projects that take years to come on stream will help people in fuel poverty today is just as bonkers.
“We know that anyone saying either doesn’t actually care about what’s happening in the world. We care.”
This is the first time since 2007 that the Conservatives have held a conference in Blackpool.
Protest organisers have called for noisy demonstrations with samba bands, pots and pans and a variety of speakers hoping to be loud enough to be heard inside the Winter Gardens’ new Conference Centre.
The protest is due to start at 10am on Friday 18 March in St John’s Square. On Saturday 19 March, the protest begins at 11am at the Comedy Carpet, opposite Blackpool Tower, followed by a rally at St John’s Square.
Categories: Opposition, slider
DRILL OR DROP? 
Reblogged this on The Free.
If drill or drop have reported on it, you can bet your life the protest is agreed with the establishment for a future agenda.
Based upon previous, this should be a good bit of PR-not.
Goodness, relics from the past, sorry, we want to move forward to cleaner energies, innovative ideas, which should have invested in a long time ago! Not despotic regimes, or filthy industries polluting our planet.
I believe that is happening at pace, LM. You obviously want that pace increased. I do not-if that pace includes such “cleaner, innovative ideas” as cash for ash, and kids dying in the DRC forced to handle known carcinogens to assist more money to be made from sales of EVs.
The pace, for me, is just about correct. What, I believe, will be a major control upon that pace will be the time that it takes to build new nuclear, that are required within the net zero program. Then, you will have a new target as a filthy industry polluting our planet. Unless, you have heard of how the waste will be turned into something safe?
MARTIN ,
Your concern for the children mining minerals for electric vehicles in the DRC is quite moving .
Does this deep concern also spread to clothes manufacturers , where children are also being abused , working long hours in sweat shops , or maybe you are actively working to stop the thousands of tons of fossil fuel derived plastic junk from ending up in third world countries for disposal , destroying the land and water for future generations of children . PLEASE TELL US .
With such a deep concern for humanity, surely you would be uniting with jackthelad in condemning the highly toxic , environmentally damaging, climate changing industry known as fracking .
Just take a look at what ONE organization, BREAST CANCER ACTION says about fracking .
https://www.bcaction.org/the-root-causes-of-breast-cancer/our-fossil-fuel-work/dont-frack-with-our-health/
How concerned are you MARTIN ?
Oh jackthelad:
Oxygen will eventually cause 100% of deaths, Fact!
Half a dozen activists at Blackpool. Its not going their way at all.
You’re really need to go to Specsavers. I was there on both days of the Conservative Spring Conference and I can vouch for the fact that there were far more than half a dozen anti fracking activists present and the Tories were left in no doubt of their opposition to fracking returning to the Fylde or anywhere else.