Reporting the campaign against exploration and exploitation of unconventional gas and oil
Update to Timeline – September 2013 27/9/13 Cuadrilla leaves Balcombe Cuadrilla’s exploratory drilling site at Balcombe is cleared and Sussex Police scales down its operation. Superintendent Lawrence Hobbs says a few officers will remain in the area, mostly to ensure road safety. He acknowledges the policing operation will affect […]
Update to Timeline – September 2013 26/9/13 Farewell to Cuadrilla Friends of the Earth Brighton announces a farewell gathering outside the Cuadrilla site at Balcombe at 11am on Saturday 28th September. The company has until Saturday, under the terms of its planning permission, to leave the site. 25/9/13 Rig […]
Update to Timeline – September 2013 25/9/2013 Green MP Caroline Lucas is charged following demonstrations against fracking at the Cuadrilla drilling site in Balcombe last month. A statement from the Crown Prosecution Service says Dr Lucas will face one charge under the Public Order Act 1986 and one charge of […]
Update on Timeline – September 2013 19/9/2013 Anglers come out against fracking. The Angling Trust, which represents game, coarse and sea anglers in England says current environmental regulations aren’t good enough to deal with fracking. It urges the government not allow fracking unless sustainable supplies of water are […]
A month ago today, on Thursday July 25th, Cuadrilla began moving equipment onto its exploratory drilling site near Balcombe in West Sussex. Anti-fracking campaigners gathered outside the gates and successfully stopped lorries getting into the site. By 11am, campaigners had established a camp on the verge alongside and vowed […]
Even before the arrest yesterday of the Green Party MP Caroline Lucas – for illegally blocking the entry to the drilling site, along with other protesters – it was clear that any rational debate [about shale gas exploration] had been drowned out by a shrieking chorus of environmental […]
Police lines contain protestors outside the site entrance More news from August 19th
8.20 Two policeman get off the train at the same time as me at Balcombe. 8.23 Lots of traffic on the road from the station, some of it very fast. I get onto the verge as a police car comes past. I get a wave and wave back. 8.30 At the […]
Leila Dean Energy Campaigner, Greenpeace Katy Dunn Member of No Fracking In Balcombe Society Suzie Horne Balcombe villager She said: “I am livid about it” [letter from West Sussex County Council leader which apologised for protest camp] Natalie Hynde Super-glued herself to Simon Metcalfe at entrance to Cuadrilla […]
DRILL OR DROP? 