Reporting the campaign against exploration and exploitation of unconventional gas and oil
14th July 2014 West Sussex County Council is again controlling public admission to a planning committee considering an application for oil and gas drilling.
13th July 2014 West Sussex County Council says it is planning more information days on oil and gas drilling after describing last month’s event in Pulborough a success.
11th July 2014 West Sussex County Council planners are recommending refusal of an application by Celtique Energie to drill an exploratory oil well between Wisborough Green and Kirdford.
10th July 2014 The Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner said she would defend to her “last breath” the right to protest. But answering questions about last year’s anti-fracking demonstrations at Balcombe, she could not say whether police passed personal information about demonstrators to the oil exploration company, Cuadrilla.
3rd July 2014 The large number of comments on Celtique Energies’s planning application to drill at Fernhurst in the South Downs National Park has delayed a decision until the autumn.
27th June 2014 Public Health England is standing by its conclusion that fracking has a low risk to human health if properly run and regulated. But the organisation raises concerns about the density and location of drilling and abut bore-hole integrity. It repeats that robust regulation is essential.
25th June 2014 A veteran environmental campaigner will have to wait another three months to challenge convictions arising from the Balcombe anti-fracking protests. Nick Ward, 52, of Cambridge, expected to appeal this morning against guilty verdicts for obstructing the highway and criminal damage. But his case at Hove […]
24th June 2014 County councillors who went on an information visit to an oil field weren’t told about two pollution incidents which took four years to fix, according to details released today (24/6/14) under the Freedom of Information Act.
21st June 2014 A document released under the Freedom of Information Act has confirmed that the Sussex Police operation at last year’s Balcombe anti-fracking protests used covert intelligence-gathering. This had been suspected by campaigners but not previously stated by police.
20th June 2014 West Sussex County Council and the drilling company, Cuadrilla, have until the beginning of July to respond to a legal challenge by Balcombe residents.
DRILL OR DROP? 