January 2014 fracking timeline
31/1/14 The Crown Prosecution Service reveals that 35 charges arising from the Balcombe anti-fracking protests have been dropped before reaching trial. More
No more oil or gas licences in the UK’s finest landscapes, National Park to tell government
18/2/14 The South Downs National Park Authority is to tell the government that no more oil or gas licences should be sold in protected landscapes. The comment will be part of the authority’s response to a government consultation on the next round of Petroleum Development and Exploration Licences […]
Celtique Energie application for Fernhurst on hold until summer
18/2/14 The South Downs National Park Authority has halted consideration of Celtique Energie’s planning application for exploratory drilling at Fernhurst because key information is missing. The application will need to go through a new consultation and is unlikely to be decided until the summer. The authority’s chief executive, […]
Balcombe residents challenge parish council chair on Cuadrilla exploration
18/2/14 Frack Free Balcombe Residents’ Association has responded to an interview (reported here last week) by Shale World with the village’s parish council chair Alison Stevenson. The full response is posted below from FFBRA’s latest newsletter. Community benefit FFBRA challenged Alison’s Stevenson’s suggestion that Balcombe could receive £80,000 from […]
Dramatic action needed to make media pay attention to climate change, campaigner tells court
13/2/14 A climate change campaigner locked himself to the top of a water tanker leaving Cuadrilla’s oil exploration site at Balcombe to persuade the media that the anti-fracking protests were not petering out. 66-year old Robert Basto, who has a PhD in physics, told Brighton Magistrates Court that […]
Trades union charges dropped against two anti-fracking campaigners
13/2/14 Charges brought under trades union legislation against two anti-fracking campaigners were dropped this morning before they gave evidence in court. Robert Basto, 66, of Reigate, and Jamie Spiers, 29, of no fixed address, had denied besetting Cuadrilla’s staff, contractors and suppliers at its oil exploration site at […]
Judge reviews trades union case against anti-fracking campaigners
12/2/14 The use of trades union legislation to prosecute a group of anti-fracking campaigners is under review tonight. District Judge William Ashwort, is considering whether there is a case to answer against five people who took part in the Balcombe protests and were charged under Section 241 of […]
Padlock protest at Balcombe because government wasn’t listening – court hears
12\2\14 An anti-fracking campaigner padlocked herself to the gate into Cuadrilla’s oil exploration site at Balcombe because “the government wasn’t listening”. Nichola Sanger, on trial for an alleged offence arising from last summer’s Balcombe protests, told the independent video company, You and I Films, that fracking was wrong […]
Balcombe anti-fracking protests cost Cuadrilla £2,500 an hour, court told
11/2/14 Cuadrilla’s drilling supervisor at its site at Balcombe told Brighton Magistrates Court this afternoon that delays caused by last summer’s protests cost the oil exploration company £2,500 an hour. James Whitham was giving evidence on the first day of the trial of five environmental campaigners, including Natalie […]
Anti-fracking campaigners face trial on trades union charges
11/2/14 A group of environmental campaigners who used locks or superglue to block the entrance to Cuadrilla’s oil exploration site at Balcombe have gone on trial charged under an obscure piece of legislation designed to prevent secondary picketing. Natalie Hynde, 31, of St Leonards-on-Sea, Simon Medhurst, 55, of […]
DRILL OR DROP? 