The trial of the first environmental campaigners arrested outside Cuadrilla’s drilling site at Balcombe heard this morning (8/1/14) how a peaceful protest became chaotic as police began arresting people. Eleven campaigners deny obstructing the highway on July 26th last year by sitting on a log in the entrance […]
The trial of the first environmental campaigners arrested at anti-fracking protests in Balcombe heard this afternoon from the officer in charge of the policing operation. Chief Inspector Matthew Webb, based at Crawley Police Station, was the bronze commander on July 26th, the second day of protests outside Cuadrilla’s […]
The trial got underway this morning (7/1/14) of the first group of campaigners arrested at anti-fracking protests in Balcombe last year. Three women and eight men are charged with obstructing the highway outside Cuadrilla’s oil exploration site on July 26th. They all deny the charge. The case is […]
The trial is due to begin today (7/1/14) of the first people arrested at the protests against Cuadrilla’s oil exploration operation in Balcombe. Eleven environmental campaigners were arrested on July 26th 2013, the second day of the blockade of Cuadrilla’s site at Lower Stumble. They are all charged […]
The defence solicitor in a court case arising from the Balcombe anti-fracking demonstrations said today the law should be applied consistently to all the protestors who were arrested. Shahida Begum was speaking during the trial of Nick Ward, an environmental campaigner from Cambridge, who was arrested at Cuadrilla’s […]
30/11/13 Residents from Sussex, Falkirk, Belfast, Fylde, Ribble Estuary and the Vale of Glamorgan deliver a letter to David Cameron calling for a ban on shale gas and coal bed methane exploitation.
Members of the Frack-free Balcombe Residents Association delivered a letter to Downing Street (20/12/13), urging David Cameron to reconsider the government’s policy on fracking for shale gas. The letter, signed by the association’s chairman, Charles Metcalfe, calls for a an immediate and binding UK-wide moratorium on shale gas, coal […]
West Sussex County Council has apologised to Balcombe residents for mistakes made during the summer when Cuadrilla drilled an exploration oil well on the edge of the village. Louise Goldsmith, the county council leader, told a public meeting of villagers on December 5th that the summer’s drilling had […]
We asked Sussex Police and the Crown Prosecution Service to comment on the collapse of the first trial of a campaigner arrested during protests against Cuadrilla’s exploration at Balcombe. The case, heard at Brighton Magistrates, ended abruptly on Monday (25/11/13) when District Judge Peter Crabtree questioned whether an offence had […]
The chairman of Cuadrilla Resources, Lord Browne of Madingley, told a room of 400 people last night that his company would not frack at its site at Balcombe. Lord Browne was responding to questions following a lecture about climate change and fossil fuels at the London School of […]
DRILL OR DROP? 