30th July 2014 Francis Egan, chief executive of the drilling company, Cuadrilla, went on the radio yesterday to answer questions from listeners about fracking. Mr Egan rarely gives interviews or answers questions from journalists. So we’ve transcribed his answers to the points raised by listeners to BBC Radio […]
25th July 2014 A year ago today, the first lorry arrived to deliver equipment to Cuadrilla’s oil exploration site at Balcombe. Its passage was blocked by a group of anti-fracking campaigners. The stand-off marked the start of a protest that lasted 65 days. It made Balcombe a household […]
18th July 2014 An anti-fracking campaigner accused of shoulder-barging a police officer at last year’s protests at Balcombe has failed to overturn his conviction.
11th July 2014 Cuadrilla has again confirmed to Balcombe Parish Council that it does not plan to frack at Balcombe “now or in the future”. The company was responding to a letter, written three years ago by one of its directors to the Department of Energy and Climate […]
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.
2/7/14 Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace defended their campaign against shale gas and accused the government of failing to take action over greenhouse gas emissions from coal.
An at-a-glance view of June’s news about fracking and onshore oil and gas. For the current month’s news click here
27th June 2014 The debate over oil drilling in Balcombe has turned against local and national Conservative politicians this month. Letters to the local paper, the Mid-Sussex Times, have criticised the Government, Conservative-led West Sussex County Council and the local Tory MP.
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.