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 […]
Updates to August timeline 23/8/13 Costs reach £2.3m Sussex Police says the cost of policing protests at Balcombe has risen to £2.3m and is likely to reach £3.7m. It says the cost of the six-day Reclaim the Power camp, which ended on Wednesday August 21st, were £1.5m, including help […]
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 […]
Katy Dunn Member of No Fracking In Balcombe Society Simon Greenwood Owner of Balcombe Estate which includes the Cuadrilla site at Lower Stumble and a member of Balcombe Parish Councl Francis Maude MP MP for Horsham, which includes Balcombe, and Cabinet Office Minister He said: “Balcombe is unlikely […]
Lord John Browne of Madingly Government’s lead non executive director on business in the Cabinet Office (appointed by Francis Maude), director of Riverstone Europe LLP and chairman of the board of Cuadrilla Resources Holdings Ltd. Former CEO of BP. Riverstone is a major investor in Cuadrilla Resources Holdings […]
Who says it will? Michael Fallon, Minister for Energy and Business “The potential prize is huge: cheaper bills for everybody” (31/7/13) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/10213985/The-potential-prize-from-fracking-is-huge.html Prime Minister, David Cameron Fracking has “real potential to drive energy bills down”. (11/8/13) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10236664/We-cannot-afford-to-miss-out-on-shale-gas.html Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne “This is a major new energy source […]
Superintendent Lawrence Hobbs in response to claims that police allowed protestors to stop drilling operations: “While we are in full support of Cuadrilla’s decision to scale back their activities during this period, it was their decision, which took into account Sussex Police’s assessment of the likely impact of […]
DRILL OR DROP? 