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 […]
An environmental campaigner at the anti-fracking protests at Balcombe was found guilty this afternoon (29/1/14) of assaulting a police officer but was acquitted of resisting arrest. Tony Jones, 24, of Hackney, London, was accused of pushing Sergeant Michael Howe in the chest on August 19th last year during […]
An anti-fracking protestor, whose case the police believed should not go to trial, was acquitted this morning (28/1/14) after less than two hours in court. Aaron Bell, 26, of no fixed address, had denied obstructing a police officer outside Cuadrilla’s oil exploration site at Balcombe on August 12th […]
Two environmental campaigners, Timothy Harris and Kaity Squires, have been found guilty of assaulting police at last summer’s anti-fracking protests at Balcombe. They were both conditionally discharged for 12 months and each ordered to pay £300 costs. Another campaigner, Zachary Hewitt, was found not guilty on the same […]
An environmental campaigner described this morning (23/1/14) how a police officer held him in a headlock during a struggle at the anti-fracking protests at Balcombe. Zachary Hewitt was giving evidence at his trial at Brighton Magistrates Court. Mr Hewitt, 23, of Bexhill-on-sea, is accused along with another campaigner, […]
A police officer monitoring the crowds at last summer’s Balcombe anti-fracking protests told a court this afternoon (22/1/14) how he was punched in the chest by a young woman demonstrator. PC Mario Ciaramella, usually based at Worthing Police Station, was giving evidence at the trial of three environmental […]
The Guardian reported that Britain has defeated European Union attempts to set legally binding environmental regulations for the shale gas industry. According to the paper, David Cameron has led intense lobbying against the proposals, arguing that existing rules are strict enough to keep fracking safe and that new rules would delay investment and increase […]
The Chief Constable of Sussex, Martin Richards, will be called to give evidence at an anti-fracking trial, which could become a test case for the use of the Public Order Act against protestors. The case involves poet Simon Welsh, the first Balcombe resident to be arrested during the […]
The acquittal of 11 anti-fracking campaigners last week (9/1/14) was ignored by most of the mainstream media, despite detailed and prominent coverage of their arrests in July. The group was found not guilty of obstructing the highway outside Cuadrilla’s oil exploration site at Balcombe, after a three-day trial […]
The Crown Prosecution Service refused to comment on the acquittal of the first people arrested at the Balcombe anti-fracking protest last summer. Yesterday, a group of 11 environmental campaigners were found not guilty after a three-day trial of obstructing the highway outside Cuadrilla’s oil exploration site, (See below […]
DRILL OR DROP? 