26th February 2014 Balcombe Parish Council’s Oil Working Group meets today to discuss the village’s future policy on hydrocarbon issues. But how much influence will the council – and local people – have on oil exploration or production in their area? Is there a democratic deficit in decision-making […]
3/2/14 Greenpeace reported today that a group of Sussex residents have formed the first legal blockade to stop a drilling site. The charity says solicitors acting on behalf of the residents have written to the Energy Secretary, Ed Davey, and the exploration company, Celtique Energie, to say they […]
Yesterday, Peter Lilley MP, a member of the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee told Channel 4 News that 200 wells had been fracked in the UK. Vanessa Vine, of Britain and Ireland Frack Free, told the programme that an email to her from the Department […]
West Sussex County Council has said an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) would not be needed for Cuadrilla’s new proposals at Balcombe. The company’s planning application was published yesterday (23/1/14) on the West Sussex County Council website. The application is for temporary permission for flow testing and monitoring a lateral borehole, […]
Cuadrilla has written to Balcombe residents telling them it has no plans ever to frack its oil exploration well on the edge of village. The letter, signed by company Chief Executive, Francis Egan, says the oil-bearing rocks below the site at Lower Stumble are naturally fractured. Mr Egan […]
23/12/13 George Brown acquitted of an offence under Section 4 of the Public Order Act after a trial at Horsham Magistrates Court. 21/12/13 Alice O’Keeffe writes in The Guardian about her experience of the climate camp at Balcombe in August.
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.
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 […]
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 […]
West Sussex County Council used bailiffs today (19/11/13) to clear the protest camp which has been outside Cuadrilla’s exploration site at Balcombe since July. A statement by the council said: “As promised during the High Court hearing we have established a new designated protest area close to the entrance […]
DRILL OR DROP? 