As horizontal drilling starts in Lancashire this month, the Guardian talks to protesters and staff at the Cuadrilla well.

 

Adam Vaughan Energy correspondent, The Guardian
@adamvaughan_uk
Monday 2 October 2017 18.59 BS

Mike Hill, sitting in his living room a few miles from a fracking site outside Blackpool, is brandishing a government letter brushing aside his concerns about the industry. “You, Theresa May, overruled democracy to force fracking on the residents of Fylde,” he says, referring to his own letter to the prime minister, in which he urges her to heed experts’ calls for tighter shale gas regulations.

“And then you won’t pay attention, the slightest attention, to anybody in regards fracking regulation, fracking monitoring, public health risks, risks to indigenous industries,” says the chartered engineer, who used to work in the oil and gas sector.

“I’m not really a protester – I’m an engineer,” adds Hill, who won 12% of the vote in the 2015 general election running as an independent candidate in Fylde to raise awareness of fracking locally.

You can read the full Guardian Article here:

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Businessman defies police warning with horn-honking convoy past fracking site

Brian Morrison speaking at a rally at Preston New Road, 29 September 2017. Photo: DrillOrDrop

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Landowners accuse government of “major failing” over liability for fracking

By Ruth Hayhurst Drill or Drop on September 22, 2017

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Labour big wig pays top secret visit to anti fracking camp

Blackpool Gazette 15th September 2017

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Government told to change rules on costs in environmental court cases

Anti-fracking campaigners at the Court of Appeal on 30 August 2017. Photo: DrillOrDrop

The High Court has told the UK government to change some new rules for environmental court cases to protect those taking legal action.

Three organisations, which challenged the Ministry of Justice, said the rules had made it more difficult for individuals and campaign groups to challenge public bodies in court.

The rules, introduced in February 2017, scrapped automatic caps which limited the costs of losing a legal challenge in England and Wales. Instead claimants had to provide detailed information in open court about their personal finances and a judge could increase the limit on costs at any stage of a case.

Campaign organisations said this made it impossible for individuals and charities to know at the start of a case what they were liable for if they lost.

In a judgement today, Mr Justice Dove said the rules on cost caps would benefit from further clarification.

Read the full article here:

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Angus accused of betraying trust and misleading councillors over Brockham oil site.

By Ruth Hayhurst Drill or Drop on September 13, 2017

Brockham oil site in winter 2016/2017. Photo: Brockham Protection Camp

The oil company, Angus Energy, faced criticism this morning from county councillors in Surrey over its operations at the Brockham oil site near Dorking.

The company was accused at a meeting of the council’s planning committee of confused communication, betrayal of trust and misleading statements.

The comments centred on a sidetrack well drilled in January 2017.

At the time, Angus said it was carrying out maintenance work on the existing wells at Brockham. But it later said it had drilled a new sidetrack and that this, along with future production from it, was covered by an existing planning consent.

The council refutes this. In a recent letter to the Oil and Gas Authority, planners have confirmed that both drilling and production from the new well need new permissions (DrillOrDrop report).

Read the full Drill or Drop here:

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UK is 55 million years too late for fracking to work, says expert

The geology of the UK is unsuitable for fracking and the opportunity of the new energy source has been “overhyped”, a geoscience expert has claimed.

Professor John Underhill, chief scientist at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, suggested the UK is “55 million years too late” for the gas extraction technique to work.

He said reservoirs of shale gas had been damaged by seismic activity 55 million years ago, causing some of the deposits to escape.

Read the full Gazette & herald Article here:

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“We need to be able to witness history as it happens” – acquitted fracking photojournalist

Arrest of Peter Yankowski Walker, 8 February 2017. Photo: Stills from video by Lion of Wise Isles

A photojournalist who reports on anti-fracking protests had his conviction for obstructing the highway overturned on appeal today.

Peter Yankowski Walker, who has been covering the protests for about four years, was acquitted at Bolton Crown Court by a judge and two magistrates.

After the hearing, Mr Walker, who lives in Oldham, said:

“I truly believe that we need to be able to witness history as it happens.

“It is very important that people capture what is happening in an unbiased way close up.

“The story is not being told in the mainstream media so it has to be told by independent journalists and through social media.”

Mr Walker had been found guilty in May 2017 by a district judge at Manchester Magistrates Court. (DrillOrDrop report)

The prosecution case was that he tried to slow down a lorry at the end of an anti-fracking protest near a depot in Bolton in February. The depot had been the focus of multiple protests because it belonged to A E Yates, the main construction contractor at Cuadrilla’s shale gas site at Preston New Road near Blackpool.

Mr Walker said he had been at the protest for about five minutes and he was in front of the lorry for about three seconds.

But the Manchester court  imposed a conditional discharge for 12 months and ordered Mr Walker to pay £150 costs and £20 victim surcharge.

Mr Walker said today:

“I have never been arrested before this.

“I did not intend to stop the wagon or obstruct the highway. I intended to keep myself safe.

“It would have been really stupid to jump in front of a wagon.  Why would I risk getting a mark against me?

“The judge and the magistrates said today this was a credible explanation.”

Mr Walker said the arrest had affected his work covering protests at Preston New Road.

“I have been threatened with arrest by the police since then.

“The police and security at Preston New Road knew my name.

“I had got on the police radar as someone of interest to keep an eye. It did affect me in a small way.”

Reacting to his acquittal, he said:

“I have got a clean record again. I am of good character. It feels really good.”

Read the article in Drill or Drop here:

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Damning Fracking Report Delivered to the Archbishop Of Canterbury

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