Tuesday 9 December 2014

Fracking Communities from Across UK to Converge on Ellesmere Port Drilling Site

Press Release


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Fracking Communities from Across UK to Converge on Ellesmere Port Drilling Site

This weekend, communities facing fracking development will descend on a drilling site in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.  Coaches will be arriving from all corners of the UK for what's being called a 'Solidarity
  Sunday'[1].   The day of action is styled on a similar events that took place in Balcombe in August 2013 which saw over 2,000 people attend[2] and January 2014 at Barton Moss where over 1000 people attended.

Miles Reid, a campaigner against unconventional gas development in Bristol said,

'We are as threatened by unconventional gas development here in the South West as anywhere else in the UK. We're happy to support the people of Cheshire because we'll need their support when the companies arrive here. If we are going to beat this industry we are going to have to do it together'.

Sonia Farley from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire said,

'I am worried that I live in an area licensed for exploration and extraction. After months of iGas and CWaC Council claiming they were only looking for CBM and were not fracking, iGas now includes Ellesmere Port in it's hydraulic fracturing programme[3].....yet the planning permission relates solely to CBM.  It all seems somewhat cloak and daggers to me.
   I'm only just getting my head around the scale of what's being proposed here. It feels rushed. I'll definitely be there on  Sunday, it doesn't feel like anything apart from people getting in the way is going to do any good'.

Donal McNevin from Airth, Scotland said,

'We were ground zero for UK Coal Bed Methane development and we are still waiting on the result from when we fought the country's first application for full-scale fracking production. Dart Energy wanted to drill 22 wells here in Airth and to dump the waste water in the Firth of Forth. We know people in the North West feel as threatened as we do and that
s why we'll be there on  Sunday'.

[1]
https://www.facebook.com/events/311865499007986/

[2] Guardian Article Covering
  Solidarity  Sunday  2013, Balcombe:   http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/18/fracking-protesters-march-sussex-balcombe-drilling 


For an overview of the situation in the region please see these articles:

* Fracking Threat In The North West:
http://frack-off.org.uk/fracking-threat-in-the-north-west/


*  New UK fracking licenses confirmed: 
http://frack-off.org.uk/new-uk-fracking-licenses-confirmed/

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