Category: South East England

South East England

Balcombe frack-off latest

Day 48 (Tues 10th) Of Community Fracking Blockade In Balcombe Sussex

Update (3:30pm): Protector cut off, arrested and caravan moved. Come down and support the community.

Day 48 (Tues 10th) Of Community Fracking Blockade In Balcombe Sussex

Update (3:30pm): Protector cut off, arrested and caravan moved. Come down and support the community.

Update (2:00pm): Cuadrilla fracking truck blocked by Protector locked onto caravan in Balcombe. Community Protection Camp is still going strong despite increased police harassment.

Update (12:45pm): Ambulance takes one Protector to hospital with leg injury caused by Police violence

Update (12:15pm): First fracking truck of day arrives and is being blocked by Protectors.

Update (12:00pm): Community Protection Camp still holding strong. Situation pretty calm at moment. Lots of people here to support Balcombe but do come down to help if you can.

Update (11:00am): One of the three people arrested for singing outside Cuadrilla’s fracking site is a Balcombe resident.

Update (10:30am): Police trying to intimidate camp but not here in large numbers at present. Three arrests. More people would be good. Come down and support the community if you can.

Update (10am): The day has started quietly. Despite media report to the contrary the Council has no powers to evict the camp and would need to go through a court process to try. Threats by the police to use a Section 14 CJPOA to evict the camp are clearly illegal (though obviously that is no guarantee they won’t try) but the camp is holding firm. Come down and support the community if you can.

28 Days Later / Balcombe anti-fracking protests update days 40-43

One Man Stop – 2nd September – Day 40

Update (14:45am): One protector locked on to fracking truck at the gate of Cuadrilla site in Balcombe.

Update (11:45am): Two protectors arrested defending Sussex from fracking.

One Man Stop – 2nd September – Day 40

Update (14:45am): One protector locked on to fracking truck at the gate of Cuadrilla site in Balcombe.

Update (11:45am): Two protectors arrested defending Sussex from fracking.

Update (9:30am): Police trying to force fracking truck through the community protection blockade. Come down and support the community.

Protector Locked On To Fracking Tanker Blocking The Gate Of Cuadrilla Site In Balcombe – Video

More info and photos here

Day 41 (Tues 3rd) Of Community Fracking Blockade In Balcombe Sussex

Protector Locked On To Gate Of Cuadrilla Fracking Site In Balcombe – Video

"I study environmental science, I know this is wrong, I know this is mad and it's just about money. I've chosen this action because nobody is listening. I've signed petitions, I've written to the EA. I've been here peacefully protesting for the last 6 weeks or longer. The government's just not listening to its people. Once they start putting those chemicals down into the water table they cannot get them out. I don't want to leave this mess for the next generation and I certainly don't want to say I didn't do anything to stop it."

Day 43 – 5th September Of Community Fracking Blockade In Balcombe Sussex

Breaking: #Balcombe Community Protection Camp now has a tripod blocking the road. Some cars can pass… looks like no trucks for a while… #GreatGasGala #Frack_OFF #Cuadrilla

Day 43 of the Community Blockade in Balcombe. This morning one Protector is blocking fracking trucks from entering the Cuadrilla’s site with a tripod. The camp in Balcombe is fight the threat of thousands of fracking wells spreading across Sussex and the UK.

Videos

 

Helpful Information for groups considering action

 

Action AWE Disarmament Camp & Blockade

25th August 2013

Directions and details here.

Update – 2nd September – big blockade

IMG_1294

25th August 2013

Directions and details here.

Update – 2nd September – big blockade

IMG_1294

More photos and videos

Twenty-one protesters have been arrested after blockading a road leading to a site which builds warheads for nuclear submarines.

Anti-nuclear weapons protesters at Atomic Weapons Establishment's (AWE) Burghfield site oppose the renewal or replacement of Trident.

Burghfield and AWE Aldermaston provide the warheads for the submarine-launched missile system.

The activists were held on suspicion of obstruction of a public highway.

The UK's existing four ballistic missile submarines are to be renewed from the late-2020s.

The government's final decision on whether to renew or replace the missile system, the UK's nuclear deterrent, is due in 2016.

'Pose a danger'

Some of the protesters at AWE Burghfield have come from Finland, Spain, Scotland, Argentina and Japan to take part.

Police said there were about 20 tents as part of a camp near the West Berkshire site.

Action AWE, which is co-ordinating the protest with Trident Ploughshares, said in a statement they were taking part in "non-violent direct action".

They said nuclear weapons were "immoral, illegal under international law, dangerous to maintain and pose a danger to peace on Earth".

Ch Insp Lindsey Finch, deputy local policing commander for Newbury, said: "We will continue to work with protesters to facilitate peaceful protest and ensure that any criminal activity is dealt with proportionately."

A spokeswoman for the weapons site said: "AWE on-site security, the Ministry of Defence Police and Thames Valley Police are currently in attendance and will remain for the duration of any protest action."

Balcombe anti-fracking protests update days 25-39

Day 37 (Fri 30th) Of Community Fracking Blockade In Balcombe Sussex

Update (10:30am): One protector arrested defending Sussex from fracking.

Update (9:30am): Police trying to force fracking truck through community blokade.

 

Day 34 (Tues 26th) Of Community Fracking Blockade In Balcombe Sussex

Day 37 (Fri 30th) Of Community Fracking Blockade In Balcombe Sussex

Update (10:30am): One protector arrested defending Sussex from fracking.

Update (9:30am): Police trying to force fracking truck through community blokade.

 

Day 34 (Tues 26th) Of Community Fracking Blockade In Balcombe Sussex

Update (5:00pm): One protector arrested today as police continue to force fracking trucks through the blockade for Cuadrilla.

Update (10:30am): First fracking truck of the day.

 

Day 28 (Wed 21st) Of Community Fracking Blockade In Balcombe Sussex

Update (3pm): All Protectors who were in Crawley Magistrates Court today have been given bail conditions that allow them to return to the camp.

Update (1pm): Forest camp evicted by police.

Update (12pm): Police are trying to illegally evict (without a court order) the forest camp (smaller camp in woodland next to the Cuadrilla rig site, not main camp on grass verge) at Balcombe. Come support the community!

 

Day 27 (Tue 20th) Of Community Fracking Blockade In Balcombe Sussex

Update (10:40am): Another fracking truck being blocked.

Update (9:30am): Fracking truck forced through community blockade by police. One Protector arrested.

 

Days 25/26 – the Reclaim the Power blockade and more updates/photos here

 

28 Days Later: Please spread far and wide

Cuadzilla Balcome Rolling Blockade Red Version

Cuadzilla Balcome Rolling Blockade Red Version

A Rolling Blockade of the Balcombe fracking site, 1st September – 28th September

Fracking company Cuadrilla’s governmental licence to drill in Balcombe ends on September 28th. The government may be allowing them to drill but they have no social licence from the people of Balcombe to frack their land and threaten their water supply.  Neither do they have any mandate to begin an entire wave of fracking across the country. The vast majority of people in the UK want cleaner, greener energy.
After the upsurge of climate activism at Reclaim the Power in August, let’s make these last 28 days count. Let’s halt their work at Balcombe, and also send a strong message to those wanting to frack elsewhere.

A blockade has been on-going at the drilling site, but trucks have still been getting through. Now it’s time to up the ante.

We invite groups from around the country to come and play a part in a 28 day rolling blockade.

Think creatively and act responsibly. Pick a weekday before September 28, gather friends and useful kit get yourselves to Balcombe.

Fracking is stoppable, another world is possible.

* People are reminded that this is a peaceful blockade and that the Balcombe camp is alcohol-free.

* For further information please contact 28dayslater.balcombe@gmail.com

* Follow us on Twitter (@28_dayslater) and like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/28dayslaterrollingblockade)

Memorial at Greenham Common bulldozed

27.8.13

I have just heard via a local woman that the memorial to the sisters who protested outside the Greenham Common Nuclear site from 1982 until the government was forced to remove the nuclear cruise missiles located there has today been removed by the owners of the Greenham Common Enterprise Centre that owns the site. 

 

27.8.13

I have just heard via a local woman that the memorial to the sisters who protested outside the Greenham Common Nuclear site from 1982 until the government was forced to remove the nuclear cruise missiles located there has today been removed by the owners of the Greenham Common Enterprise Centre that owns the site. 

 

Bulldozers arrived at around 8am and began to rip up all the flowers and stones including even the memorial to Helen Thomas who was killed while protesting there.   The memorial was a garden of seven standing stones encircling the 'Flame' sculpture which represented a camp fire.  I have called the Greenham Common Trust who run the site and they said the memorial had "been there long enough" and was "a problem for local traffic".  I understand the entire garden is now gone and the land is simply earth with all traces removed.

 

People may wish to contact the Greenham Common trust and let them know what they think of this disgusting action

 

 

How we Reclaimed the Power! – summary report of actions and before

A short story of No Dash for Gas, Reclaim the Power and how people from across the country stood in solidarity with Balcombe to oppose Cuadrilla and the dash for gas…

A short story of No Dash for Gas, Reclaim the Power and how people from across the country stood in solidarity with Balcombe to oppose Cuadrilla and the dash for gas…

It all began last year, when 21 activists occupied and shut down EDF's gas fired power station in West Burton for over a week. It was time to stop the 'Dash for Gas' which would smash our climate targets and push up energy prices…

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    The Great Gas Gala! | Communtiy Protection Collective

    The Great Gas Gala! Since 7am on Thursday (25th July) the community in Balcombe, Sussex has been resisting attempts by fracking company…
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    Greatgasgala
     

    And then, when we heard that Cuadrilla were exploring the potential of fracking in Balcombe and the local community's resistance, we changed the location of our 'Reclaim the Power' action camp…

    action camp to switch location from West Burton … – No Dash for Gas

    Aug 6, 2013 … The coalition of climate, anti-austerity and fuel poverty activists who were planning on returning to West Burton power…
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    Nodashforgas
  2. reclaimthepower
     
    Huge numbers of people signed up to our facebook event and told us they were coming. Even Russell Brand was with us in spirit!
     
    On Friday, we arrived in beautiful sunny Balcombe, with members of a whole host of campaigns including UK Uncut, UK Tar Sands Network, Occupy London, Disabled People Against the Cuts and No Dash for Gas all joining the camp.
     
    Reclaim The Power has arrived in Balcombe | Come and join us!
     
    We joined the March for a Frack Free Future with two thousand protesters from across the country…
     
  3. …and those from the local community who'd been resisting Cuadrilla for weeks!
    August 19 2013: Balcombe Solidarity Sunday anti-fracking protest
     
    Local campaigners Vanessa Vine, Charles Metcalfe and Caroline Lucas MP were joined by speakers from No Dash For Gas and Occupy Chevron in Poland to headline a thunderous rally of opposition.

 

The protesters then formed a human circle around the site, joining hands, chanting and singing, while Cuadrilla's workers looked on from inside their razor-wire fence.

  1. On Monday morning, our Day of Action began!
     

  2. 6 activists blockaded the entrance to Bell Pottinger's offices in London, Cuadrilla's "spin-doctors". They are responsible for a whole host of pro-fracking lies and spin which we have thoroughly debunked over the past 6 days.

    Cuadrilla's PR company Bell Pottinger shut down by activists from Reclaim the Power

    …then we heard from a group of 20 activists who occupied Cuadrilla's HQ in Lichfield, just outside Birmingham. They set up camp outside the building while three activists went inside, shut down 8 work stations and took over a floor of the office!

  3.  
     
  4. Activists lock themselves to furniture inside Cuadrilla's HQ
    …meanwhile, a third action was taking place at the constituency office of pro-fracking minister, Francis Maude MP. Taking inspiration from Liberate Tate, a wind turbine blade was delivered to the roof of his office…
     
  5. Wind turbine outside office of Francis Maude MP
     
    …and with a rather lovely message for Mr. Maude to read on his return!
     
  6. Note left outside office of Francis Maude MP
     
    Back at the drill site in Balcombe, various groups set up a range of original and creative blockades at the gate, involving bikes, singers and dancers and locking on to a wheel chair… 
     
  7. Blockade outside Cuadrilla fracking site in Balcombe

    Sadly, the police decided to be heavy-handed in response to our peaceful protest…

  8. Protesters blockade Cuadrilla frack site in Balcombe, West Sussex

     

    Elsewhere in London, 6 people had gone to Lord Howell's town house for our next action and set up a 'For Shale' sign there. George Osborne's father-in-law is eager to spread fracking across the UK, particularly to the 'desolate north east'! Our activists from Newcastle might have other ideas…

  9. Fracking lobbyist Lord Howell's house is for shale!
  10. Fracking lobbyist Lord Howell's house: for shale!

     

    Back in Balcombe, the police decided to start arresting peaceful protesters staging a sit-in at the gate to the Cuadrillia site. Green MP, Caroline Lucas, was among those arrested…

Back at the camp, the children at Reclaim the Power (we were a gathering of all ages!) went on a bus ride to Balcombe village to speak to local people about the dangers of fracking to everyone's future. 
  1. Frack Free Future bus on tour!

     

    Word had spread to our friends and supporters worldwide about our day of action which had taken on Cuadrilla and the dash for gas from all sides!

    Then, only hours after being released, Caroline Lucas was fielding interviews, media work and back fighting fracking!

    And then, on Tuuesday, as we began making plans for the future…

    So as we pack down our camp today, it's not the end! As Ewa from No Dash For Gas put it, 'this is a marathon, not a sprint' and we will win the fight against fracking…

Above from here

Good video

March for a Frack-Free Future

18th August 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

18th August 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People came from all over the UK to protest against fracking, and in solidarity with the villagers of Balcombe and the road-side protest camp who've been 'Locking the Gate' for three weeks now.  Police have been increasingly harassing camp residents, arresting seemingly at random times picking people off as they come out of the toilet or are eating lunch, and putting severe pressure on the rig-side forest camp.  Meanwhile the Reclaim the Power camp had landed in a field about a 30 minute walk away, and has been building up to the action days this coming week. 

Well over a thousand people marched – the first wave left Reclaim the Power, passed through the original protest camp and made it's way up to the station.  No sooner than a line of yellow came into view ahead through the trees lining the road, a cheer rose and people at the station came streaming down.  The police withdrew from between the crowds – fearing a Blakelock Sandwich – and took up position at what had been our rear, and now was the front.  We slowly marched down, to the beat of a band of drummers, a samba band, and sound systems, down to the gate, where along with the lines of police from various forces, people listened to speeches by communities fighting the fracking threat and public figures there in solidarity. 

Pictures

Local 'democracy' (AKA corruption) of Balcombe parish council – Private Eye

Balcombe anti-fracking protests update days 21-24

People slowing trucks down, police forcing them through, some arrests and overly restrictive bail conditions on those already nicked lifted…

People slowing trucks down, police forcing them through, some arrests and overly restrictive bail conditions on those already nicked lifted…

Details with photos: Day 21 | Day 22 | Day 23 | Day 24

work stopped at Hastings-Bexhill Link Road

11th August 2013

11th August 2013

The Earth First! Summer Gathering has just finished.  This year in solidarity with the Coombe Haven Defenders, it was in a beautiful spot close by to the Hastings-Bexhill Link Road, the scene of big protests and camps to try to stop the road earlier in the year. 

Each day there were Coombe Haven Defenders talks and walks, mostly inspiring 'accidental' invasions of the road work site, engaging in a bit of digger-diving or 'footpath enforcement', in other words stopping construction vehicles. 

The road is of 'low value' even by the government's standards, campaigners worked out a week ago.  There was a Campaign for Better Transport workshop about the Roads to Nowhere national road proposals (full map and more).