Upton anti-fracking camp 1st birthday, Cheshire

10th April 2015

Anti-frack­ing activists are cel­e­brat­ing the Upton Pro­tec­tion Camp’s first birth­day with a par­ty open to the com­mu­ni­ty.

The camp was set up last April off Dut­tons Lane, Upton, to pre­vent an ener­gy firm drilling an explorato­ry bore­hole in the mid­dle of a field.

IGas is scour­ing the coun­try look­ing for methane in the under­ground lay­ers of coal and shale but one poten­tial extrac­tion method, known as frack­ing, is par­tic­u­lar­ly con­tro­ver­sial.

Cam­paign­ers fear air and water pol­lu­tion as well as earth­quakes. They also wor­ry it will delay the switch to renew­ables, like solar pow­er, giv­en cli­mate change.

 

The party

This Sat­ur­day (April 11), start­ing from 2pm, there will be a fam­i­ly pic­nic and trea­sure hunt at the site. Then around 3pm there will be a pre-elec­tion aware­ness update with a progress report on how the anti-frack­ing cam­paign is going in Upton and West Cheshire.

At 5pm is a bar­be­cue with burg­ers and sausages avail­able. How­ev­er, guests are asked to bring their own food and drink or food and drink to share. Home baked cakes or bis­cuits are ‘very wel­come’ as are camp­ing chairs.

From 7pm onwards there will be music and a sing-along. Par­ty-goers are request­ed to bring acoustic instru­ments, warm clothes and lanterns or torch­es.

Anti-frack­ers feel the camp has been a suc­cess in pre­vent­ing IGas drilling on the field, rais­ing aware­ness in the com­mu­ni­ty and help­ing to per­suade local politi­cians to side with them pub­licly.

Arti­cle con­tin­ued plus pho­tos

Guardian arti­cle