Lock-on stops fracking drill

Frack Off campaigners successfully disrupted fracking operations early morning on Monday (18th June) in Derbyshire, when a group of protesters locked on to the gates of Cuadrilla's drilling contractor, PR Marriot. They prevented access to Cuadrilla's drill which was being repaired ahead of further earth-raping operations in the region. The four blockaders began the action in the early hours, whilst supporters dropped banners across the depot's gates. Obviously, it wasn't gonna be an ordinary day at bore hole.

Having initially taken a pretty laid back approach to the protest, the police kicked into first gear once the company's bosses turned up. The police told protesters that although they “respected the protesters' point of view” and that they'd “made their point”, the “problem” was that the workers needed to get access to the site to access pumps that were needed to get water to some thirsty cows in a field. It was on the activists' conscience, they claimed - the cows were in serious danger of dying of dehydration unless the activists unlocked themselves asap. It was pissing with rain at the time and, needless to say, the locked-on environmentalists didn't pay the fracking bullshitters much heed.

Throughout the morning the initial police presence grew to around nine police vans and cars taking over a normally pretty unexciting industrial estate. The small army of cops included officers named PC Careless and PC Bacon (no kidding). When protesters explained to one worker next door that all the fuss was about 20 people protesting by blocking the some gates he replied, "Bloody 'ell- I thought there'd been a murder". A cop within earshot was heard to retort, "Nah mate, we wouldn't be given anything like these resources for a murder".

The protesters stayed put through rain and shine for seven hours, agreeing to leave only once police cutting teams turned up. They managed to get away without getting nicked and took all their gear with them, ready for next time.

As readers of SchNEWS are no doubt aware, fracking (aka hydraulic fracturing) is the latest crazy fashion to extract fossil fuels (in this case natural gas) at great expense and great danger to the environment, both locally and globally. Fracking has been proved to cause earthquakes, contaminate water, and, despite government assurances that natural gas is a clean energy, large-scale fracking is another milestone on the path to runaway, irreversible climate change.

The Frack Off campaign has set its sights on stopping UK fracking operations in its tracks, and is going from strength to strength as communities around the country wake up to the danger caused by the destructive short-sightedness of government and corporate energy policies.

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www.frack-off.org