FRACK'S AGAINST THE WALL?
The Great Gas Gala and Reclaim the Power join forces in opposition to Balcombe fracking.
Day 23 of the Balcombe Blockade and Day 1 of the Reclaim the Power camp.
Reclaim the Power descended on a site just over a mile south of the drilling rig at 6pm last night. Despite a brief bit of argy-bargy with some local farm boys the site was successfully squatted and by this afternoon was on it's way to becoming a fully fledged eco-village and base of operations.
The mere threat of a thousand activists arriving on site was enough to cause Cuadrilla to suspend drilling for the week. The site has been fortified in preparation with razor wire and an extra ring of fencing. With all the mad, bad and weird folk on the outside preparing to break in it bears an uncanny resemblance to that other great festival of British eccentricity – Glastonbury. The energy exploration company is already making noises about pulling out of Balcombe.
The pace at the gate to the site hasn't slackened either with the original single gazebo of three weeks ago having been supplanted by an ever expanding roadside camp that now stretches for a couple of hundred metres on either side of the verge. More daring types have moved onto the land immediately next to the rig and the first tree houses are going up.
Get yourselves down to Balcombe for what is sure to be a fine weekend!
For more info
NO DASH FOR GAS
GREAT GAS GALA
Previous SchNEWS stories on Balcombe
OLD BILL BAIL OUT
NO NAMES NO FRACK DRILL
BALCOMBE ONE, BALCOMBE ALL
Marches, blockades, arrested MPs and one helluva lot of cops... The campaign against the Balcombe fracketeers stepped up this weekend with the arrival of Reclaim the Power.
Sussex Police's Operation Mansell is going almost as badly for them as the Tories' failing efforts to sell shale gas to the UK.
The camp's on the increase and the direct action hasn't stopped.
Less than 24 hours after fracking company Cuadrilla received a licence from the environment agency to start drilling near the Sussex village of Balcombe they began trying to move equipment onto site.
Rally against roadbuilding - Enjoying the countryside in the name of stopping roads.
EDL Leader Steve Yaxley-Lennon reckons he's gonna take his dog and pony show past the East London mosque.
Just when we were all getting to grips with fracking, another mind-blowingly stupid and dangerous form of extreme energy extraction gains momentum.
Twenty one climate activists escape jail at sentencing after shuttng down coal fired power station for seven days
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