Fracking under fire as activists launch day of protest

BLACKPOOL’S chamber of commerce and Cuadrilla Resources’ Manchester-based public relations company PPS were the subject of anti-fracking protests yesterday as part of a day of co-ordinated action against the industry.

The No Dash for Gas – Reclaim the Power group, which was behind protests against shale gas firm Cuadrilla in West Sussex last year, occupied the North and Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce’s office in Amy Johnson Way which it said houses Cuadrilla’s Northern headquarters.

But the Lichfield-based business said its Blackpool office was elsewhere and accused the protestors of disrupting businesses in the town.

Reclaim the Power also pointed to the involvement of chamber chief executive Babs Murphy on the North West Energy Task Force which is funded by Cuadrilla and Centrica Energy, an investor in the Lancashire licences.

No Dash for Gas has also camped outside the London headquarters of IGas – the other fracking firm with North West licences – and staged a “die in” at a Blackpool branch of HSBC – Cuadrilla’s banker. Cuadrilla’s PR firm PPS was targeted by around six protestors who stood outside the Charlotte Street office in radioactive suits.

Elsewhere, protestors blockaded the entrance to the Department for the environment, farming and rural affairs, and occupied a fracking site in East Yorkshire run by Rathlin Energy.

The protestors already have a camp in a field off Preston New Road, Blackpool, which they say will be used as an access route to Cuadrilla’s planned operation at Little Plumpton. They say fracking, which involves pumping water at high pressure deep underground to release gas, can cause air and water pollution. The Government argues it will give the UK greater energy security and create a supply chain worth £33bn over the next 15 years.

Earlier in the summer Cuadrilla submitted plans to drill, frack and test the flow of gas at Roseacre Wood north of Kirkham and at Little Plumpton.

A spokesperson said: “Cuadrilla has consistently made clear that we support the right to peaceful protest, but taking the law into your own hands – through trespass or direct action – is anti-democratic and harmful to local farmers, business and other job creators during an important time in Blackpool’s farming and business calendar.”

There was no comment from the chamber of commerce at the time of publication. Cuadrilla is a joint venture between private equity firm Riverstone and the Australian engineering group AJ Lucas. They each have 41%, with management holding the balance.