Friends fight against fracking
Quakers continue their protests against franking in Lancashire
Quakers stepped up their fight against fracking this week, after an attempt to temporarily block the firm Cuadrilla failed at the High Court on 12 October.
The mood was defiant but upbeat after, on 17 October, it was announced that three anti-fracking activists given custodial sentences for being ‘a public nuisance’ had had their sentences quashed by the court of appeal.
Friends gathered outside the Cuadrilla site on the Preston New Road in Lancashire, where, on 15 October, fracking was due to start for the first time in seven years. Hilary Whitehead, from Crawshawbooth Meeting, went to the site on 16 October when fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and her son Joe Corre, who have been active in the campaign, attended.
She told the Friend that their appearance attracted ‘a lot of media attention’, including the BBC. She said: ‘Once a lot of people had left the area, we had reinforcement police officers moving in with their commander. They went for the young people known to be the most resistant, to move them out of the way in preparation for heavy vehicles to leave the site.’
Phoebe Spence, from Stockport Meeting, went to the site on 28 Sept after the protestors had been sentenced. She told the Friend that it was ‘quite a fraught time’. She said there was ‘quite a lot of banter/sledging with the security guards, bringing out the worst in people’ and added: ‘Quaker presence sorely needed.’
Friends also joined an anti-fracking rally in Sheffield on 13 October co-organised by Chayley Collis from Huddersfield Meeting.
Robin Bowles, also from Huddersfield Meeting, told the Friend: ‘We created a fake fracking site in St Georges Square and had a short vigil in solidarity with the three jailed earth defenders.’
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