‘We’re ready’: UK anti-fracking activists prepare to fight resurgence plans
Anti-fracking campaigners have vowed to give energy firms “no peace” if the government lifts the moratorium on fracking, pledging “inconvenient and noisy” protests at every site.
Steve Mason, campaign director of Frack Free United, said there was an army of retired “geri-activists” ready to lie down and face prosecution for the cause again.
Tina Rothery, who was arrested seven times at Cuadrilla’s fracking site at Preston New Road near Blackpool, said campaigners were ready to unfurl their banners, dig out their drums and make life as hard as possible for any energy firm hoping to use the Ukraine crisis to restart fracking operations.
It is only a month since fracking was declared effectively dead in Britain after Cuadrilla announced plans to concrete up its Blackpool wells. But after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the extreme form of energy extraction isback in the political spotlight, with a small cadre of Conservative MPs and energy lobbyists touting it as the solution to the nation’s energy security.
Rothery was one of the so-called Nanas, a tireless band of women who kept watch at the gate of the Preston New Road site every day for years. Dressed in yellow tabards with matching headscarves and often with grandchildren in tow, the women revelled in a form of peaceful protest designed for maximum annoyance.
The formation of the Nana Samba Band was viewed as the nadir for the Lancashire constabulary officers tasked with guarding the site gate until the government imposed a moratorium on fracking in November 2019.
“A samba band is great if you like being inconvenient and noisy, and I can’t tell you the joy of having a drum on when a cop is coming towards you,” said Rothery. “A, you have two big sticks and B, the drum
Read more on theguardian.com
