ANTI-FRACKING UK PROTECTORS AT BALCOMBE 2013 - a short illustrated story

Right now in a small village in the Fylde near Blackpool Lancashire UK there are people gathering to protect themselves, land, livestock air & water against fracking.
There are others in Kirby Misperton, North Yorkshire doing the exact same thing.
Concerned local people have campaigned since 2011 when Cuadrilla attempted the first frack in the UK at Preese Hall & caused two earthquakes cracking the homes of nearby residents, including the residence of Geza Tarjianyi.
It took some time before Geza found out what had caused the damage & as soon as he did his life changed.

He began to research the process of fracking & even though a moritorium was placed on the industry Geza realised that the power of the big fossil fuel corporations would be sure to lobby the government for permission to try again.
In 2013 Cuadrilla turned its attention to the Weald in Sussex & quietly set about preparing a site at Balcombe, another small rural village, for its next exploration well.
The residents were oblivious for the most part but a small group of local people took to facebook to spread the word that they needed help defending their properties against this unopposed invasion.
In July of that year ecologically concerned activists from all over the country started to arrive in Balcombe & before the drill was delivered, a hotch-potch of tents & vehicles became the beginnings of a massive campaign which rocked the press & alerted the nation.

The activists created a festival atmosphere in the blazing sunshine right outside the gates of the development & musicians, artists & performers came to entertain & take part in the protest.
Evolving into a centrally organised event, they built kitchens, tea tent, information tent, meeting marquee, children's area, meditation marquee, library, showers & were supplied with temporary toilets by Greenpeace until eco-friendly ones could be built.
The routine on the camp was gruelling, beginning at 7am with breakfast & by 8am the first trucks were being escorted down the road by the police.

A school bell, donated by a concerned local resident, was rung whenever a new truck appeared & the Protectors, as they prefer to be known, would rush out of their tents, caravans & living vehicles to form a slow walking cordon with the objective of demonstrating their lack of consent for this industrial development in the leafy back road of Balcombe & with the intention of slowing progress as much as possible.
When the drill finally arrived the Protectors were in tears & we sang Labi Sifri's song "So Strong" to boost our morale. The day that Cuadrilla commenced the drilling was the last time we heard a bird sing at dawn. They literally vanished instantly. The only wildlife we saw around us from then on was the wasps, hundreds of them, & we had to devise many clever ways to attract them away from ourselves & our kitchen.
Signs & banners were erected or held aloft & much chanting & singing would accompany the proceedings.

By the August Bank Holiday the word had traveled all over the UK & a Solidarity Sunday event saw many thousands of concerned UK ordinary people crowd into the roadway & completely block it.

The event gave the resident Protectors a much needed platform from which to disseminate their message & I was thrilled to represent them, giving a short speech in welcome & thanks to the huge crowd, which, from the stage, I could see was vast.

I spoke about the dreadful spectre of fracking & I read out our Camp Code of Conduct with amusing anecdotes. I concluded by remarking that if our government had a similar code then there would be no need for us to be there at all. The crowd roared back it's approval & further speeches were given followed by much music & dancing.

The police presence became overwhelming at times & there were hundreds of arrests for obstructing the highway, suspected police assault & any jumped up charge they could dream of. Most would never make it to court but the object of the exercise was not to criminalise us but to deplete our numbers with exclusion orders attached to bail.
We were snatched unexpectedly, we were pushed around, kicked in the backs of the legs & constantly watched by the police 24/7.

Our numbers would vary from day to day but at weekends when there were no deliveries likely to the drill pad, we would welcome guests from all over the country, bands would perform & the "Force from the North" including Geza Tarjianyi would come to spend time with us.
Friendships developed & we vowed that if Cuadrilla or any other fossil fuel developer chose to drill anywhere in the UK we would be there to defend & object.

One particularly glorious day, one of the Protectors erected a tripod in the middle of the road early in the morning & succeeded in stopping all traffic to & from the site for the entire day. We had such a wonderful party, the highlight of which was hundreds of jam & cream scones that were very kindly donated by a local supporter & full blast music powered by our solar panels!

The rig would be droning away all day & night, interspersed with horrid metallic scraping sounds which would set our teeth on edge. We could feel the vibration through the ground sheets of our tents & we were aware that the lighting could be seen for many miles around. We were buzzed with helicopters & a constant changing of police forces who seemed to be using the protest as a training ground for their most brutal rookies.
The rig loomed large above the razor wired fences & G4S with guard dogs paraded them day & night.

When the test drilling was complete we packed up & went home exhausted.
But we knew that there would be further efforts to find oil or gas in the UK.
Our next camp was at Barton Moss in Manchester, the following November .....
But that is another story for another day.
If you would like to learn more about our campaign today or to join the UK Protectors as we stand against fracking in the UK please do contact us via this group on facebook:
ANTI FRACKING INTERNATIONAL
https://www.facebook.com/groups/543602242428219/