Work has come to a standstill at Fracking company Cuadrilla Resource’s site in Balcombe, Sussex. As of 7.30am, activists blockading the road leading to the company’s site have denied entrance to articulated trucks and work vehicles.
The protest was organised under the name of The Great Gas Gala! and was called in response to an announcement from the Environment Agency and West Sussex County Council that Cuadrilla would start drilling as soon as Saturday.
Alex Griffiths, one of those taking part in the blockade, said, ‘People are realising that if we are going to protect ourselves from this industry we are going to have to do it ourselves. After 5000 signatures on petitions and nearly a thousand objections being sent to the Environment Agency work is still going ahead.
‘We have tried other methods. We now have no choice but to take matters into our own hands and protect ourselves from the threat fracking poses to our health and environment’.
BBC article ‘Balcombe oil drilling: Protesters block Cuadrilla truck‘, 25 July 2013
