;)
Here we go again.
It seems that onshore gas company iGas is about to start work on their site at Barton Moss near Manchester. This entails digging an exploratory well to assess gas prospects in a layer of coal and then to go deeper and see what the shale bed looks like. Like Cuadrilla in Balcombe, no fracking is planned at this point.
And like Balcombe, the work seems set to be disrupted by environmentalists, who have already set up site.
Judging by the pictures in the Manchester Evening News the protestors are already lowering the tone of the neighbourhood too.
Still, it will be interesting to see how things go for the protestors. Unlike the Balcombe protests, this time round it's winter and so maintaining a protest camp will be a struggle. I believe we are expecting gale force winds by Friday.