Bishop Hill Balcombe parish chairman tells protestors to frack off
Aug 13, 2013 Energy: gas Greens This just in from the Balcombe Parish Council:
...At a public meeting held last Friday evening [No Dash for Gas] sought to justify such actions on the grounds that the company that is drilling is acting illegally and that in consequence illegal actions to stop it are justified. This is quite simply not the case. Like it or not, the drilling operation is entirely legal. All the necessary permissions and permits have been sought and are in place.
- Thirdly the group seeks to legitimize such actions by saying that whatever is done is in response to Balcombe residents’ call for help. This is just not true.
So here it is. Balcombe strongly opposes any actions which may be taken which involve civil trespass and/or illegal acts. And I further state this, if the No Dash for Gas group is coming here in the full knowledge that it intends to break the law then it should stay away. It is not wanted in Balcombe! It is duly uninvited.
Alison StevensonChairman
Balcombe Parish Council
Reader Comments (67)
tomo Aug 13, 2013 at 10:18 PM
Posted the comment below before I read yours ...
Rob Burton
hasn't the amount borrowed by the government each year been pretty constant for quite a few years now? I don't think it changed at the last election.
Yup - a constant 11 billion a month or so.
Funny that Osborne was taking it in the face for trying to cut 11 billion from public spending.
1.2 Trillion growing by 11 billion a month (capital) means that the interest alone would allow us to ...
[insert ones favourite capital consuming activity here]
My problem with Frakin Gas is that, even if it were to produce 50% of our needs by 2020, the typical UK citizen will see no benefit. Gas prices will not fall. Taxes will not fall. The Pigs will simply move to the new trough and bury their snouts.
I can't bring myself to care either way because, in the end, it has nothing to do with me. My taxes and costs won't go down and the chances of my getting my snout out of the renewable trough and into the methane trough are next to zero because I'm on the right (or any) committee.
I have watched the robbing bastards play the Carbon Dioxide game and I look forward to the same bastards swamping the Methane game.
I agree with Ms Stevenson's letter. Any decisions about drilling should be resolved by due process, not by illegal protest action.
The BBC has mentioned the Balcombe letter.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-23688653
10:23 PM | Rob Burton
As I perceive it - for all the wailings about "the cuts" very little has actually changed and there's a huge and growing slab of unfunded liabilities which are largely being ignored and the household budget runs on an ever growing overdraft - but people were sick of hearing that so it's not said anymore - it's still there though. I can't offer an authoritative reference but there is quite a lot out there GIYF in this - I'm not saying apocalyptic - just the account has to be reconciled and provisions put in place - the public sector must deal with waste or face annihilation.
Borrowing has been jiggered with but - from what I've read and followed up on it's mostly shifting the deck chairs around and tentatively trying to inflate away debt but terrified of being found out and precipitating a crisis.
That said - John Ward is usually worth a scan on this sort of thing if only for the real nuggets of information he regularly trawls up ... NOT for the faint hearted presently giving Osborne a pasting :-)
This is scary...
Bh3 seems to have a new line of reasoning against fracking, that the profits from it will allow the government to become bigger!!!!
OMG! Won't someone think of the children and hurry up and raise my taxes!!!
Regards
Mailman
The local letter writer has it right, and as I keep pointing out:
"The oil rig, as older residents called it, has been there since before most of you antis came to Balcombe, and if you had listened to Cuadrilla, instead of getting rent-a-mob in to shout them down at the village hall when they tried to explain, you would have heard that no fracking will be taking place at this visit. It is a possibility in the future, if gas is found in a commercial quantity, but at the moment they believe only oil will be found. Fracking will need a whole new set of licences and these will only be issued when all the authorities are happy that the risk is minimal. All exploration through the ages carried a risk of some sort with it."
As for responding to "substantive" articles in Private Eye, say what? Private Eye has become little better than the News of the World was before it closed. Shoddy, poorly researched, unsubstantiated innuendo and gossip with a lefty slant. Remind me, was it Private Eye that uncovered the expenses scandal, or was it the substantive reporting of the Daily Telegraph? And what was Private Eye's view on the science of MMR?
Always amazes me that people seem to think that working for a green company owning a green company or otherwise making their living out of a green-funded company somehow makes them immune from being completely financially compromised. These people are corrupt, but because they think they are on the side of the angels (as they see it), it's allowable.
Troughers!
Alban Thurston says "Answer to TerryS: Yes. Well done on mastering Google."
That's exactly what BitBucket said to me, a juvenile remark from a 12 year old mind in both cases. No further interaction with you from me.
@Entropic Man said the BBC didn't cover the letter up
"The BBC has mentioned the Balcombe letter."
- Yes The BBC headline the item "Cuadrilla says full production at Balcombe 'unlikely'"
then an extract of the letter is close to the end on the 3rd page !
- We can know how much the BBC cares about truth
..wonder if any of it's pension funds are invested in Alban Thurston's companies ?
- We can know how much the BBC cares about truth
Name a media outlet that does care about truth or should I say reality, truth is a subjective word!
Anon,
name another news agency which pretends to be neutral and even handed in its reporting.
bh3x2 - one of the arguments for renewable energy put forward by this and previous governments was for energy security, wasn't it? Surely that also applies to shale gas found under our own shores? The scaremongering about the Russian threat and holding us to ransom re gas supplies will be negated by our own resource and might prevent 'catastrophic' [sorry, couldn't resist a little joke] price rises.
Grumpy
You are correct. I tend to promote the 'downside'. In reality, should 1/3 of our Gas be 'internal' then that will put billions onto the plus side of the 'current account' for the country as a whole.
I still stick to my view that none of this will impact consumer bills. Whatever the output of Lancashire Shale there will be no reduction in Lancashire Gas or Electricity Bills. HMG has set itself upon a course of de-carbonisation that simply will not tolerate a cheap source of (fossil) fuel being burned on the 'UK Account'.
Sure, we can sell it to Germany or Holland and claim victory on our 'CO2 account'. We can improve our trade deficit and prop up our ridiculous borrowing requirements for a while. There will be no reduction on a typical family fuel bill though. The 'profit' will be used to expand Government (and cover up the 1.3 trillion debt) not reduce 'consumer' prices.
So, yes, you are correct ... it will be a positive on the (UK) current account. Then again there will be no reduction in the price, to the UK consumer, of UK Gas.
Perhaps some future Government will dump our "CO2 obligations" where they belong but right now HMG cannot allow us to burn cheap 'home made' (or other) fossil fuels and, simultaneously, fulfil their CCA obligations. One has to go.
As a watcher from far-away NZ, I note that, according to the electronic version of today's Daily Mail, a 1000 extra protesters, including Dame Vivian Westwood, have arrived and forced the police to give way to the demonstartors and forced the operators of the drilling rig to shut it down.
God help democracy and any hope of sense with this rent-a-mob now in charge at Balcombe.
That is the kind of "democracy" the left wants...one where if they dont get their way then they just impose their will upon everyone else regardless of the outcome of their actions (in this case rare and endangered native bird species being killed off and the elderly dieing because they cant afford to keep the heating on).
Mailman
Hmmm interesting blog. I guess the owner of the blog holds different views of to the mass of those in the comments who seem to converge for an echo chamber of agreement. I say this as I notice the response to the Private Eye article vs the posted constitution in the side bar.
It is noticeable that the substantive thrust of the article is ignored and silly ad hominem attacksa nd debates on who is "local" in Balcombe replace substantive debate that there was no real process of approval the application. Completed under subterfuge and there was no democratic process, no debate, (only a rubber stamp at best) regarding the drilling application. This is of course nothing to do with the drilling being good or bad it is simply disgusting bureaucracy and corruption and complete ignoring of process and it would seem the wishes of local people; (remember those polls from BPC and others that put opposition at 80% + multiple times?). This is of course before we even touch on the utter corruption that is Maude and Brown.
Of course this is forgetting the foul stench of stitch up and neo feudalism from the owner of the Balcome Estate who instructed his 100 tied tenants what to think and to not express any opinion or opposition to Cuadrilla.
Any such goings on if anywhere near a windmill would send half the commenters here to have a rapid frothing fit while the other half are paralysed by apoplexy.