Cloughton Planning Meeting

All are welcome to attend this planning meeting at the Cloughton Church Hall.

The purpose of the session is to plan initiatives and events, to raise awareness and to inform the local population about this particular method of extracting shale gas from the land.

Scarborough Planning Meeting

All are welcome to attend this planning meeting at the Scarborough Railwaymen’s Social Club.

The purpose of the session is to plan initiatives and events, to raise awareness and to inform the local population about this particular method of extracting shale gas from the land.

Fracking Film

The recently formed Frack Free Scalby, Burniston and Cloughton group are holding an information night at Newby & Scalby Community Hall on Monday 7th of November 2016 at 8:00pm.

At this event, the group will show a film, followed by a Q&A session. The purpose of the evening is to inform the local population about this particular method of extracting shale gas from the land. This local area of our North Yorkshire coastline is now in a fracking licensed area.

Entry is free and all are very welcome to this event.

Planning Meeting

All are welcome to attend this planning meeting at the Scarborough Railwaymen’s Social Club.

The purpose of the session is to plan initiatives and events, to raise awareness and to inform the local population about this particular method of extracting shale gas from the land.

Planning Meeting

All are welcome to attend this planning meeting at the Scarborough Railwaymen’s Social Club.

The purpose of the session is to plan initiatives and events, to raise awareness and to inform the local population about this particular method of extracting shale gas from the land.

Planning Meeting

All are welcome to attend this planning meeting at the Scarborough Railwaymen’s Social Club.

The purpose of the session is to plan initiatives and events, to raise awareness and to inform the local population about this particular method of extracting shale gas from the land.

Facts Before Fracks

On Wednesday 21st September at 7.30pm, a presentation and panel discussion on ‘Facts Before Fracks’ will take place at Burniston & Cloughton Village Hall. Invited speakers from Ryedale and York at this event are Dr. Tim Thornton, Dr. Liz Garthwaite and Rev. Graham Cray.

Their expertise includes the public and human health consequences of the kinds of pollution that can come from fracking, and the moral and ethical dimensions of fracking.

All are welcome to this free event.

Living with Fracking

Over sixty people came to Staintondale village hall on 7th September to learn more and discuss their concerns about fracking. Organised by the recently formed Frack Free Scalby, Burniston & Cloughton, it was one of a series of events organised to raise awareness about the potential consequences of unconventional extraction of gas from shale through ‘hydraulic fracturing’.

Local concern has been prompted by the recent decision by North Yorkshire County Council to grant planning permission for fracking operations by Third Energy at Kirby Misperton (a decision currently subject to judicial review), and by the granting of a licence to a consortium including Third Energy and Europa Oil Gas Limited to explore for oil and gas over a 110 square kilometre block to the north of Scarborough. Europa’s CEO Hugh Mackay is on record as saying that they will be exploring prospects for unconventional (fracking) as well as conventional oil and gas.

The meeting saw a film produced by Steve and Joanne White from Ryedale who went to Pennsylvania in the USA to hear from local residents what it is like to live in an area where fracking has been a feature for several years. Their experience convinced them that fracking is against the interests of local people. The film showed how communities have suffered from toxic chemicals in the air, pollution of families’ groundwater sources, massive trucks carrying sand, water and chemicals to fracking sites – and toxic waste water in the other direction. In the discussion that followed, concerns focused on the potential impact on traffic in the area, threats to our health through water from polluted boreholes used in homes and on farms, air quality, and climate change through the escape of methane from the fracking process – and the fact that there is no clear plan for how the millions of gallons of toxic waste water would be disposed of. A key question was how local people can influence, even stop, fracking in the area.

Steve’s response was to encourage us not to sit tight and let it happen, but to find out more about the process and the dangers, and bring these findings to the attention of decision makers and elected representatives at all levels from Parish Councils to MPs. In particular it is important to be able to counter the industry’s bland statements about safety and benefits of fracking through informed and reasoned argument.

The next regular meeting of the Frack Free Scalby, Burniston and Cloughton group is on Monday 19th September at the Cloughton Reading Room at 7.30pm. Then on Wednesday 21 st September at 7.30 pm a presentation and panel discussion on ‘Facts before Fracks’ will take place at Burniston and Cloughton Village Hall. Invited speakers from Ryedale and York at this event are Dr Tim Thornton, Dr Liz Garthwaite and Rev Graham Cray. Their expertise includes the public and human health consequences of the kinds of pollution that can come from fracking, and the moral and ethical dimensions of fracking. All are welcome to both meetings. You can contact the group at frackfreesbc@gmail.com

Film Night

The recently formed Frack Free Scalby, Burniston and Cloughton group are holding a film night at Staintondale Village Hall on Wednesday 7th September 2016 at 7:30pm.

At this event, invited guest speakers Steve and Joanne White from Ryedale will show a film based on their first-hand experiences of fracking in Pennsylvania, followed by a Q&A session. The purpose of the evening is to inform the local population about this particular method of extracting shale gas from the land. This local area of our North Yorkshire coastline is now in a fracking licensed area.

Entry is free and all are very welcome to this event.

Yorkshire’s Biggest March Against Fracking

Up to 3,000 people – including many from Scarborough – marched through the centre of York on Saturday to highlight opposition to fracking, here and everywhere. According to some reports, it was the biggest protest against fracking ever seen in Britain, and was supported by groups from Yorkshire, Lancashire and beyond.

The crowds gather in York.

Organised by Frack Free York, the demonstration started at Clifford’s Tower in a colourful array of banners and placards, and the mood was defiant and upbeat. The Lancashire Nanas, in their distinctive yellow tabards, were in fine voice as always, and were joined by a large contingent of their Yorkshire counterparts in light blue – including at least two ‘Mananas’!

With chants of ‘No fracking Yorkshire – no fracking anywhere!’ and ‘Once you frack you can’t go back – ban fracking now!’, the march snaked around the city centre, leaving on-lookers (many of them supportive) in no doubt as to our cause.

 Thanks to the majority decision of a small clique of mainly Tory councillors willing to do the Government’s bidding, Kirby Misperton in Ryedale has been chosen to kick-start the dash for ‘unconventional’ gas, but there were no ‘Nimbys’ among us as anti-frackers see a threat to one community as a threat to all.

Graham Martin, one of the organisers of Saturday’s demonstration, said:

“We were absolutely overwhelmed by the turnout, which exceeded all our expectations. This shows that more and more people across Yorkshire are waking up to the threat of fracking to the countryside, rural jobs, tourism, the environment and climate change.”

The march ended in a large rally outside York Minster, where activists spoke eloquently of the threat posed by fracking – or whatever the industry and its backers might choose to call it.

John Ashton, who was the government’s special representative for climate change between 2006 and 12, said:

“You can be in favour of fixing the climate. Or you can be in favour of exploiting shale gas. But you can’t be in favour of both at the same time.”

Kim Hunter, of Frack Free Scarborough, said our movement should draw strength from the different campaigns mobilising around the country challenging the status quo and business-as-usual politics. Just the day before the march, Jeremy Corbyn had filled St Helen’s Square in York.

Scarborough's Anti-Fracking Nanas.

Some of the biggest cheers of the day were for reluctant heroine Tina Rothery, who put her name to a protest in a field near Blackpool ear-marked for fracking.

“We keep hearing about what’s good for the economy. But we don’t live in an economy, we live in a community,”

said the Lancashire Nana.

There was also a good response to the public debut of Frack Free Scarborough’s own anti-fracking song, written by and accompanied by our own Dave Mason.

Don't Frack Yorkshire.