Fracking Meeting at Poulton-le-Fylde Mon 28th November

Ribble Estuary Against Fracking

have organised a public meeting

for Monday 28th November at 7pm

at the Church Hall,

Vicarage Lane,

Poulton-le-Fylde FY6 7BE.

Come along and find out more about the Fracking issue.

See http://www.reaf.org.uk/ for more information.

Marine Conservation Zones AT RISK



Image by Paul Naylor

 Our Seas need your help!

The Wildlife Trust and Save Our Seas recommended network of 127 Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) is under threat.  

'We need to demonstrate the importance and urgency of the MCZ network to the Parliament Under-Secretary for Natural Environment and Fisheries, Richard Benyon MP today, and ensure that Defra does not reduce the number of MCZs going forward for consultation in 2012.

After years of pressure, and with huge public support, the Marine and Coastal Access Act of 2009 promised a coherent network of protection around the coasts by 2012. Now 127 marine sites around England’s coast, including seven in the North West, have been recommended by four regional stakeholder groups to become MCZs next year.

However, there is now the very real fear that only a fraction of these will be recommended for designation, which would be a disaster for our marine wildlife as it would leave a smaller and effective network of protection.



Jewel Anemones by Sally Sharrock

 This is a once in a lifetime chance for us to protect the wildlife in our seas, and we can't let it slip away.'

Find out how you can write to Richard Benyon here.

And sign the petition here.

Thank you to Cheryl Nicholson, Marine Conservation Officer, and everyone at the North West Wildlife Trusts, for bringing this to everyone's attention.

Fracking along the Ribble 'likely cause' of tremors, and protestors tell Cuadrilla to Frack Off

Frack Off protestors invaded the Cuadrilla fracking site at Hesketh Bank and Banks this morning, climbing the drilling rig in a protest against Shale Gas extraction in Lancashire, on a day when a report commissioned by Cuadrilla itself announced that it is "highly probable" that shale gas test drilling triggered earth tremors in Lancashire.

Of course it isn't "just" the potential risk of earth tremors that concern people about shale gas extraction, it's the potential risks of water contamination by a cocktail of toxic chemicals, and the small matter that shale gas extraction is as far away from reducing our national carbon emmissions as other fossil fuel extraction and use is.

"In a separate protest as part of a day of action against the controversial extraction method, 50 anti-fracking activists gathered outside the Copthorne Tara hotel in Kensington, west London, from around 3pm in an attempt to disrupt an industry conference organised by SMI international.

Demonstrators dressed in yellow fire hazard suits they shouted chants including: "Flaming water from out tap, we don't want this Fracking crap." The Guardian.

We've been told there is a PUBLIC MEETING organised by Cuadrilla, who have invited residents to a meeting this Friday 4th November.

If anyone would like to attend here are the details:
Public question and answer meeting
Friday 4 Nov 6.15pm onwards
he Roman Catholic Church Hall
152 Hesketh Lane
Tarleton
PR4 6AS

If there's any change to these details, we'll let you know.

For more on the report and the Frack Off protest, see the Guardian news coverage here, and the Lancashire Evening Post,  and the UK Frack Off campaign here, and the Lancashire Frack Off campaign here.