Campaigners call for fracking ban ahead of Brighton meeting

Campaigners will call for a national ban against fracking at a public meeting tonight (March 25).

Dozens of people are expected to attend the event in the Brighthelm Centre in North Road, Brighton from 7pm to 9.30pm.

All Sussex anti-fracking groups will attend as they show their opposition to the controversial method of extracting shale gas deep underneath the earth’s surface.

The panel of speakers will include Brenda Pollack, of Friends of the Earth; Charles Metcalfe, of Frack-Free Balcombe Residents’ Association; former glamour model and activist Marina Pepper; and Vanessa Vine, of Frack Free Sussex.

Atlanta Cook, of Frack Free Sussex, told The Latest: “From grassroots protectors at the camps, geologists, volunteers, speakers, organisers to members of parliament, we all have our role to play to protect this green and pleasant land from the horrors that people in the USA, Australia and New Zealand are facing from this type of fossil fuel exploration and extraction.

“As Sussex people it is our duty to protect our neighbours in Balcombe, Fernhurst, Kirdford and Wisborough Green from water, air and soil pollution that destroys wildlife habitats and endangers human health. We have to stop what is colloquially called ‘Fracking’.”

It comes in the same week that Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas stands trial after her arrest at an anti-fracking protest in Balcombe last summer.

She and four other protesters were charged with obstructing a highway and breaching public order by refusing to move after being ordered to do so by a police officer.

Fracking, known as hydraulic fracturing, is the process of drilling down into the earth before a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside.

Supporters see it is as a way to tap into resources previously unreachable and lower householder’s energy bills.

But others see it as environmentally unsafe.

It is currently banned in France, Bulgaria and some German states.