A SORRY TALE FROM RYDALE

Sorry but everything in the following, to my mind does not quite ring true. I was present at gatherings at Rydale and we were welcomed by the residents. I worked tirelesly against Fracking for several years and we are now living in hope that the Government has finally seen the light.

Lorraine Allanson a successful farmer and holiday home owner has now written a book about “one woman’s battle against the environmental army” 

“In 2014, I stuck my head above the parapet and stood up for a controversial energy project”.

and yet she claims to be a conservationist??                                      Obviously had not done any research regarding the dangers of Fracking

“I’m a passionate conservationist and want to look after our lovely part of the world, but there was something not quite right about these intruders,” she recalls. A few locals curious about the impact of extracting shale gas in their backyard were suddenly whipped up by professional activists into an aggressive machine that ran roughshod over the more moderate views of many others.

“The scandal is that if anyone dares to challenge the protesters, their rhetoric or motives, they are targeted and suffer harassment and abuse. Everyone seems to turn their back on the locals, too afraid to help as they are too scared of the protesters.”

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Fylde DJ who disrupted Preston Harris Museum fringe play launches court appeal

Fylde DJ who disrupted Preston Harris Museum fringe play by screaming ‘liar’ at fracking protester launches court appeal

A DJ entertainer convicted of public order offences after disrupting a performance during the Lancashire Fringe festival is appealing his conviction.

The performance of ‘Nannas with Banners’ at Preston’ s Harris Museum on May 22, 2019, was interrupted as Geza David Tarjanyi – who also calls himself Gayzer Frackman – entered the performance area, filming and shouting comments towards the women, particularly a campaigner called Tina Rothery.

Prosecuting, Cecilia Pritchard told Preston Crown Court was told Tarjyani and some cast members knew each other as they had taken part at previous protests at the Preston New Road Cuadrilla site, but there had been a ‘falling out’.

Footage from his own camera, which he later uploaded onto Facebook, shows him filming from on a balcony at the museum as their monologues performance took place, before descending and turning the camera to himself, saying: “Just to let you know this is exactly what we are going to do – to stop the lie. No more pain no more fear.”

He then walked onto the round stage area shouting: “I’ve seen enough of this lie, stop the lie. “This is a lie, You’re a liar Tina Rothery.”

In the confusion – which some thought might be part of the play – there was scuffling and shouting as members of the audience apprehended him. He knocked over a stage light and was escorted out of the building.

Tarjanyi, 58, formerly of Lytham but now of Boundary Street, Leyland, had denied using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause Tina Rothery to fear immediate unlawful violence would be used on May 22, and a further charge of using threatening behaviour, but was convicted after a trial at Preston Magistrates’ Court. He launched an appeal but did not attend the hearing at Preston Crown Court.

Five witnesses were called to give evidence.

Cast member Audrey O’Gara said: “What upset me most was I was sat next to a gentleman with two children and the little boy was really scared, so I was looking at him trying to reassure him everything was all right. There was also one of the ladies in the audience, who had been very ill, and it was her monologue that was interrupted – she was really upset.”

The show’s writer Joanne Catlow-Morris, told the court she had written the performance addressing how the women had become empowered by being activists about fracking.

She added: ” We saw a figure coming towards us from the darkness. I could see it was a male and at first – obviously I was sat in the middle of the play – my first initial thought was ‘I think its security, I think we’re going to be evacuated.’ “I could see the person had something in his hand and thought ‘Oh my God, what is it?’ “He ran onto the stage and started yelling: ‘Lies, lies, lies.” “It was just terrifying not knowing what was happening.”

Defending, Matthew Conway asked if, given the play’s theme was about protesting, someone protesting on stage could have been seen to be part of the performance.

She replied: “Maybe by the audience but not by the actors on stage. It didn’t feel like a protest, it felt like an infringement on my creative activity.”

Giving evidence by a video link, Tina Rothery, who was not part of the play but was in the audience, said: ” People I cared about were being defamed in public. We were all scared. “I felt he’d progressed from what I’d been enduring until that point to much more. “I am deeply upset by him, and fearful.”

(proceeding)

 

Northern Ireland to review onshore petroleum licencing

A wide-ranging review of the onshore petroleum licensing system in Northern Ireland is underway, the economy minister, Diane Dodds, said this afternoon.

Speaking in the Northern Ireland assembly, Mrs Dodds said two applications for petroleum licences would not now be decided until after the review had been completed.

She was responding to a motion which called for an immediate moratorium on petroleum licensing for all exploration, drilling and extraction of hydrocarbons, followed by legislation for a permanent ban.

Mrs Dodds said lawyers had advised her against supporting the motion. It was, she said, likely to be challenged.

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Anti-fracking campaigner challenges research contract

A LOCAL anti-fracking campaigner has lodged a complaint against a Department for the Economy (DfE) contract which would research the potential effects of oil and gas production, including fracking, claiming the study does not look at the concerns of public health.

Diane Little, of LAMP, said the requirements for awarding the contract did not take into account the potential effects that fracking would have on the health of the public.

The DfE website states several general aims of the research. These include to inform understanding, based on a current knowledge of the resources that might exist in Northern Ireland, of the potential economic, social and environmental benefits and disbenefits of onshore oil and gas development for conventional and unconventional gas development, in both the exploration phase and commercial extraction stages.

 

The research also has several further aims which, broadly speaking, include to inform identification of the key economic, social and environmental variables that may be impacted by conventional and unconventional gas development.

 

It has been speculated that the Department’s Director of Corporate Governance, Colin Woods, has asked for the awarding of the contract to be delayed as he investigates the complaints from Ms. Little.

When contacted by this newspaper to confirm whether the awarding of the contract had been paused, a DfE spokesperson said: “In 2019, the Department for the Economy began a wide-ranging review of petroleum licensing policy.

“An initial high-level review identified that, although a large amount of research is already available into the impacts of petroleum production, especially unconventional oil and gas production – including high-volume hydraulic fracturing – the information is not directly applicable to the unique position in Northern Ireland.

“The Department is therefore seeking to commission independent research into the economic, societal and environmental impacts of onshore petroleum exploration and production to ensure that there is sufficient knowledge of these issues, and the interaction between them, to inform the formulation of evidence-based future petroleum licensing policy options.”

When asked to further clarify whether the process had been stalled, the Department would not provide any more information.

 

 

Fracking: NI minister Nichola Mallon plans to tighten rules

Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon is to change planning rules to tighten up regulations on fracking.

 

Currently, exploration for oil and gas – including via fracking – can proceed under what were known as permitted development rights.

It meant planning permission was only needed if firms wanted to move to commercial extraction.

But the minister says she plans to extend the planning permission requirement to cover exploration.

It would deliver on a promise of a former infrastructure minister, Chris Hazzard, who had vowed to end the practice of exploratory drilling taking place under permitted development rights.

Ms Mallon said the move was “an important step and I believe the right one for the environment”.

Other changes to planning rules announced by Ms Mallon will allow the following without planning permission:

  • Upgrades on mobile phone masts and antennas.
  • Shopkeepers extending property and loading bays.
  • Recharging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

Mrs Mallon said that she hoped the proposals would encourage growth in the electric vehicle market and allow better coverage for mobile phones and broadband.

The proposals will be brought to the infrastructure committee in the coming weeks for scrutiny.

Boris Johnson To Embrace Wind Power After Years Of Saying How Rubbish It Is

Boris Johnson will today pledge that every home in the country will be powered by offshore wind within 10 years, as he commits to a green industrial revolution that will create hundreds of thousands of jobs.

A noble cause indeed.  But not one the PM has always been an advocate of. In fact, he’s positively ridiculed wind power on a number of occasions.

Speaking to the Conservative conference, Johnson will say: “I remember how some people used to sneer at wind power, 20 years ago, and say that it wouldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding.”

And it’s no surprise he can remember it, because it was him saying it. In 2013 while Mayor of London, he said: “Labour put in a load of wind farms that failed to pull the skin off a rice pudding.”  

“We now have the opportunity to get shale gas – let’s look at it. It is part of the 2020 vision we have for this city – power generation is vital.”

Johnson also dismissed a call to divest £4.8bn pension fund from oil, coal and gas saying UK needs fracking to avoid relying on energy imports.

Shale gas has since failed to take off but Johnson never failed to grasp an opportunity to knock renewable energy. 

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson  visited the headquarters of Octopus Energy in London. Later in 2013, he wrote a column for The Sun on Sunday titled “Turbines won’t do job.. let’s go nuclear, in which he described wind farms as a “disease” that have blighted Britain’s countryside and the UK should instead, you guessed it, embrace fracking.

“It is a good 20 years since I last drove all the way to Scotland and in the interim something unbelievable has been done — in our name — to our green, pleasant and precious countryside. I mean the windmills, the turbines… whatever they are called. I mean the things that look like some hideous Venusian invasion, marching over the moors and destroying the dales. The colossal seaside toys plonked erratically across our ancient landscape.“ he wrote. 

But today all that will be forgotten as he embraces renewables. 

The PM will say the coronavirus crisis should be used as a catalyst to make the UK world leader in clean power generation.

The wind power plan will see £160m made available to upgrade ports and infrastructure across areas like Teesside and Humber in northern England, Scotland and Wales as the next generation of turbines are built.

Downing Street said the investment programme “will see around 2,000 construction jobs rapidly created and will enable the sector to support up to 60,000 jobs directly and indirectly by 2030 in ports, factories and the supply chains, manufacturing the next-generation of offshore wind turbines and delivering clean energy to the UK”.

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