Energy giant INEOSโ injunction calls them โpersons unknownโ. But they are builders, farmers, pensioners and beekeepers, writes Rebecca Winson, an organiser at the New Economics Foundation.
Up and down the country, there are people who so terrify the multinational chemicals giant Ineos that it went to court to take out an injunction against them, without even knowing their names.
Addressed to โpersons unknownโ, the injunction prohibits these people โ or anyone who โhelpsโ them โ from โpursuing any course of conduct, with a view to compelling another person to abstain from doing or to do any act which that person has a legal right to do or abstain from doingโ, under pain of imprisonment, fines or seizure of assets.
Itโs worded like something from a satirical novel, so all-encompassing that itโs almost impossible to imagine what its impact looks like in real life. For the people of Eckington and Marsh Lane, in Derbyshire, who NEF visited in late October, it look like this: a muddy field which none of them can even approach.
Two locals showed us the field: its fence, its mud, its singular tree, and warned us to stay well back from the boundaries as we took photos. We were all there, stood in the cold, staring at the injunction fluttering in the wind, because the community is hugely angry about what Ineos plans to do in that field, and with good reason.
THE INJUNCTION ISNโT THE ONLY THING THATโS RIDICULOUS: A LESS SUITABLE SITE FOR FRACKING IS DIFFICULT TO IMAGINE.
Only a quarter of a mile from the local school, itโs the highest point for miles. It drains right into farmland and fishing ponds in the valley below. Lapwings and birds of prey call it home, and more than 200 horses graze peacefully nearby. Despite all of this, if the planning application lodged with Derbyshire County Council to explore shale gas reserves is approved, it will be home to a huge floodlit drilling rig and surrounded by an imposing fence. Lorries could thunder through narrow country roads daily. The injunction isnโt the only thing ridiculous about this situation: a less suitable site for fracking is difficult to imagine.
Within days of finding out about the planning application, the residents had gathered at a local pub and organised a committee, Eckington Against Fracking, to oppose Ineos. A month or so later, hundreds of them marched to the site in protest. In September, hundreds more did the same. Up and down the country, groups like Eckington Against Fracking are taking similar action.
Over the past few months, campaigners have organised tea parties outside site gates (to which all security guards were cheerfully invited), heard ex-minersโ accounts of tackling embarrassed fracking spokespeople about the exact geology they plan to drill into, and seen public meetings called to a close due to the sheer volume of heckling.
This is why Ineos is so terrified of campaigners. By coming together lawfully and peacefully, they and others like them can stop fracking. How? Precisely because they are not โpersons unknownโ. They are neighbours, locals, builders, farmers, pensioners, gardeners, healthcare workers, carpenters and even beekeepers, all with strong links to the towns and villages they are prepared to fight, and respected enough to persuade others to join them. They are on the front line of the battle against climate change and for local democracy, and NEF stands ready to help them.
This article was cross-posted from The New Economics Foundation.
Photo: Eckington Against Fracking
