Why balcombe

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Tim Dodd Science The battle of Balcombe, misinformation and not much on climate change: a week in shale gas. The project will help fund improvements to the energy-efficiency of community buildings.

Published 3 February Published 29 January Published 23 January Published 28 December Balcombe Parish Council. West Sussex County Council.

Environment Agency. Gas Drilling in Balcombe. Hundreds of activists gathered at the protest camp at Balcombe to oppose oil exploration work and potential fracking by Cuadrilla.

Legal observers were at the site and a legal tent was set up at the protest camp nearby. One climate and anti-fracking protester at Balcombe painted a picture on his van of the former chief executive of BP.

Drilling was suspended on Friday and the site secured ahead of direct action. Image source, Getty Images. Cuadrilla said drilling work would continue when it was safe. Image source, AP. Sussex Police has had scores of officers at the site each day and has been joined by officers from 10 other forces. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Protesters explain why they are marching against fracking. Activists across the world use tripods - this one in the US is made out of trees.

Michael Pearson, Lord Cowdray, the former hippy and film producer, lives near the village of Fernhurst, where he presides over a classy commercialisation of the family brand, with a polo park, golf course, holiday cottages, wedding fairs, model farm and public admission to the ruins of his Tudor castle. Simon Greenwood inherited the Balcombe Estate, a fraction of the original Cowdray property, which was given by the Cowdray estate to his mother as her dowry. Both Mr Pearson and Mr Greenwood profess the traditional patrician concern for the countryside in their care.

Mr Greenwood runs pheasant shoots, practices sustainable forest management and gives parties of visiting schoolchildren introductions to country life. But the huge deposits of shale gas under the Weald, and the possibility of exploiting them by fracking, risk turning these ancient properties upside down and destroying everything that makes them special.

And by inviting Cuadrilla onto his ancestral land, Simon Greenwood has taken the first step. Last week, after a long silence, Mr Greenwood broke cover. For his part, Lord Cowdray has made his feelings on the matter clear, rejecting an application by the Celtique Energie exploration company to drill on his land. But that has only shifted the problem slightly: the company is now seeking permission to drill nearby.