Oil drilling on Leith Hill

Was up there with Scott jnr yesterday. I also thought the fracking signs were odd.

Met a lot of protesters on their way back down when we were climbing the hill. One thing I did notice was that they were reluctant to give even an inch of space on the shared bridle ways and even an acknowledgement when we had waited to the side to let them past.

Much as I support the cause I think I preferred the usual Leith Hill visitors to be honest.

Fracturing is not limited to shale plays, it is simply a tool used to improve production characteristics.

As for there being plenty of oil in Arabia, that doesn’t really help with energy independence. Well unless invading and occupying a middle eastern country in order to “nationalise” the petroleum is your thing.

Re fracking – I recall only one sign. The opposition to the drilling comes from a range of individuals and groups, some of these say what’s planned is a form of fracking, and that the government has moved the goalposts so some activities now come under “conventional drilling” when they shouldn’t. It’s pretty hard to stop people carrying a sign when they are determined. There is a general consensus that there is enough to be alarmed about without dragging in if it is or isn’t fracking, but some feel strongly and do it anyway.

Sorry about your bad experience Scott, I was there too and didn’t see anything like that – in fact the vast majority were usual visitors, it’s just this visit was coordinated instead of random. Maybe just a crowd dynamics thing, I don’t know.

At the camp itself there are several signs about no fracking. Much of their campaign on FB and twitter is anti fracking related and suggesting that it’s fracking by another name (again – evidence?)

I did get the impression that most of the campaigners know little about the area but will happily turn up to anything to protest about.

That said, it was a good peaceful turnout and friendly bunch. Nice to see local representation and a few mountain bikers also (while a dozen or so maybe, was surprised there weren’t much more).

Anyway, this lot seem more concerned about the local impact and issues rather than just a rant about oil & fracking – http://www.surreycommunity.info/lhag/

and newsletter covering the protestors and LHAG’s position – http://ymlp.com/zThTt0

At the camp itself there are several signs about no fracking. Much of their campaign on FB and twitter is anti fracking related and suggesting that it’s fracking by another name (again – evidence?)

The Save Leith Hill Twitter here https://twitter.com/SaveLeithHill has I believe no anti-fracking content, it’s mostly about the site or the Weald.

Go ask on the Camp FB group and you’ll find a couple of people very ready to engage on drilling vs fracking (and 3,500 who won’t).

Most people on the camp are not locals, they are I guess closer to what one would call activists. For them this site is one skirmish in a much wider struggle. Amongst them there is a wide spectrum too. But they all care about the site too, very much.

However most people at the Tower yesterday were locals or townies not campers.

There’s no top down hierarchy dictating what an individual can or can’t say and what banners are permitted. And neither does one or two banners represent the opinion of all the people.

LHAG are awesome. If I had to choose between spending 7 years fighting the planning system or a winter on Leith Hill, I’d chose the winter on the hill.