Members of Beverley & Holderness Labour Party protest alongside local residents outside the ERYC HQ in November 2018
Members of Beverley & Holderness Labour Party protest alongside local residents outside the ERYC HQ in November 2018

If you are a new member and/or new to the Beverley and Holderness area, here are a few points about something we get up to outside of meetings . . .

Many of us in the Labour Party are active in Frack Free East Yorkshire and related groups. For Beverley members at least, action started at Crawberry Hill, near Walkington, in 2014 and we eventually saw off Rathlin Energy. Of course, since permissions were granted for 50 years, the fight continues and we must never take our eye off the situation.

Pop-up groups have been a familiar site on East Riding roadsides, as we carried our banners; we supported the protectors camping at the gates of sites earmarked for fracking (or acidisation, more recently). Labour Party members have stood their ground against some pretty brutal action. Little respect for age or failing fitness here. This year we have supported those who have had charges brought; we have seen the courts throw out most of those charges.

Some determined party members travel distances to fight this fight – to Preston New Road, for example, where victory was especially sweet; and similarly, to Kirby Misperton in North Yorkshire.

Now that sites locally seem closed we can’t say that’s the end of the threat to frack. Neither can we say, perhaps, that fracking is the greatest danger. Trucks of deadly materials will trundle through our county no matter what the method of extraction. I have to say that I rely on others to follow the technology. We have skilled people on board. I rely on my boots and raincoat.

The site at West Newton A , near Skirlaugh, seems to show that Rathlin packed up and left, although there is still a presence of security people. The site is dormant but the site at West Newton B (nearer Sproatley) is poised and plans to move onto it are being made. Road closures are planned. It may be that we are called to protest activity again before too long. Currently, it is a waiting game.

Wendy Cross, Beverley Branch

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