Activists Block Entrance To Site Of Cuadrilla Company In Lancashire Over Fracking -Reports

Campaigners have blocked the entrance to the Lancashire fracking site of the UK shale gas company Cuadrilla on the day when fracking operations are set to start for the first time in seven years, media reported on Monday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th October, 2018) Campaigners have blocked the entrance to the Lancashire fracking site of the UK shale gas company Cuadrilla on the day when fracking operations are set to start for the first time in seven years, media reported on Monday.

Last week, environmentalists lost a high court dispute to thwart Cuadrilla's fracking plans in Lancashire and the company was to begin its operations on Saturday, but the works were postponed until Monday over weather conditions.

According to The Guardian, a group of campaigners from Reclaim the Power anti-fracking group blocked the entrance to the company's Blackpool site with a van early in the morning, and shortly after, two protesters locked themselves to a set of tyres and sat in the middle of the road near the entrance.

The media quoted one of the campaigners as saying that they mobilized after local women expressed their concerns over absence of adequate safety plans in schools in case something went wrong due to fracking.

Cuadrilla said the protest would not stop the scheduled operations, media added.

Cuadrilla's renewed plans to launch a fracking site in Lancashire have been met with strong resistance from the local community due to concerns that the technology of extracting gas by hydraulic fracturing has high risks of causing seismic activity. In 2011, the company admitted that two earthquakes outside Blackpool were likely to be caused by fracking on the Fylde coast and suspended its fracking works in the United Kingdom.