Yes, it seems a long time ago now(!), but way back in June I joined around 50 others on bikes to take part in the inaugural Tour De Frack – a bike ride with a difference.
The idea of the ride is simple; highlight the ongoing threat from unconventional oil and gas exploration in the heart of SE England: the Weald and Surrey Hills. This is an area of outstanding natural beauty that is under threat from fracking, and with it the wholesale industrialisation of the countryside in this part of the world – Surrey and Sussex – as well as many more places like it across the country.
The ride has been organised by resilient and long-standing campaign groups, including Frack Free Surrey, Frack Free Sussex, the Horse Hill Protection Group and the Weald Action Group, with support from collaborating groups such as Time To Cycle, Reclaim The Power and Frack Free London.
Some of the individuals involved today are also subject to an (at the time forthcoming) injunction limiting their right to protest, courtesy of INEOS, which has since been partially upheld – itself a worrying development
The riders convene in a local park in Dorking for a briefing about the ride, time to ‘flag up’ (attach a flag to your bike) and join a riding group – short, medium or longer distance. I go for medium – it’s been a while since I did a longer ride this year, and I want to enjoy the ride rather than bust a gut on the Surrey Hills.
Some time around 10.30am we set off. With perfect weather, we ride out en-masse at a steady, enjoyable pace, weaving our way out of Dorking (with a few quick laps of a local roundabout, just to make sure the traffic sees us all) before splitting out into our smaller groups – ours is about 20 strong.
Our first stop is Brockham, where local anti-frackers have come out in force to provide welcome refreshments and to talk about the battles they’re fighting. Time for a quick, shambolic group photo, then it’s back on the road – we’ve got 50km to cover so can’t hang around too long.
The roads are mostly quiet and mercifully lorry free. Of course, if a fracking industry is allowed to develop here, they’ll be full of tankers and construction vehicles for years to come – not something local people or cyclists want to see happen, and another good reason to resist and protest (even if you don’t care about climate change!)
After pausing at the drilling site on Horse Hill (just west of Horley) for a recap on what’s been going on here, and what the Horse Hill Protection Camp has been doing to resist – including ‘slow walks’ in front of delivery trucks, included in the INEOS injunction and upheld by the judge. At the junction of Reigate Road we pause for lunch – again, local people have turned out to supply cold drinks, hot drinks, cakes, soup, you name it – and to listen to speakers.
One lady speaker rightly points out that as long as we continue to build thousands, even millions of new homes that are gas-heated, the demand for gas will only continue to rise and we lock in fossil fuel technology for another generation.
Why aren’t we building to Passivhaus standards, why aren’t we insisting every new development incorporates solar panels and heat pumps? Oh yes, because developers aren’t forced to, and they’re only interested in making as much money as possible, not reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Meanwhile we have an out-of-control plastics industry that uses up around 17% of all crude oil supplies – pumping out single use plastic that no-one needs and which is ending up polluting our environment.
And guess which company is at the heart of this industry in the UK…? Yes, it’s our faves, INEOS – incidentally, headed-up by Jim Ratcliffe, the UK’s richest man. It’s good to know that our economic system rewards so handsomely the people who do the most damage to the environment. No polluter pays principle here, thank-you, we’re British.
All food for thought as we cycle onwards and upwards, past Gatwick Airport (unchecked aviation growth representing yet another challenge to keeping within 1.5 degrees of warming), Charlwood, Ockley and eventually Coldharbour and beautiful Redlands Wood – home to a well-built protection camp and our final stop today.
We sit around the campfire, have a beer, and hear incredible stories from local Protectors about what it’s been like to live here throughout the beast of a winter we endured. In a word: cold.
It really beggars belief that anyone other than greedy bastards and speculators seeing pound signs, with no climate conscience (or no conscience full stop), can think drilling here makes any kind of sense.
And so, we’re done here for the day and it’s time to say goodbye. It’s been a great ride, illuminating of course, but – more than that – by riding these contours you get a sense of what’s at stake. We can’t turn our countryside into an oilfield. It’s under enough pressure as it is. We need to be protecting and enhancing what’s left of places like Holmwood Common, not drilling them. Our wildlife is already in decline, our roads are already getting busier, our air is already illegally polluted.
All these things will get worse if we frack here – and for what? To lock ourselves into decades more of fossil fuel extraction and burning, at the exact moment in history when we need to be doing the exact opposite – upscaling renewables, including onshore wind and solar, developing a smart grid and encouraging local energy generation and ownership.
We don’t need a ‘bridge’ fuel, and fracking won’t make us ‘energy independent’ from those pesky Russians. All these are myths drip-fed into the media and the public conscience by people like Jim Radcliffe and others who stand to gain financially from fracking. Really, Jim and his ilk just want to get (even) richer by extracting more fuels, in ever more ‘unconventional’ (read: batshit crazy) ways.
Interestingly though, since the ride, there’s hope that the tide could be turning – despite big setbacks including the imminent start of fracking at Preston New Road, and the ridiculous jail sentences handed down to 3 protestors there.
In short, more and more Tory MPs are beginning to realise that actually, people don’t want fracking where they live – and they especially don’t want it forced on them by central government, as is currently happening.
There’s a real risk that fracking could become an election issue and Tory MPs supporting it could be at risk of being unseated. Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens (obvs) are all against fracking, by the way.
Like a good BBC documentary, the ride was educational, informative and entertaining. Can’t say fairer than that. A big thanks to all those who helped organise the event and supported us on the day.
Bicyclating 