In October 2016, the UK Government gave shale gas fracking company Cuadrilla the go ahead to frack Little Plumpton on the Fylde coast in Lancashire, despite Lancashire County Council having refused permission for this development. Our dedicated legal team brought a challenge to hold the Government to account for failing to protect its citizens from the health impacts and the untold damage fracking will cause to our environment and climate.

Unfortunately, a Judge in the High Court rejected our challenge and issued a judgment that implies that the Government can ignore the climate impacts of burning shale gas – and the Court of Appeal agreed. This decision could have dramatic consequences for our health, our countryside and our climate. We are therefore applying to the UK Supreme Court for permission to appeal the decision, to allow the Country’s highest court to reconsider this unfortunate decision. If permission to appeal is granted, the case would then go to a full hearing before the Supreme Court.

We ask all who want to bring an end to fracking to support our crowdfunding campaign so that we can continue the fight to protect our environment and our childrens’ futures.  Please donate whatever you can afford to help cover the legal costs required to pursue this Supreme Court appeal. 

The case has wide implications and is challenging the Government’s contradictory approach to climate change. It will also seek to ensure that a precautionary approach to fracking is taken and that the concerns and risks of shale gas extraction are properly taken into account, rather than allowing the Government to simply assume that all is safe and well. By doing so, this appeal could should take us one step closer to providing everyone in the Country with greater protection - not only from fracking but also coal bed methane, underground coal gasification and matrix acidisation.

After many years of meetings, statements and positive action by communities and concerned groups, a groundswell of opposition is building momentum with the aim of seeking a ban on fracking in England as there is in Scotland and Wales and many other European countries (including France and the Republic of Ireland which banned fracking in 2017). The Green Party and the Liberal Democrats are opposed to fracking. The Labour Party has also included a ban on fracking in their current manifesto. There is evidence of the dangers of fracking in over 800 peer-reviewed reports and studies from around the world and many members of the medical profession are aware of its impact on health and are also opposed to fracking.

Anti-fracking campaigners have been working tirelessly to fight against fracking in the UK. Personally, it has cost me everything to be fighting against climate change and for local democracy and our human rights. Our efforts have helped to raise awareness and halt fracking for over seven years, but it is now time to persuade the Supreme Court that our Government’s approach to fracking is simply reckless and wrong.

Please support our appeal and our challenge against the Government’s approach and its decision to grant Cuadrilla planning permission to frack in Lancashire at Little Plumpton, Preston New Road.