The two men who successfully challenged fracking company Ineos in court this week say “the tide is starting to turn” in the fight to stop the country’s fledgling shale gas industry in its tracks. Joe Corre and Joe Boyd have been engaged in a struggle to overturn an injunction granted to the petrochemicals giant that restricted protesting at their shale gas sites. The firm, which owns fracking licences across the country and is run by Britain’s richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe has stated it only wanted to protect its staff from “militant activists”. But lawyers said they were concerned its broad injunction against “persons unknown” was eroding people’s right to protest. The victory at the Court of Appeal on Wednesday was the latest blow to a sector that, despite government support, has struggled to take off amid pushback from local communities and concerns about earthquakes at drilling sites.
Independent 6th April 2019 read more »
