MP arrested during scuffles at anti-fracking protest

Dozens of protesters were carried by the police into waiting vans after demonstrating at the Cuadrilla Resources-owned site in the village of Balcombe in West Sussex about 35 miles south of London. One of those arrested was MP Caroline Lucas, the former leader of the Green Party. Organisers of the demonstration said they believed many more people had been detained as police moved in to clear the area after scuffles broke out.

Desperate to stimulate a U.S.-style production boom and offset dwindling North Sea oil and gas reserves the Prime Minister, David Cameron, has come out in favour of fracking as a way to create jobs and lower energy prices. Shadow Environment Minister, Tom Greatrex said that the Labour party "cautiously welcomed" the resumption of fracking. However members of the public are yet to be convinced and the debate has turned angry in recent weeks, with death threats sent to the head of Cuadrilla and around 50 people arrested at the site since protesters set up camp there in July.

Today protesters repeatedly clashed with the police who have been bussed in to the village from around Britain to protect the exploration area. Protesters have accused the police of heavy handed policing and one protester said the police were "looking for a fight". Some protesters chained themselves to the entrance of the site which is down a country lane bordered by dense woodland and behind tall metal fences. Activists say they are concerned that hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a process used to extract gas from rocks underground, can trigger small earthquakes and pollute water supplies. They would rather the government invested in renewable energy such as wind power.

Commenting on her arrest at Balcombe Caroline Lucas said: "Along with everyone else who took action today, I’m trying to stop a process which could cause enormous damage for decades to come. The evidence is clear that fracking and undermines efforts to tackle the climate crisis and poses potential risks to the local environment. People today, myself included, took peaceful non-violent direct action only after exhausting every other means of protest available to us." 

Continuing Ms Lucas said: "I’m in the privileged position of being able to put questions to the Government directly and arrange debates in Parliament, but still ministers have refused to listen. Despite the opposition to fracking being abundantly clear, the Government has completely ignored the views of those they are supposed to represent. When the democratic deficit is so enormous, people are left with very little option but to take peaceful, non-violent direct action."