Residents march against fracking in South Yorkshire village

Residents living in a South Yorkshire village have joined together to march against fracking in the region.
The Frack Free Festival in Harthill (Picture: Ruth Smart)The Frack Free Festival in Harthill (Picture: Ruth Smart)
The Frack Free Festival in Harthill (Picture: Ruth Smart)

The march, organised by Sheffield-based environmental justice group FrAcktion along with national network Reclaim the Power, took place in the village of Harthhill, and was part of a series of events happening over the weekend for the ‘Frack Free Festival’.

The festival, which drew crowds from across Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, featured workshops, skill-sharing, and direct action, and was been organised to help bring together neighbouring communities in the fight against fracking in the region.

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Harthill resident Marnie Harvard said: “I’m marching today against fracking because I don’t want my village to turn into an industrial estate, with hundreds of HGVs passing through every week.

“I used to work in Pennsylvania and have seen first-hand the destruction that fracking inflicts on local communities.”

The petrochemical company Ineos has licenses to frack at three sites within the South Yorkshire and Derbyshire region including one in Harthill while iGas, another energy giant, has licenses to frack at two sites in Nottinghamshire.

Residents of the village attempted to overturn planning permission for an Ineos shale gas well near their homes, but their case was quashed in the courts in January.

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Carol Towner, from North Yorkshire was part of the march. She said: “Sometimes I feel totally powerless when I think about climate change, but what I can do is stand up against fracking in my local area, and that’s why I’m here today: to make a fuss and show that we don’t want fracking and we don’t want more fossil fuels.

“The reality is that we have the infrastructure for renewable energy, we just need to move our money into the green industry.”

To find out more about Reclaim the Power visit: https://reclaimthepower.org.uk/