FRACKING - LORD OF THE FRACTURE

OIL’S WELL? Cuadrilla’s test drilling in Balcombe has proved less than popular. But the firm won its planning permission with… no debate, no vote and no objections.

AMAZING, ISN'T IT? 
The man responsible for the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the ongoing, unplugged, UNCONTROLLABLE, continuous, 24/7/52 leak of crude oil from the fractured sea bed, that is the ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, heads up the British Government's campaign to FRACK across Britain. Do you trust this man and his weasel words?

"...Lord Browne works at the Cabinet Office and is the lead business advisor to the Government, despite the fact that he is Chairman of Cuadrilla as well as many many other interests....

Browne is described by journalist and author Tom Bower as responsible for a "ruthless" programme of cost-cutting at BP that compromised safety, and thus the man most responsible for a string of major accidents including the Texas City Refinery explosion (2005) and the Deepwater Horizon explosion (2010)."

"AFTER two weeks of protests in the village of Balcombe, West Sussex, villagers keep asking themselves: who allowed Cuadrilla to drill on our doorstep? Planning permission for the US firm’s test on the Balcombe estate – owned by Simon Greenwood, a great grandson of the first Lord Cowdray – was granted by West Sussex county council (WSCC) in 2010 and expires at the end of September. If Cuadrilla had waited any longer to start work it would have had to reapply, and this time round it could have expected strong opposition to a revised planning application. So why was the original one waved through? Because almost nobody knew about it. Shome mishtake, shurely? The WSCC planning officer wrote to Balcombe parish council in January 2010 drawing attention to the application, saying that if no comments were received by 18 February “it will be assumed that the parish council has no objection”. In March, after a reminder, the parish council clerk confirmed that “the matter was discussed at the last regular meeting” and there was “no objection”. Shome mishtake? There is no record of any “discussion” in the minutes of the Balcombe parish council meeting in February 2010. The only fleeting reference comes after a debate on an application for a carport, in a brief sentence noting that Simon Greenwood, who is a parish councillor, “mentioned” a recent application at a site off London Road. Irate fellow-villagers And, er, that’s it. No debate, no vote and no declaration of interest from Greenwood, who stood to earn tens of thousands from Cuadrilla. WSCC then approved the application using delegated powers, rather than committee, precisely because of the lack of public objection. As the exploratory drilling begins, Greenwood and parish clerk Richard Greig have some explaining to do to irate fellow-villagers. PS: Simon Greenwood’s mother, Anne, was given Balcombe by the Cowdray estate as a dowry. But his cousin Lord Cowdray is on the other side of the barricades: he supports protesters at another West Sussex site, Fernhurst, and recently revealed that he refused to let Cowdray land in Fernhurst be used for drilling because of “the environmental impact”.   Another separate point to note: Lord Browne works at the Cabinet Office and is the lead business advisor to the Government, despite the fact that he is Chairman of Cuadrilla as well as many many other interests....

Browne is described by journalist and author Tom Bower as responsible for a "ruthless" programme of cost-cutting at BP that compromised safety, and thus the man most responsible for a string of major accidents including the Texas City Refinery explosion (2005) and the Deepwater Horizon explosion (2010). Browne was born in Hamburg, Germany, to a British Army officer father and a Hungarian Auschwitz survivor.^[1] His father also worked in civilian life for Anglo-Persian Oil, which later became British Petroleum. He was educated at the King's School, Ely, and St John's College, Cambridge, where he earned a First Class Bachelor's degree in Physics. In addition to his degree in Physics from Cambridge University, he holds an MS in Business from Stanford University, California.......... he could not prevent Associated Newspapers from printing allegations about his romantic life and alleged misuse of company funds.^[4] Lord Browne resigned from BP on 1 May 2007,^[5][6] and resigned as a non-executive director of Goldman Sachs on 10 May 2007...he faced allegations that he had supported his partner, Canadian Jeff Chevalier, throughout their four-year relationship, and when Chevalier moved back to Toronto at the end of the relationship, that Browne paid for 12 months of a lease on an apartment........ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Browne,_Baron_Browne_of_Madingleyhttp://aboutlordbrowne.com/fracking-lord-browne/"

ARTICLE FROM PRIVATE EYE

the Greenwood family tree

Balcombe under siege, Issue 1346