We hosted a screening of the film Gasland and discussion in Bridgend, Wales. At the time of the event, licences to frack for shale gas had been sought locally in Bridgend County, Neath Port Talbot, the Vale of Glamorgan and Swansea. This blog is a record of that event and its outcomes.
Our first port of call in organising this inaugural event was to contact local campaigning groups in the area. Meeting up with passionate campaigners at an early stage in our planning was central to the regional success and outcomes of the event.
The founding member of a local group, Louise Evans, started campaigning in March 2011 to counter a planning application to test drill for gas in Llandow, when there was very little awareness of the issue.
The idea of the Gasland World Café events, is to bring a community who are threatened by fracking together to have a conversation about what it might mean for them.
Is it a good thing? Is it the only energy choice they have? Who stands to gain from it?
It’s a chance for campaigners, politicians, planners, residents, young people, farmers – everyone to talk in a non-judgemental and co-operative way.
As this was the first of our Frack Free Future events, we asked Josh Fox, who made Gasland, to give a message, via Skype, to the South Wales community.
You can find out more about Josh’s anti-fracking adventures.
As well as getting as many key and local people along to our screening of Gasland and the World Café discussion, our campaign is about telling the story of the anti-fracking campaign as it unfolds across the UK.
One of our films local campaigner Mark Gabb, told of his concerns that people in the region don’t really understand what fracking is.
In addition to drawing attention to the planning application in Llandow, we worked with the community of Maesteg, looking at how the ex-mining community felt about the planned test bore on the site of St John’s Colliery.
And as the story developed in South Wales, we went back to support and document the campaign. In October 2011, we talked to Gordon Kemp, the leader of the Vale of Glamorgan Council to find out why the council unanimously rejected the application for a test bore in Llandow.
On November 9th we went to the Welsh Assembly meeting organised by Jane Hutt AM, in partnership with The Co-operative and local campaigners, to raise the profile of the fracking issue nationally.
Sign-up for another of our Frack Free Future events or visit the Fracking or Clean Energy Revolution areas of our website to find out how else you can get involved with our campaign.
Find out ways to get involved with other campaigns and ethical activities in your community.