Hundreds Gather to Oppose Sherwood Forest Fracking Plans

Around 300 people gathered in Sherwood Forest at the weekend to protest against plans to survey Sherwood Forest to see if the area is suitable for fracking.

The gathering followed an investigation by Friends of the Earth which revealed that INEOS - via their land surveyors, Fisher German – has been in correspondence with the Forestry Commission since August 2016, regarding access to its land. INEOS wants to carry out "seismic surveys" on numerous public forestry sites – the first stage of prospecting for shale gas, and a precursor to potential fracking. One of the many shown in the maps and documents released is Sherwood Forest national nature reserve, on land owned by the Forestry Commission and by Lord Inglewood. If these plans progress, INEOS' seismic surveys would pass within a few hundred metres of the Major Oak, an 800-year-old tree under whose canopy, legend has it, Robin Hood's merry men and women are said to have slept.

Numerous other sites across Nottinghamshire and the East Midlands are in line for INEOS' seismic surveys. The Forestry Commission documents also reveal INEOS to be planning an exploratory well at Thieves' Wood, south of Mansfield. No planning application has yet been lodged. In the correspondence, Forestry Commission officials advise INEOS' surveyors that the site they propose would get "less push back from the public", but also demand a compensation clause be inserted in their agreement "to cover the costs of protestors". 

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See a video of the event in Sherwood Forest on the Nottingham Post website.