Fracking and the Legal and the Extra-Legal in Planning Procedures

摘要

Recently travelling back from London to Sussex during commuting hours, my journey led me to a poignant coincidence of both political and subjective concern. The busy franticness of Victoria almost in retreat as we neared Haywards Heath, I sat contemplating a late evening walk once I returned home. The driver then started to make an announcement, slowly and apologetically, with a hint of sadness. Someone had thrown themselves on to the line at Balcombe and the trains were to be stopped at Three Bridges with the resultant herding of weary work folk on to buses and diverted trains to ensue. My now immaterial sunset walk was most certainly out of the picture. My mind was turning to the poor person who had decided that was the moment to go, that was the way to depart their world, and in such a spectacularly heart-breaking way. I was also immediately trying to place whether there was any link between the person falling to their deliberate death and the ongoing fight against Cuadrilla and the anti-fracking protests in Balcombe.