We achieved our objective of getting the county council to call on the Government to withdraw licences, following a 40 minute debate. The vote was 20 for the motion, 0 against but 26 abstentions (including all Conservative councillors)

This coincided with the first-ever webcasted meeting of the county council and you can watch the meeting here. http://www.gloucestershire.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/212720

The relevant parts are (fast forward to these times (time is on the bottom left-side of the video):

38:55-41:33 – Frack Off Our Forest question
2:59:03-3:00:25 – Barry Kirby (Lab) vs Mark Hawthorne (Con – council leader)
3:03:02-3:03:35 Hawthorne asked whether he is for/against fracking
3:10:48-3:12:16 Cllr Windsor-Clive (Con – in charge of planning/infrastructure) doesn’t seem to be aware there is a licence-holder who has made a firm commitment to drill well(s) in the Forest of Dean
3:24:35-4:12:44 debate and vote

Well done everyone for all their efforts in achieving this. We see it as a symbolic victory at least for people power… But of course we still have a way to go to get licences withdrawn.

We now have West Dean, Cinderford, Coleford, Ruspidge & Soudley, Awre, Forest of Dean District, and Gloucestershire County Councils all calling on the Government to do the same thing… FRACK OFF OUR FOREST!

Hopefully see those of you up for getting involved in doing social/neighbourhood surveys next Wednesday in Parkend… (see below for details) as this is another of the several (or more) prongs of our strategy to defeat fracking.