A delegation of concerned residents – accompanied by the Grim Reaper – travelled to Stormont this morning to present a petition of over 2800 signatures opposed to ‘fracking’ ahead of Green Party MLA Steven Agnew’s motion proposing a moratorium in Northern Ireland on the gas drilling process.
Update – Members of the Assembly backed a call for a moratorium on onshore and offshore exploration and the withdrawal of licences by 49 votes to 30, though the BBC notes that “Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster said the motion was flawed as no licences for fracking had been issued”.
In other news – and unconnected with the fracking – a heckle of
liars and thieves
from the public gallery caused a brief suspension of Assembly business while the guilty party – associated with the Occupy Belfast group – was “removed by three security men” but “not held in custody“.and arrested
(quite a debate building up on Occupy Belfast’s Facebook thread)
Alan Meban. Tweets as @alaninbelfast. Blogs about cinema and theatre over at Alan in Belfast. A freelancer who writes about, reports from, live-tweets and live-streams civic, academic and political events and conferences. He delivers social media training/coaching; produces podcasts and radio programmes; is a FactCheckNI director; a member of Ofcom’s Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland; and a member of the Corrymeela Community.