What to do- advice frome 'Frack Off'

• Think positive. There is already an example of a proposed CBM site in Scotland which was stopped by the local community before it got to a planning decision (see http://frack-off.org.uk/guest-blog-north-lanarkshire-community-scare-off-coal-bed-methane-application/ and http://www.acadvertiser.co.uk/lanarkshire-news/local-news/monklands-news/2012/03/21/company-pulls-the-plug-on-gas-drilling-application-65864-30581704/). A really big push now could potentially put a huge spanner in the works for them.
• Gathering information at this stage is key. What exactly are they planning to do? Who owns the land that they want to use? Have they actually leased it already? What is is in the area, especially things like conservation areas (it looks to be very close to a river)? Who is near the proposed site and how are they likely to feel about it?
• The best weapon you have is publicity. Our experience is that it is very hard to find people who are pro this sort of thing once they know all the details, especially if they live near it. The reason it has been so easy for these companies up until now is that no one knew what they were doing. You should be seriously thinking about organising the flyering of every house within a few miles and putting up posters in every corner shop window and bus shelter over a much wider area. Organising public meetings, letters to the local press, would also be good. The more people that know and the earlier they know the better.
• One thing that might be quite important is a good image. A picture is worth a thousand words and people are more likely to be engaged by something that they can see, not just read about. Getting a load of people together with banner/placards in front of a local landmark or nice countryside near the proposed site would one way of getting such a image, though you may be able to think of something much more imaginative. Such an image can be then be used in local press, on social media etc. to help spread the word.
• Since this is the first attempt at this sort of thing in the South West it should be possible to make it into a regional issue. Convincing people across the South West that this is their problem too and that if they don't help nip it in the bud now then there is the real possibility that it will spread to their doorstep in a few years time. 
• In particular helping people understand the nature of these new technologies - that it isn't just going to be one or two well and if they went into full production they would want to coat the countryside in wells (images like this of CSG/CBM in Australia might be useful in this regard: http://theinformalreview.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/aerial-view-csg-mining.jpg).
• Also helping people to understand the big picture in terms of the the interaction of the planning process with investment in this industry is crucial. Right now these small companies need to put in planning applications to the county council for their tests sites with their main aim being to prove that the whole process in viable in the area with the hope of being able to sell out to a much larger corporation which has the money to undertake full scale development. At that point that corporation is not going to put in hundreds of separate applications to the country council. They will put in one application to the Major Infrastructure Planning Unit which is part of central government for the whole lot and there is little chance of any local input at all. So fighting these test sites now while there is scope for local opposition to count for something is really important.
• Unfortunately CBM (http://frack-off.org.uk/coal-bed-methane-the-evil-twin-of-shale-gas/) despite being a bigger threat than shale has not had much attention in the UK compared to shale gas up until now. There will be some work to do in helping people to understand that they are very similar but also what the subtle differences are. Comparisons to Australia where there are similar issues to shale in the US will probably be quite important (http://lockthegate.org.au/csg-facts/csg-factsheet.cfm). Note Coal Seam Gas (CSG) and Coal Bed Methane (CBM) are the same thing.
• There is the potential for some national news coverage next week where it might be possible to make a link to Keynsham, so do let us know if you want us to try to set that up. If we did it would be useful if there were some people from Keynsham who would be up for talking to the press to make use of the opportunity.
• We have an Extreme Coal meeting in London next Tues where we will be talking about CBM and UCG in the UK and also have a speaker from Australia talking about their experiences of CBM (http://frack-off.org.uk/event/extreme-coal-in-the-uk/). We can definitely highlight the situation in Keynsham and try to get people to spread the word.
• We are planning on doing another tour this autumn which could including some meetings in the area. You might want think about there might any particular venues where us talking at a public meeting would be useful. More news on this soon.